If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Whenever we read the Bible we ought to be asking, 'what does God want us, individually and as His church, to learn from this passage?' How would you sum up what God wants us to learn from 1 Corinthians 13, in your own words?
What are your thoughts as to whether faith and hope continue on into eternity?
If someone were to ask you why love is the greatest what would you say?
Read 1 John 4:7-12.
a. What is our motivation to love others?
b. How has God revealed His love toward us?
c. John wrote, "In this the love of God was made manifest among us". Why do you think he wrote "among us" instead of "toward us"?
d. What has God's love done for us?e. What do you think John means in verse 12 (see also 1 John 2:4-6)?
What is the greatest display of love we can show to other people? Why is that the greatest way?
