1 Corinthians 13 Learing To Love

Chapter 13 is the love chapter. It is read at weddings and put on wall plaques. The thing is this chapter was written to address the most unloving of situations. The Corinthian problem was that they lacked love. We see earlier in 1 Corinthians that people are gluttonous and getting drunk during the Lord’s Supper, while others are starving.

This lack of love also showed up it the use of Spiritual gifts. Verses 4 through 7 is not Paul’s exhaustive list of what love is. This is a list of what the Corinthians fail to show toward each other. This lack of love has to do with Spiritual Gifts which is why it is placed in the middle of chapters 12 and 14.

1.     Claims being made

a.     Speaking in the tongues of men and angels.  Romans 8:26

b.     Prophecy

c.      Knowledge

d.     Faith

e.     Give away all I have (asceticism)

2.     How they were acting

a.     Patient and kind

b.     Envy and boastful

c.      Arrogant and rude

d.     Rejoicing in the failures of others

e.     Bears, believes, hopes, endures

3.     What they need to know

a.     They will pass away

b.     We only know in part

c.      Stop acting like children

d.     Our best sight is but a poor image

The person who is truly spiritual is not the person who has the brightest and shiniest gifts of the Spirit, it is the person who has learned to live in love toward others. All the gifts will end, they will not last. But love will never end. More important than your faith, more important than your joy, is the ability to love.