In 1Corinthians 12 the Apostle Paul took some time to point out some of the spiritual gifts as he was lecturing the Corinthian Christians about spiritual life. But at the end of chapter 12 he says, “Yet, I show you a more excellent way“. That more excellent way is the way of God’s love towards us and God’s love working through us to others.

1Corinthians 13 is often called, “The Love Chapter” because Apostle Paul identifies what real love is by God’s standards. Let’s read a portion of this chapter in the colorful translation of the Message Bible…

 “If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love. Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, doesn’t have a swelled head, doesn’t force itself on others, isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, doesn’t revel when others grovel, takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, puts up with anything, trusts God always, always looks for the best, never looks back, but keeps going to the end. Love never dies.  1 Corinthians 13:1-8a, Message.

May we all continue to grow spiritually to the point that we are not just studying about love but living a life of love that models God’s love to others.

 Pastor Mike