Love Is the Greatest
1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;[a] but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages[b] and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.
11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.[c] All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
Footnotes:
a. 1 Corinthians 13:3 Some manuscripts read sacrificed my body to be burned.
b. 1 Corinthians 13:8 Or in tongues.
c. 1 Corinthians 13:12 Greek see face to face.
3 comments:
What an amazing chapter. We all have probably read this so many times, but it never gets old.
Father, this is my prayer this morning, make my heart full of this kind of love.
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
1 Cor 13
11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.
I feel each day that I realize how much of a child I really still am in God's eyes and how I continue to grow up, learn God's lessons and struggle confusedly, like a child.
Father, thank You for loving me despite my failures and struggles. In Jesus' name,
Amen
crb
I Cor 13
Amen to cas and crb
If we devour this scripture and intentionally live it and imitate Christ, what a change.
It is 6:21 AM, and I have ALREADY been impatient.
Father, forgive me for the poor example I am of your love to my wife and kids. Help me to love out of dedicated imitation of your love.
In christ's name, Amen
jmb
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