God Speaks
If I had the gift of being able to speak in other languages without learning them and could speak in every language there is in all of heaven and earth, but didn’t love others, I would only be making noise. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy and knew all about what is going to happen in the future, knew everything about everything, but didn’t love others, what good would it do? Even if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move, I would still be worth nothing at all without love. 3 If I gave everything I have to poor people, and if I were burned alive for preaching the Gospel but didn’t love others, it would be of no value whatever.
4 Love is very patient and kind, never jealous or envious, never boastful or proud, 5 never haughty or selfish or rude. Love does not demand its own way. It is not irritable or touchy. It does not hold grudges and will hardly even notice when others do it wrong. 6 It is never glad about injustice, but rejoices whenever truth wins out. 7 If you love someone, you will be loyal to him no matter what the cost. You will always believe in him, always expect the best of him, and always stand your ground in defending him.
8 All the special gifts and powers from God will someday come to an end, but love goes on forever. Someday prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge—these gifts will disappear. 9 Now we know so little, even with our special gifts, and the preaching of those most gifted is still so poor. 10 But when we have been made perfect and complete, then the need for these inadequate special gifts will come to an end, and they will disappear.
11 It’s like this: when I was a child I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child does. But when I became a man my thoughts grew far beyond those of my childhood, and now I have put away the childish things. 12 In the same way, we can see and understand only a little about God now, as if we were peering at his reflection in a poor mirror; but someday we are going to see him in his completeness, face-to-face. Now all that I know is hazy and blurred, but then I will see everything clearly, just as clearly as God sees into my heart right now.
13 There are three things that remain—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
Source: The Living Bible: BibleGateway.com
We Respond
Reflection: This is one of the most well-known chapters in the Bible, yet it’s one of the hardest to carry out, either for the Corinthians in Paul’s day or for us in ours. Without love the spiritual gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12 are useless or at best ineffective. First Corinthians 13 describes God’s variety of love in these ways: patient, kind, generous, protective of others, agreeable, easy and fun to be with, happy to serve others, uplifting, loyal, accepting, forgiving, helpful, involved on behalf of others, cheerful, encouraging, and mature. Only the work of the Holy Spirit can fully produce these qualities in us. As we accept Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection and yield to Him, the Holy Spirit will develop them in us for God’s glory.
Prayer: Dear God who is love, thank You for loving us in all the ways mentioned here and far more. It is only by Your grace and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit that we can truly exercise this kind of love. Lord God, please help me to exercise the spiritual gifts You have given me with the true and deep love that comes only from You living them out through me. Your kind of love is patient, kind, generous, protective of others, agreeable, easy and fun to be with, happy to serve others, uplifting, loyal, accepting, forgiving, helpful, involved on behalf of others, cheerful, encouraging, and mature. I yield to You, loving Father, to develop and manifest these qualities in and through me. For the glory of Your name. AMEN
Action: (Ask God, the Holy Spirit, which one of these He wants you to work on or something else more personal that He points out.)
- At the beginning of each day, I will ask the Lord to live out these qualities of love through me.
- At the end of each day, I will discuss with the Lord what happened regarding these qualities of love.
- I will pray for and encourage those I care about to exhibit these qualities of love.
- Whenever possible, I will commend the person anytime I see someone exhibiting one of these qualities of love.
Share: I plan to share what I’ve learned with __________.