A MORE EXCELLENT WAY

I. THE MOTIVATION OF LOVE

1 Corinthians 13:1–3 ESV

1 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.

As Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did (Dan. 3:19–23; Heb. 11:34). Love cannot be measured by actions alone; motives must be assessed to determine what is loving (see 1 Cor. 4:4–5).[1]

[1] Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (p. 2211). Crossway Bibles.

II. THE QUALITIES OF LOVE

1 Corinthians 13:4–7 ESV

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.

to be patient (enduring) v. — to be even-tempered while enduring trying circumstances.

to be kind (gentle) v. — to be or become warmhearted, considerate, humane, gentle, and sympathetic.

III. THE PERFECTION OF LOVE

1 Corinthians 13:8–13 ESV

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.