What Is Love?

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Merch Pictures

1 Corinthians 12:31–13:13 NIV

31 Now eagerly desire the greater gifts. And yet I will show you the most excellent way. 1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Which Love?

Eros - Romantic, passionate

Storge - Familial

Phileo - Warm, affectionate (Brotherly)

Agape - Selfless, sacrificial (Godly)

A Love Poem In the Middle of Correction

Ch 13 is the ideal of Agape love

v 4-7 characterize Agape love

v 1-3, 8-13 contextualize it

Ch 12 & 14 are correction about idolizing the more visible spiritual gifts

The Corinthians were causing division over their giftings

Paul Gave a Reality Check

Pagan influence caused the Corinthians to desire the more dramatic gifts

Class like division over spiritual gifts

Paul elevated prophecy and discernment over the more dramatic gifts

All gifts come from the same Spirit whom all have received

Root, Not the Fruit

Spiritual gifts have a purpose in the body of Christ, but are not the driving force

Agape love is the driving force of the Kingdom of Heaven

Without outward focused agape love, spiritual gifts are self serving

The Church atrophies when we prioritize spiritual gifts

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 in Isolation

When cherry picked for romantic relationships and agape is replaced with eros, the depth of meaning is lost

Eros can say, “If you really loved me, you wouldn’t hold that against me...”

Agape can only say, “We’re all in this together and we need God’s character in order to love each other sacrificially”

1 Corinthians 12-14 for Today

No spiritual gift is evidence of God’s favor or more important than another

All come from the same Spirit and exist for purposes outside ourselves

Seek to love self-sacrificially, as God does

Gifts will come periodically, as the need arises

Agape Over Gifts

Are you prioritizing gifts to enable kingdom service?

Do you carry shame over not having the more visible gifts?

Or pride because you do have them?

How would all this change if Agape was the pursuit?