The Greatest of these is Love

The Greatest Commandment

Matthew 22:37–40 ESV

37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Without 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.

If I . . .

without love . . .

So, I want what I do to matter. What kind of love do I need to have?

Love Is . . .

1 Corinthians 13:4–8 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. 8 Love never ends.

Love is and does . . .

is patient

is kind

rejoices in the truth

bears all things

believes all things

hopes all things

Love doesn’t do this . . .

does not envy

does not boast

is not arrogant

is not rude

does not insist on its own way

is not irritable

is not resentful

does not rejoice in wrongdoing

At what point does love give up or come to an end?

The next question that Paul answers is, how is it that Love never ends?

When the perfect comes

1 Corinthians 13:8–12 ESV

8As 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.

 What does it say will pass away?

The partial

Spiritual gifts like tongues, prophecy, and knowledge

In light of what we will be like and what we will know in eternity, these are childish things.

When will we know fully?

In eternity.

Faith, Hope, and Love

1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

What does it mean when something abides?

John 15:4–5 ESV

4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Galatians 5:22–23 ESV

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Faith abides . . .

Hope abides . . .

Love abides . . .

Why is love the greatest?

1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

John 15:12–13 ESV

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.