“LOVE!”

 1 Corinthians 13

THE WAY OF “LOVE”

“[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.

[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. 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”.”

The subject the Apostle Paul is writing in the thirteenth chapter of his first letter to the Church of Corinth was NOT always with him.  Kindly remember Acts 9:1-2 where is is written “But Saul (later changed to Paul), still breathing THREATS and MURDER against the disciples of the LORD, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to THE WAY, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.”  So it needs to be remembered that Saul/Paul had to be TRANSFORMED by the HOLY SPIRIT before he could write the letter that these verses were taken from!  

“LOVE” can be a VERY MISUNDERSTOOD word!  Being used in the context of 1 Corinthians 13 reminds us that JESUS gave up HIS HEAVENLY abode to sojourn in “this world” for thirty-three years, then suffered unimaginable torment, but OVERCAME death, hell and the grave because I had NO HOPE to join HIM in Heaven, OUTSIDE OF HIS GRACE!!!

As much as I ”LOVE” my wife, my feelings for her CANNOT be compared to the “LOVE” JESUS CHRIST has for me!  Knowing that I would fail HIM so often, HE STILL came down here and suffered for me!  My wife would have had serious concerns if I had displayed the unfaithfulness to her that I have demonstrated to JESUS?!?

“I stand amazed in the presence Of JESUS the Nazarene, And wonder how HE could love me, A sinner condemned, unclean” is the first verse of a hymn written over 100 years ago.  But the chorus of the song says it best, “How marvelous! How wonderful!  And my song shall ever be: How marvelous! How wonderful is my Savior’s “LOVE” for me.”!!!