1 Corinthians 13:4-13

The Voice

Paul boils it all down for the believers in Corinth. Religious people often spend their time practicing rituals, projecting dogma, and going through routines that might look like Christianity on the outside but that lack the essential ingredient that brings all of it together—love! It is a loving God who birthed creation and now pursues a broken people in the most spectacular way. That same love must guide believers, so faith doesn’t appear to be meaningless noise.

⁴Love is patient; love is kind. Love isn’t envious, doesn’t boast, brag, or strut about. There’s no arrogance in love; ⁵it’s never rude, crude, or indecent—it’s not self-absorbed. Love isn’t easily upset. Love doesn’t tally wrongs ⁶or celebrate injustice; but truth—yes, truth—is love’s delight! ⁷Love puts up with anything and everything that comes along; it trusts, hopes, and endures no matter what. ⁸Love will never become obsolete. Now as for the prophetic gifts, they will not last; unknown languages will become silent, and the gift of knowledge will no longer be needed. ⁹Gifts of knowledge and prophecy are partial at best, at least for now, ¹⁰but when the perfection and fullness of God’s kingdom arrive, all the parts will end. ¹¹When I was a child, I spoke, thought, and reasoned in childlike ways as we all do. But when I became a man, I left my childish ways behind. ¹²For now, we can only see a dim and blurry picture of things, as when we stare into polished metal. I realize that everything I know is only part of the big picture. But one day, when Jesus arrives, we will see clearly, face-to-face. In that day, I will fully know just as I have been wholly known by God. ¹³But now faith, hope, and love remain; these three virtues must characterize our lives. The greatest of these is love.