Series: Reactive Love
Message: A Message from 1 Corinthians 13
Preacher: Jessyka Albert
Refresh: Open with prayer. Read or listen to Psalm 29.
Read: 1 Corinthians 13 - As you re-read for the final time this week in the ESV translation, what did you discover new about God’s character?
Reflect: Paul describes wisdom, knowledge, prophecy, faith, generosity, and self sacrifice as nothing if it does without love. He considers these things annoying if love is absent. This is a hit to the Corinthian Church. The knowledge and wisdom they have prided themselves on has been ripped out from under them. Paul blatantly says, “If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and knowledge; and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but do not have love, I am nothing."
This is a call to reevaluate and refocus the church, and this is a call to reevaluate and refocus their lives. The Corinthian church was fractured. People were bickering, taking each other to court, and everyone wanted to be right. In the letter of 1 Corinthians, Paul does address some specific issues that were being disputed in the church, but here in chapter 13, he reminds them of what is really important. You can sense this underlying tone that says, even if you are right, even if you’re perfect in action and knowledge, you’re still wrong because you lack love.
He then describe what love looks like in a very real, and practical manor. He describes a love that is foreign to this world, but should be very alive in the followers of Christ. A love the supersedes faith and hope because it is everlasting. Paul is calling the church of Corinth to live on earth as it is in heaven. We today are called to live love on earth as it is in heaven.
Recalibrate:
Respond: Pray for timeless Love.
Research: Read 1 Corinthians 13 in the Greek. Look up the words that describe love to gain a deeper understanding of the agape that Paul was defining.