UNROLL
An elderly couple's hands clasped together on a worn wooden table in early morning light.

The Book of

1 Corinthians 13

A church proud of its gifts and quarreling over them. Paul shows them the one thing that makes every gift worth having.

13 verses≈ 3 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

  1. 1–4DivisionsChrist crucified, not rival leaders
  2. 5–6A holy peopleDiscipline, lawsuits and the body
  3. 7–10Your questionsMarriage, food and freedom
  4. 11–14Worship togetherThe Supper, gifts and loveChapter 13
  5. 15–16Raised with ChristResurrection hope; the collection

Love

Paul

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Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs. Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

1 Corinthians 13:4–7

Reflect

Written to a quarreling church

These words are often read at weddings, but Paul first wrote them to believers who were envious, proud and keeping score. Read verses 4–7 slowly and put your own name in place of “Love.” Where does it ring true by God’s grace, and where does it catch in your throat? Write down one person you find hard to love, and one way you could be “patient” or “kind” toward them this week.

Love never fails.

1 Corinthians 13:8

But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be restrained; where there is knowledge, it will be dismissed.

For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away.

Question

Quick question

Paul sets the gifts the Corinthians prized beside the love they were neglecting. One of them lasts.

What does Paul say about love, set beside prophecies, tongues and knowledge?

A polished bronze hand mirror lying on a wooden table by lamplight, its surface showing only a dim, blurred glow.

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 set aside childish ways. Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.

0:22

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

1 Corinthians 13:12

And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13:13

Pray

The most excellent way

Thank God that His love for you never fails, and that He showed it fully in Christ. Confess where you have been impatient, proud or keeping a record of wrongs. Ask the Spirit to make you patient and kind with the people closest to you, and with believers you disagree with. Pray for your church, that whatever gifts it has, it would be known above all for love.

You’ve experienced

1 Corinthians 13

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A verse to carry with you

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs. Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

1 Corinthians 13:4–7

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