Christ's Example of True Love (Part 2 of 3)

This post is part of a multi-part series that is examining 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 to discover the nature of true love.

Go to Part 1

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To understand this passage, we need to look at the surrounding passages…Chapter 13 is in-between two chapters that deal specifically with spiritual gifts. This discussion on spiritual gifts comes within a larger section dealing with the public worship of the Corinthians. Apparently, members of the church were having ‘spiritual gift wars.’ Some were boasting about their gifts, while others must have been complaining about not having certain gifts. Whatever their problems were, Paul makes it very clear that spiritual gifts are given by God to bring the whole church closer to God.

When Paul talks about gifts, it’s also important to see that he’s not just talking about things given to ‘elite’ Christians. He was speaking to all the believers in Corinth because every believer is gifted and every believer is expected to use his or her gift.

With this truth in mind, we can see that this passage applies to all of us who are Christians. We can also see more clearly that Chapter 13 is used specifically by Paul to show us that for any part of our lives as Christians to have real value or meaning, it must be characterized by love!

• Relationships
• Marriages
• School
• Job
• ‘Good’ things
• ‘Spiritual’ things

In other words, the love that is described in verses 4-7 must characterize every part of our lives!

I like the way Eugene Peterson describes love in The Message, his paraphrase of the New Testament:

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

In other words, love is that attitude of heart that shows itself by a willingness to sacrifice our desires and needs in order to put others first! May God shine this type of love forth through my life every moment of every day!

Go to Part 3