One of the ways Christians are set apart from unbelievers is that each of us has been given at least one spiritual gift at the moment we put our faith in Jesus. When the Holy Spirit came to indwell us, He didn’t come alone. He brought a gift… a gift we are to use for the benefit of serving others (1 Peter 4:10). There are three passages in the New Testament that lists the specific gifts and not everyone has been given all the gifts. Here’s the thing… there are three gifts given to every person… three gifts common among each of us. What are they? They are faith, hope, and love (1 Corinthians 13:13).
How do we know that they are for every believer? Because 1) they are mentioned in the chapter about gifts, and 2) they are the three gifts that will last forever. Hence, they will go into heaven with us. All other gifts will cease, but not these three. Therefore, we need to cultivate each of them while we’re here. We should strive to grow and strengthen our faith, let hope prevail in our life by remaining positive in difficult circumstances, and let love be an incredible force in everything we do. In fact, this chapter is called the “love chapter” in the Bible for a reason… because, according to the Apostle Paul, love is the most important gift of all. That means that we are to nurture love above all things… love for the Lord and for people.
With that said, and as we look at 1 Corinthians 13 in its fullness, I would like to summarize what this chapter is all about. Here are three things we should know about love…
1) LOVE should be our fuel! Everything we do should be fueled by love… not be our need for acceptance, our need to fill an emptiness in our life, our need to feel important, or our need to be obedient. In fact, Paul says that if love isn’t driving me to do the things I do, then I become just a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal (1 Corinthians 13:1). In other words… without love, our ministry has limited value.
2) LOVE should transcend! What does this mean? Love should transcend to ALL people. I have an incredible group of amazing Christians around me. These are people that love from the depths of their hearts and they show love in everything they do. It’s easy to love these people. But our love should go beyond the body of Christ. We should love those people who are not easy to love… those that are grumpy, outspoken, critical, and they hurt with their words. We should love those who stand on the opposite political side, those who oppose Christ, and those who are always accusing us. The way we love our sisters and brothers in Christ is the same way we should love all people, no matter who they are or how they’re living or what their background is.
3) LOVE is eternal! In fact, in heaven, we will only see and know love. Imagine that! There will be NO hate, NO division, NO discord, NO nastiness, NO arguing. There will only be beautiful fellowship, hugs, togetherness, and kindness to each other. Heaven is filled with LOVE… a love we have never known on this earth.
So, we need to focus our lives now on the things that are eternal… faith, hope, and love. But love should be the strongest of them all.