Read for This Week’s Study: 1 Corinthians 13; Matt. 24:12; Gal. 5:22, 23; 1 Tim. 1:14; 1 John 4:8.

Memory Text: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13, NIV).

The Opening Question: “Is love something you feel, or is it something that you do?”

The lesson this week invites us to focus on the famous love chapter of the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13. This chapter comes as part of a larger discussion by the apostle Paul focused on the problems of the church in Corinth. He makes the case that their whole situation could be largely remedied if there was love present in their midst. To Paul, love is the greatest of gifts.

In light of that, we should ask ourselves to explain just what love is. For many today it is mostly a certain type of emotion that makes a person feel happy. This kind of love is fleeting to say the least. The love Paul has in mind is much more robust. The official lesson describes it as an “attitude that must be expressed in life, in deeds and in words.” In other words, the love spoken of in Corinthians is something a person does. It has qualities that have to be expressed in ways that affect a person’s life as well as the lives of those around them. This love is Holy Spirit driven. It is not something that comes naturally or easily to humans.

The various elements of this kind of love shows up in 1 Corinthians 13 as qualities or behaviors, even:

• Love shows patience, that rare quality to remain in control even in the midst of trying circumstances. It causes a person to be forbearing even with aggravating people! In light of this, some thought must be given to the consequences of praying for patience!
• Love shows kindness. This concept has overtones of mercy. A kind person acts in ways that diminish another person’s suffering. A kind person tries to act redemptively, minimizing an issue so that life can once again operate normally.
• Love bears all things. In other words, it manifests resilience. It does not give up easily.
• Love believes all things. This cannot be taken in its fullest sense for it would create a situation where gullibility would prevail. Rather, it should be taken to mean that a loving person gives another person the benefit of the doubt. But the old saying should still prevail, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”
• True love hopes. This is the expectation that something good is in the offing and that we should continue to wait for it. Hope is a very helpful quality in life. It enables people to endure and to persist even in the face of great difficulty.
• Love endures all things. The meaning here is to manifest endurance even in the midst of hard things.

Another feature of the love described in 1 Corinthians 13 is that there is a list of things love is not or does not do:

• It does not envy.
• Love does not boast, a quality that is often indicative of arrogance or pride. It is focused on promoting self, something love does not do.
• Love does not puff up – this speaks of self-importance, again something that is not found where love abounds.
• Love does not behave rudely – this means to act in ways that are contrary to social and moral standards.
• Love does not push for its own rights – Love is self-sacrificial rather than pushing for whatever it thinks a person is due.
• Love is not easily irritated – here is a tough one for aggravation comes very easily to most people.
• Does not keep records of wrongs – this probably has in mind the ability not to hold a person’s past misdeeds against them, to keep no record of wrongs but to allow a contrite person to begin again.
• Does not delight in wrong-doing – probably the focus here is on the wrong-doings of others, that a loving person would not be inclined to delight in the wrongs others do and the ill effects that would follow those misdeeds.

These two lists are challenging to read and think about for both the positive elements of love here and the negative ones are not normal products of the human mind. The qualities mentioned seem only to grow where a human heart has been tamed by the Holy Spirit who enables love to grow from day to day.

A last point to be made and it is a major one is that love is seen in the actions and teachings of Jesus more than in any other place. Jesus, of all humans, exhibited love more than any other person ever has, even to the point of giving up his life to save sinners. Think of the many times Jesus exhibited the various good qualities of love and how he never showed the bad ones. Here is a person and life worthy of emulation.