Scripture
1 Cor. 13:1-13 (ESV)
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love,
I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. [2] And if I have prophetic powers, and
understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to
remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. [3] If I give away all I
have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain
nothing. [4] Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not
arrogant [5] or rude. It does not insist
on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; [6] it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but
rejoices with the truth. [7] Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes
all things, endures all things. [8] Love never ends. As for prophecies, they
will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass
away. [9] For we know in part and we prophesy in part, [10] but when the
perfect comes, the partial will pass away. [11] When I was a child, I spoke
like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a
man, I gave up childish ways. [12] For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then
face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been
fully known. [13] So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the
greatest of these is love.
Questions for Reflection
1. What to you is an unmistakable demonstration of love?
2. What qualities do you associate with love?
3. Why is love important? (13:3)
4. What qualities does love have? (13:4-8)
5. Why do you think Paul wrote about love to the Corinthians?
6. What is difficult about loving?
7. How could you show love to a difficult person this week?
