Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13 NLT
And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13 NIV
Immediately after the apostle Paul teaches spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12, he delivers one of the most profound and helpful truths in all of the New Testament. He sets the record straight – powerful gifts without love amount to nothing. Chapter 13:1-4 is eloquent and piercing, speaking about the gifts that are most likely to impress us: “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”
Then Paul defines what the love that marks spiritual maturity and represents God’s heart looks like (vv. 4-8). “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” It’s the infallible metric for maturity and Spirit-filled living. Our maturity and Christlikeness are measured here, not by our gifts or accomplishments.
Paul then addresses the power and permanence of love. He returns to the fascination we have with the more “spectacular” gifts and declares they will not last (vv. 8-10). “Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.” Those gifts are incomplete, but love is the essence of God’s heart and will never fail, never pass away.
Love marks maturity, and maturity changes everything! “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 put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known” (vv. 11-12). What a future!
- Paul concludes by telling us that when everything passes away, “These three (will) remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love” (v. 13). Faith and hope are magnificent, but even they are exceeded and outlasted by love. In essence, true maturity is to use every gift driven by God-quality love.