Chapter 13
| 1 Corinthians: -1- -2- -3- -4- -5- -6- -7- -8- -9- -10- -11- -12- -13- -14- -15- -16- |
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| 13:1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love [Father] [a], I have become an echoing brass horn or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I possess prophecies and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. • 3 And if I give away all my possessions and all my being and even deliver up my body boastfully, and have not love [Father], I profit nothing. • 4 Love [Father] is long suffering and kind; love is not envious; love is not boastful, is not puffed up, 5 does not act improperly, seeks not its own, is not easily provoked, keeps no account of wrongs, that is, knows no evil, 6 does not rejoice at injustice, but rejoices together with the truth. 7 Love covers all [for all], believes all [for all], hopes all [for all], carries all [for all]. 8 Love [Father] never fails. You see, prophecies will become ineffective, tongues will go quiet, and knowledge will become insufficient. 9 For we know in-part and we prophesy in-part. • 10 But when that which is complete has come, then that which is only partial will be rendered obsolete. (b) 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, and I thought and reasoned like a child, but when I became a man, I no longer used the things of a child. 12 For now we see through a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know personally and fully just as I also am known personally and fully. 13 Yet for now there abides faith, hope, and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love. 14:1 Pursue love earnestly. |
| Gospel Word | Notes |
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| • Definition: The “Love” passage is a description of the Father Himself, for God alone is Love. Yet we cannot know God-Love except we acknowledge His Presence as our love for one another inside the Body of Christ. God among us is longsuffering and kind. God among us does not seek His own, and knows nothing of evil. God among us covers and carries, believes and hopes for one another with tender concern. God among us never fails. • Definition: To be just like God is to Love one another with the Father’s Love; to Love one another with the Father’s Love is what it means to be just like God. This Love among us is the completion of Jesus. Our anxious care for one another, longsuffering and kind, is God among us. Our placing of one another’s concerns above our own, knowing no evil, is God among us. Our covering and carrying one another is God among us. We never fail each other – God among us. • Ruling Verse 2: We have this Treasure in earthen vessels, inside our human life together right here upon earth inside of heaven, that the Love we know together might be God among us, rooted and grounded inside of Love, filled with all the fulness of God. • Kingdom: The Kingdom is the completion of every Word God speaks. As Jesus said, every Gospel Word must be fulfilled in our lives, here on this earth, now in this age. Yet Gospel Word is Complete right from the start, thus it is our ignorance that is “partial” and must be rendered obsolete. For that reason we receive through FAITH every Word fulfilled, every Word Complete. |
a. The Greek word “agape” is something God alone is. God did not make us to “agape,” but to be filled with Himself that He might Love through us. Thus when we think of God-Love, we think of the Father, first. b. Think of a master pianist performing before a large audience – no one thinks about his performance when he was twelve. His prior partial ability is “rendered ineffective” because of his present great ability. |