“Love is Indispensable”

Text: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon:

"13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
The greatest of these is love. That is our focus for today. That is our prayer for today. We
are meant to be people of love; people who love without limits. We are called to be
people who hold love above all other spiritual gifts.

Love in the passage is the word “agape” which means “unconditional, sacrificial love and
Biblically refers to a love that God is (1Jn 4:8,16), that God shows (Jn 3:16, 1Jn 4:9) and
that God enables in His children (fruit of the Spirit - Gal 5:22)”

“Biblical agape love is the love of choice, the love of serving with humility, the highest
kind of love, the noblest kind of devotion, the love of the will (intentional, a conscious
choice) and not motivated by superficial appearance, emotional attraction, or sentimental
relationship.”

Throughout this passage, the writer of 1 Corinthians shares a variety of spiritual gifts,
many of which are seen as beneficial for the church and the growth of the church, but the
writer continues to point out that these gifts are meaningless without love.

It is also evident in verses 8-11 that the impact of spiritual gifts will fade and vanish, but
love will remain. Therefore, it is important to acknowledge the gifts that we have and
how we use them, but it is more valuable to live lives of love.

One last observation that I notice in verses 1-3, the writer indicates that our spiritual gifts
are meant to help a wide array of people; revealing the mysteries caters to those who are
looking for understanding beyond human experience, giving to the poor helps provide for
those who need it, speaking in tongues connects the person speaking with the Holy Spirit.
All of these gifts serve a purpose in and out of the church and impact on a variety of
people.

1 Corinthians 13 defines real love, and chapter 14 shows how love works. Love is more
important than all the spiritual gifts exercised in the church body…love demonstrates the
ultimate purpose of human existence. Great faith, acts of dedication or sacrifice, and
miracle-working power produce very little without love. Love makes our actions and
gifts useful.

God’s kind of love is directed outward towards others, not inward towards us. We never
love perfectly, only Jesus can. Thus, the more we become like Christ, the more love we
will show to others.

So, who do we love? Throughout scripture, we are called to love family, friends and
neighbors. We are called to love the strangers among us and treat them as we would the
family that we love. We are called to love those that do not treat us respectfully. We are
called to love everybody.

Let us love everybody.

Conclusion: Let us be people who value love above all other gifts.