If I speak in tongues of human beings and of angels but I don’t have love, I’m a clanging gong or a clashing cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and I know all the mysteries and everything else, and if I have such complete faith that I can move mountains but I don’t have love, I’m nothing. If I give away everything that I have and hand over my own body to feel good about what I’ve done but I don’t have love, I receive no benefit whatsoever (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
Love supersedes all other aspects of spirituality, rendering even extraordinary abilities and sacrifices meaningless without it. Essentially, love serves as the cornerstone upon which all spiritual pursuits should be based.
Without love, extraordinary abilities or acts of sacrifice are meaningless. Because the absence of love is the absence of God. For written within 1 John 4:8, we find that God is love. Everyone born of God must love. It is the foundation upon which Christianity is built. The sacrifice made by Jesus on the cross for our sins is the highest expression of love. Because God sent His only Son to die for us. By believing on the work that Jesus did on the cross we enter into that love and are granted access to the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, which is love entering our frame.
From here, we begin our Christian journey. This love is the better way. For the world offers hatred, pride, and arrogance and these attributes are absent the very foundation of Christianity, which is love.
Love is patient, love is kind, it isn’t jealous, it doesn’t brag, it isn’t arrogant, it isn’t rude, it doesn’t seek its own advantage, it isn’t irritable, it doesn’t keep a record of complaints, it isn’t happy with injustice, but it is happy with the truth. Love puts up with all things, trusts in all things, hopes for all things, endures all things.
Love never fails. As for prophecies, they will be brought to an end. As for tongues, they will stop. As for knowledge, it will be brought to an end. We know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, what is partial will be brought to an end. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, reason like a child, think like a child. But now that I have become a man, I’ve put an end to childish things. Now we see a reflection in a mirror; then we will see face-to-face. Now I know partially, but then I will know completely in the same way that I have been completely known. Now faith, hope, and love remain—these three things—and the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13:4-13).
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