1 Corinthians 13:1-13
About Love
1 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. 2 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. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 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. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 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. 12 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.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is LOVE...God's LOVE is what the Greeks called Agape LOVE, or the LOVE from God...For God so LOVES the world, that He would give His One and Only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life with the Father and His Son...And God showed His LOVE for us in that while we were still sinners and fall short of the Glory of God, He had His Son die for us...And there is no Greater LOVE than this, that Someone would lay down His life for His friends as Jesus did...
We see that God has His Son die for us and sacrificed Himself for us to satisfy our sin debt...Jesus sacrificed His own desire's, His own pleasures, His Own comfort, His Own Well-Being for the sake of mankind...This Agape LOVE is an Completely Unconditional and Completely Unselfish LOVE that is constantly thinking of others and wanting to have mercy on others, forgive others, and help others...
One might describe Agape LOVE much like St. Paul wrote about love to the Corinthians:
If one can speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but does not have love, we are just a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal...And if we have Great Prophetic powers, and understand all the mysteries and all knowledge of the world, and if we have a Great Faith, so as to move mountains, but do not have love, we are nothing...If we give away all we have, and if we deliver up our bodies to be burned, but have not love, we have gained nothing...So if we put others' needs before our own, and make extreme sacrifices, and face hardship and danger for others, but do not have love our noble actions are meaningless...Love is essential for giving our actions and deeds meaning and purpose...
For Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; Love is not arrogant or rude...It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the Truth of Jesus...Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things...
Love never ends...As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away...For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away...When we are children, we speak like a child would speak, we think as a child would think, we reason like a child would reason...When we become adult men and women, we give up our childish ways...For now we can see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face...Now we know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known...So on our current understanding of God and the spiritual things our knowledge is part and parcel and incomplete...It's like looking at a reflection in an old, tarnished mirror - the image is blurry and incomplete...Our knowledge is limited and imperfect...We must rely on like faith, scripture, and our life's experiences to understand God, even though we will directly meet Him...In the future when we meet and see God directly, we will see Him perfectly...It will be like seeing someone face-to-face in the brightest of lights, with full clarity and understanding...
So now we know that faith, hope, and love are the three Great Virtues in life, and the Greatest of the Virtues is Love...