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.
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.
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. 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.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (NIV)
The question I always get stuck on is “how do I increase in love?”
This scripture indicates that it’s not by doing.
Does love/caring come from work, a choice or is it a gift?
This scripture shows dispensational truth.
Love is a universal truth which holds good throughout the whole dispensation of the age of grace (In which we live), yet the sign gifts were only temporary, and once God had given us *the full revelation* (That which is perfect/complete) they were to pass away. Thus today we have the scriptures to guide us not prophets, or apostles as was the case when Paul wrote these words. The Modern Charismatic movement with it’s tongues, prophecy etc is a gross heresy. Today if a Christian picks up a poisonous snake and they get bitten… they have no miraculous power to prevent death. Today If a Christian lays hands on the sick, there is no instantaneous healing.
Thus as a Christian I am as skeptical about miraculous claims as any atheist. This is because God does not operate via signs and wonders in this age but by the preaching of his word.
This does not mean I don’t believe in Providence, or that God does not answer prayer.
I certainly do believe it, yet that is a completely different thing to what these spiritual gifts of the Early church were. Christians were literally ‘miracle workers’ then.
Man I could use a miracle healer right now! I’m crook as.
Be like Jesus. Talk the talk and walk the walk.
Love comes from God. God never fails.