he church I’ve been attending has been doing a series in Romans - today we were sidetracked into 1 Corinthians 13. If you haven’t read it lately get your bible out and read it - or you can view it be clicking here. Take a look and see where you are convicted. Love is so many things and if you are a believer you will find in 1 Cor 13:13 that Love is the greatest of all.

Love is patient - love is kind. Patient - well, I am not. Just this morning my rather short fuse was displayed - why? Well, trying to get my 12 year old son ready for church and getting there on time. How’s that for conviction? Trying to get ready for worship and showing no patience with a child. Certainly not my finest hour. Love is not easily angered and it keeps no record of wrongs. Am I easily angered? Well, if my patience is lacking one could probably say so. They do go hand in hand.

So I’ve been convicted in various areas of 1 Cor 13. Why is that important? Well, look at the first three verses and judge for yourself:

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not 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 have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. - 1 Cor 13:1-3

What am I without Love? Well, Paul is pretty explicit here because he deliberately compares Love, or the lack thereof, with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Even with the gifts that God bestows, without love we are nothing - a resounding gong that gains nothing.

What are your gifts? Are those gifts tempered and honed by love? Do you live up to the love defined by 1 Corinthians 13?

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. - 1 Cor 13:13

Love never fails.