IIT UBF - University Bible Fellowship at IIT

Daily Bread

The Greatest of These is Love

Date: Jun. 23, 2021

Passage

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (ESV)

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it 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. 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, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Daily Bread

Key Verse: 13:13b

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

1. Without love (1-3)

The gift of speaking in tongues is like empty noise without love. The gift of prophecy is valueless and so is the gift of faith without love. Even our self-sacrificing philanthropic work gains nothing without love. Love matters far more than our spiritual gifts. Love must be the motivation in all we do; otherwise, all our efforts lose meaning.

2. Love is…love is not… (4-13)

Christian love is based on God's love for sinners. It is to love our neighbors as ourselves. Verses 4-7 describes love in a practical way: Love is patient and kind; it always protects, trusts, hopes, and perseveres. However, love does not envy, boast, dishonor others, delight in evil; it is not proud, self-seeking, easily angered; it keeps no record of wrongs, but rejoices with the truth. In contrast to prophecy, tongues, and knowledge, love never fails and will endure forever. Spiritual maturity comes when we grow in the love of God and practice it. Faith, hope, and love remain, but love is the greatest of all, for love is foundational.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for Jesus, who set the example of love. Help me to know your love, grow in this love and practice it in my daily life.

One Word: God is love.

Daily Bread

Complacent or Victorious?

Revelation 3:1-13

Key Verse: 3:5

The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.

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