Scripture
Love Is the Greatest
1If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;[1] but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
4Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
8Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages[2] and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.
11When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.[3] All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
13Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
Translation notes (3)
- 13:3 Some manuscripts read sacrificed my body to be burned.
- 13:8 Or in tongues.
- 13:12 Greek see face to face.
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.
At its root, patience is a choice. When a situation arises where our patience is tested, we have a moment where we get to decide how we will respond. Will we pause, breathe, and exercise patience, or will we give in to impatience, potentially hurting the people around us? As we think about our response when our patience is tried, the question becomes, “Why choose patience?” One of the obvious answers is that we show patience out of love. After all, love is, by nature, patient.
The apostle Paul wrote about love and patience in 1 Corinthians 13. You are probably familiar with 1 Corinthians 13 because it is all about love and often read at weddings. The context actually goes deeper than the husband-wife relationship. It is about showing love to the body of Christ. In this chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul clarified and defined true love. Of all of the definitions he could give for love, Paul began by saying, “love is patient.” Because patience is the first characteristic Paul gave when he defined love, it stands to reason that it was the first thing on Paul’s mind when he thought of explaining love. Clearly, patience and love are intertwined.
Thinking about the connection between love and patience, it is only natural that when you love someone, you will be patient with them. After all, patience is a choice, and when you love someone, you often face times when you are given the opportunity to choose to be patient in a difficult situation. Love is patient, and may you and I exhibit that love every day through the way we patiently love those around us.
Moving toward action
Who in your life has modeled this kind of loving patience to you? Take some time to write about this patience they have shown to you. How has their patience impacted you? Write about this impact they have had in your life. Find some time to reach out to them today to thank them for their impact on your life.
Going deeper
Read 1 Corinthians 13:1-13(NLT)
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