If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 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. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 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. 1 Corinthians 13
A. Seeking Revival: Knowing God and Experiencing His Love: Eph. 3:14-19
B. Seeking Revival: Loving God with Our Whole Being: Mark 12:28-30
C. Seeking Revival: Loving People as Jesus Loves: 1 Corinthians 13
TODAY
Christ’s Love Described and Defined
1. The love in the love chapter is not affirming to us but convicting to us. 1 Cor. 13:4-8
2. The love in the love chapter is not of human origin: 1 Cor. 13:4-8
3. The love in the love chapter demands an emptying of ourselves. Ephesians 3:14-19
4. The love in the love chapter empowers us to fulfill our responsibility. Matt. 22:36-40, 1 John 4:7-12, 1 John 4:19
a. The Necessity of Love: 1 Cor. 13:1-3
Gifts used without love . . .
1. To draw attention to ourselves (self-serving)
2. To draw attention away from Christ (self-love)
3. To be prayer-less in the use of gifts (self reliance)
Works and ministry without love . . .
1. Works and ministry without love is fruitless (flurry of activity)
2. Works and ministry without love is worthless (revelation of motive)