Today’s Reading | 1 Corinthians 13
Greatest is Love
Why would Paul follow up a discussion on spiritual gifts with a section on love? One might assume that he would follow the last chapter with a discussion on how to use different spiritual gifts or maybe a discussion on how to determine what spiritual gift you have. Could it be that Paul follows his discussion on gifts with love because love is the most important quality a church could have? We could assume that if a church had a great preacher it would be a great church. But Paul says that without love, it would sound awful. We could assume that if your church had great spiritual power, enough faith to move mountains, it would be a great church. But without love, it would be a church that amounts to nothing. We could assume that if your church made great sacrifices in order to meet the needs of the poor, or was willing to suffer personal harm, it would be a great church. But without love, all these sacrifices are for nothing. Paul followed his discussion of the gifts with love, because it is the most important ingredient for a church. Without love, no matter what spiritual gifts your church might have, it will amount to nothing. Without love, nothing else matters. Why? Love invests those gifts in others.
Today’s Questions
Say What?
Observation: What do I see?
So What?
Interpretation: What does it mean?
Now What?
Application: How does it apply to me?
Then What?
Implementation: What do I do?