What Love Is Like

“And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.” — 1 Corinthians 13:13

Paul wrote lots of letters to the churches he had started. One of them was to the church in Corinth, the city where he had made tents with Priscilla and Aquila.

The church in Corinth had some problems. People were arguing. Some of them were proud and showing off. They thought some people in the church were more important than others, because they had more impressive gifts.

So Paul wrote to them about the most important thing of all. Love.

“If I can speak in every language of people and even of angels,” Paul wrote, “but I don’t have love, I’m just a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”

Imagine someone banging a cymbal over and over again. Clang! Clang! Clang! That’s what all our clever words sound like to God if we don’t have love.

“If I know everything there is to know, and if I have faith that can move mountains, but I don’t have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own to the poor, but I don’t have love, it does me no good at all.”

Then Paul described what real love is like:

“Love is patient.
Love is kind.
It does not envy.
It does not boast.
It is not proud.
It is not rude.
It is not selfish.
It is not easily angered.
It keeps no record of wrongs.
Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always keeps going.
Love never fails.”

That’s a lot to live up to, isn’t it? Try this: read the list again, but every time it says “love”, put your own name instead. “Sam is patient. Sam is kind. Sam does not boast...” It’s hard to say all of those about ourselves!

But now try putting “Jesus” instead. “Jesus is patient. Jesus is kind. Jesus is not proud. Jesus keeps no record of wrongs...” Every single one is true. Jesus is what love looks like. And the more we know Him, the more His love grows in us.

“Three things last for ever,” Paul wrote. “Faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

Read it in your Bible: 1 Corinthians 13

Dear Jesus, thank you that you love me with a love that is patient and kind and never fails. Please help me to love other people like that. Make me patient and kind. Amen.