“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3 NASB1995)

What’s this in reference to? It is in reference to the teaching in the previous chapter which ends with “And I show you a still more excellent way.” For when this was written, there were no chapters and verses. This was all one continuous letter from the Apostle Paul to the church of God in Corinth, in which he gave them all kinds of exhortations. So, it is good for us to know the context here, which was Paul teaching on Spiritual gifts. And, the previous chapter, chapter 12, is a preface for what he taught in chapter 13.

The main point I get from chapter 12 is that, by the Spirit, we are all gifted in different ways, so we won’t all be the same. Even if we have the same gift category, we may not all exercise it the same way. All should be exercised in the power of the Holy Spirit, according to the teachings of the Scriptures on Spiritual gifts. But none of us should operate in “the gifts” from a worldly or fleshly perspective. And all of us who have been assigned by God our specific “body parts” in the family of God, we are not all going to be the same.

For, there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons, i.e. in all people of genuine biblical faith in the Lord Jesus whose lives are committed to the will and purposes of God, who have the Holy Spirit living within them, gifting them, and using them for the glory of God to minister God’s love and grace to the rest of the body of believers in Jesus Christ, and to share the gospel with the world.

Therefore, not one of us is to say to another part of the body of Christ that we have no need of them. Now, if they are living in sin, that is a totally different situation which must be addressed and resolved for them to be active parts of the body ministering to the rest of the body. But that is not the issue here. The issue here is body parts, operating in the power of the Holy Spirit, who are being told that they “don’t fit,” and they should go “someplace else where they will be a ‘better fit’.” This should not be!!

“But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.” (1 Corinthians 12:24-26 NASB1995)

And this then takes us to chapter 13. We who say we love God, and that we are filled with the Spirit of God, and that we are operating in the gifts of the Spirit, are not to be those who treat the other body parts with disdain and disapproval just because they have different body parts from us, or because the manner in which they exercise their spiritual gifts does not meet with our approval. Their exercise of their spiritual gifts, though, needs to meet with God’s qualifications, and his approval, and that should be enough for us.

For our approval of one another should not be based in human thinking and reasoning, nor in marketing schemes and goals, nor out of fear that the ungodly of this world might be offended by our actions. But how we view one another, and how we treat one another, should be based in the teachings of the Scriptures, and in the model set before us in the person of Jesus Christ. But I will give this one caution. The fruit of the Spirit is “self-control,” so if our “gifting” is “out of control,” it is not of the Holy Spirit.

And, lastly, this love we are to have for one another is not based in human feelings and emotions which fluctuate, for we are to love even our enemies, and those who do evil against us, and even those within “the church” who reject us and cast us aside as unwanted because we don’t fit in with their modern-day marketing schemes and goals on how to “draw in large crowds of people from the world” into their gatherings. But just because someone else’s gifts are different from ours, it doesn’t make them wrong or us right.

[Matthew 5:43-46; Luke 6:27-28; Luke 10:27; John 13:34-35; John 15:12]

Love Never Fails

Based off 1 Corinthians 13 NIV
An Original Work / August 20, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

If I speak
With tongues of men and angels,
But do not have love,
My speech is but noise;
It sounds like thunder from above.
If I have the gift of preaching,
Knowledge, faith and prophecy,
But I do not love my brothers,
Oh, what vanity!
If I give all I possess
To help a neighbor who’s in need,
But I do not love my sisters,
I gain not a thing.

Love is patient; love is kind;
It does not envy; is not proud.
It is not rude; not self-seeking;
Selflessly gives out.
Love does not delight in evil,
But rejoices with the truth;
Protects always; hopes and trusts,
And always perseveres.
Love is not easily angered;
Keeps no record of the wrongs.
It forgives when wrong’s intended;
Returns hate with love.

Love will never fail when it is
God’s love reaching out through us,
Selfless in its care for others;
Yielding to the cross.
Prophecies and tongues
And knowledge,
Wisdom, teaching, miracles,
Gifts of healing, helping others –
These will all be stilled.
When perfection comes
The imperfect will surely disappear.
Faith and hope and love remain;
The greatest of these, love.

Are We Lacking in Love?
An Original Work / February 10, 2026
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love