After establishing that love is a necessity, Paul goes on to define love. Let’s read it:
“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NLT).
True biblical love is the complete opposite of human nature. We’re born into this world with a nature that is impatient, unkind, boastful, proud, and rude, demanding our own way, irritable, and remembering all the wrongs done against us. We give up easily, lose faith quickly, and can quickly become hopeless.
But as believers, we have the life and death of Jesus that shows us a completely different way to live.
Question 1. Please replace the word “love” with the name “Jesus” and rewrite 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.
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“God is love,” says John (1 John 4:8). Not merely that God is loving, but rather He is love! Jesus is the definition of love, and He fulfills every statement made in 1 Corinthians 13 about love. He has “loved us with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3) and he “demonstrates His love for us in this: while we were sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
Throughout His life, Jesus loved people! He healed the sick, raised the dead, spoke life into the fallen and downcast, and raised them up in love. But it was at His death that He “showed them the full extent of His love” (John 13:1).
At the Garden of Gethsemane, He showed that He did not “demand His own way” but yielded His will to His Father. And when He was nailed to the cross, He “kept no record of wrongs”, but rather atoned for every one of them. “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22), and because Jesus shed His blood for you, there is no record of your wrongs in heaven, you are fully forgiven and completely pardoned. “I have swept away your sins like a cloud. I have scattered your offenses like the morning mist. Oh, return to me, for I have paid the price to set you free” (Isaiah 44:22 NLT).
Question 2. Pick one of the definitions of love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, and show how Jesus loved you when He died on the cross.
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Because Jesus has shown His love so clearly, and because we have the Holy Spirit, we can follow Jesus in the way we live, we can love others as He has loved us. This is the New Covenant command that all believers are to follow: “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other” (John 13:34 NLT). “Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law” (Romans 13:8 NLT).
Question 3. Using 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, what is one way that you can show love to someone today?
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