Paul wants to make sure that the Corinthians finally get it. He has been wrestling with unity and with the use of spiritual gifts in people’s lives. So, in this section, Paul simply lays out the whole truth. Our walks with God are not about what we Have, what we do, or what we give or give up. Our lives as God’s chosen people are about our love for God and our love for others. Paul makes it completely clear–We can speak or sing like an angel, we can foresee or know everything, We can give away all our stuff and our very lives–BUT, if we do those things for the gain of it, and not out of our love for God, it is all a waste.
Task oriented folks always gulp at that realization. From time’s beginning, all God has ever asked from us, is that we love Him and follow His lead. As we do that, there are never issues about gifting, knowledge, or sacrifice! Those things happen naturally as an outpouring of our Love for God. Without love, however, those things can still happen, Sadly, those that check the boxes to either prove themselves or gain an advantage completely miss God in the process. They do the actions for the little god of self, and their actions become their only reward. In those lives, God is the saddest of all.
We need only to trust God, follow Him, and love Him and those He has placed in our path. With God’s love as our focus, we will gain everything that we could ever hope for. God will make sure of it.
God Bless You
1 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Walking With God 