OUR FATHER WHO KNOWS US AND WHOM WE WILL KNOW

1 Corinthians chapter 13 verses 1 - 13 is the famous ˋlove chapterˋ often referenced at weddings and convocations. The apostle Paul, in the previous chapter, described the subject of  this chapter as 'the more excellent way'.

Paul, having laid out the array of spiritual gifts that are made available to believers for the florishing of the body, now discusses an ingredient to all the gifts that, if missing, renders all the functions of the gifts as moot and profitless

Paul is of course speaking of love which he describes as the greatest of all the virtues that are measured when transactions between the seen and unseen realms take place. (The virtues or stances are faith, hope and love).

1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

Paul lays out a panoply of lofty exploits that believers could engage in and all the sacrifices they could offer but he unequivocally states that doing all these things without love is pointless.  Love can then be understood as the primary prerequisite or qualifier of any spiritual transactions associated with the kingdom of God. It is like the pin number of the company credit card and transactions that are carried out on that credit card without the pin number are unauthorized transactions and are thus nullified.

Paul then lists the characteristics of love by describing the things that it does and some of the things that is does not do.

4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Itemizing the list of the characteristics of love can help to comprehend the nature of love especially when we understand that God Himself is love and so these characteristics are also the expressed nature of God.

1. Love suffers long  ( is patient )
2. Love is kind and thoughtful
3. Love does not envy but wishes well for others
4. Love does not parade itself or boast
5. Love is not puffed up ( is not proud )
6. Love is not rude or dishonor others
7. Love does not seek its own way ( is not selfish )
8. Love is not easily provoked or angered
9. Love harbours no evil or vengeful  thoughts or keep record of wrongs
10. Love does not delight in evil things
11. Love rejoices at the truth
12. Love always bears or carries all things and lets nothing fall away
13. Love always believes or trusts all things
14. Love always hopes or looks to the best of all things to comes
15. Love always endures or withstands all things

8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

Paul changes gears and moves far into the future where the dispensation we are currently partakers of is no longer in operation and so all the mechanisms of transacting between the spiritual realm and the natural realm are no longer needed and so these partial mechanisms such as prophesy, speaking in tongues and words of knowledge will cease and give way to the perfect connections which is the eternal mechanism of love. 

This is why practicing the gifts of the Spirit without love is pointless because the ultimate aim of these gifts ( which are temselves merely temporary substitutes for the real connection between God and man) is to facilitate the establish an eternal loving relationship between God and those who believe in Him.

Paul discusses this further by using  the progression from childhood to adulthood  as an analogy of the progression of the use of gifts to learn the rudiments of knowing God to directly knowing God and being loved by God and experiencing him face to face and knowing Him as much as He knows us.

11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

The greatest and the ultimate and the final state is love.

Amen.

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