I Corinthians 13:1-13

This week, we come to “The Love Chapter” — I Corinthians 13:1-13. You may have heard this chapter, or a portion of it, read at a wedding. It is the most-used wedding reading. However, Paul did not have weddings in mind when he wrote it. It is not about romantic love, but Christ’s love as a gift from the Holy Spirit to the Church.

Continuing from the end of I Corinthians 12, where Paul, among other things, was trying to persuade the Corinthians that speaking in tongues is not evidence of superior discipleship (they thought it was), he presents a foundational gift of the Holy Spirit: agape, love. Agape is a singular kind of love: self-giving love. Read I Corinthians 13:1-13 as a description of what we might call “compassion”.

What does Paul write about the power of the other gifts of the Spirit when agape love is absent?

Thinking about the teachings of Jesus, how does agape love find expression? Read Matthew 22:36-40.