1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13 (NIV)
In these verses, Paul describes love, explaining that even if we speak with tongues of angels, if we do not have love, we have nothing at all. It is interesting that Paul personifies love in these verses, for love is a virtue, not a mere feeling or emotion. And more importantly, it is not love that comes from us.

The Holy Spirit pours a supernatural love for God and neighbor into our hearts. In Romans 5:5 Paul writes, “And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Rom 5:5). This is a love that was modeled perfectly by our Lord Jesus, who despite all that was done to him and even while hanging on the cross, forgave those who did it (Luke 23:34). It is a love that thinks of the other first, never asserting itself for its own gain, a love that offers all for the good of the other, and a love that is so extraordinary because of its depth and sincerity that it turns all eyes to God, its only conceivable source.

We must remember that it is not possible for us to love like this in our own power. It is only possible because God loved us first. In his first letter, the apostle John explains it simply: “We love because he [God] first loved us” (1 John 4:19). So, the place to look for all love is God. Are we surrendered to the love that wants to consume our hearts and reach out to others through us? We can judge how much we love our heavenly Father by examining the fruit of our own lives. Do we show his love? Are we models of the definition of love that Paul offers in these verses?

There is a little exercise we can all do with this passage. Let us each substitute our own name in the list of love’s characteristics and see if the passage would still be true: “I, ___, am patient; I, ___, am kind; I, ___, never act arrogantly or rudely.” Would Paul’s words still be true if each of us said them that way?

Brothers and sisters, let us always look to God, offering him our lives and asking him to show his kindness, mercy and love through us in every moment so that others may come to know and love him.

1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13 (NIV)
31 Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.
Love Is Indispensable
And yet I will show you the most excellent way.
13 If I speak in the tongues 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, 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.