Tell the Story
The Way of Love
13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,1 but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;2 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
The Biggest Story is a love story.
It’s a story about God’s love for us, even when we did not deserve to be loved. It’s a story about how we love God, because he first loved us. And it’s a story about how we who know the love of God can learn to love one another.
Everyone likes love, but not everyone understands it. Does love mean you agree with everyone all the time? Does it mean everyone likes you? Does it
mean you only do what people want you to do?
Is love mainly something we feel? Is it something we fall into? Is it something you can see on someone’s face?
People love to talk about love. But God tells us what it’s really about.
If I speak the fanciest words, but don’t have love, I am just a loud, annoying drum.
If I know the Bible backward and forward, and am the smartest in my class, and believe all the right things, but don’t have love, I don’t have anything.
If I give away all that I have and sacrifice everything to do what is right, but
do not love, I gain nothing.
Love waits for others. Love does not brag. Love is not proud or rude. Love doesn’t boss people around. Love is not easily angered. Love does not celebrate what is wrong. Love rejoices in what is right. Love puts up with people. Love trusts, and hopes, and keeps going.
Love never ends. The gifts that make me so special—some of them will grow old. Some may pass away. But love will last forever. I don’t want to be an immature person who babbles all day like I’m the center of attention. I want to see God even more than I want people to see me. The more I grow up, the more I will love.
In the end, these are three things that mark me out as a follower of Jesus: faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love.
