LOVE

1 CORINTHIANS 13
 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
 4Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not;
charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

 5Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own,

is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

 6Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

 7Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all

things, endureth all things.

 8Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies,

they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall
cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
INTRODUCTION
 It is a little sad that we only have one English word
love because it is used for so many reasons
outside those of the Bible—like, “I love music,” or
“I love beef steak,” or “I love that television
program,” and the list goes on endlessly.

 In the Bible language of Greek, there are three

words for love and each one has specific limits.

1. EROS, the one not found in the Bible, is the

sensual, sexual, perverted form of love
(unfortunately, so often the way people use the
word love in personal relations between sexes
today).
2. Then there is PHILEO, which is the friendship
love—a deep, heartfelt devotion of one to
another, but still imperfect.
3. Finally, there is AGAPE, which is the love God
has for man (John 3:16).
INTRODUCTION
 The treatise of the subject of love is 1
Corinthians 13, where the word agape is
rendered “charity,” and in no way means the
same thing we define charity with today.

 It may be unfortunate, given our changing and

evolving language, that the King James Bible
renders this word as charity here.

 If we go back the 400 years to when this word

was translated that way, it meant true Godly
love and compassion. Now it just means a
handout, or a tax write off.

 I’d like to share an acrostic outline of the word

love here in this lesson, from the text of 1
Corinthians 13.
I. The LACK of love
(v1-3)
A. Spiritual gifts without love are like
sounding brass or tinkling cymbal

B. A spiritual person without love is

useless

C. A spiritual martyr without love

accomplishes nothing
II. The OPERATION of
love (4-7)
A. Longsuffering and kind

B. Not envious or proud

C. Not misbehavingly selfish or

easily angered
III. The VICTORY of love
(8-12)
A. Victory over prophecy

B. Victory over tongues

(spiritual gifts)

C. Victory over knowledge

IV. The ETERNAL presence
of love (12-13)
A. In seeing Him face to face

B. Faith and hope will some

day be unnecessary, but
love never will be
CONCLUSION:
 In Galatians 5 love is the first in the list of nine
emotional expressions a Christian should
manifest, called the fruit of the Spirit.
 It is important to note the word fruit is singular.
I believe the effectiveness of the other eight
expressions relies exclusively on how love
operates in our lives.
 The thirteen verses of 1 Corinthians 13 detail
very concisely and completely how that love
should operate.
 How are you doing?
 Do you need to be a “better lover”?
 It would be good for us to learn whom to love,
why to love, how to love, and things we are not
supposed to love.
 The Bible gives all these guidelines to us.