Below are questions for use in DRs and private devotions.

Read 1 Corinthians 13

Along with any version you prefer, I encourage you to also read this passage in the New Living Translation as well, as I think it does a fair job of elucidating some of the ideas in the original wording. It is pasted below.

Recall, that Steve reminded us that this letter (and this chapter) is written to a church with deep divisions and in need of vibrant exhortation for living in unity with one another (including in their use of spiritual gifts).

1. The words in this chapter are regarded as some of the most beautiful and majestic words ever written. Take a moment to articulate what you find most meaningful in this passage.
2. Consider verses 1-12. In this passage, Paul describes what gives real value to any of our gifts or works of service: the presence of real love in our hearts. How does this truth both humble you and give you hope?
3. Consider verses 9-13. At His return, the Lord Jesus Christ will not only make all things known to us, but He will perfect our love and make all gifts that are necessary in this imperfect age, unnecessary. Until that time, we seek to love and serve one another, even if imperfectly.
4. Reflect back over the description of love in verses 4-7 and prayerfully consider what aspects of what love is – or isn’t – that you find most challenging personally. Think about or discuss and take some time to pray for God’s grace to help you in that area.

1 Corinthians 13 NLT

If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. ³ If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

⁴ Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud ⁵ or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. ⁶ It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. ⁷ Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

⁸ Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! ⁹ Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! ¹⁰ But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.

¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. ¹² Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

¹³ Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.