1 Corinthians 13 Research Paper

Especially within a society such as ours, which distorts love into lust, the ability to recognize and display the gift of love is essential. Selfish love, which is so inherent to humanity, inhibits God from acting in our lives, blinding us from experiencing His presence and eternal joy. It is so easy to look for pleasure and love in self satisfaction. However, the path to lasting happiness is not found through instant gratifications, but in the grueling practice of living a life full of

This sermon provokes the one who has had their own hearts weaken to seek holiness from the transformation of love. Wesley desires every Christian to attain the status of perfect love, where the love of God and neighbor would reign in their hearts. As evidence he quotes St. Paul, “Earnestly desire the higher gifts, and I will show unto you a more excellent way.” (The More Excellent Way,

The Corinthians had a way of self-praise and boasting over their superior actions. They would speak in tongues and prophecy in public “not to benefit others who are in attendance but, in Paul’s view, simply to elevate themselves in the eyes of others” (Bart Ehrman, A Brief Introduction to the New Testament, p. 228). In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul lists the variety of gifts that various members of the church possess, saying that the Spirit has assigned each gift to each individual. Paul wants the Corinthians to understand that God has given the individuals in the community distinctive roles and gifts that, when used appropriately, better the church as a whole. To emphasize the importance of unity in the church, Paul writes, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ” (1 Cor 12:12). Paul shows how each member of the church has imperative value, just as each part of the body is essential for it to work properly. The Corinthians’ problem of boasting would fade away as soon as they acknowledge that there is value in the diversity of the members of the church. God placed each person in the role that He intends for them to fill and everyone must recognize His placement. Greater than all other gifts is the gift of love. Love is crucial because it builds up the community and strengthens every believer, regardless of their differences. Paul stresses that the most excellent gift is love, writing “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 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” (1 Cor

The Harper Collins definition is, “The chief purpose of love is to bring one’s neighbor into communion with God. True self-love and love for God are coincident or coextensive.” This definition says that to love others you have to bring others to God, just as St. Francis of Assisi said, “Preach the gospel at all times. When

In this passage of the second letter to the Corinthians, Paul addresses several concerns. He is addressing the situation of a man who has sinned not only against himself, but against the Corinthian Church as well. He explains why he wrote a letter rather than bringing sorrow upon them. Paul is sensitive to the Lord’s leading, and in love, writes to the church encouraging them to discipline this man in love for the purpose of restoring him. He urges the Corinthians to be obedient and love the man through forgiving and encouraging him. Paul shares with them his trust in the Lord for the outcome of this matter and how burdened he was for restoration to take place. He warns them of the need to not allow Satan a foothold through this

By him not playing with the toys and reading a book as we waited, was his behavior of love towards me. In 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, Paul speaks of love as being, patient, kind. Then he goes on to say, “love is not jealous or boastful or proud, or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no records of being wronged. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every situation” (New Living Translation). Then Paul reminds us after he goes mentions behaviors as, having the ability to speak all languages of earth and angels (verse 1), and had the gift to prophecy, had the full secrets of God, and had the faith to move mountains (verse 2), given everything he had to the poor and sacrificing his body (verse 3), that without the love, these behaviors are useless. Therefore, according to Paul, love of others needs to be the reason for are choice of behavior.

Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8 NABRE)

Wright however, believes the human telos to become God’s rulers and priests in the age to come. Aristotle understands love to be a means to gain, writing, “in loving a friend they love what is good for themselves; for he who gains a good man for his friend gains something that is good for himself…” (3170). Conversely, Wright’s view, love is intimately connected to the telos. That is what he understands Paul to be saying, “Paul urges his hearers not only to reflect on God’s love but to look and see how it is done and then do it themselves. “Conduct yourselves in love,”…

This paper will examine the books of Corinthians and the universal truth of love in the New Testament. Corinthians One and Two were written to the church at Corinth and deal with the need to recognize and put sin out of our lives.(Corinthians)

Wesley speaks of love, being a “perfect love”. A love “excluding sin, love filling the heart, taking up the whole capacity of the soul. It is love ‘rejoicing evermore, praying without ceasing, in everything giving thanks”. As Christians we must be intentional about loving God, loving others, loving self. 1 John 4:8 declares, “Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

Love is often a word mistreated by most people. Now days, the word love is thrown around so much, it has lost its meaning. People forget why we are living, breathing humans today. People forget about the sacrifices made for the sins we acted out. People forget about the love that God has for us. It is easy to misinterpret the meaning of God’s love. Human love and God’s love are two different things. The love from the Lord is invincible and no human can come close to that type of love. God created mankind because He loved humanity.

Among the multitudinous biblical references to love, the most comprehensive and decisive assessment of true love comes in St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians. He begins by stating that despite all of his faith and gifts from God, "if I have no love, I am nothing." (I Cor. 13:2) Clearly, Paul recognizes the importance of love. He goes on to define love in very explicit terms, telling both what love is and what it is not. Paul begins, "Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud; love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs." (I Cor. 13:4-5) The Apostle continues with the declaration that "love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth." (I Cor. 13:6) Recall here the biblical prohibition of cross-dressing (Deut. 22:5) and lying (Deut. 5:20) Disguise and deceit are far from the truth that makes love happy. The exhortation continues:

The Beatles (1968) expounded, “All you need is love, love, love is all you need”. Whenever this writer hears the song and especially the chorus, the smile infectiously appears. There is not one single importance in life than love. For your post the climacteric of the three, for this writer, is love. Love, breeds hope, second chances or new beginnings, without love none of the studies, its findings, and suggested corrections matter. Moreover, one cannot dismiss the power and majesty of love; it matter not who tries to define love the Bible is clear in 1 John 4:8 “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love” (ESV). Additionally, the Bible later in 1 John 4:15-20 instructs the believer in recognizing if the love is from God. 1 John 4:15-20 asserts:

The Book of 1 John is a very important book because even thought it was written during the 90 A.D and the authorship of this book has not been discover. It has some meaningful information for the people during that time and is even relevant to the believers and unbeliever of today. The Book of 1 John has many themes displayed throughout this book even though it only has five chapters in the entire book. One of the major themes displayed in this book is love. 1 John 2:7-17 scriptures let us know that God’s greatest command and greatest gift to people is Love. He lets the people of this time that this is not a new commandment because it was required in the Old Testament and it remains in the New Testament. As a believer we must love everyone just as God love us. Another example of love being displayed in 1 John is 3:11-24 when God provided us with a clear example of his love by providing a bad example and a positive example of how love should be. From this example Blomberg mentioned that “We should expect the world to hate us as they hated Christ, but we should lay down our lives for one another if necessary. The next most powerful demonstration of the genuineness of our love comes when we share from the surplus of our material possessions to help those in need (Blomberg. 2006)”. Then lastly, 1 John 4:7-21 talks about love again, that when you love it should be divine and genuine. That love should be displayed in an emotion way but we should also show love to God by obeying

In the Farewell Discourse of Johns gospel, Jesus speaks of his abiding love and ultimate commandment given to his disciples. He tells his disciples, “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love… I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you” (John 15:9-12). This guide he gives to his disciples, as a way to live in relation to each other, can connect with that of Phaedrus idea of love. In the Symposium, Phaedrus speaks of love as a great god who gives the greatest goods and there is no greater good given to a boy than a lover. The lover is the guidance, to hold accountable the boy, just as we are held accountable by Jesus. He gives us this commandment of simply loving each other as he loves us and the Father him. Just as the Lover in Phaedrus definition of love, the Lover is guiding the boy to be his companion and to love