The 13th chapter of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is perhaps the greatest explanation, description, and insight on love that has ever been written. The first verse enlightens us to the notion that people cannot hear the words we say—even though our words might be brilliant!—if we do not speak them with love. Verse five challenges us that love “does not insist on its own way.” We read in verse seven that love “hopes all things” which implies that we should not be cynical or bitter or downhearted. And if those concepts were not difficult enough, in verse eleven Paul boldly admonishes us to grow up! Every time I read this chapter, I am convicted in so many ways.
The most difficult part of Paul’s treatise for me, however, are the five little words in verse 12: “Now I know in part.” I can only translate those words to mean I don’t know everything! It is hard for me to accept this. I often act as if I do know everything, and when I act that way I end up breaking all of Paul’s other directives on love—being impatient and unkind and arrogant and rude and insistent and judgmental and . . . well, acting like a know-it-all.
The fact is—we don’t know everything! And that’s important to know! But there are some things that we do know. For example, we know that God created the world, including us. We know that Jesus conquered death and because of that we can live eternally in God’s kingdom. We know that God loves us and has a plan for our lives. We know that if we put our faith in God and learn to love and trust him, we can become the loving people that we ought to be. There are some other things that we know but those are the main ones.
What is most interesting is that God knows us! In fact, we are “fully known.”1 What is most interesting about that is that he loves us anyway! The best example of love is this: “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation (the atoning sacrifice) for our sins.”2 If we are seeking to be loved (and we all are), then we need to know that God’s love is the most complete kind of love. As a matter of fact, “God is love.”3 If we are seeking to be more loving (and we should be) then reading and studying and—dare I say it—memorizing Paul’s discourse on love is a good place to start.
11 Corinthians 13:12 21 John 4:10 31 John 4:8