Love can conquer all. That’s why Paul had so much to say about it. The word family of agapaō—the most common Greek word in the New Testament to express the concept of love—occurs more than 135 times in his letters. This represents almost half of all occurrences in the New Testament. This should tell us something about the central theme of Paul’s letters to the Corinthian church.
There are many remarkable passages about love in the New Testament—Romans 8:35–39, 1 Corinthians 2:9, 1 Corinthians 8:3, Galatians 2:20, Colossians 1:13, 1 Thessalonians 3:12, and more—but nothing compares to 1 Corinthians 13.
Last week, we saw that without love, all things, even spiritual gifts, are worthless. This week, we will look more deeply into 1 Corinthians 13 and its marvelous portrait of love.
As we will see, love is not so much an emotion as an attitude, an attitude that must be expressed in life, in deeds, and in words; otherwise, it means nothing.
What love really is, and does, has been fully revealed in the life of Jesus.
Thought questions: Paul hints that love is the ultimate solution for the lack of unity among members in Corinth. Why? How does this apply to our churches today?