"Who We Are" Notes

I Corinthians 13

(The Passion Translation)

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 1 If I were to speak with eloquence in earth’s many languages, and in the heavenly tongues of angels, yet I didn’t express myself with love, my words would be reduced to the hollow sound of nothing more than a clanging cymbal. 

2 And if I were to have the gift of prophecy with a profound understanding of God’s hidden secrets, and if I possessed unending supernatural knowledge, and if I had the greatest gift of faith that could move mountains, but have never learned to love, then I am nothing.

3 And if I were to be so generous as to give away everything I owned to feed the poor, and to offer my body to be burned as a martyr, without the pure motive of love, I would gain nothing of value.

4 Love is large and incredibly patient. Love is gentle and consistently kind to all. It refuses to be jealous when blessing comes to someone else. Love does not brag about one’s achievements nor inflate its own importance.

5 Love does not traffic in shame and disrespect, nor selfishly seek its own honor. Love is not easily irritated or quick to take offense.

6 Love joyfully celebrates honesty and finds no delight in what is wrong. 

7 Love is a safe place of shelter, for it never stops believing the best for others. Love never takes failure as defeat, for it never gives up.

8 Love never stops loving. It extends beyond the gift of prophecy, which eventually fades away. It is more enduring than tongues, which will one day fall silent. Love remains long after words of knowledge are forgotten. 

9 Our present knowledge and our prophecies are but partial, 

10 but when love’s perfection arrives, the partial will fade away.

11 When I was a child, I spoke about childish matters, for I saw things like a child and reasoned like a child. But the day came when I matured, and I set aside my childish ways.

12 For now we see but a faint reflection of riddles and mysteries as though reflected in a mirror, but one day we will see face-to-face. My understanding is incomplete now, but one day I will understand everything, just as everything about me has been fully understood. 

13 Until then, there are three things that remain: faith, hope, and love—yet love surpasses them all. So above all else, let love be the beautiful prize for which you run.”

 

1. Love Is Experienced

• John 3:16 - “For God so loved…”;   I John 4:8 - “God is love.”

• I John 4:9-11 - “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

• We first have to experience HIS love - “God is love”

 

2. Love is Alive

• Love has layers - deep

• It can grow or shrink/diminish

• Love must be acted upon.

 

3. Love Changes Us…and Others

• 3-4 minutes - “When was a time you experienced powerful love from someone?”

• I Peter 4:8 - “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”

 

4. Love is Addictive

• Love creates desire for more love…we want more!

• We literally CRAVE love

• We are created in God’s image (Genesis) and so we have love literally planted in us!

• But we need to go for more. 

v13 Until then, there are three things that remain: faith, hope, and love—yet love surpasses them all. So above all else, let love be the beautiful prize for which you run.”

 

5. Love Is Scary

• Love involves risk.

• Been rejected by love?  Date?

• 3-4 minutes - “When was a time you expressed love and it didn’t work out/wasn’t received/rejected?”

 

6. Love Is Fun!​

• This week go out of your way to love someone.  Figure out their love language and then speak it!

• “Love isn’t love til you give it away” - think of ways/let God speak during this song 

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• Where to study more this week

• John 3:16 - “For God so loved…”

• I John 4:7-21

• I Peter 4:8

• Ephesian 5:1-2

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