What happensPermalink
Continuing from “the more excellent way,” Paul declares that every spiritual gift is worthless without love. Love alone gives meaning to the gifts and teaches believers how to act toward one another: patient, kind, humble, rejoicing in truth, enduring all things. Other gifts are temporary, but love never ends. Just as a child matures into adulthood, so our limited understanding will give way to seeing “face to face.” Faith, hope, and love remain, but the greatest of these is love.
Why it mattersPermalink
Love is the fulfillment of all spiritual gifts and the lasting bond of the church. It bridges the present age of partial knowledge and the coming fullness of God’s presence, where love alone endures.
Key versePermalink
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.