1 Corinthians 13:8-13   8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

These words appear right in the middle of a discussion on spiritual gifts, which was something the people of Corinth didn’t understand. You know, gifts like healing, prophecy, wisdom, knowledge and speaking in tongues. Rather than changing the subject, this chapter ties in to that discussion on gifts. The point Paul is making is that the main thing in a Christian life is not the ability to speak in tongues or heal an illness or any other gift. The most important thing in the life of a believer is the practice of Christian love. Once you have come to faith in Christ, that is what you are to do: Love. Christians are to model the love that God has shown to us. You are to mimic the love that drove Jesus to the cross, because nowhere do we see God’s love more clearly. You are to show others the love that has been shown to you.

Love is the greatest because it is permanent. Songs will say “and I will always love you” and “my love for you will never die.” But those songs describe emotions, which change, as the failed relationships all around us testify. But love, God’s love, lasts forever.

The love Paul writes about here is the greatest because it has its origin in God. John wrote about this as well, many times, but perhaps most clearly in…

1 John 4:7-11 7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 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.

The love we show is to be a response to the love which God has shown.

1 John 4:19 We love because he first loved us.