The Excellence of Love

Richard Thetford

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal (1 Cor 13:1). The apostle Paul is telling the Corinthians that no matter what their abilities were and how good they were at it, if they did not have love then all else was just noise. The kind of love that God wants all His children to possess is hard for us to grasp. We see that love is patient, kind, not jealous, does not brag, and is not arrogant (1 Cor 13:4). The love that we should possess as Christians is one that will make us strive to save souls. Our love should be as such that we would always look out for the best interest of others. Love does not take into account a wrong suffered (1 Cor 13:5). Verse 7 of this chapter tells us that love "Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things". Does our love bear all things? We know also that it takes a deep love to endure all the things that happen to us on a daily basis. We realize that when things happen to us in our lives that test our faith, that we must have a strong love to overcome these tests. James 1:2-3 tells us that we are to "count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience". We know that love is patient, therefore we must let that love show through our patience. Paul sums it up when he says "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity" (1 Cor 13:13). We need to understand that everything we do profits us nothing unless we do it in love.