The Fierce Nature of Love (1 Corinthians 13)

One day, I was reading an article on a normal morning.

You know how it is when you wake up and you want some quiet time. But lately, “quiet time” does not always feel quiet, because you are being bombarded with devotions. They come from everywhere: emails, messages, friends sending things, from all angles. In a single day, you can receive five or more.

So this was one of those mornings. I woke up and saw all these devotions coming in from different sources. I picked one to read, an article or a story, and as I was going through it, the writer referenced 1 Corinthians. It was not even the main focus, just something mentioned in passing.

But whenever I see a scripture quoted, I like to pause and read the full passage for myself. So I said, “Okay, let me go and read it.”

It was 1 Corinthians 13, that familiar, beloved chapter.

I started reading: “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love…” and when I got to verse 3, I paused.

I just froze. “Wait.”

“And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.” ‭‭I Corinthians‬ ‭13‬:‭3‬ ‭(NKJV‬‬)

It landed on me with weight. Honestly, it felt as though I had never read that part in my life, as if it was being highlighted for me to really see. I said, “Wait, what?”

I slowed down and read it again, word by word, just to be sure I was understanding what I was seeing.

And I asked myself: What is the Apostle Paul saying here?

The moment I read it, I screenshotted it and sent it to a friend. I asked, “Have you seen this?” Sometimes we read these things, but we do not really see them.

After I sent it, I just sat there thinking, no way. What is Paul actually saying?

Take a look at the world today, what do we see?

We see a lot of charity work. People donating to the poor, helping communities, giving their time, their resources—everything. A lot of sacrifices. And it is beautiful. It is admirable.

When we see those things, we immediately say, “Wow, that’s love.”

“Thank you for showing so much love.”

“That person really loves people.”

Even in extreme cases, like someone sacrificing something deeply personal, we still say, “That is love.”

We even say things like, “I give my all,” “I lay everything on the altar,” “I give my last.”

So I came back to that verse and asked myself again: What is Apostle Paul saying?

“Even after doing all of that, what we naturally call love may not actually be love.”

That is what got me. When I read it, I actually started laughing in my room, not because it was funny, but because it caught me off guard.

It was not just that people can do things for show. We already know that. It was the emphasis Paul made: if I give everything, my last, and still do not have love, it profits me nothing.

And that’s what shook me because, in our minds, giving is almost always proof of love.

And yet, even with charity and generosity happening all around us, this verse is still saying something deeper.

The Apostle Paul was referring to martyrdom in the early church. It was regarded as a way to share in Christ’s suffering and some Christians took pride in enduring persecution for Jesus.

But after that part caught my attention, something shifted in me. I became sober. It took me into a place of reflection.

And I began to tell myself, I need to be careful about the motives behind every giving that I do.

I kept reading, but verse 3 stayed with me. So I went back to the beginning:

“Though I speak in the tongues of men and of angels…”

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” ‭‭I Corinthians‬ ‭13‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

The Corinthians regarded these gifts: speaking the language of angels, having faith that can move mountains, having the gift of prophecy, as superior.

But Apostle Paul says even then, without love, it profits nothing.

The Measure of True Love

I sat there for a moment and asked myself:

What then is love?

And that is when I came to that familiar part, the one we all know, the one we hear at weddings so often:

“Love is patient, love is kind…”

We recite it like a poem. Almost everyone knows it, even unbelievers. But have we ever really stopped to think about what it means?

We say:

Love is patient.

Love is kind.

It does not envy.

It is not easily angered.

But if we are honest, we often just repeat it.

Have we actually considered what it means to be patient, to be kind, and to live these words instead of merely reciting them?

These are not just simple words.

In that passage, Apostle Paul is teaching that love is not physical attraction. It is not just a feeling. It is a commitment to act. It is not based only on emotions. It requires intention. It is a decision.

It is about how one lives for the Lord and obeys Him, and how a person lives for others and serves them. That kind of love has a foundation. Its foundation is in God.

As I was meditating, I realized this is the true nature of love. It is not as easy as we think.

It is something we must walk in. It goes beyond small acts of sacrifice.

That is why it is deeper: even if we possess all these spiritual gifts, without love it profits us nothing.

And these gifts are not given to us as something to boast in—they are given for the building up and benefit of others.

The Corinthian church was gifted, yet Paul still had to correct them: gifts without love can become noise, pride, and disorder instead of building up.

Who Is Love?

One thing became clear: love is God.

Not as an idea, but as a Person. God Himself. Love is His nature, revealed to us in Jesus Christ.

And it does not stop at giving. Paul goes even further.

Prophecies may fail and other gifts may cease, but love never fails. Faith, hope, and love will last forever, but the greatest is love.

So I began asking myself:

All the times we have expressed love towards one another, whether in romantic relationships, friendships, or family, what kind of love was that?

We go out of our way to say, “I love you.” We tell people, “You are loved.” We express it with words.

But then time passes, feelings change, and what we called love begins to fail. We stop caring the same way. Relationships break. Marriages end. Promises made before God and man are broken.

And that is where the tension sits for me: if Scripture says love never fails, then what have we been professing, and what have we been practicing all along?

The same love we claim, “I love my brother,” “I love my sister,” “I love my friend,” “I love my family,” can still turn into bitterness and division. So what kind of love is that?

That question stayed with me, because if love never fails, then what we often call love must be something else.

“That question stayed with me, because if love never fails, then what we often call love must be something else”.

And as I continued meditating, I felt that God was trying to teach me something.

The kind of love we often practice in this world is not the kind He requires of us.

We live in a society where so much is presented in terms of “self”: self-awareness, self-love, self-acceptance, and more. So a way of life in which a person lives for others, through self-sacrifice, can feel hard to hear.

A Higher Calling for Believers

This is a higher calling, especially for believers, to return to the true meaning of love, the love God requires.

In 1 Corinthians 12, we see how richly gifted the Corinthian church was with spiritual gifts.

Yet those gifts became a source of comparison, and some began to view themselves as more spiritual than others, which created division in the church.

But in verse 31, the Apostle Paul interrupts it all and says, “Let me show you a better way.”

That better way is love.

In other words, everything we do must be governed by love, because love is the greatest.

Love That Never Fails

When we look around today, especially among believers, what we often call love fails people all the time.

And we still see hunger for spiritual gifts, but not hunger for love. Not hunger to love rightly.

We crave the visible things: power, platform, revelation, influence—anything that can be measured, celebrated, or admired. We want the kind of spirituality that can be noticed. But love is quieter. Love does not always feel rewarding in the moment, because it calls us to die to pride, to surrender the need to be right, to choose patience when our flesh wants to react, and to keep serving even when no one claps.

In all of these, Scripture still says love never fails.

And it made me ask a deeper question: so what is failing?

It led me to check myself.

Because we use these words so easily: “I love you.” “You are loved.”

Maybe we mean it in the moment, but I had to ask myself:

When I say it, do I truly mean it? Am I ready to live that out?

Even when I say I love myself, am I patient with myself? Am I kind to myself?

Paul does not leave love as a vague idea. He defines it, so that every time we say “I love you,” we can measure our lives against it.

Christ’s Love: The Standard

And then I look at Christ.

How did Christ love us, and what did His love look like in practice?

Was it just words?

Or was it sacrifice?

Christ did not leave it vague. He commanded: “Love one another as I have loved you.” Not “love however you want,” but “love as I have loved you.”

Love for one another is not optional (John 15:12, 17).

“This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.” — John 15:12

“This is my command: Love each other.” — John 15:17

So there is a call upon us as believers to love, not how we want, but how Christ loved us.

This can be likened to joining an organization or living under a law. There are ways we must live in God’s love.

It is not based on our preferences.

It is not according to our comfort.

It is a responsibility placed on all of us.

And that changes everything.

There is a song that says, “I am grateful for Your mercy, I’m grateful for Your grace… I am not worthy to receive the love that You give.”

And it humbles me, because it reminds me that it is true that we are not worthy of that kind of love, yet He gives it freely. His mercy, His grace, and His love.

His love is perfect.

He was patient.

He was kind, even to those who did not deserve it.

He did not only command love; He modeled it, and He became the standard.

Reflection

So in this season, as we reflect on His love, let us sit with what Scripture says love is.

Let us reflect on the acts we do and the motives behind them. Are they truly the kind of love God requires of us, or have we been calling something else “love”? Let’s think about this: the love God gives us, and the love we sometimes call “love.”

Because if love never fails, then when what we call love begins to fail, we must pause and ask what we have truly been practicing.

Maybe the question is not, “Do I love?”

Maybe the question is, “Am I loving like Christ?”

Loving rightly can be difficult, so I have made it a habit to say a certain prayer:

“God, if there is any pride in me, or any pride that may arise in me, crush it.”

Like David prayed:

“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭139‬:‭23‬-‭24‬ ‭

Because it often starts with the small things—jealousy, pride, bitterness, hidden thoughts.

Those small things grow into impatience, unkindness, envy, and anger.

And before we know it, what we call love no longer reflects God.

Let us remember that God’s love does not fail. Christ did not only command love; He modeled it, and He became the standard.

So let us come back to that standard, not with mere words, but with lives that reflect Him.

Let us rethink the love we give in our homes, our friendships, and our families.

Because love is not as simple as we often make it.

 

In your daily life, what does love look life?

How do you shows others love? How do they show love to you?