Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;  (5) does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; (6) does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; (7) bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  (8) Love never fails.  But where there are prophecies, they will fail; where there there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge it will vanish away.  (9) For we know in part and we prophecy in part.  (10) But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.  (11) When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.  (12) For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face.  Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I am known.  (13) And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

the first letter to the Corinthians was written by the Apostle Paul. Our verses today are almost always taken as a presentation on love, but in fact Paul was talking about the gifts of the Spirit to the faithful in Christ. In chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians Paul writes about  purpose of the gifts and how they are related to the church  – and in chapter 14 Paul addresses the perversion of these gifts by the Corinthians. In chapter 13 – which is not a digression but instead is a link between chapters 12 and 14 – Paul talks about the use of the gifts of the Spirit for the help and blessing of the Church.  These verses are not a dissertation on love but are meant as an appeal for application for benefit of the Church.

Essentially Paul is saying that spiritual gifts without love are wayward and minister to personal pride. Words can be eloquent by themselves but if not motivated by love and truth words are just rhetoric – sounding brass or clanging symbols.  jUst as philanthropy without love can by worth nothing to the donor – a gift can be a blessing to a cause no matter the motive – but the man/ woman who gives is not blessed without love.

Paul talks about seeing through a glass darkly- in the ancient world the mirrors were of polished metal, giving a wavy indistinct image.   But the promise is that while we know now in part – and think we know what we don’t really know – some day we will see fully.   Paul is telling the Corinthians – and us – what biblical love is.  The Corinthians equated the social status of the spiritual gift with the significance of the one who has it and Paul tells the Corinthians that all of the spiritual gifts are temporary while Christian love is eternal.  Apparently the Corinthians abandoned Christian love and they are being warned that without love, the value of the spiritual gift is diminished.