The Centrality of Christian Love
Over the past few months, God has been teaching and convicting me about the centrality of love to everything that we do as Christians. With that in mind, I have spent a lot of time recently meditating on the “love chapter” 1 Corinthians 13. It struck me that I have most often heard this passage preached in connection with weddings and marriage relationships. As a single person, I typically just skimmed over the chapter and assumed it would be more relevant to me when I am in a relationship.
However, I have learned that Paul is speaking to all believers in this chapter. 1 Corinthians 13 is a beautiful picture of the high calling to love that is given to all believers in every stage of life. With that in mind, I have written the following thoughts to share.
“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” – 1 Corinthians 13:13
There are few chapters in Scripture more beautiful and more often quoted than 1 Corinthians 13. Its love-rich language has given it a place in many weddings. However, the scope of this chapter is much greater than just marital love. The Apostle Paul did not write these words to newlyweds. He wrote them to a church in crisis. The church at Corinth was brimming with spiritual gifts, religious knowledge, and (sometimes overly) passionate expressions of faith, but sorely lacking in love. How many of us can see the same tendencies in our churches and communities?
This chapter is a call to action. It challenges the Corinthian believers, and us, to examine the authenticity of our faith through the lens of love. Paul calls love “the more excellent way” (1 Corinthains 12:31). In light of this, love is not an optional virtue for “super Christians”, but the essential mark of Christian maturity and obedience.
Love as the Greatest Virtue
Paul begins 1 Corinthians 13 by showing the emptiness of religious performance without love:
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (v. 1).
In Corinth, it seems that spiritual gifts were prized. Speaking in tongues, prophecy, knowledge, even faith to move mountains were admired and sought after. But Paul says plainly: without love, they are nothing. Not merely incomplete. Nothing. This is crazy!
Why? Because love is not an accessory to the Christian life, it is its very substance. Jesus summarized the law and the prophets with the command to love God and neighbor (Matt. 22:37-40). The Apostle John wrote, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:8). This is huge! Love is the root from which all other Christian fruit grows.
In our culture, love is often reduced to romance. While applicable to marriage, the scope of 1 Corinthians 13 is much broader. Paul is describing the kind of love that should define every believer and every church. The Greek word used here is agape which refers to a self-sacrificing, unconditional, volitional love.
This love is not a feeling but a choice. It is the love that sent Christ to the cross (John 3:16). It is the love that lays down its life for another (John 15:13). It is the love that forgives seventy times seven (Matthew 18:22), that seeks the good of enemies (Matthew 5:44), and that serves without expecting repayment (Luke 6:35).
To limit this truth to weddings is to miss the weight of it. This love is not simply for spouses; it is for enemies, neighbors, fellow believers, and strangers alike. It is not situational, it is foundational.
The Shape of True Love
Verses 4-7 provide a picture of what Christian love looks like in action. Each verb is a challenge:
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude.”
This love bears injustice patiently, without bitterness. It is not fragile or easily offended. It doesn’t compete or puff itself up.
“It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful.”
Love yields. It does not demand its rights. It refuses to keep score. It forgives.
“It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.”
Love does not compromise righteousness for the sake of peace. It rejoices in truth, even when truth is hard.
“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
This is the grit of love. Christian love has a backbone. Love doesn’t quit. It stays when others walk away. It hopes even when hope seems lost.
This is the love Christ has shown us and it is the love He commands us to show others.
Love: The Eternal Priority
Paul ends the chapter by anchoring love in eternity:
“As for prophecies, they will pass away… tongues, they will cease… knowledge, it will pass away… For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face” (vv. 8–12).
Spiritual gifts and religious works are temporary. But love is part of the finished work. It is eternal. When we stand before Christ, our doctrine will be complete, our faith will be sight, and our gifts will no longer be needed. But love will remain.
“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (v. 13).
Faith and hope are beautiful and necessary but love is the greatest because it reflects God’s own character. God does not have love; God is love. To grow in love is to grow in godliness.
In an age of fractured churches, ideological echo chambers, and performative religion, 1 Corinthians 13 demands to be heard. We are tempted to define our faith by doctrinal precision, church attendance, or activism. But Paul calls us back to the blazing center: love.
This is not easy, soft theology. It is hard. It is the call to die to self, to serve others, to forgive when it hurts, to speak truth with grace, to live with humility and courage. If our lives are filled with religious activity but devoid of love, we have missed the point entirely.
Let us not be content with noisy gongs and clanging cymbals.
Let us walk the more excellent way.
Prayer
Lord, teach me to love as You have loved me. Strip away my pride, impatience, and selfish ambition. Help me not to settle for a faith of performances, but to pursue a faith of compassion. Form in me the love that is patient, kind, enduring, and true. Let me not be satisfied with anything less than Your heart expressed through my life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.