“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
“Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
“Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-14:1
In teaching on the spiritual gifts being vital to the health and growth of the Body, Paul elevates the importance of love in and through and over all. The exercising of spiritual gifts unifies and build up the body, and love gives lasting substance to each. Every member of the Body is important and his gifts needed for proper functioning, yet these are temporary while love is supreme and abides always. (1 Corinthians 12:7,24-27; 14:3-4)
In the grind and urgencies of life, we can consider many fleeting things and issues as of utmost priority. What things are partial and temporary we allow to take whole and absolute importance and full attention. There is no eternal perspective when the immediate occupies our vision and ‘now’ trumps the ‘not yet.’
But there is a more excellent way to go about kingdom living. All that is partial should be done with full gusto for the Lord and His church, yet seen as subservient to lasting love. The gifts we exercise are to convey a deeper love and farther hope than what anyone now sees. We wholeheartedly serve God’s people as we can and with the knowledge we have with an eye for all He will one day fully redeem and perfect. It is Christ we serve, and His ultimate motives should permeate all we do. (Romans 12:5-8; Colossians 3:17)
Do we go about our work partially, or with abandon? Do we settle for half-hearted effort in service, or knowledge in decision-making, or investment in relationships? If the Lord will one day complete and fully reveal what we now see dimly, how are we building toward a glorious reveal?
How can we exercise our gifts with deeper love, increasing patience, humility, truth, and endurance? How can our love for others spur them to greater faith and hope? We do not in this life know the full effects of what we give, but we can trust that the Lord will complete all He’s begun in and through us. When we see Him and are fully known, He will receive the glory. (Philippians 1:6)
Father, help me exercise my gifts with love that serves others and honors You.
As the rain and snow 