Love *** – Page 4 – Religion Detox Network …

1 CORINTHIANS 13
This chapter is arguably the best known chapter on love in the Bible. It is often quoted without interpretation with the assumption that anyone who hears it can understand it. And indeed it is easily understandable at a human level because the words are well-known. But, like all scripture, it contains deep spiritual meanings that are not easily understood because people do not listen for God’s voice to explain them.

The primary reason people do not understand these verses is that they do not understand that God’s idea of love is that it represents his spoken word. The following commentaries interpret 1-Corinthians 13 with this understanding:

1 Corinthians 13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

COMMENTARY:

2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

COMMENTARY:

3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

COMMENTARY:

4 Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; 5 it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.

COMMENTARY:

7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

COMMENTARY:***

8 Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

COMMENTARY: Because God, his word and his love are all the same thing, love never ends. The prophecies of False Prophets will cease when they become True Prophets. People who speak in tongues practice Old/First Covenant religion. They will stop their babbling when they become New Covenant disciples. See this link for understanding of knowledge that passes away. Knowledge that comes by listening to God’s spoken voice does not pass away.

9 For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; 10 but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away.

COMMENTARY: Imperfect knowledge exists in the literal words of the Bible. Perfect knowledge is found only in God’s spoken word. Old/First Covenant religionists have imperfect knowledge because they interpret the Bible literally. New Covenant disciples have perfect knowledge because they listen to God’s spoken voice.

11 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. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood.

COMMENTARY: In this scripture, being like a child describes Old/First Covenant religionists. They see in a mirror dimly, and understand only in part because they interpret the Bible literally. They become mature men who understand fully when they become New Covenant disciples.

13 So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

COMMENTARY: We know that faith and hope and love are symbolic terms for God’s word. In that sense, they would all seem to be equal, and they are except that love is greater than faith and hope. Here is how to look at these three words.

- - - - We show that we have faith when we hear God’s spoken voice (i.e. his word.)
        
        We hope that we will hear God’s voice (i.e. his word.) God’s is love and his spoken word is love because God and his spoken word are inseparable.
        
        When we hear God’s voice, we know God and experience his love in our hearts.
        
        When we have God’s love in our hearts, we are compelled by that love to share it with others because God is compelled to share his love. The prophets and Jesus exemplified this kind of love when they spoke God’s words to religious people who later killed them.
        
        We share God’s love with others when we speak God’s words to them.

We will be compelled to fulfill the commandment to love one another when we love ourselves: We love ourselves when we seek God with all of our heart by listening to Gods’ spoken voice while we read the Bible. We love others like we love ourselves when we share God’s word with them. In other words, we demonstrate to God how important his love (i.e. his spoken word) is to us when we share his word (i.e. the gospel) with others and encourage them to listen to his voice.

We share God’s love because it is valuable. We can share it freely, without worry that it will ever be depleted. In fact, the more we share God’s love, the more love he gives to us.