Love Is the Greatest Gift (1 Cor. 13:8-13)

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Special Topic: Love Is the Greatest Gift (1 Cor. 13:8-13)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, September 14, 2025

Tony Evans writes:

At many amusement parks and museums, they have 3-D movies. When you walk into the theater, you receive a pair of glasses. If you try to watch the movie without the glasses, you see a distorted picture. No matter how hard you strain and look and twist to try to make sense of what is happening on the screen, there is still a distortion because of the dimension through which you are looking. By handing you a pair of glasses when you walk into the theater, they give you the tool you need to see the screen without distortions.

One of the problems many of us have is that we have a distorted view. We see what we see, but we don’t see all that there is to be seen. If all you see is the physical, visible scenario, then you are looking at your situation without your glasses. We need to have a divine frame of reference in order to see what is really going on.905,[1]

In the passage we are going to look at Paul shares that in Heaven we will have a better picture of things.

We are in a short sermon series on love.

My theme today is:

Strive for self-sacrificial love. This love will last into eternity.

  1. Context:
    1. As we reach 1 Corinthians 13, we are in the third of three chapters in which Paul writes about spiritual gifts.
    2. 1 Corinthians 12 is written about the theology of spiritual gifts.
    3. 1 Corinthians 13 is written about the motivation behind spiritual gifts.
    4. 1 Corinthians 14 is written about the practice of spiritual gifts.
    5. The Corinthian church was a divided church.
    6. I remember sitting in a New Testament class at Indiana Wesleyan University. The professor shared how, when he was a pastor, he would hear people say, “We want to be like the New Testament church.” He would say, “Really, do you want to be like the church in Corinth that was divided over communion [see 1 Cor. 11:18]?”
    7. The thesis of 1 Corinthians is in 1 Corinthians 1:10:
    8. 1 Corinthians 1:10 (NASB95)
    9. Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.
    10. By the time we get to 1 Corinthians 13, Paul has already written about many subjects, among them, but not limited to: marriage (1 Cor. 7); food sacrificed to idols (1 Cor. 8-10); the Lord’s supper (1 Cor. 11); and now spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12-14).
    11. Now, we get into the motivation behind spiritual gifts.
    12. Last week, we looked at the adjectives that describe love. In the English they are adjectives, but in the Greek they are verbs.
  2. The greatest gift is love.
    1. Paul began with this idea, and now he returns to this.
    2. Verse 8 says literally that love never “falls to the ground,” which likely means that it is never defeated or that it never fails. Other good gifts that are quite valuable, such as prophecy or knowledge, are specifically meant to equip the believer to endure in this age. In due course they will be brought to nothing. Tongues will cease when the Lord returns and completes his plan for Christians. Partial knowledge such as the Corinthian Christians now have will be brought to nought. Paul stresses “we know now but in part, but one day the completion of our knowledge of and relationship with God will happen.” Then believers will know as they are known by God. Then they will see face to face.
    3. The Corinthians are childish because, unlike Paul, they have mistaken the part for the whole and the partial for the final and in particular have overlooked the fact that while love already has finality here and now, knowledge is only in part. These verses are part of the larger rhetorical strategy to demonstrate the childish nature of the Corinthians’ behavior and thinking throughout this letter (cf. 3:1ff.; 14:20).35,[3]
    4. Look at the passage:
    5. 1 Corinthians 13:8–13 (ESV)
    6. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 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 know fully, even as I have been fully known.
    7. 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
    8. Love never ends… He is making the case that the various gifts will no longer be necessary, but love will always remain.
    9. Prophesies- no more needed.
    10. The gift of tongues- they will cease.
    11. The gift of knowledge will pass away. I believe he is referring to a special spiritual gift, rather than knowledge itself.
    12. Verses 9-10: We all know partially; we only prophesy partially, but eventually the perfect will come. He is referring to the time when God makes all things new. Then, the partial will be done away.
    13. “Perfect,” or some translations read, “complete”: The Greek for this word can mean “end,” “fulfillment,” “completeness” or “maturity.” In this context the contrast is between the partial and the complete. Verse 12 seems to indicate that Paul is here speaking of either Christ’s second coming or a believer’s death, when they will see Christ “face to face” (v. 12)[4]
    14. Paul is building a case about how when we are in heaven, or the New Heavens and the New Earth, we will no longer need these gifts.
    15. In verse 11 he gives this illustration of going from being a child to being an adult.
    16. Witherington III helps us: Verses 11f. should probably not be understood as saying that it is childish to speak in tongues or to prophesy, since Paul himself still does such things. He is saying that there is an age appropriate to such things and that now is that age. When the completion of the age finally comes, then it will be time to set aside what was appropriate and needful in that age. Only later will one know as one is known by God.
    17. For now, Christians, even the most mature,36 see through a glass or mirror en ainigmati, which can be transliterated as “enigmatically.” The phrase may mean “obscurely,” but its literal meaning is “in a riddle.” Paul’s point is not to castigate mirror-making, which was a trade practiced in Corinth. Nor were ancient bronze mirrors necessarily all that bad. His point is, rather, that as a mere image of the truth a mirror only partially tells the tale of what we look like. What we know of Christ, self, others, or salvation through the Spirit is not necessarily inaccurate, just incomplete. Some scholars have suggested plausibly that vv. 12a and 9b should be coordinated, in which case Paul would be referring in this image to the partial or fragmentary nature of prophecy. One may see a vision, but it is enigmatic and incomplete. This makes sense in light of what follows in ch. 14.37,[5]
    18. This does not mean we will be omniscient or know all things, but that we will have a fuller grasp of things. Furthermore, I believe he is referring to the spiritual gifts of knowledge, prophecy, and tongues. They will not be needed anymore.
    19. These gifts are about the upbuilding of the church.
    20. Now, verse 12: Paul uses an image of a mirror to show that we do not see perfectly. He will see “face to face.” Face to face suggests a reference to Christ’s second coming (the OT uses this phrase to refer to seeing God personally; cf. Gen. 32:30; Ex. 33:11; Deut. 5:4; 34:10; Judg. 6:22; Ezek. 20:35). Then, the spiritual gifts of this present age will no longer be needed.[6]
    21. Now, the image of what we see is not complete, but then we will fully know, even as we are fully known.
    22. IVP BBC NT: Mirrors (13:12) were often made of bronze, and given the worldwide renown of Corinthian bronze, would perhaps strike the Corinthians as a local product (also 2 Cor 3:18). But even the best mirrors reflected images imperfectly (some philosophers thus used mirrors as an analogy to describe mortals’ searching for the deity); contrast the more open revelation of Exodus 33:11, Numbers 12:8 and Deuteronomy 34:10.[7]
    23. Verse 13: So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
    24. Faith and hope will not be needed in eternity. Love will remain.
    25. CSB SB: Of faith, hope, and love, love is the greatest because it continues into the next age. Both faith and hope will be fulfilled in eternity, and so will not remain. This statement concludes a semantic bracket that began in v. 8—“Love never ends.”[8]
    26. ESV SB: The relationship of these three Christian qualities is a frequent theme in Paul’s letters. See Rom. 5:1–5; Gal. 5:5–6; Eph. 4:2–5; Col. 1:4–5; 1 Thess. 1:3; 5:8.[9]
    27. Love is the greatest of the gifts.

Haddon Anderson writes on Desiring God on December 14, 2021:

In 1738, Jonathan Edwards preached a sermon entitled “Heaven Is a World of Love.” He pointed out that since heaven is God’s dwelling place, “this renders heaven a world of love; for God is the fountain of love, as the sun is the fountain of light. And therefore the glorious presence of God in heaven fills heaven with love, as the sun placed in the midst of the hemisphere in a clear day fills the world with light” (Works, 8:369). Furthermore, “love reigns in every heart” in heaven, as the saints abound in love for God and for one another (8:373).[10]

Prayer

[1] Tony Evans, Tony Evans’ Book of Illustrations: Stories, Quotes, and Anecdotes from More than 30 Years of Preaching and Public Speaking (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2009), 302–303.

33 J. Weiss, Der erste Korintherbrief (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1925), p. 311.

[2] Ben Witherington III, Conflict and Community in Corinth: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995), 270.

34 Holladay, “1 Cor. 13,” p. 97.

35 Ibid.

[3] Ben Witherington III, Conflict and Community in Corinth: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995), 270–271.

  1. verse (in the chapter being commented on)

[4] Kenneth L. Barker, ed., NIV Study Bible, Fully Revised Edition (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2020), 2022.

36 Notice the emphasis on “we” in this final section of ch. 13, where Paul places himself in the same eschatological situation as his converts.

37 Cf. below and R. E. Heine, “The Structure and Meaning of 1 Corinthians 13:8–13,” in Increase of Learning, ed. R. J. Owens, et al. (Manhattan: Manhattan Christian College, 1979), pp. 63–72.

[5] Ben Witherington III, Conflict and Community in Corinth: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995), 271.

[6] Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2211.

[7] Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 1 Co 13:8–13.

  1. verse

[8] F. Alan Tomlinson, “1 Corinthians,” in CSB Study Bible: Notes, ed. Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1830.

[9] Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2211.

[10] Haddon Anderson, Desiring God, December 14, 2021. Accessed on August 10, 2025:

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/faith-hope-and-heaven-on-earth?utm_campaign=Daily%20Email&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=193678078&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_Hq89Nf9vROO45JZ7prjkb6VsKPEADHktRyYNhoDgJZIEmpNpPFGEEUv1ymRAChW7yVUZXQ2F7LfJg8eJLvz3Ya_zwbg&utm_content=193678078&utm_source=hs_email

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