We have NOTHING if we don't have love..

1 Corinthians 13
"Though I speak with the tongues of mean and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. and though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove moutains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in inquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail: whether there be tongues, they shall cease; wheter there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I though as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly: but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."

This is a very popular chapter. God laid this on my heart last night and I read over it. I'm thinking He is telling me I'm going to need more than one blog to learn all that I need to learn from it! First we'll start off with the meaning of charity. Charity means Love! In Dustin's study bible it says that in this letter Paul intentionally uses exaggeration to explain how you can have all the spiritual gifts in the world but if you don't have charity (love) you have NOTHING. I read over verse 1 and then did a little studying in the margin. Apparently the Corinthians used brass instruments and cymbals as part of their "pagan worship." Paul was explaining this to them, they could dance around and blow their brass instruments and bang the cymbals together as much as they wanted but that worship meant nothing because they weren't worshipping the HEAVENLY FATHER. Paul is saying we can preach, speak, and witness all we want to but if we don't have love then we will be as useless as the brass instruments and cymbals are with the pagan worship. Isn't it funny how even back then we had to have things spelled out for us? Paul needed to exaggerate to get his point across. He goes on to say, we can have all the faith in the world, even faith that moves mountains (Matt. 17:20), but if we don't have love we have NOTHING! In verse 3 Paul says, you can feed the poor and even offer yourself as a sacrifice but if you don't do it in love you profiteth NOTHING! In this study bible it brings out a great point, it talks about how all of the things we do, all of our spiritual gifts will not last. All of these gifts will no longer be needed one day. But love continues FOREVER! This is what verse 8 is talking about, "Charity never faileth; but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail: whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away." It says that fail in this verse means, something that will cause prophecies to stop. Yes we do need to minister and tell others about God's word (verse 9). But when Jesus returns there will be no more time for ministering. It will be too late. So we must make sure we have love in our hearts to follow us through til the end.  I just realized I ended up learning something completely different from what I thought I was gonna learn. :) Awesome! I'm going to continue to studying in this chapter though. I can already see lots of things God wants me to learn from it, so my next few blogs will probably be from this chapter. Unless of course God moves me somewhere else. Just for a little add in... GOD IS LOVE!!!!