"What is Love?"
Bible Study
Week 9
Love Lasts Forever
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1 Corinthians 5:8-10 Prophecy and speaking in unkown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.
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We have made it to the part of the chapter that connects the 2 more well known sections. This is the middle section that isn't really talked about much, but is still very important to how we see ourselves and our 'story'.
One of the first things that stands out to me is the fact that love lasts forever... that connects back to the LOVE NEVER FAILS verse we talked about earlier.
Love Lasts Forever... How awesome is that!!
I mean, really
Love never fails. Love lasts forever-- no matter what--
NOW----
Human love can (and does) fail. Human love can let you down-- but Jesus' love-- THAT is the love that never fails.
And we strive to be like Jesus, so connecting the dots we know that we are supposed to try to love where we don't let the other person down.
That. is. hard! I feel like I let people down all of the time.
We know that we will never reach the type of love that Jesus has to for us-- but we also know that we need to try. We aren't perfect and never will. We are supposed to try which means our love, not the love of others.
OUR love.
Guess what?
We can't control what others do-- and how THEY love.
We can't make someone love us. We can't make someone continue to love us, but we can work on our own heart and our love for others.
Notebook Question: In what ways can you make sure your love never fails?
The rest of the verse deals mainly with spiritual gifts.
Spiritual gifts are a broad topic in and of themselves. One could spend a week or more just talking about them (but don't worry-- I won't--- yet ;) )
There are 7 'big' gifts-- but there are also other gifts that aren't included here. These are just some examples of spiritual gifts: Prophecy, Ministry, Teaching, Exhortation, Giving, Leading, and Compassion.
Notebook Question: What spiritual gift(s) do you have? Which ones do you wish you had? (if you had a choice)
Here on earth, spiritual gifts are used for the church. They are used to build up, strenghten and serve fellow Christians.
All of the spiritual gifts are parts of a whole body of Christ. No one person has all of them because we have to learn how to use the gifts, lean on, and serve others.
But when Jesus comes back, all of the spiritual gifts will be done away with because they won't be needed any more. The church will be complete.
I have never really thought about it before, but my study Bible made a great point, "Based on that perspective, let us treat each other with the same love and unity that we will one day share."
One day, we will all have to live with each other anyway so we might as well start getting the hang of it now.
In the end, all we are left with is our souls and the love in our hearts.
Notebook Question: What do you think of when you hear "Love lasts forever"?
Next week, we will learn about the next verse: When I was a child, I spake as a child. I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.
Notebook Question: Write down that verse in your own words.
Verses for Next Week
Tuesday~ Psalm 131:2
Wednesday~ Ephesians 5:31
Thursday~ 2 Corinthians 4:18
Friday~ 2 Corinthians 5:16-17
Saturday~ 1 Corinthians 13:11
Much Love, Kelly