Love That Endures

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.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:8-13
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Love That Endures
St. Paul contrasts the temporary nature of spiritual gifts with the enduring nature of love. Prophecies, tongues, and knowledge are blessings, but they are incomplete. These gifts will no longer be needed when Christ returns. Love, however, is eternal because it flows from God Himself (1 John 4:8). At the cross, Christ’s sacrificial love reveals its fullest expression. His death for our sins and His resurrection are the foundation of our hope. Just as love endures forever, so does the victory of the cross. In this life, we "see dimly," but in Christ, we are promised a future where we will see Him face to face (v. 12). Until then, we live in the enduring love of Christ, knowing that faith, hope, and love remain, and the greatest of these is love.