< 1 Corinthians 13 >

God is love and he requires us to love. His first commandment is that we love him with all our being, and the second is that we love our neighbour as ourselves. This love, defined in our reading today and translated “charity”, is not the love of popular song but selfless devotion to others, seeking their welfare, free from evil and iniquity, rejoicing in the truth, and motivated by faith and hope in God’s promises. It is only by learning God’s truth from his word that we may manifest this love in our lives.

The first disciples of Christ were commanded to love but they were also given spiritual gifts enabling them to perform extraordinary works such as healing and speaking in foreign languages they had never learned to preach the gospel to strangers. These powers, however, would in due course be withdrawn so today no-one has any of these spiritual gifts. Nevertheless, we can all have those which still remain: faith, hope, and charity - but the greatest of these is charity. Faith is belief that God will perform his promises; hope is the eager anticipation of their fulfilment; and love is the virtue which will cover a multitude of sins and which God has shown to us in the sacrifice of his beloved Son (John 3:16).John 3:16XWaiting for response

Paul is writing about the followers of Christ having the Holy Spirit. Only some of them had the Holy Spirit so they only had it in part. This meant only some of them had knowledge of how to conduct themselves within Christ’s law which was different to the law of Moses. Others had to go to them and ask them.

The word translated “perfect” in v.101 Corinthians 13:10XWaiting for response could be translated “mature”. This verse shows that once the followers of Christ knew his law, there would be no need for the Holy Spirit. We are in a similar position today where there is no need for the Holy Spirit because we can all learn about Christ through the Bible.