1 Corinthians 13 Round Two: A Description of God

What if the famous “love chapter” is more than a wedding reading and actually a portrait of God’s own character? We walk through 1 Corinthians 13 with fresh eyes, set against the backdrop of Corinth’s messy church life, to show why love isn’t a soft slogan but the strongest mark of Christian maturity. When Paul says love is patient and kind, he’s not listing optional virtues; he’s describing how God loves and how we grow to look like Jesus in real relationships.

We unpack the tension many feel between spiritual gifts, public impact, and private character. Paul lifts the veil: without love, even prophecy, knowledge, and sacrificial acts are just noise. That flips the definition of success from achievement to becoming—becoming people who refuse to keep score, who rejoice with the truth, and who don’t give up when it gets hard. We also tackle the popular misread of “God is love,” clarifying that God defines love, not our desires. Love without truth drifts into permissiveness; truth without love turns brittle. Scripture binds them together.

You’ll hear the entire chapter read aloud, then we draw out practical next steps: how to choose patience in conflict, show kindness when it costs you, and speak truth that heals instead of hurts. We highlight Paul’s time horizon too—gifts are for a partial season, but love lasts forever—so maturity means growing beyond childish reactions toward a steady, hopeful presence. By the end, you’ll see why faith and hope matter, yet love stands as the greatest: it looks like God, lasts into eternity, and transforms how we treat people today.

If this encouraged you, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs fresh courage, and leave a quick review so more people can find the Bible Breakdown. What part of 1 Corinthians 13 challenged you most?

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Stage
• 0:20 Rethinking The Love Chapter
• 1:00 Community Updates And CTA
• 1:25 Corinth’s Problems And Paul’s Counsel
• 2:45 Gifts, Power, And Their Purpose
• 3:15 God Is Love Properly Understood
• 4:50 Reading 1 Corinthians 13 Aloud
• 7:00 What Truly Lasts And Why
• 8:00 Practical Ways To Show Christlike Love
• 9:10 Prayer And Closing Encouragement

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. Every day, we take one chapter of the Bible, dig deeper, and discover that the more we dig, the more we find. You can find out more at the BibleBreakdown.com. Now let's grow in God's Word together. Well, everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, 1 Corinthians chapter 13. And I want to give this one a little bit of a different title. We're going to call it a description of God. A description of God. Well, I don't know if you've ever been to a wedding before, but I've been to several weddings and I've had the honor of being part of several weddings, and it's always a wonderful, wonderful honor to do. And a lot of times you will hear this chapter being read. 1 Corinthians 13 is universally thought of as the love chapter, right? The love boat chapter. This is all about what love is and what love isn't. And that's true. It is. But I want to give you a different way to think about it today that I hope will bring some fresh perspective to this chapter. And we're going to get into that in just a moment. But as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share, and subscribe to the YouTube channel. Say it with me. Leave us a five-star review on the podcast. Absolutely. And don't forget to go to the Bible breakdown discussion, discussion on the Facebook group. Man, they're doing an amazing job over there. And I'm I'm curious to see what they do with this chapter because they're always doing amazing things. Man, the more we dig, the more we find. And they are just so awesome. And so if you want to get out your Bible, turn it to 1 Corinthians chapter 13, I want to give you kind of a different perspective on this. Paul, as we were saying, is he's writing to the church in Corinth that is like the church in Corinth is like the Las Vegas of first century Rome. Port town, all kinds of fun stuff. And all of these people are coming together from diverse backgrounds, these different areas, and they're coming together and trying to find a way to do life together. And he's hearing these murmurings of division in paradise. There's all these things going on. So Paul's kind of doing some family therapy with this church. And he starts off saying, Man, we're going to rally around God. And then he says, I'm a spiritual father, so I got permission to go here. And then he just starts tearing them up. Listen, guys, y'all got to stop being so crazy up in here. And he gets on to them. Some some dude is having uh is sleeping with his stepmother, which is ridiculous. And then he's saying, You got to stop living for yourself. You got to start living for each other. And then he said, Man, folks are going and they are having a meal out of communion. Stop it, you know? And then yesterday, got a little, got a little, a little spicy, a little different, talking about the gifts of the spirit in order for us to then do ministry together. And I think that's really awesome for some of you who are responding to that and just saying, you know what? I'm going to pray and see if God will use me in a spiritual gift. Because remember, the gift is not the miracle, it's the Holy Spirit within us that's the miracle. And I love the idea of having being empowered by God to make a difference together. Well, the next chapter, today's chapter, chapter 13, is universally known as what love looks like. But I want to give you an idea. The Bible says in 1 John, and if you've ever been in an uncomfortable conversation with a progressive Christian, they will say, Well, God is love. And actually they they misquote it and they say, Well, love is love. And what they think that means is, is since God is love, whatever I love, God must love. And so I can do whatever I want. This is logical fallacy that's just ridiculous. But they love that verse. God is love, which therefore, you know, that that just means we should just love everything. That's not true. What that means is, is if you want to know what love is, love is literally a characteristic of God. So if you want to know what love is, figure out who God is. If you figure out who God is, then you'll know what love is. Does that make sense? So, you know, we we have to look at it the other way around. I got to find God. And when I find out God's nature and God's character, that will teach me what love is. And so what this chapter is all about is this chapter is defining what love is. And so this chapter is in that same pattern, is helping us understand the character and the nature of God. Paul is saying, remember he said before, follow me as I follow Christ. So he's saying, as I'm following Christ, these are the characteristics I'm learning to live by. And now I'm passing them off to you. So as we read this today, it's a beautiful chapter. We're going to read the whole thing straight through. But as we do, don't think of it just as this is what I would love to receive from somebody or this is what I ought to be doing. But this is who God is. This is the nature and character of God. God is love. So if I figure out who God is and I know what love is, well, when they're describing love, this is God's character. Let's read it together. You ready? Chapter one, or chapter 13, verse 1 says this. If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn't love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clinging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I could if I understood all of God's secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had faith that I could move mountains, but didn't love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I had to the poor, and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it, but if I didn't love others, I would have gained nothing. In other words, he's saying, I could do all these great things, but if I didn't have the nature and character of Christ, what did I really get? And this is what it is. You know, you know who God is? Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It doesn't demand its own way. It is not irrational uh irritable, it keeps no records of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice, but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up. Love never loses faith, is always hopeful and endures through every circumstance. Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge, it 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. When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror. But then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete. But then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. Three things will last forever faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. What Paul is saying is the most important thing is not that we become this or become that or do this or do that. Success is not what you achieve. The greatest of success is what you become. And the goal of life is to become more and more like Christ every day. God is love. And so as become more like Christ every day, that becoming teaches us to love more and more and more. And he's saying that all these other things are great. But if we don't have the character of Christ, we don't have love, then at the end of the day, what does it really matter? And so I want to encourage you today to not think about how you can get ahead in life. There's nothing wrong with doing the best you can and all of that, but think instead today about how you can show love to someone more. How can you show the character and nature of Christ to someone today? Maybe that is through serving someone. Maybe it's through a text message, maybe it's through a phone call. If Jesus were speaking to them, how would he speak today? Would he encourage them? Would he challenge them? What would he do? And then you have the nature and character of Christ encourage them today and see what God will do. Let's pray. Father, thank you for today. Thank you, Lord, that you love us completely. Your love is complete, your love is faithful, your love is true. I pray today, God, that we will take a next step in you, that we will show love to somebody, which is the character and nature of what you have done for us. And as we love more, we see you more. And as we see you more, we love more. And three things that will remain faith, hope, and love. I pray you'll increase all of those in our lives today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, family therapy session over. I cannot wait for tomorrow. It's gonna get crazy up in here. But for now, first Corinthians 10, verse 31 says this whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all for the glory of God. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow. You better get ready for 1 Corinthians 14.