1 Corinthians 13:2 English Standard Version (ESV) And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
Considering once again that this is the inspired word, let us find meaning in its inclusion.
Power, mysteries, knowledge and faith are all sought out by mankind. When the focus is to obtain any one of them or even all of them, we fail to focus on the one thing that makes them all have value, Christ.
Having been in a group of believers who made these their focal point I felt unloved when love was what I needed. All of us need God’s love. This is why 1 Corinthians 13 is so important. It demonstrates what love is by first telling us what love is not.
Focus on power, mysteries, knowledge and faith. What we will not see looking to them is the needs of the lost or our babes in Christ. What they seek and need is love not power, mysteries, knowledge or faith.
This is why Paul describes in the first 3 verses what love is not before stating the attributes of agape love, God’s perfect love.
3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,[that I may boast] but have not love, I gain nothing.
Christ is the gift, Christ is the sacrifice and to place the focus on us voids the love inside us.
This is perhaps the greater message of these first three verses that we can and do often act upon these things even though the love of Christ abides in us. The focal point has to be Christ and not ourselves.
God is love and Christ is the manifestation of agape love to a lost and dying world.
We cannot imagine how to let Him love through us if we do not recognize love’s characteristics.