Love is the gift of the Holy Spirit: (13:4-7):
Paul shifts his focus on the attributes of love and from an expression of 3rd person to 1st person. Some scholars have expressed them as the fruit of the Spirit and others have said them as the attributes of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our contemporary definition of love is that it is an emotion or a feeling viz.we love our jobs, we love football, we love pizza. In the biblical definition, Love is agape, love acts, for love is an action, not an emotion. God’s gift of Himself in Jesus Christ is the perfect Agape Love. If we look at these verses and substitute “Christ” for “love” all these statements will still be true. The kind of love being described is love that has its source in God, and as we look at each of the phrases it becomes obvious that we’re defining a lifestyle that really is beyond our human reach. It is absolutely impossible unless we abide in Christ and ask Him to live His supernatural love in and through us. He will not only give us the gift of His eternal love, but He will allow us to love the way God intended.
There are 14-qualities we can see in here .They are:
- Love is patient:
Patience (i.e. Greek word “makrothymia”) is the capacity to be wronged and not retaliate. The Corinthian church had many members who have done wrongs, they had even lawsuits (1 Cor. 6:8). The response of love to these wrongs would be to display goodness.
- Love is kind:
Patience must be accompanied by an action of goodness toward the other persons. Kindness does not mean giving alms to everyone whatever they want. In the context of the church, kindness may mean allowing a person to go through the difficulties so that he may learn. Kindness may mean saying “no” to a spoiled child. It may mean reporting a crime committed by a friend. Kindness also means to withhold what harms others, as well as give what heals.
- Love does not envy:
Envy or Jealousy implies being displeased with the success of others. But true love desires the success of others. The best way to cure envy is to pray sincerely for the one of whom you are jealous. To pray for him or her is to demonstrate love. Jealousy and love cannot exist in the same heart.
- Love does not boast nor be proud:
Love is not an egoistic feeling. Here love is not big-headed but big-hearted. This means the more loving we become, the less boasting we need to do. The greater our spiritual gifts, the less prone we should be to brag. After all, the gifts we have been graciously given by God. When we brag, we are demonstrating our insecurity and spiritual immaturity. Paul states that bragging is the converse of biblical love. Hence, we should pursue Christ so that we will be humble before Him and others.
- Love is not rude:
There are some Christians who seem to take delight in being blunt, justifying it on the grounds of honesty. They will say, “I’m just telling it like it is.” But love doesn’t always tell it like this. Love doesn’t always verbalize all its thoughts, particularly if those thoughts don’t build others up. There is a graciousness in love which never forgets that courtesy, tact, and politeness.
- Love is not self-seeking:
Love does not seek its own. Love is the antithesis of insisting upon one’s own rights. But in our present society there is more of self-seeking and is even advocated. If we go to any bookstore we can see book-titles like, Winning Through Intimidation, Looking out for Number One, or Creative Aggression, How to win over others etc. But Agape love is not like this. It is not possessive, demanding, stubborn, or dominating. Love does not talk too much of self, but listens to others. Love does not insist on its own way.
- Love is not easily angered or short-tempered:
Love is not provoked. Love is not given to emotional outbursts, is not exasperated by petty annoyances, and refuses to let someone else get under one’s skin. But, we say, when someone else provokes me, it’s not my fault. Yes it is. We don’t have to get irritated, and if we were exercising love, we wouldn’t.
- Love keeps no record of wrongs:
Love does not take into account the wrongly suffered events. Paul uses the normal word here for bookkeeping. Love does not keep a ledger of evil deeds. It doesn’t write down each injury done and keep the account open to be settled someday. There are many people who are bookkeepers in regard to injuries sustained. Love doesn’t hang on to reminders of wrongs. When God says that He does not remember our sins, who are we to keep a book on? Are there some ledgers we need to go home and toss in the fireplace?
- Love does not delight in evil:
Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness. There is something in our human nature which causes our attention to be drawn to murder trials, FBI and CID probes, natural disasters, and human tragedies. Love is not like that. Love takes no joy in evil of any kind. It takes no malicious pleasure when it hears about the inadequacies, mistakes, and sins of someone else. Love is righteous.
- Love rejoices with the truth:
Love rejoices with the truth. Love must make our truth compassionate and forgiving.