4. 1 Corinthians 12 1 Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. 31 …And now I will show you the most excellent way. 1 Corinthians 14 1 Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy. 1 Corinthians 13

5. Being gifted is important Being successful in ministry is too But it is worthless without love 1 Corinthians 13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

6. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

7. Tongues Prophecy Knowledge Even faith Extreme generosity All of this service is empty without love

9. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.

10. Love is essential It is necessary It will always be needed

11. 8 …But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.

12. Love will outlast everything It will always be necessary 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

14. Matthew 22 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.

15. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

16. Paul, following the same theological stream of thought, says: Love fulfills the law Love sums up the Law Love is the fulfillment of the law

17. Romans 13 8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.

18. 9 The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

19. Scripture says that without love… We are empty We are machines We are existing but not living Without love we can’t fulfill the law A loveless Christian is an oxymoron A complete contradiction

21. Nothing else is as essential now and in the future as love Gifts Faith Hope Knowledge Prophecy The law

22. Love is essential When we are face to face with Christ we will still need to love We need to keep growing in love Love makes us more like Christ Without love we are truly lost