These Three Abide: Love
The Greatest of These
1 Corinthians 13 | Preston Smith, Youth Pastor | July 26, 2026
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
– 1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV
1. The Priority of Love
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 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. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
– 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 ESV
2. The Portrait of Love
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
– 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 ESV
3. The Predicament of Love
4. The Person of Love
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
– Romans 5:8 ESV
19 We love because he first loved us.
– 1 John 4:19 ESV
5. The Permanence of Love
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
– 1 Corinthians 13:8-10 ESV
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
– 1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV
