All For Love by MOPS International

Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, 1 Corinthians 12:1-31, 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

DAY 1: Love is a Verb

Love is the most powerful force on the planet, and yet the concept almost seems cliché. We tell somebody we love them, and in the same breath we talk about how much we love a new podcast. Perhaps we’ve become so accustomed to the word that we’ve forgotten how revolutionary it is, how God’s love changes everything. It is life-altering, curse-lifting and, as shown in Christ’s resurrection, quite literally death-conquering. 

Most Christians know 1 Corinthians 13 as the “love” chapter, but to fully understand 1 Corinthians 13, we must start in 1 Corinthians 12. 

Around 54 A.D., the Apostle Paul wrote an eye-opening letter to the church in Corinth. He sent it to address problems in the church and answer questions the church leaders had about hot topics that are still being asked in the church today. Questions like: How do we deal with a sex-obsessed culture? When is divorce justified? How do we address people spreading rumors? 

In chapter 12, the Corinthians were busy comparing their contributions to the church and judging each other’s value based on each other’s gifts. Paul was admonishing the Corinthians that every part of the body is important and emphasizing the need for unity in the church. Paul lists the gifts and encourages believers to give their best. He ends chapter 12 with this: “And I will show you a still more excellent way.”  

Paul introduces his own hot topic for the church: As excellent as the gifts are, love is better. I may develop and use my gift to its fullest and God may still bless someone with my service, but if I don’t love people, the value of my gift is diminished. 

The Hebrew word for “gong” describes metal made of brass or copper mixed with tin – normally shaped into a drum that yields a hollow, echoing noise. The nonbelievers in Corinth were steeped in pagan religions and rituals. The people danced wildly under the influence of drugs and alcohol while pagan priests beat their metal drums louder and faster to increase the frenzy. When Paul compared the unloving spirit to a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal, the Corinthians could relate. They knew exactly what this empty worship sounded like because they heard the clamoring of it all day long.

Paul tells the people of Corinth, and us, that it is possible to be doing all the right things, but if our actions are void of love, those things lose their power. One interesting thing to note is that in the original Greek, most of Paul’s descriptions of love in practice are verbs. The noun “love” is a great word. It feels ethereal and conjures up all the good emotions, but Paul isn’t writing about lofty concepts or how love feels. The kind of love he is describing is not just talk, it is action.

Read I Corinthians 12 and 13.  (Read it aloud. It’s beautiful.) 

Based on what you’ve read in these two chapters, what is the more excellent way?

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

DAY 2: Jesus’ Love in Action

The kind of love Jesus’ offers is hard to imagine – because it is perfect, and we are not. The best way to understand each of the attributes listed in 1 Corinthians 13 is to see how they were lived out in the life of Jesus. Take each attribute and give an example of how Jesus lived it out. 

Love is patient. It is slow to anger. It navigates others’ imperfections and faults by giving them time to change. It provides space for others to remedy their mistakes without condemnation. Jesus is patient.

Love is kind. Rooted in a Greek word meaning useful, kindness strives to show love through being helpful in practical ways. Kindness motivates others toward positive change. Jesus is kind.

Love does not envy or boast. It does not want what others have. It does not try to impress others by bragging or exaggerating. It genuinely celebrates the success of others. Jesus does not envy or boast.

Love is not arrogant or rude. It does not needlessly offend. It is tactful, sensitive to others’ feelings, and is careful to communicate in ways others can hear. Love has good EQ. Jesus is not arrogant or rude.

Love does not insist on its own way. Love does not demand that it is always right. It is not selfish. It considers others’ ideas and has a teachable spirit. Jesus does not insist on his own way.

Love is not irritable or resentful. It does not have a temper and never makes others feel like they are walking on eggshells. It isn’t easily offended. It does not tally others’ mistakes or hold grudges. Love forgives. Jesus is not irritable or resentful.

Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. If someone you don’t like messes up, love doesn’t gloat. Love sensitively confronts sin and follows a biblical path of correction. It celebrates honesty, even if it’s difficult to hear. Jesus does not rejoice in wrongdoings but rejoices with the truth.

Love bears all things. The word for bears is sometimes translated to covers. Love protects. It doesn’t gossip or spread information about others. It never uses sarcasm or jokes to put others down. Love defends the character of others. Jesus bears all things.

Love believes all things. It is not suspicious. If there is an issue, love doesn’t immediately blame the other person. Love believes the other person is innocent until proven guilty. Jesus believes all things.

Love hopes for all things. It believes in hope. It isn’t pessimistic. Love refuses to take failure as final. It does not ignore reality but trusts that anything is possible with God. Jesus hopes for all things.

Love endures all things. It holds up under trial. The Greek word for endures is a military term meaning to sustain the assault of an enemy. Love perseveres. Jesus endures all things.

Scriptures: 2 Timothy 1:1-11, 1 John 4

DAY 3: Understanding What God Gave Us

The opposite of love is fear. Fear drives so many of our thoughts and decisions. It is a potent emotion that causes us to do and say things that are out of alignment with who we want to be. It causes us to act in anger. Fear can make us timid and preoccupied; it might control our thoughts and keep us up at night or hold us back from forming deep friendships because we are afraid of being vulnerable. Fear keeps us stuck, but perfect love casts out fear.

In 2 Timothy 1:1-11, Paul is talking to his disciple, Timothy. Our focus verse today is 2 Timothy 1:7: For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. 

Verse 8 begins with the word “therefore.” Therefore is our signal that the author is about to clarify something important, so we should pause and consider what came before in the light of what is coming next. 

Because of everything Paul said in the previous verses – because of Timothy’s sincere faith (v. 5), because of the gifts God has given and the task Timothy has been called to (v. 6), because we don’t have a spirit of fear, because we have power, love and self-control (v. 7) – do not be ashamed of the gospel (v. 8). 

Throughout this letter, we see Paul’s sense of urgency about the gospel, the Good News of Jesus.  Paul wanted to be sure that Timothy didn’t let anything get in the way of sharing the Good News. 

Do you feel that same sense of urgency to share the gospel with those around you? If not, what is slowing you down? For many of us, what gets in our way is fear. Paul addresses fear with Timothy in our focus verse. Let’s look at it word by word.   

• For God gave … What Paul is talking about were not things that Timothy was born with or that he earned. What Paul is mentioning are things given to us by God.  
• For God gave us … Paul wasn’t talking just to Timothy. He was talking to himself and to future believers. We have all felt fear and anxiety — all the things that slow us down and get in our way.   
• For God gave us a spirit not of fear … Timothy had a lot to fear. The political and spiritual climate was fraught with danger and hostility, but Paul reminds Timothy, and us, that we shouldn’t let that stop us. How often do we hesitate, or avoid, saying or doing the right thing because we are paralyzed by fear? We avoid the right thing because of what someone else may think or because we think we might fail. Fear is a normal human emotion, but this kind of fear isn’t from God. Keep reading, because God gave us something bigger than fear.   
• For God gave us a spirit not of fear but … The word “but” is a contrast word. Here, Paul is contrasting what God did not give us with what He did.  
• For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power … In Greek, the word for power is dunamis – where we get the English word dynamite. That is a lot of power! God grants us the power to carry out whatever He calls us to.    
• For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love … Without love, we are nothing but a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. In 1 John 4, John says, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear … We love because he first loved us.” In Greek, this type of love is called agape. Agape is not emotional or conditional. It is bold, sacrificial and constant. This type of love is illustrated in the life of Jesus, and we are called to give this type of love to others.    
• For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control … This does not mean that we, as Christians, should never struggle with anything like anxiety, nervousness, or failure. However, it does mean that we should not be slaves to our emotions. John MacArthur said, “God-given discipline allows believers to control every element of their lives, whether positive or negative. It allows them to experience success without becoming proud and to suffer failure without becoming bitter or hopeless. The disciplined life is the divinely ordered life, in which godly wisdom is applied to every situation.”   

Remember, none of this is innate. It’s not born within us; it is given to us by God. We are given power to be effective, love to have the right attitude toward others, and self-control to focus and live every part of our lives in a way that pleases God. 

CONSIDER THIS:   

• Do I have a sense of urgency to share the gospel with those around me? If not, what is slowing me down?   
• How has God shown me his power? What has he called me to?   
• When was the last time I showed bold, sacrificial love to someone else?   
• Would I describe myself as self-controlled? If not, how can I adjust my priorities to move closer to that?

Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 13:8-13, Matthew 22:36-40

DAY 4: Learning to Love

Author Brennan Manning brilliantly wrote, “The litmus test of our love for God is our love for our neighbor.” Love is sobering because it asks us to care for all people; even our enemies are made in the image of God and are worthy of dignity and respect. Loving our enemies is not an endorsement of what they do, it is an affirmation of who they are — God’s beloved. 

What is something that you thought you understood when you were younger but you understand better now? 

I was a perfect parent, until I had children. I would watch mothers out in the world and think, “I’ll never do THAT. My child will never behave like THAT. My children will never dress like THAT.” I vividly remember the day I plodded through the snow to the grocery store with a tantruming three-year-old dressed in cowboy boots, swim trunks, and a batman cape. Boy, did I have a lot to learn. 

As we grow up and learn adult lessons, we give up childish things (most of them, anyway). And as we grow, we learn new things about love. We learn that love can be risky, difficult and frustrating. But we also learn what real love is – that it is more than just sharing your cotton candy or letting the new girl in town play Barbies with you (although that’s a start, and we would do well to remember that sharing is indeed caring.)  

1 Corinthians 13:12 says, “Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”

Right now we don’t see the whole of life clearly, our knowledge is partial. And because of that, the way we love is partial and imperfect. But this verse is comforting to us, as people who follow Jesus, because it reminds us that even though our knowledge is partial, we are fully known and therefore fully loved. We are loved by the only one who can love perfectly. He is the only one whose love never fails. While we can’t love perfectly, we can still love boldly, in fact, we are commanded to – in what Jesus called the “second most important commandment.” 

The Jewish religion has hundreds of laws and devout Jews work hard to follow them all. In the book of Matthew, the Jewish leaders were arguing over which commandment, which law, was the most important. In Matthew 22:36-40, a Jewish leader – a lawyer – asks:

‘“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 

And He said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” – Matthew 22:36-40.

This was a challenging concept for the Jewish leaders to grasp, primarily because love is harder to measure than their laws about being circumcised or keeping the Sabbath holy. The question became, “How do we fulfill the commandment?” We won’t do it perfectly, but if we follow the greatest commandment of loving God with all our heart, soul and mind we will be a lot closer than if we don’t. 

CONSIDER THIS:  

• What does it mean to love God with all my heart?       
• What does it mean to love God with all my soul?       
• What does it mean to love God with all my mind?    
• What can I do today to love my neighbor?

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 16:14

DAY 5: Where Legacy is Born

Your legacy is what people remember when you leave a place. Whether that place is your kid’s room at bedtime, your house each morning, or this earth. It’s the stories your great-great grandkids will hear about you. Here is why this is so important: Love is contagious not just from person-to-person but also from generation to generation. It might be maddening to think about “leaving a legacy” when the little ones around you demand every ounce of your energy, but sometimes it is essential to look a little farther out, decide how you want to be remembered and what matters most to you, and take small intentional steps to make it happen. It’s asking the question, “If I want love to be my legacy, how do I want to live today?” 

It doesn’t have to be anything big; in fact, it usually starts in small ways. Clean up your home in love. Prepare dinner in love. Do your work in love. Play with LEGOs in love. Doing everything in love becomes a little more challenging with the harder aspects of daily life: Move through a traffic jam in love. Strongly disagree with someone in love. Discipline your kids in love, resolve conflict in love, engage in social media in love.

“Let all that you do be done in love.“ – 1 Corinthians 16:14

In 1 Corinthians, Paul is giving the Corinthian church instructions on how they should act. In 1 Corinthians 16:14 Paul reminds the Corinthians of what the motivation behind their actions should be. Who we are on a consistent basis is how we will be remembered, and who we are on a consistent basis is driven by what is in our heart.

The first time I was asked what I wanted my legacy to be, I had no idea. A legacy felt like something I should think about much later on in life. It felt huge, overwhelming and not entirely necessary to consider. But we all leave a legacy – whether we think about it or not, so we might as well think about it now. Being intentional about what we want to do during our life could change our family for the better. It could help others find a better way to live. It could change the world, or at least our corner of it. 

Thinking through your legacy doesn’t have to be a grandiose concept, start with what matters to you. 

Make a legacy list. What are some words you’d like others to use to describe you?  

• As a follower of Jesus:  
• As a parent:  
• As a friend:   
• As a leader:

Now, put those words into a statement. There are a lot of things we should do, and those are an important part of our legacy, but don’t stop there. Think about the things you really want to do.   

• What impact do you want to have?    
• What would you need to do in order for that to happen?   
• Think about others that have inspired similar change. What did they do?  

Our legacy is made up of all the moments of our story and it might seem daunting to consider that we are constantly working on our legacy. There are some chapters of our story that we would rather no one know about, but we have to remember that the only one with a perfect story is Jesus. Even though our stories are not perfect, they can still add up to a powerful legacy. Here is the good news – we have the Holy Spirit helping us live a story and leave a legacy that points to God. 

CONSIDER THIS:   

• What small steps can I take toward leaving the kind of legacy I want – motivated by love and spurred on by the Holy Spirit? 

These small moments … this is where my legacy is born.

Scriptures: Acts 1:8, Philippians 4:13, 2 Peter 1:3, Colossians 3:12-14, Romans 5:8, 1 Peter 4:8, Psalms 78:4, Deuteronomy 6:5-7

DAY 6: What the Bible Says About Power, Love and Legacy

When we want to learn how to live like Jesus, then we need to study the scriptures He gave us. Today we will spend time looking at what else scripture has to say about power, love, and legacy. As you read, notice what words or phrases spur you to put love into action. 

POWER  

• Acts 1:8  
• Philippians 4:13  
• 2 Peter 1:3

LOVE  

• Colossians 3:12 -14  
• Romans 5:8  
• 1 Peter 4:8

LEGACY  

• Psalm 78:4  
• Deuteronomy 6:5-7

Scripture: John 13:34-35

DAY 7: Love is Our Logo

Love is how other people know we follow Jesus. It’s the thing that marks us as disciples. Like Jesus, who loved sacrificially, we are also called to extravagant love that costs us something. 

What we have learned during the pandemic is that a lack of community makes us fragile. It makes small things seem big, and big things seem insurmountable. Isolation and focusing on our own situation makes us fearful and self-absorbed. The best way forward is to widen our view, to focus on someone or something outside of our circumstances. Showing sacrificial love to others calms our mental chatter and provides perspective. 

I challenge you to embrace the transformative power of love, to the point where it starts to affect everything we do — the way we talk to our kids, interact with strangers, handle disappointments, celebrate victories, make decisions. When love floods into our lives, it all shifts. It results in less doom-scrolling, more conversation. Less comparison, more community. Less fear, more confidence. More over-the-top displays of compassion. More patience. More life in our souls. 

You see, love will save us. In fact, it already has, because love’s name is Jesus. 

CONSIDER THIS:   

• What do you want to be known for?   
• How will you show up for others?   
• What does living All For Love look like in practice? 

Write a prayer, committing yourself to wear love as your logo, no matter what.