Love Is Patient: What Scripture Teaches About Emotional Maturity
1 Corinthians 13 is known as the Love Chapter, and in it, Paul provides an exposition on how love leads to emotional maturity. Paul doesn’t pull any punches in this chapter, so if you thought you’d perfected your love walk, you might want to rethink that by studying this scripture passage, as it takes you on a path of spiritual enlightenment through scripture.
First Corinthians 13 is part of a letter in which Paul addresses church issues, carnality, and the resurrection. He takes the time to bring clarity to the subject of love. The Greek word agape is translated charity in the KJV because the translators chose to emphasize the Roman Catholic Church’s doctrine on works. However, agape, in Greek, means love.
What Love is Not
In verses 1-3, Paul begins by contrasting love with what it’s not. One thing is clear: love is not hypocritical. Paul says that even if he were to speak in earthly and heavenly languages and operate in all the spiritual gifts, without love, he’d have nothing. Going from scripture to scripture, he says if he gave up his earthly possessions to feed the poor and even willingly became a martyr, it all would mean nothing if he didn’t have love.
Emotional maturity can’t be mixed with hypocrisy. Paul teaches that love is not based on fleshly acts, but it’s a transformative, inner work that affects the lives of those who have it. Nothing that believers do should be done outside of love. Even though faith is the key to accessing spiritual things, Galatians 5:6 says faith works by love.
What Love Is
If you were asked to define love, you might use romantic terms like “passionate” or “intense.” But love is deeper than mere feelings dependent on outside circumstances. For instance, if your love is dependent on how you’re treated or how you’re loved in return, you’re missing the mark. In verse 4, the word “suffereth” is contemptible in the eyes of many, but love, Paul says, involves suffering.
In this scripture, suffering means endurance, which can feel like suffering if it lasts long enough. Continuing in verse 4, not only does love endure, but it endures with kindness. It’s one thing to endure, but to do it with a smile on your face and kind words is required. Love doesn’t envy what others have and is not arrogant or egotistical.
In other words, love has no narcissistic tendencies. Instead of being overly absorbed with oneself without any concern for others, those who walk in love take the opposite position and actually care about others.
What Love Does
Love’s actions are also explained by what they are not. In verse 5, love doesn’t get mad and fly off the handle, curse people out, or look to start fights. Love is always calm and well-behaved. It remains peaceful in a world that’s topsy-turvy. Love doesn’t always put self first. Rather, love shows compassion for others.
It delights in seeing others succeed. According to this scripture, love isn’t easily drawn into arguments and debates. Opportunities will present themselves, but emotional maturity prevails. Love remains self-composed. Love also doesn’t entertain evil thoughts.
More on Love
Verses 6-8 show that love not only loves truth, but it rejoices in it. While hating sin, love takes pleasure in God’s word, because scripture says God’s word is truth. Again, love endures or is long-suffering in all things. Love is a positive emotion, so it believes and hopes for the best in others.
Lastly, love never fails. The Bible says God is love, so there is no failure in God. Since God is love, love flows from God unto us, and His love in us doesn’t quit or throw in the towel.
Final Thoughts on Love
So Paul slaps us into reality, albeit gently, with what love actually is. Love is incomparable to any manmade explanation. It far surpasses earthly ideas or characterizations of what love should be. This enduring love leads to emotional maturity for those who choose to walk in the love taught in the Love Chapter.
