A Noisy Gong

A Noisy Gong

Q: According to 1 Corinthians 13, if you don’t have this, you will be like a noisy gong or clanging cymbal.

• a. patience
• b. love
• c. hope

The Bible is full of information to help us know how to live. Some passages of Scripture are more familiar than others. For example, most people have heard of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20. Psalm 23 is known as the Shepherd’s Psalm. Matthew 5–7 contains the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes.

Do you know what 1 Corinthians 13 is known as? It’s called the “love chapter.” That’s because Paul spends the whole chapter talking about the importance of love and the characteristics of true love. Many times this passage is read at church weddings.

God has given people spiritual gifts to help win others to him and to help other Christians grow, but Paul told the people at Corinth that without love those spiritual gifts are worth nothing. People might be excellent speakers, but without love they just sound like a noisy gong. The kind of love Paul was talking about was unselfish love given to others. Here’s what he says about it:

• Love is patient and kind.
• Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.
• It does not demand its own way.
• It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.
• It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
• Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

That kind of love is only possible if Jesus is in control of your life. Without love, all your good works and all your words might as well be a noisy gong.

For You

Read through the list of what 1 Corinthians 13 says about love. Is that the kind of love you show your family and friends? If not, work on loving others in an unselfish way this week.

Answer: b

If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.   1 Corinthians 13:1

(The Whole Story: 1 Corinthians 13)