1 Corinthians 13:8-18 A Dim Mirror
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: March 23, 2020 1 Corinthians 13:8-13
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
(Understanding the Text) There will come a time when we no longer need prophecies. Prophecies are messages given from God to a human who then transmits it to the specific human or group. When sin is dealt with, everyone will be able to get their messages from God directly. There will be no more communication barriers between God and humans. Languages separate us. The time will come when we will all speak the same language, or if not, we will all understand every language. There will be no barriers to communication between humans. These two ideas are about communication between God and man. Paul says that the day will come when we can communicate freely and without any hindrances with everyone, so that there will be no more need for these gifts of the Spirit that are meant to facilitate communication.
Knowledge refers to the gift that lets us know things without any way to know them. For example, we know that Joe is in trouble, and we need to call him even though there is no way that we could even suspect that he has problems. This is another method to facilitate communication. It is used to solve problems caused by sin. When there is no longer any sin, we will not need to have the gift of knowledge.
The point is that these Spiritual gifts are to make up for deficiencies we have in communicating with God and receiving His help. When the sin situation is resolved we will be able to have full communication with God and through our complete faith in Him, He will be able to support us at all times. Paul is saying that these gifts are necessary now because we are like children who need their support, but that the time will come when we grow out of our need for special help. The time will come when we are grown up and can think clearly and reason clearly and speak out of the clearness of our understanding. Paul also compares our lives now to seeing dimly through a mirror. (Back then, mirrors were not as clear as today, so this is really dim.) Even today’s mirrors are two-dimensional and are not able to show us depth. Paul says that the time will come when we will be able to see everything clearly and be seen clearly ourselves so that we do not need special gifts from the Spirit to do what should be basic abilities for every single person.
(Revelation of God) Paul says that of all the spiritual gifts, only three will remain with us after sin is gone: faith, hope, and love. Faith is trust in God. We will continue to build up each other’s faith in God as we praise Him together. Hope is having an optimistic view of the future. Since there will be nothing to hurt us and everything to enjoy and learn, hope will always be with us. Love is the basic rational of the kingdom of heaven. Everything else operates because of love. This is why love is the greatest of the three gifts.
(Application / Prayer) The Corinthians were more concerned about who was right than about each other. Whenever my opinions become more important than another person, I am acting out the same mistake that the Corinthians made, and I need to go to the same solution that Paul offers. He says that the first and last step is loving others. Then opinions will not matter so much. People will. I pray that I will always choose love over self and selfishness. I pray that I will never let my opinion and self-righteous intelligence interfere with loving others.