Valentine Love

It's the perfect time of year to make a family study of I Corinthians 13, which is a clear message about love, caring, and charity. BibleWise provides 14 lessons wrapped up in a Valentine hug!

By Caryl W. Krueger

Categories: Love

Valentine's Day is a perfect time to consider the Bible's First Corinthians 13 and its message on the importance of love/charity/caring. For you and your children age 5 and up, I've mapped out a little study plan for the first 14 days of February. But even if you start a bit late, you can still catch up, or just do it during the remainder of the month. I will be quoting from the "Good News Translation" (Zondervan Publishers), which is fairly similar to the King James Version (KJV).

February 1: v.1"I may be able to speak the languages of human beings and even of angels, but if I have no love, my speech is no more than a noisy gong or a clanging bell."

• Discuss the importance of speaking to one another in a polite and caring way - as if speaking to a loved one.
• Who wants to be a gong?

February 2: v.2 "I may have the gift of inspired preaching; I may have all knowledge and understand all secrets; I may have the faith needed to move mountains - but if I have no love, I am nothing."

• Where do we hear this kind of talking or boasting?
• Is it loving?
• Can one live without love?

February 3: v.3 "I may give away everything I have, and even give up my body to be burned - but if I have no love, this does me no good."

• Why is such a display false?
• Who had enough love to give up his body?
• What was the result?

February 4: v.4 "Love is patient and kind: it is not jealous or conceited or proud;"

• How can love be patient?
• How are jealous and proud people viewed by others?

February 5: v.5a ".....love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable;"

• What do we gain by being selfish? Irritable?
• What are bad manners?
• Are these necessary to today's fast living?

February 6: v.5b "..... love does not keep a record of wrongs;"

• Is it easy to remember what others have done wrong?
• How can one forget and forgive?
• Why would we want to clutter our thinking with others' mistakes?

February 7: v.6 "Love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth." The KJV says "Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;..."

• How often do we take pleasure/joy in evil, another's mistake, or when an enemy is revenged?
• Isn't this "rejoicing in evil" what fills most newspaper columns and TV news broadcasts - rather than stories of the truth?
• Is there anything we can do about it?

February 8: v.7 "Love never gives up; and its faith, hope, and patience never fail."

• What is an example of Love/God never failing or of Love never giving up?
• Is this enduring patience always the best way to act?

February 9: v.8 "Love is eternal. There are inspired messages, but they are temporary; there are gifts of speaking in strange tongues, but they will cease, there is knowledge, but it will pass."

• Think about the meaning of this as it ties in with tomorrow's quote.

February 10: v.9 and v.10 "but when what is perfect comes, then what is partial will disappear. For our gifts of knowledge and of inspired messages are only partial."

• How does "knowledge" change?
• What things formerly thought to be permanent, turned out to be temporary?
• What really IS permanent?

February 11: v.11 "When I was a child, my speech, feelings, and thinking were those of a child; now that I am an adult, I have no more use for childish ways,"

• Have you seen an example of this?
• Do you think that your speech, feelings, and thinking are totally adult now?

February 12: v.12a "What we see now is like a dim image in a mirror; then we shall see face to face." KJV says "we see through a glass darkly;"

• What does this have to do with what we know?

February 13: v.12b "What I know now is only partial, then it will be complete - as complete as God's knowledge of me."

• What is God's knowledge of each of us?
• Does it change or was it the same even when we doubted or had some problem? This is God's forever love of you -- which you reflect.

February 14: v.13 "Meanwhile these three remain: faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love."

• What are examples of our faith, hope, and love -- and examples of how we use God's love?
• How can we do better?

This is also a good time to tell your children and grandchildren how much you love them with a short personal note. Sometimes such a note is a "keeper" and a child will put it in the back of a drawer and pull it out to reread when feeling down.

Happy Valentine's Day!