What’s inside
The Weeks
1Love Is Patient, Love Is Kind1 Corinthians 13:4›2Not Envious, Not Boastful, Not Proud1 Corinthians 13:4›Before you begin
Read the introduction
I like to look at life through the lens of Scripture. When you do, you start finding sermons everywhere. So one day I asked my wife to try it. A few days later we were driving down the freeway, and in front of us was a sketchy minivan with no license plates and one enormous ladder strapped to the roof. With one ratchet strap. Not even a good one.
You need to know two things about my wife. She hates ladders on the freeway; she’s convinced they’re trying to kill us. And she is a two-ratchet-strap kind of person. Maybe three. The ladder was pulling sideways against that one little strap. She wanted to get as far away from it as possible. I, of course, pulled in right behind it. I wanted her to feel the tingle.
She said, “We need to tell the church this story.” I asked what sermon she’d preach. “Oh, it’s simple. I’d tell the story, and then I’d say, Don’t do stupid stuff. Then I’d say, Go to lunch. And the best part is, they wouldn’t know if I was talking about you or the guy in the minivan.”
This study is a little longer than her sermon. But it’s the same idea.
For the next six weeks we’re going to live in one of the most familiar passages in the Bible. I want to ask you to do something hard: read it as if you’ve never read it before.
You’ve heard 1 Corinthians 13 at weddings. You may have it framed on a wall. But here’s what I’ve learned from teaching it: the descriptions in this chapter aren’t things we don’t understand. They’re things we refuse to do. This study is about doing them.
How this study works
Your Week
| When | What you’ll do |
|---|---|
| Monday–Thursday | About 25–30 minutes a day. Read the passage for yourself, then work through the questions. |
| Friday | Love on Purpose. A practical challenge with a real person, and a prayer. |
| Weekends | Off. Rest, and come to group ready to talk. |
| Group | Once a week, about 90 minutes. Bring this book. |
Three Kinds of Questions
A Few Helps
Use any translation you like. Quotations in this study are from the New International Version. You don’t need to know any Greek. Each week has one or two Greek words, explained simply, because in this chapter the Greek really matters: every description of love is a verb. Love is something you do.
This study goes with Love Intentionally, the book it grew out of. Each week points you to the matching chapters if you want to go further. They’re free at capitolcitystore.com/love-intentionally.
If you get behind, don’t quit. Come to group anyway.