What is Love?" by Kathryn Kuhlman part 1 of her "1 Corinthians 13 Series"

Well, today for just a few minutes we're going to have a good heart to heart talk. And I want you to turn to the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians. You know it well. And it's one of my favorite portions of God's word. From the standpoint of literature, this is one of the most remarkable passages that ever came from the pen of man. And something I want you to see at the very beginning, that is the fact that there's a very close connection between the last verse of the 12th chapter of 1 Corinthians and the first clause of the 13th chapter. Desire earnestly the greater gifts. Then he goes on. And the most excellent way shall I unto you. Then in that 14th chapter, the first verse, he continues by saying, follow after love. And the words follow after love contain a declaration of what is the most excellent way. In other words, when he says, but I show you a more excellent way. And what is the answer? Follow after love. Paul is showing them directly how to follow after love. He's not only telling them to follow after love, but he continues by showing them how to follow after love. And he takes time in this chapter to show what love really is. You know, I do not believe there ever was a generation that talked more about love and knows so little about real love. Thousands of people are talking about love. Thousands of words are being written on the subject of love. It seems that everybody's talking about love, but nobody really knows what love is all about. You know? How do I know? Because so many people are talking about love, and yet I do not believe that there ever lived a generation where there was so much hate as we have in the world today. We're talking about one thing and we're demonstrating another. I think the time has come that we go to the Word of God and see what love really is. Now, this chapter is characterized by poetic beauty, at the same time, scientific analysis. One is almost reluctant to even use the word analysis when it comes to this beautiful chapter of love. It almost seems a sacrilege to try to analyze this chapter. I've read this whole chapter over and over again, all alone. I like to be alone. When I read this chapter, it's so rich, it's full of beauty, and yet it's so marvelous in technique. One is almost reluctant to tear it to pieces. And when I think of analyzing this chapter, I almost feel like perhaps it's a sacrilege to pick a flower to pieces is to kill it. You see a beautiful rose. Oh, it's so beautiful. And if you were to pluck that rose and begin to take it apart, petal at a time, you find that you've destroyed that rose. Anyone can destroy the beauty of a flower. Anyone can kill a flower by peeing it apart. To deal with this chapter from the standpoint of examination and analyzing it is almost like picking a rose to pieces, petal by petal, trying to peer into its hidden beauties. I could never put it together again. But perhaps if we analyze the chapter, the chapter will be there when we've finished and we cannot do any real violence to it, not really. And so we'll look at it from that standpoint. Now there are three movements in this chapter on love. And that's exactly what it is. And I pray that before you and I will have finished this little heart to heart talk, we'll have a little better understanding of what real love is and how to attain it. First, Paul shows the values of love in the first three verses. Then, for lack of a better term, he shows the virtues of love in verses seven and then ending everything with the victories of love from the eighth to the thirteenth verses. Look first at these verses concerning the values of love. He shows that love is the strength of service in verse one. Oh, and that's true. I want you to know that love is the strength of service. That is one reason you know that there's many a person has a nervous breakdown and they say it's because of hard work. No, beloved, one will never have a breakdown from hard work. If there's love in that hard work, you'll never have a nervous breakdown, never. I do not expect to have a nervous breakdown. I could die of a thousand things and 10,000 things could happen to Catherine Kuhlman. I'm not immune to sickness, even though I believe in divine healing and I believe in the keeping power of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet, I'm human. I'm still an old physical body. 10,000 things could happen to me because I'm a part of humanity. I'm a human being. I'm still in an old body of flesh. I'm not immune to sickness. I'm well aware of the fact that many, many things could happen to me. But one thing I'm dead sure of and that is I'll never have a nervous breakdown. And yet, on the surface of the thing, there are those who would say that the thing that would be most likely to happen to Catherine Kuhlman would be that she would have a nervous breakdown. Because constantly I'm dealing with thousands and thousands of people. I get very little rest. I get very little sleep. In the natural, anyone analyzing the things that I do day after day and week after week would say I would be the very first person who would have a nervous breakdown. I never will. You say why are you so sure of it? Because there is love in what I'm doing. There is love in my service for humanity. There is love in the burden that I carry. I do it because I love the Lord Jesus Christ with all my heart. I do it because I love you. I love you. I'm not doing what I'm doing because I'm made to do it, because I'm forced to do it. If I had to do what I'm doing, if I was forced, if there was some pressure on me, if there was somebody with an iron hand forcing me to work 16, 18 hours a day, if I was being forced to go on four hours of sleep a night, if I was being forced to work the long hours that I do, then I would agree with you. In six months I could easily have a nervous breakdown. I'm not forced to. It's love that motivates me to do these things. Do you understand? There'll be thousands who will live and die and never understand what I'm talking about. It's just like that. If love motivates what you're doing in the home, it makes all the difference in the world. Am I getting through to you? Read the Word. That's exactly what Paul's trying to show here, these wonderful values that one finds in love. The first thing that he shows is that love is the strength of service. Love gives you the strength, supernatural strength, to do the thing that you cannot do. You say it is impossible for the natural man to do these things. But if love is behind it because there is strength in love, go a little deeper, then that love is the energy of equipment. It's there in chapter two. And that love is the dynamic of devotion in verse three. Therefore, his whole argument is to show the values of love. And he does so by declaring that all these wonderful things that he names are utterly valueless when love is absent. This is the kind of love the world knows nothing about. This is the kind of love that millions of people who are talking about love know nothing about. Love gives. You cannot love without giving. Love works. You cannot love without working. You cannot love without giving, without working, without doing. Love does. Love doesn't just sit and say, put it in my pocket. Give it to me. Do it for me. No. Love is something one does. Look at these values. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, pause a moment. Look at the satire of it. I am become sounding brass or a clanging symbol. You can hardly read that without giving an emphasis that reminds one of the sound of brass. And Paul says, if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, what does it all amount to anyway? Nothing but just a lot of noise. And who likes noise? Just noise. It accomplishes nothing. Just a lot of noise. Noise. That's all. A moron can make noise. It doesn't take a brilliant mind to make noise. It doesn't take intellect. It doesn't take thought to make noise. Anybody can make noise. I can make a noise. I am not eloquent. But what is it all about? Nothing. Just sounding brass, clanging symbol. But if there is no love behind my speech, then what am I? I am an instrument like brass or a symbol without personality, nothing, emptiness, void of power. Love is the power of speech. And if it is absent, if love is absent in my speech, though one have the eloquence of a man or of an angel, we're only making a noise. And the amazing thing is that the hour has come when it is very easy to detect love in even one's speech. Think about it. Love is the power of speech, and if it's absent, though one have the eloquence of a man or of an angel, we're only making a noise. Oh, there's a fine satire in Paul's word. It is more eloquent than anything that anyone could possibly say or add to. That is what it comes to. We are nothing but a big noise. And there is an awful lot of big noise in the world today. We're talking about something we know nothing about, and few are practicing it. If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but have not loved, Paul says, I am nothing. Now remember something. The gift of prophecy of both telling the things of God, mark it well, and the gift of knowledge of all the gifts. I believe that I personally would covet the gift of knowledge more than any other gift. But he continues by saying, and though I have the gift of knowledge, I could understand all the mysteries and have not loved if I have faith so that I could remove mountains and have not loved. I am nothing. He just stopped there. He continues, if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, all of my goods, everything, if you are a multimillionaire and you were to give every dollar of your millions, the giving away of everything to feed the poor, a fine thing to do. But if I do that, and if my conviction carries me so far that I would even give my body to be burned and have not loved, it profits me nothing. Absolutely nothing. That's the purpose behind your giving to the poor. It's the purpose and the motive behind that which you are doing. If you are giving your gifts to be seen and not out of love, you really haven't done a thing. Though you would give your body to be burned and you did it just for publicity sake, just to be lauded as a martyr, you might just as well have lived. You have done nothing. We talk much about love, but few understand the real meaning of love. We need to come back again to the word of God.