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Well, today for just a few minutes we're going to have a good heart to heart talk.

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And I want you to turn to the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians.

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You know it well.

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And it's one of my favorite portions of God's word.

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From the standpoint of literature, this is one of the most remarkable passages that ever

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came from the pen of man.

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And something I want you to see at the very beginning, that is the fact that there's a

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very close connection between the last verse of the 12th chapter of 1 Corinthians and the

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first clause of the 13th chapter.

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Desire earnestly the greater gifts.

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Then he goes on.

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And the most excellent way shall I unto you.

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Then in that 14th chapter, the first verse, he continues by saying, follow after love.

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And the words follow after love contain a declaration of what is the most excellent way.

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In other words, when he says, but I show you a more excellent way.

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And what is the answer?

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Follow after love.

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Paul is showing them directly how to follow after love.

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He's not only telling them to follow after love, but he continues by showing them how

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to follow after love.

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And he takes time in this chapter to show what love really is.

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You know, I do not believe there ever was a generation that talked more about love and

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knows so little about real love.

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Thousands of people are talking about love.

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Thousands of words are being written on the subject of love.

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It seems that everybody's talking about love, but nobody really knows what love is all about.

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You know?

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How do I know?

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Because so many people are talking about love, and yet I do not believe that there ever lived

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a generation where there was so much hate as we have in the world today.

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We're talking about one thing and we're demonstrating another.

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I think the time has come that we go to the Word of God and see what love really is.

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Now, this chapter is characterized by poetic beauty, at the same time, scientific analysis.

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One is almost reluctant to even use the word analysis when it comes to this beautiful chapter

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of love.

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It almost seems a sacrilege to try to analyze this chapter.

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I've read this whole chapter over and over again, all alone.

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I like to be alone.

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When I read this chapter, it's so rich, it's full of beauty, and yet it's so marvelous in

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technique.

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One is almost reluctant to tear it to pieces.

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And when I think of analyzing this chapter, I almost feel like perhaps it's a sacrilege

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to pick a flower to pieces is to kill it.

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You see a beautiful rose.

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Oh, it's so beautiful.

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And if you were to pluck that rose and begin to take it apart, petal at a time, you find

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that you've destroyed that rose.

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Anyone can destroy the beauty of a flower.

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Anyone can kill a flower by peeing it apart.

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To deal with this chapter from the standpoint of examination and analyzing it is almost like

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picking a rose to pieces, petal by petal, trying to peer into its hidden beauties.

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I could never put it together again.

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But perhaps if we analyze the chapter, the chapter will be there when we've finished

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and we cannot do any real violence to it, not really.

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And so we'll look at it from that standpoint.

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Now there are three movements in this chapter on love.

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And that's exactly what it is.

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And I pray that before you and I will have finished this little heart to heart talk,

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we'll have a little better understanding of what real love is and how to attain it.

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First, Paul shows the values of love in the first three verses.

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Then, for lack of a better term, he shows the virtues of love in verses seven and then

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ending everything with the victories of love from the eighth to the thirteenth verses.

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Look first at these verses concerning the values of love.

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He shows that love is the strength of service in verse one.

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Oh, and that's true.

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I want you to know that love is the strength of service.

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That is one reason you know that there's many a person has a nervous breakdown and they

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say it's because of hard work.

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No, beloved, one will never have a breakdown from hard work.

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If there's love in that hard work, you'll never have a nervous breakdown, never.

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I do not expect to have a nervous breakdown.

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I could die of a thousand things and 10,000 things could happen to Catherine Kuhlman.

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I'm not immune to sickness, even though I believe in divine healing and I believe in

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the keeping power of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Yet, I'm human.

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I'm still an old physical body.

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10,000 things could happen to me because I'm a part of humanity.

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I'm a human being.

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I'm still in an old body of flesh.

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I'm not immune to sickness.

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I'm well aware of the fact that many, many things could happen to me.

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But one thing I'm dead sure of and that is I'll never have a nervous breakdown.

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And yet, on the surface of the thing, there are those who would say that the thing that

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would be most likely to happen to Catherine Kuhlman would be that she would have a nervous

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breakdown.

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Because constantly I'm dealing with thousands and thousands of people.

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I get very little rest.

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I get very little sleep.

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In the natural, anyone analyzing the things that I do day after day and week after week

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would say I would be the very first person who would have a nervous breakdown.

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I never will.

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You say why are you so sure of it?

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Because there is love in what I'm doing.

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There is love in my service for humanity.

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There is love in the burden that I carry.

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I do it because I love the Lord Jesus Christ with all my heart.

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I do it because I love you.

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I love you.

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I'm not doing what I'm doing because I'm made to do it, because I'm forced to do it.

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If I had to do what I'm doing, if I was forced, if there was some pressure on me, if there

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was somebody with an iron hand forcing me to work 16, 18 hours a day, if I was being

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forced to go on four hours of sleep a night, if I was being forced to work the long hours

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that I do, then I would agree with you.

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In six months I could easily have a nervous breakdown.

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I'm not forced to.

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It's love that motivates me to do these things.

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Do you understand?

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There'll be thousands who will live and die and never understand what I'm talking about.

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It's just like that.

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If love motivates what you're doing in the home, it makes all the difference in the world.

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Am I getting through to you?

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Read the Word.

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That's exactly what Paul's trying to show here, these wonderful values that one finds

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in love.

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The first thing that he shows is that love is the strength of service.

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Love gives you the strength, supernatural strength, to do the thing that you cannot

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do.

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You say it is impossible for the natural man to do these things.

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But if love is behind it because there is strength in love, go a little deeper, then

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that love is the energy of equipment.

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It's there in chapter two.

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And that love is the dynamic of devotion in verse three.

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Therefore, his whole argument is to show the values of love.

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And he does so by declaring that all these wonderful things that he names are utterly

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valueless when love is absent.

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This is the kind of love the world knows nothing about.

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This is the kind of love that millions of people who are talking about love know nothing

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about.

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Love gives.

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You cannot love without giving.

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Love works.

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You cannot love without working.

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You cannot love without giving, without working, without doing.

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Love does.

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Love doesn't just sit and say, put it in my pocket.

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Give it to me.

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Do it for me.

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No.

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Love is something one does.

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Look at these values.

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If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, pause a moment.

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Look at the satire of it.

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I am become sounding brass or a clanging symbol.

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You can hardly read that without giving an emphasis that reminds one of the sound of

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brass.

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And Paul says, if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, what does it all amount

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to anyway?

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Nothing but just a lot of noise.

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And who likes noise?

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Just noise.

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It accomplishes nothing.

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Just a lot of noise.

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Noise.

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That's all.

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A moron can make noise.

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It doesn't take a brilliant mind to make noise.

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It doesn't take intellect.

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It doesn't take thought to make noise.

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Anybody can make noise.

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I can make a noise.

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I am not eloquent.

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But what is it all about?

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Nothing.

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Just sounding brass, clanging symbol.

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But if there is no love behind my speech, then what am I?

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I am an instrument like brass or a symbol without personality, nothing, emptiness, void

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of power.

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Love is the power of speech.

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And if it is absent, if love is absent in my speech, though one have the eloquence of

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a man or of an angel, we're only making a noise.

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And the amazing thing is that the hour has come when it is very easy to detect love in

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even one's speech.

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Think about it.

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Love is the power of speech, and if it's absent, though one have the eloquence of a man or

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of an angel, we're only making a noise.

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Oh, there's a fine satire in Paul's word.

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It is more eloquent than anything that anyone could possibly say or add to.

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That is what it comes to.

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We are nothing but a big noise.

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And there is an awful lot of big noise in the world today.

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We're talking about something we know nothing about, and few are practicing it.

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If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have

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all faith so as to remove mountains but have not loved, Paul says, I am nothing.

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Now remember something.

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The gift of prophecy of both telling the things of God, mark it well, and the gift of knowledge

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of all the gifts.

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I believe that I personally would covet the gift of knowledge more than any other gift.

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But he continues by saying, and though I have the gift of knowledge, I could understand

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all the mysteries and have not loved if I have faith so that I could remove mountains

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and have not loved.

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I am nothing.

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He just stopped there.

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He continues, if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, all of my goods, everything,

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if you are a multimillionaire and you were to give every dollar of your millions, the

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giving away of everything to feed the poor, a fine thing to do.

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But if I do that, and if my conviction carries me so far that I would even give my body to

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be burned and have not loved, it profits me nothing.

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Absolutely nothing.

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That's the purpose behind your giving to the poor.

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It's the purpose and the motive behind that which you are doing.

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If you are giving your gifts to be seen and not out of love, you really haven't done a

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thing.

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Though you would give your body to be burned and you did it just for publicity sake, just

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to be lauded as a martyr, you might just as well have lived.

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You have done nothing.

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We talk much about love, but few understand the real meaning of love.

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We need to come back again to the word of God.