The God Shot: 1 Corinthians 13:3

"If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing." (1 Corinthians 13:3)In this letter, Paul is addressing the fact that these young Christians are wrongly focused on the more showy aspects of their new faith. They want to perform miracles and know everything. They're zealous, but they're a little bit off the rails. So Paul spends a lot of time correcting them in his letters. Meanwhile, other Christians are facing persecution and even death. So we have the Corinthians who want power, and other Christians who are losing all their power being martyred. So Paul points out that actually, neither extreme matters if love for God and others isn't at the heart of it all. Jesus performed powerful miracles, then died at the hands of his persecutors. He experienced both extremes. But in both, He was always motivated by His love for the Father and His love for His people. He didn't point to His own glory, but to the Father's glory and our joy because He's where the joy is!