DCLM Daily Manna 2025: DCLM Daily Manna 7 August 2025: The Supremacy of Selfless Love
Text: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (KJV)
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
KEY VERSE: (1 Corinthians 13:13).
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
Around the mid-20th century in Ecuador, Jim Elliot and Elisabeth Howard met while studying at Wheaton College. They fell deeply in love and shared a passion for missionary work. In 1956, Jim, along with four other missionaries, attempted to reach the Huaorani people in the jungles of Ecuador. Tragically, they were killed by the very people they sought to serve. Elisabeth, left widowed with a young daughter, chose to continue their mission. She reached out to the Huaorani, eventually leading to their conversion. Their story embodies the essence and supremacy of selfless and sacrificial love – the kind that seeks no reward, demands no recognition, and persists even when circumstances are dire. They remind us that love is not mere sentimentality; it is a force that can transform lives and change the world.
Paul’s original message to the Corinthians Christians was meant to deflate their oversized ego over their possession of spiritual gifts. He instructs that gifts, not ministered with perfect love, are vain and worthless. Love remains the essential virtue, capable of producing the greatest impact with spiritual gifts. This kind of love is patient, kind and never inflated with its own importance. It does not brag and knows no envy. It does not behave itself unseemly; never insists upon its right and privileges and it is never temperamental.
This love rejoices in the truth, finds no pleasure in evildoing and does not hold on to the memory of any wrong against it. It is all enduring, absolutely trusting, bears everything with triumphant fortitude and, never for once, ceases to hope. Every other gift will dry up and soon be forgotten, but love is convincingly permanent, overwhelmingly complete and incontrovertibly supreme.
A writer once remarked that “faith without love is cold and hope without love is grim. Love is the fire which kindles faith and love is the light which turns hope into certainty.” The humble and sincere seeker, one who daily seeks God, will never cease to pray until his/her soul and spirit are filled with God’s own kind of love.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: God’s kind of love is supreme and triumphs over all circumstances.
THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Nehemiah 8-10
Daily Manna 7 August 2025
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