He tells that fragmented, dissension-ridden crowd that as important as each person's spiritual gift may be, there is really only one gift, and that gift authenticates all the rest. The one criteria, he says, the one criteria for judging what you bring to the life of the church and the world is the gift of love. If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if worship is not enough, he takes on preacher types with no holds barred. And when he finishes with preachers, Paul begins with our claims to public virtue.
Love is what really matters.
Love has a big heart and practices sheer goodness. Now there is a heading for all the rest. Paul has heard some bad news from that congregation in Corinth. A secret smugness creeps into their hearts. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and amid all of our quirks, crankiness and conceits, love endures all things.