Faith and love in Jesus: If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:3

In the early Church, the presence of the Holy Spirit with His gifts was an undeniable reality, just as Jesus had promised the disciples. And the apostle Paul, who was filled with the holy spirit when he was baptized by Ananias, was a privileged witness to this spiritual truth. This is why Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, one of the epistles with the greatest theological depth, wrote decisively about how the Lord communicated His perfections to believers in Jesus through faith, and how these perfections should be lived out in the community, as Jesus taught with wisdom: "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect" Matthew 5:48.
And so Paul explained that living the gifts is entering into communion with God and with the brothers in the faith, the Kingdom of God is in essence the empire of mercy (compassion, kindness, gentleness), the government of perseverance, the dominion of righteousness.
And among the spiritual gifts, the apostle Paul highlighted in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, the preeminence of love, because whoever loves in its true sense fulfills the commandment of love. The love of Christ is the realization of the virtue of hope and the entrance to the true spiritual life of man, the eternal life. But it must be emphasized that when Paul wrote about love, he referred to love as a gift, that is, Paul referred to the love projected towards all of God's work, the progressive, expansive, and benevolent love. In the Greek language, this spiritual love has a particular name, Agape, as Jesus explained: "Love your neighbor as yourself" Mark 12:31.
This is why Paul emphasized the importance of love in his epistle with these words: "If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing" 1 Corinthians 13:3. According to Paul's teachings, all human actions are sterile without love, and faith without love becomes blind. To yearn for the love of Christ as the greatest spiritual achievement must be what motivates every Christian to improve each day in imitation of Christ, as Paul expressed this truth in other words.

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