Children’s Sermon (1 Corinthians 13:1-13) Love is Patient, Love is Kind

Children’s Message on 1 Corinthians 13 “Faith, Hope and Love”

Main Objective: Love is something that surrounds us in popular culture, and is something children hear a lot about. But what is real love, and where does it come from? What does the Bible tell us about love? This message focuses on how love is described by Paul in the iconic passage of 1 Corinthians 13. Love should be at the center of all we do, motivating our words and actions. Without love, things are empty and meaningless. Unlike Hollywood depictions, Biblical love is selfless and God-centered, and meant to be shared with others.

Law/Gospel Theme: The Gospel, summed up in a word, is love. God loved us enough to come to Earth as a human and live and die for us. The greatest example of love we have is Christ laying down His life. 1 Corinthians 13 reminds us that love is patient, kind, and enduring, not arrogant or rude or self-serving. God is love. We love others because He first loves us.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 Children’s Sermon on The Greatest of These is Love

Optional Materials: Empty box of some sort (gift box, food, etc.)

Bible Passage: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Message: Note: As with most messages, the details of how you choose to communicate this are adaptable and should cater to timing as well as to your audience and student needs. Use your judgment and ideas to best serve students.

Greet children and speak eagerly about something…

Hello, children of God!
Today I wanted to tell you about something that I think is very important and wonderful. Use whatever would be in your empty box, and describe with excitement. One example is given here. I want to talk about cereal! That’s right, cereal. It’s such a wonderful and energizing way to start the day, don’t you think? Now I happen to have my favorite cereal right here. It’s just the right combination of crunchy and sweet, it holds up to milk, and overall is just delicious. I’m so excited just thinking about it, I should pour myself a bowl right now…Open the box and look disappointed. Wait a minute…What’s going on here? This box is empty! There’s no cereal inside. That’s awfully heartbreaking.

You know, it doesn’t really matter how good something looks on the outside, or how well I talk about it. In the end, if there’s nothing there on the inside, nothing to back all of those promises, it’s pretty pointless. Hollow. This is the way it works in our lives, too, believe it or not. We can talk a big game about something or try hard to do things well, but our efforts are empty without the right motivations. What should those be? What should be behind our words and actions? Love! The love we have for God and for others ought to fuel everything we do.

What does love look like? We see ideas about love everywhere, in movies and magazines and in stores around Valentine’s Day. But the Bible has a lot to say about what love truly is. In the book of 1 Corinthians, Paul describes how Christian love should be. The apostle starts by saying that even if he spoke in tongues of men and angels, gave up his life, or had faith to move mountains, without love, it would all be worth nothing. The passage then says what love is and isn’t: love is patient and kind. It doesn’t envy or brag. It isn’t rude or arrogant. Love believes, hopes, and endures all things. This means that genuine love is selfless, always seeking the best in others and for others.

Where does this love come from, though? Do we make it up from somewhere deep within ourselves? Of course not. We love because God first loved us. God demonstrated His love for us by sending His son to die on our behalf. Jesus took our place and died on the cross to rescue us from sin and death. That sacrifice is the greatest example of love we have. Since we know God has loved us so deeply, we can now share His love with other people. We can pass along to others the kind of love that 1 Corinthians 13 talks about, caring for people and showing them patience and kindness. We can tell them about God’s love, and we can give them examples of it in the way we live and act. And if we’re not sure how to best do that, we can pray and ask the Lord to show us the best way to love others.

Why don’t we say a prayer now and talk to God about that?

Prayer:
(Have kids repeat each line)
Dear God,
Thank you for giving us the greatest example of love
Help us to share your love with others
And know what real love is.
Thank you for your love
We love you, God!
In Jesus name, Amen!

Bible Verses/story to Reference:

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ^²And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ^³If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

^⁴Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant ^⁵or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ^⁶it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. ^⁷Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

^⁸Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. ^⁹For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ^¹⁰but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. ^¹¹When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. ^¹²For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.