Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. – 1 Corinthians 13: 8

Paul doesn’t stop speaking about love at 1 Corinthians 13: 7 and neither should we. With the first three words of 1 Corinthians 13: 8, he declares that prophecies will fail, tongues will cease, knowledge will vanish, but love never fails.

These words are quite pretty and poetic. However, they do not seem to jibe with our own personal experience. Every last one of us has either seen love fail or felt love fail. Either the Apostle is wrong here or we are not correctly understanding what he is saying.

Since it is in the Bible, I choose to think that we are missing something when we hear that love never fails. We are. Remember, the Greek language has several words for love. Since we only have one word for love in English, when we read this passage, we use our one word “love” to cover all types of love and, therefore, are prone to protest that love does indeed fail.

Storge love fails when families fight and fall apart. Philia love fails when best friends no longer see eye to eye and go their separate ways. Eros love fails when romantic flames flicker out and those who were once in love are now at war.

Of course, we have all seen love fail. But, the love we have seen fail is not the kind of love Paul is talking about here. He is talking about agape love which, by definition, it is the type of love that never fails. It is unconditional. It is unrelenting. It is unending. It is unstoppable. It is unnatural. This agape love is a love which we both aspire to give and to have because it alone is the kind of love which never fails.