1 Corinthians 13:1
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
This chapter is pretty familiar so it will likely be relatively easy to memorize, but it still requires the same old, same old - repetition. If you need to, take it phrase by phrase. Simply repeat it over and over and over again - first while looking at the words, then without looking.
Find moments throughout your day when your hands are busy but your mind is idle. Once you start looking for opportunities to redeem the time in this way, you'll be shocked at how much time you'll find! The other day I found a huge chunk of time - mowing the grass. There's literally nothing else you can do while you're mowing the grass other than listen to music (or other mp3 type stuff such as books on tape, an audio Bible, or sermons) or review memory work or pray. Don't waste any of your precious time!! Redeem it instead.
Clarke's Commentary has a great introduction to this chapter....
At the conclusion of the preceding chapter the apostle promised to show the Corinthians a more excellent way than that in which they were now proceeding. They were so distracted with contentions, divided by parties, and envious of each other's gifts, that unity was nearly destroyed. This was a full proof that love to God and man was wanting; and that without this, their numerous gifts and other graces were nothing in the eyes of God; for it was evident that they did not love one another, which is a proof that they did not love God; and consequently, that they had not true religion. Having, by his advices and directions, corrected many abuses, and having shown them how in outward things they should walk so as to please God, he now shows them the spirit, temper, and disposition in which this should be done, and without which all the rest must be ineffectual.
In the MacArthur Bible Commentary, MacArthur says this about this verse.....
Love: self-giving love that is more concerned with giving than receiving.... Without love, no matter how linguistically gifted a person is to speak his own language, other languages, or even (hypothetically) the speech of angels, his speech is noise only. In NT times, rites honoring the pagan deities Cybele, Bacchus, and Dionysius included ecstatic noises accompanied by gongs, cymbals, and trumpets. Unless the speech of the Corinthians was done in love, it was no better than the gibberish of pagan ritual.
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