Corinthians 1: Why Is Love So Important
Todays post is adapted from 1 Corinthiansin the Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, as well as Paul D. Gardners lecture on 1 Corinthians 13 in 1 Corinthians, A Video Study: 36 Lessons on History, Meaning, and Application.
Love as described in 1 Corinthians 13 is best understood as a way of life, lived in imitation of Jesus Christ, that is focused not on oneself but on the other and his or her good.
Love is about action, how a person lives for the Lord and obeys him and how a person lives for others and serves them.
Yet it is also about being. This is because its foundation is in God who is love, and in Christ who shows that love. The sense that this is about more than simply how people behave is seen in passages like Pauls prayer of Ephesians 3:1419, particularly as he prays that Christians will be rooted and grounded in love. To know the love of Christ is to experience his presence through faith in their hearts. Gods people are to look and become more and more like Christ, and it is this for which Paul prays here.
Without Love We Are Nothing
Paul begins with the spiritual gift that the Corinthians valued the most: If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. No matter how special the words are, if they arent helping anyone, they are just noise.
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. Eloquent preaching, deep wisdom and strong faith are all wasted if they are not being used to help others.
If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Even great sacrifices, if done for selfish purposes, fail to do anything for us. Selfish actions, no matter how good they appear on the outside, do not improve our standing in the eyes of God.
‘love Is Patient’ Meaning
When Paul writes that Love is Patient, he urges Christians to adopt a love that is purposeful, persistent, and perspective-driven. This is why 1 Corinthians 13 is often recited at wedding ceremonies during the exchange of vows.
Patient love is persistent love. It is the kind of love a wife or husband has for their spouse. For better or for worse they have chosen to be faithful and remain committed to each other, and this commitment is long-standing.
Patient love also means choosing to love the other person even when you dont feel like it or it isnt easy. Even when someone has wronged you, you choose to love them anyway and wont call it quits just because youre tired, frustrated, or hurt. In many ways, patient love is the perfect foundation for the other means of love Paul goes on to write about.
When you have committed yourself to a type of love that isnt self-serving or short-sighted but rather persistent and focused on the well-being of others, you learn to act kindly towards those you are called to love. You become more forgiving, gracious, and trusting.
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A Description Of Love
Real love is not proven through spectacular performances. Rather, it is demonstrated in much smaller things we do in everyday life: Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
This is a description of God himself, and this is the life that the Father, Son, and Spirit enjoy with one another. This is the life God wants us to enjoy foreverand the life he wants us to have now, as well.
Love does not dishonor others, Paul says. It is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. God encourages us to participate in this life now: freed of selfishness, fits of anger and grudges.
The reason that God wants us to live this way is because this is the way God already is. He does not keep a record of wrongshe has already forgiven us for everything weve done. He does not tell us to do something he has not already done himself.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. Unfortunately, we often fail. Paul is describing a way that we, of ourselves, cannot achieve. But Christ in us has already achieved it, and God wants us to participate with Christ in his perfect life by trusting him and letting him live in us.
The Love Of God Poured Out By The Holy Spirit
In 1 Corinthians 8:3, Paul tells us that God is the object of love. Since Paul rarely talks of love for God, this first deserves comment. As Barrett writes, It is more characteristic of Paul to describe mans response to God as faith rather than love. Love for God was seen to rest in Gods prior work through his Spirit. Pauls understanding of the process involved here is most clearly expressed in Romans 5:5: The love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us . This is why Paul regards love for God rather than wisdom or knowledge as evidence of having not received the spirit of the world rather we have received the Spirit of God . This close relationship between love and the work of the Spirit no doubt provides a partial explanation for why in Paul, and in the early church more generally, love is seen as the authenticator or marker of a Christian. It is possession by the Spirit of God that indicates a person belongs to Christ .
This idea also lies behind much of the discussion for the next several chapters. For example, 1 Corinthians 14:1 begins with the imperative pursue love, before returning to the subject of grace-gifts, which must operate in a context of love. He writes, Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit.
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Through A Glass Darkly
1 Corinthians 13:12 contains the phrase ‘ , blepomen gar arti di esoptrou en ainigmati, which was translated in the 1560 Geneva Bible as “For now we see through a glass darkly” . This wording was used in the 1611 KJV, which added a comma before “darkly”. This passage has inspired the titles of many works, with and without the comma.
The Greek word , esoptrou , here translated “glass”, is ambiguous, possibly referring to a mirror or a lens. Influenced by Strong’s Concordance, many modern translations conclude that this word refers specifically to a mirror. Example English language translations include:
- “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror”
- “What we see now is like a dim image in a mirror”
Paul’s usage is in keeping with rabbinic use of the term , aspaklaria, a borrowing from the Latin specularia. This has the same ambiguous meaning, although Adam Clarke concluded that it was a reference to specularibus lapidibus, clear polished stones used as lenses or windows. One way to preserve this ambiguity is to use the English cognate, speculum. Rabbi Judah ben Ilai was quoted as saying “All the prophets had a vision of God as He appeared through nine specula” while “Moses saw God through one speculum.” The Babylonian Talmud states similarly “All the prophets gazed through a speculum that does not shine, while Moses our teacher gazed through a speculum that shines.”
B The Description Of Love
Lest the Corinthians should say to the apostle, What is this love you discourse of? Or how shall we know if we have it? The apostle here gives thirteen notes of a charitable person.
1. Two things love is: longsuffering and kind.
Love suffers long and is kind.
a. Love: At the beginning, we see love is described by action words, not by lofty concepts. Paul is not writing about how love feels, he is writing about how it can be seen in action. True love is always demonstrated by action.
b. Love suffers long: Love will endure a long time. It is the heart shown in God when it is said of the Lord, The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance . If Gods love is in us, we will show longsuffering to those who annoy us and hurt us.
i. The ancient preacher John Chrysostom said this is the word used of the man who is wronged, and who easily has the power to avenge himself, but will not do it out of mercy and patience. Do you avenge yourself as soon as you have the opportunity?
c. Love is kind: When we have and show Gods love, it will be seen in simple acts of kindness. A wonderful measure of kindness is to see how children receive us. Children wont receive from or respond to unkind people.
2. Eight things love is not: not envious, not proud, not arrogant, not rude, not cliquish, not touchy, not suspicious, not happy with evil.
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The Excellence Of Love
13 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love , then I have become only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal . 2 And if I have the gift of prophecy , and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge and if I have all faith so that I can remove mountains, but do not have love , I am nothing. 3 If I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it does me no good at all.
4 Love endures with patience and serenity, love is kind and thoughtful, and is not jealous or envious love does not brag and is not proud or arrogant. 5 It is not rude it is not self-seeking, it is not provoked it does not take into account a wrong endured. 6 It does not rejoice at injustice, but rejoices with the truth . 7 Love bears all things , believes all things , hopes all things , endures all things .
Footnotes
A The Supremacy Of Love
1. Love is superior to spiritual gifts in and of themselves.
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
a. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels: The Corinthians were enamored with spiritual gifts, particularly the gift of tongues. Paul reminds them even the gift of tongues is meaningless without love. Without love, a person may speak with the gift of tongues, but it is as meaningless as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. It is nothing but empty noise.
i. People of little religion are always noisy he who has not the love of God and man filling his heart is like an empty wagon coming violently down a hill: it makes a great noise, because there is nothing in it.
b. Tongues of men and of angels: The ancient Greek word translated tongues has the simple idea of languages in some places . This has led some to say the gift of tongues is simply the ability to communicate the gospel in other languages, or it is the capability of learning languages quickly. But the way tongues is used here shows it can, and usually does, refer to a supernatural language by which a believer communicates to God. There is no other way to understand the reference to tongues of angels.
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Corinthians 13 The Most Excellent Way
The church in first-century Corinth was plagued with social divisions and rivalries. Paul explained to them that God gives different people different abilitiesnot so that some people can exalt themselves over others, but so that everyone will work together for the common good . No one is self-sufficient, and no one is unnecessary.
Near the end of chapter 12, he again explains that God appoints different roles in the church. He asks, Is everyone in the church an apostle? Of course not, he implies. Its silly to expect everyone to have the same role .
Nevertheless, some gifts are better than others, and Paul encourages the Corinthians to eagerly desire the greater gifts . But even if they get better gifts, how are they to use them? He explains: And now I will show you the most excellent way.
This superior pathway, he says in chapter 13, is the way of love. Love is not a gift that some people have and others dontit is the way in which all gifts should be used. This is what the Corinthians needed most. Indeed, without love, all the other gifts were pointless.
C The Permanence Of Love
1. Love will outlive all the gifts.
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. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
a. Love never fails: Paul addresses the over-emphasis the Corinthian Christians had on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. He shows they should emphasize love more than the gifts, because the gifts are temporary containers of Gods work love is the work itself.
b. Therefore, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are appropriate for the present time, but they are not permanent. They are imperfect gifts for an imperfect time.
c. That which is perfect: Paul says when that which is perfect has come, then the gifts will be discontinued. But what is that which is perfect? Though some that believe the miraculous gifts ceased with the apostles say it refers to the completion of the New Testament, they are wrong. Virtually all commentators agree that which is perfect is fulfilled when we are in the eternal presence of the Perfect One, when we are with the Lord forever, either through the return of Christ or graduation to the eternal.
i. The ancient Greek word for perfect is telos. Considering the way the New Testament uses telos in other passages, it certainly seems to speak about the coming of Jesus .
3. A summary of loves permanence: love abides forever.
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