Love

I Corinthians 13: 1 – 13 (January 31, 2010)

1) The Text

13If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have 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 do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

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

8Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

2) The Context

In response to a letter, Paul has further instructed the Christians at Corinth about the gifts of the Spirit. It seems that they value the gift of tongues too highly. Three groups of gifted people are especially important – “apostles” (12:28, spreading the good news), “prophets” (telling new insights into the faith) and “teachers” (of the faith) – but now he says that the most important gift is love, the expression in the community of Christ’s love for us. The statements in vv. 1-3 are all on the same model. Whatever is spoken, if said without love, is like the clatter of pagan worship. (At the time, rabbis debated what language “angels” spoke.) Prophecy is important but without love of one’s fellows it is “nothing” (v. 2). Even helping others to the extent of self-denial is worthless without love.

In vv. 4-7, he tells his readers how their behavior contrasts with the qualities of this love: it is the reverse of their proud, contemptuous, divisive attitudes. “Truth” (v. 6) is integrity, ethical living. Love, he says, is different from God’s other gifts (v. 8); unlike them (“prophecies”, “tongues”, “knowledge”), it never ends: it is transcendent, continuing beyond this era, into the time when we will be one with Christ. In the present age, all that we do through the Spirit is “partial” (v. 10), incomplete, immature. Mirrors then, being polished metal, gave a fuzzy image, but in the age to come (“then”, v. 12) we will see God clearly. We will know him fully, as God knows Paul now. “Love” (v. 13) is the “greatest” because it will continue unchanged, while “faith” will become sight and “hope” will become certainty.

3) Interpretation

The passage commences by referring to tongues of men and angels. Some in the community do appear to have been carried away with speaking in tongues. Paul spends the next chapter addressing the problem. So his assertion that speaking in tongues is just a lot of noise if love does not have highest priority confronts a certain kind of religiosity. The same happens in the statements which follow. Prophecy, understanding mysteries, knowledge, faith to move mountains, all count for nothing if love is not present. Paul is attacking approaches to spirituality that have missed the point of what Christianity is about. He refuses the assumption that any of these things should be seen as the main thing. When Paul wants to identify the presence of God, these are not the prime location. The prime location is compassion.

Matthew gives us a picture of Jesus making a similar point when he declares: "Not every one who says, 'Lord, Lord', will enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of my father who is in heaven" (7:21) and continues by pointing out that in the end people will report their wonderful deeds, miracles, prophecy and the like, only to be told they have no real relationship with Jesus at all. Similarly in the parable of the sheep and the goats, Matthew reports that the sheep are those who exercised compassion in their lives. That is ultimately what counts.

In a similar sense Mark seems to have had to counter a triumphant kind of spirituality which focused mainly on Jesus' miracles. He does so by setting them within the context of Jesus' love and his willingness to go all the way, even to death, for people. John has something similar. His Jesus refuses those who believe in his name because of his miracles (2:23-25).

Not even apparent acts of generosity and bravery count for much if love is not the source (13:3). In 13:4-7 Paul gives us a timeless summary. It is not without its difficulties. Does love really believe or endure all things? Perhaps a better interpretation moves in the direction of saying that love is unrestrained in its willingness to do all these things. There are other dangers. If love becomes an ideal, then a set of guidelines, and then a set of rules, we are in danger of creating a series of "oughts.” This is why Paul speaks of the Spirit elsewhere as a fruit. Spirituality is about gardening: attending to the plant, the soil and the setting to enable the fruit to be born.

The second half of the passage seems only marginally related to love - until we get to the climax in 13:13. Paul wants to put other things in their place. Only love really endures (13:8). The point of 13:9-12 is to assert human vulnerability. We have not arrived - some at Corinth thought they had (4:7-8). So here in 1 Corinthians 13 Paul is trying to bring people down to earth to stop the arrogance. Paul does not need to pretend that he is in control, that he knows everything, that he is superior. It is OK to be a human being who still has a long way to go. In this way Paul is at least preparing the kind of soil in which love might have a chance to take root. It often can't get much of a start until we acknowledge our need of it.

4) Thought Exercise

What gifts has God’s love given you?

How can we use these gifts to extend and share God’s love?