Paul told the Corinthians, spiritual gifts must be
exercised in love to have any value. In verses 4-7, Paul
describes love in a way that makes it very clear that the
Corinthians have lost their first love. In verses 8-13 we
are told all spiritual gifts are temporary, Christian love
is eternal, outlasting faith and hope.
In these first three verses of chapter 13, Paul seems to
suggest that living a loveless life; the Corinthians became
worse than what they were before they became Christians. .
In verse 2, Paul speaks of the Corinthians in terms of their
present state. In verse 3, Paul points out a fact often
overlooked great acts of sacrifice may win man’s approval,
but they will not win God’s approval. Love is essential for
eternal rewards.
Paul claims that one could speak every human language, and
even the language of angels, if this were done apart from
love, it would not be profitable to men, “If I speak with
the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I
have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” Cymbals are
not solo instruments. Can you imagine listening to a cymbal
or a gong hour after hour?
In verse 2, Paul addresses the gift of prophecy. Prophecy is
the ability to receive knowledge from God by divine
revelation. Carried to its ultimate possibility, the gift of
prophecy would enable one to understand every existing
mystery in the universe. Without love, the gift of prophecy
would not be profitable to the one possessing the gift.
In addition to the gift of prophecy, Paul speaks of the gift
of faith. Faith, exercised to the ultimate measure of
success, would be a faith that could not only move mountains
but also remove them (Matthew 17:20; 21:21). If one had this
kind of faith, yet lacked love, the gift of faith would not
be profitable to the one possessing the gift.
In verse 3, Paul speaks of a great personal sacrifice,
either by giving up all of one’s possessions for the sake of
the poor, or by the giving up one’s life as a martyr.
Because love is sacrificial (Ephesians 5:25), some might be
tempted to conclude that giving up all one’s possessions or
one’s life is proof of great love. Paul denies a great
personal sacrifice is proof of a great love. A great
personal sacrifice can be made apart from love, and if they
are loveless, they are of no eternal benefit to the one
making the sacrifice.
In verses 4 to 7, Paul provides us with a description of
love. Love enables us to endure evil, injury, and
provocation, without being filled with resentment,
indignation, or revenge. Love gives us power over angry
passions. Love enables us to put up with many slights and
neglects from the person we love, and wait to see the
effects love has on that person.
If patience is the passive side of love, kindness is the
active side. Kindness is the opposite of “having a chip on
one’s shoulder,” an attitude of hostility. Kindness in one’s
heart enables one to helpful action that only requires the
hint of a need before it takes action. The “good Samaritan”
did not need prodded into action nor did he seek to find a
way of escape from helping his neighbor. When he saw the man
lying in the road in need, he willingly did all in his means
to help (Luke 10:30-37). Kindness is a characteristic of God
and should be a characteristic of the Christian. If we love
our neighbor, we should not envy his good fortune. Instead,
we should rejoice at it. The prosperity of those to whom we
wish well should never grieve us.
Love subdues pride and vainglory. Love is not filled with
self-centeredness, pride, or insolent. Love is not filled
with contempt and scorn. Those who process the principle of
true brotherly love will do nothing out of a spirit of
contention. True love does nothing improper, despicable, or
vile. It does nothing out of place or time; but behaves
towards all men as becomes their rank and ours, with
reverence, courtesy and good will towards all men. True love
is self-love’s enemy. Self-love, in some degree, is natural
to all men. Paul does not mean that true love destroys all
regard to self; he does not mean that the charitable man is
to neglect himself and all his interests. True self-love
never acts in a way that injures others.
True love does not harbor malice or seek revenge. True love
is not apt to be jealous and suspicious. It takes no
pleasure in doing injury or hurt to any. It wishes no ill to
anyone, hurt or wrong any and least of all make this a
matter of delight and rejoice in doing harm and mischief.
Nor will it rejoice at the faults and failings of others,
and triumph over them, either out of pride or out of ill
will. It takes no pleasure in the sins of others, but is
highly delighted to see them do well, to approve themselves
men of morality and integrity. It rejoices seeing truth and
justice prevail among men, innocency cleared, and mutual
faith and trust established.
In verses 4-7 Paul described the true nature of love. In
verses 8-13, Paul describes the difference between love and
gifts. Love is superior to all the spiritual gifts because
love outlasts them. In contrast to love, which does not end,
Paul declares that spiritual gifts do end, gifts of prophecy
and tongues will cease; knowledge will be done away (v 8).
Paul gives the reason for the “passing away” or the
“failure” of the spiritual gifts in verses 9 and 10.
Knowledge and prophecy in this age are partial and
incomplete. However, when “the perfect comes the partial
will be done away with” (v 10).
Spiritual gifts are not permanent because they are not
perfect. Prophecy is never wrong or inaccurate; it is simply
incomplete. Peter writes of the prophets of old, who spoke
of the sufferings and glories of the Messiah who was yet to
come and whose own writings puzzled them because they were
incomplete (1 Peter 1:10-12). Paul filled in some of the
gaps of the Old Testament Scriptures by unveiling certain
mysteries but his revelations were partial. He did not
reveal all that we would like to know. Because of this, his
Epistles raised unanswered questions, and false teachers use
these unanswered questions to distort his writings.
In verses 11 and 12, Paul puts spiritual gifts into
perspective and indicates how we should view them. Paul
tells the Corinthian Christians, and us, that we should view
spiritual gifts as we do the toys of our childhood.
In verse 12, Paul likens our perception of truth and reality
to looking into a mirror that only imperfectly reflects
reality. The Corinthians did not see as clearly as they
thought. At best, their knowledge was partial. They should
not cling to their spiritual gifts with pride and think too
highly of themselves. Rather, they should possess and
appreciate all the gifts as temporary provisions of God,
seeing them as partial and inferior to what eternity holds
for us.
Paul wants everyone to understand that love is not something
to look down upon as inferior to spiritual gifts and wisdom;
rather, it is something of the greater value. The
Corinthians, knowingly or not, sacrificed love in their
pursuit of certain spiritual gifts. Paul shows this to be
contrary to eternal values, since love is the greater. One
does not wisely sacrifice that of the greatest value for
something of lesser value.
The first verse of chapter 14 is Paul’s “bottom line,” the
application he wants his readers to accept and accomplish.
In saying, love is the greatest; Paul is not belittling
spiritual gifts. He merely seeks to put spiritual gifts into
perspective. Spiritual gifts are a gracious provision of
God, but they are not to be pursued or practiced at the
expense of love. Love is the attitude of the heart that adds
value to gifts. Love is one ingredient that can never be
absent without being noticed. The Corinthians may profess to
pursue and practice love, but they are surely lacking in
love. Therefore, this church, so marvelously gifted by God,
falls desperately short of the mark. Paul’s words in chapter
13 are intended to challenge us to give love its proper
place and to pursue it in practice. Love is to be our
priority. This truth is not unique to Paul. The teaching of
the entire Old Testament and of our Lord Jesus Christ can be
summed up by one word, “love.” In the last words of our Lord
Jesus Christ to His disciples, recorded in John 13-17, Jesus
spoke repeatedly of the importance of love. Love was to
distinguish His disciples from others, “A new commandment I
give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved
you, that you also love one another. By this all men will
know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one
another (John 13:34-35). “This is My commandment, that you
love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has
no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends
(John 15:12-13). “This I command you, that you love one
another” (John 15:17).
Love was the goal of Paul’s instruction, “But the goal of
our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good
conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Timothy 1:5).
Love is a dominant theme in Peter’s epistles and in John’s.
Peter refers to love as the highest level of Christian
growth, and Paul speaks of it as the basis for edification.
Few would even attempt to debate that love is to be a high
priority for the Christian. However, if love is so
important, it is also so quickly and easily lost. Certainly,
love was lacking in the church at Corinth. The church at
Ephesus all too quickly lost its first love and did not even
seem to know it:
Love is not automatic. It is quickly lost, and it comes
about only when we make it our priority and our pursuit. How
does one pursue love? We begin by reading God’s Word and
meditating upon it. The Bible is the only source of truth
that defines what love is and does. If we are to keep
ourselves in the love of Christ, we must never stray from
the cross of Christ, for there on the cross of Calvary was
God’s love for us revealed. The love we have received from
God came in the form of a cross, sacrificial love.
Sacrificial love is the kind of love we are to manifest
toward others.
The way we demonstrate love toward God and toward others is
by obeying His commandments. This is why the Old Testament
law can be summed up in two commandments, both of which are
the expressions of love.
We cannot express the love of God until we have first
experienced it. Love, Christian love, is impossible for
those who have not yet accepted the love of God in the
person and work of Jesus Christ. Even while we were sinners,
Christ died for us, to bear the penalty for our sins, and to
give us His righteousness, as we place our trust in Him by
faith.
