Love is the Answer
-15-
I Corinthians 13:1-13
God, through the Apostle Paul gives an answer to the problem-infested church of Corinth. All of the infighting, bragging, criticizing, demeaning, and belittling behavior, (etc.) that was going in the church, between the various groups, would quickly come to an end by applying the wonderful gift of love.
Four gifts are referred to in the first three verses.
1. Tongues, 2. prophecy, 3. faith and 4. Giving.
Paul uses the tool of 'exaggeration' to make his point. To be able to speak every language on earth … and even to speak in the language of angels, without applying love … makes the gift useless. Notice he does not say that he can or does speak in all of those languages. This is meant to be an 'ultimate' and greatly exaggerated illustration. Paul later says that he uses the gift of languages more than anyone1, but not so much in church meetings. He used the gift 'on the road' as an evangelist and church 'planter'. Could he speak in all of the languages of mankind? The answer would be no and yes. He could speak in the language of his 'foreign' audience. There would be no need to speak in the language of groups who were not in his immediate presence. Could he speak in the language of angels? No. Why? Because there is no need. Not being able to speak in an angels language does not present any barrier to the mission of the church. Here is a repetition … the gifts are given to empower the church to go through any barrier that is in their way of completing her mission. Speaking the language of angels is not necessary for the church to complete its mission, therefore no such gift exists … despite of what you may have heard from some who claim to have had such a church experience.
Paul's next exaggeration has to do with prophecy. He said, “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.
It is the word 'all' that is our clue. 'All' is a superlative word. Paul had the gifts of tongues, prophecy, faith, and giving and perhaps a few others. The books that we have in our New Testament that were penned by him … have all come to us because of Paul's gifts of prophecy2 and knowledge. But to understand ALL mysteries … and to have ALL knowledge, no, he did not have that ability.
But IF he did … but did not have love … it would not make him some kind of a super-saint. As a matter of fact, he says it earns him a zero.
The same applies for his comments in verse 3. If he were to give ALL of his goods to feed the poor, then give his body to be burned as a martyr … even that earns a zero … because he did not employ the gift of love.
Just how does the gift of love change things? Why does it make such a huge difference?
Paul lists the attributes of love.
This will be 'old' news for some of you, but I think it bears repeating: The word 'love' in the Greek language of the New Testament is spelled 'agape'. In First Corinthians 13 that is how it is spelled. There is another spelling of the word love and that is… 'phileo'. Both of those spellings come out as 'love' in our English versions. They are two different words with two different meanings. Aga'pe is best described in terms of caring to the point of giving. Phileo would best be described as 'like' – Liking to the point of strong friendship.
So in the verses before us we need to keep in mind the meaning … caring to the point of giving.
4 ¶ Love suffers long (is patient) and is kind (gentle); love does not envy (wish to have what someone else has); love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;(quiet humility would be opposite of parading oneself or announcing ones accomplishments)
5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, (but rather gets fulfillment out of giving), is not provoked, thinks no evil;
6 does not rejoice in iniquity (does not get satisfaction out seeing a person fall into sin), but rejoices in the truth;
7 bears all things, believes all things (this is not being gullible, but saying, 'I hear what you are saying and I accept that.'), hopes all things, endures all things.
This is not a picture of the Corinthian church about which we have been reading. Is it a picture of our church? Is it a picture of you or of me?
Next Paul says, Love never fails. It would be easy to put any number of meanings to that little phrase. We might be tempted to say, 'It is the gift that just keeps on giving.'
But we might miss the point if we did that. Paul has something particular in mind when he says that love never fails.
We need to consider 'love never fails' in contrast to other comments he makes right here.
He says – prophecies (as a gift) will fail. Tongues (or languages as a gift) will cease or stop, knowledge, as a gift would vanish.
Then skip down to the last verse, (13). He says, “On the other hand, faith, hope and love remain (abide). The greatest is love.” How did he start this section? Love never fails. It (the gift of love) will never cease, it will never fail, it will never vanish away.
Before we go back and look at verses 9-12, let's ask the question: Why is the gift of love greater, even, than the gift of faith and the gift of hope?
We have been comparing love with some gifts that won't last forever. The gift of love DOES last forever. That alone is enough to say that it is greater.
Apparently the gift of love is God's gift to us even in eternity. What will not be needed in eternity is the gift of faith. The writer of Hebrews said, Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Heb 11:1
And yet faith is called one of the lasting gifts. How long does it last? Not into eternity … but right up to there. We could say … right up to the coming of Christ. After that our faith has become reality. Faith has become sight. That for which we have believed has become a reality. The same is true for the gift of hope.
For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. Romans 8:24,25
That for which we hope becomes reality when Jesus comes. Hope is swallowed up by reality. The gift of hope lasts right up to the coming of Jesus.
The writer of Hebrews in the chapter we call 'The Hall of Faith' says this;
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Heb 11:13
So the gifts of faith and hope last a long time but the gift of love lasts forever.
Now let's go back and talk about the gifts that don't last that long.
The gift of prophecy will not abide, or last as long as faith and hope. It will not abide til the coming of Christ.
The gift of tongues will not last as long as the gifts of faith and hope. They will cease or stop before the coming of Christ.
The gift of knowledge will not last as long as the gifts of faith and hope. The gift will vanish before the coming of Christ.
So now we have to ask, How much before the coming of Christ will they cease, vanish or fail?
Paul goes to his present time. He says, We (presently) know (gift of knowledge) 'in part'. The word part means a segment, or a piece. He is saying, “Knowledge come to us directly from God without the use of a book. He just puts it in our head, but its in bits and pieces. He doesn't give us the whole complete lump of truth all at once”.
He says the same about the gift of prophecy. “We speak words which God directly puts into our head and mouth to speak, but it is not the whole message from God. It is in part. It is not the whole complete Word of God. We just speak it as it comes.”
Next comes a statement that many people have misunderstood. And the reason for the misunderstanding is centered around the King James word, perfect. A further misunderstanding comes from verse 12 about looking in a mirror and seeing a dim image compared to seeing face to face. Some have assumed the 'face to face' to mean face to face with Jesus. This is incorrect, first of all because that would make prophecy, tongues and knowledge last up the coming of Jesus. That would make them 'abiding' or 'lasting' gifts just like faith and hope. Clearly Paul says that faith, hope and love are in a different category. Compared to tongues, prophecy and knowledge, there are three gifts which outlast them, faith hope and love.
This means that the non-lasting gifts would stop before the coming of Jesus.
Verse 10 tells us exactly (well, approximately) when that time was to be.
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with. 1Co 13:9,10 (WEB translation)
Paul new that something 'complete' was coming. God had revealed that to him. Paul did not know that it would be called 'The New Testament', but compared to what he was presently experiencing … the bits and pieces … it would be like looking at the word of God face to face. And how marvelous and how incredible it is, that we can have God's complete Word at our fingertips! Never take it for granted!
So Paul is sorting out some attitudes in the Corinthian churches.
He is saying, don't brag about your gift as though it is better than someone else's. It does not make you better and more important and it certainly is not loving. And besides, the gift upon which you are focusing is going to stop soon. Focus on three gifts that will not stop.
Are faith and love the only two gifts that will last until Jesus returns? Actually there are a few others. Let me list gifts by category:
Universal Gifts (for everyone.)
Faith, hope, love. Lasting gifts, and especially love because it lasts right into eternity.
Individual Gifts
tongues, interpretation, discernment, prophecy – disposable (or coming to an end)
Individual Gifts Lasting gifts
Evangelism, teaching, giving, serving, preaching, administration, mercy. These are taken from Paul's list in Romans 12 of lasting (but individual) gifts.
Love is the key for all of the gifts to work together in our church ministry. There is a little uncertainty about when gifts are given. Some say at the moment of salvation. Some say they may come at a later time. Maybe both are true. In the following chapter Paul talks about desiring certain gifts and even seems to suggest that the Corinthians could desire one gift over the other. That does seem to disagree a bit with I Cor. 12:38 which says that God set up the gifts. Again, we need to see how both can be true at the same time.
When we are ready to 'step up' our service for God, ready to move from being 'baby Christians' to becoming ministering Christians, we start to think about the gifting of God. (By the way, there is nothing wrong with being a baby Christian and enjoying the milk of God's word. It only becomes a bad thing if we want to REMAIN where we are, satisfied with our salvation and do not want to move on to ministry.)
So as we start thinking about gifts, our thoughts will be tied to what we want to do in God's service. Here is an example.
This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop (overseer, pastor), he desires a good work. 1Timothy 3:1
Paul is saying in the above verse that becoming a pastor or overseer starts with a desire. In my case that desire was very confusing, since I really am not a people person. At first I did not realize that it is God who places desires in your heart to get involved in a certain area of service … even if you are not equipped or suited for it. But then, that is where the gift comes in. God does the impossible through you.
In the next chapter Paul encourages us to 'walk in love' (you have that gift as a believer), and to desire spiritual gifts - specific ones in line with your desire for a particular ministry, but in all of that, he encourages us to seek the gift of prophecy, which at that time was speaking the very words of God to people who needed to hear it. Today that would be called the gift of preaching God's word rather than being a 'receptacle')
Regarding the gifts Paul says, … God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable. Romans 11:29
We will see how this works out in the next chapter. And it should answer the question, “If I am no longer walking with God, do I still have the gift?”
1I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all; yet in the church I would rather speak five words with my understanding, that I may teach others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue. 1Co 14:18,19
2…. for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. 2Pe 1:21
Four gifts are referred to in the first three verses.
1. Tongues, 2. prophecy, 3. faith and 4. Giving.
Paul uses the tool of 'exaggeration' to make his point. To be able to speak every language on earth … and even to speak in the language of angels, without applying love … makes the gift useless. Notice he does not say that he can or does speak in all of those languages. This is meant to be an 'ultimate' and greatly exaggerated illustration. Paul later says that he uses the gift of languages more than anyone1, but not so much in church meetings. He used the gift 'on the road' as an evangelist and church 'planter'. Could he speak in all of the languages of mankind? The answer would be no and yes. He could speak in the language of his 'foreign' audience. There would be no need to speak in the language of groups who were not in his immediate presence. Could he speak in the language of angels? No. Why? Because there is no need. Not being able to speak in an angels language does not present any barrier to the mission of the church. Here is a repetition … the gifts are given to empower the church to go through any barrier that is in their way of completing her mission. Speaking the language of angels is not necessary for the church to complete its mission, therefore no such gift exists … despite of what you may have heard from some who claim to have had such a church experience.
Paul's next exaggeration has to do with prophecy. He said, “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.
It is the word 'all' that is our clue. 'All' is a superlative word. Paul had the gifts of tongues, prophecy, faith, and giving and perhaps a few others. The books that we have in our New Testament that were penned by him … have all come to us because of Paul's gifts of prophecy2 and knowledge. But to understand ALL mysteries … and to have ALL knowledge, no, he did not have that ability.
But IF he did … but did not have love … it would not make him some kind of a super-saint. As a matter of fact, he says it earns him a zero.
The same applies for his comments in verse 3. If he were to give ALL of his goods to feed the poor, then give his body to be burned as a martyr … even that earns a zero … because he did not employ the gift of love.
Just how does the gift of love change things? Why does it make such a huge difference?
Paul lists the attributes of love.
This will be 'old' news for some of you, but I think it bears repeating: The word 'love' in the Greek language of the New Testament is spelled 'agape'. In First Corinthians 13 that is how it is spelled. There is another spelling of the word love and that is… 'phileo'. Both of those spellings come out as 'love' in our English versions. They are two different words with two different meanings. Aga'pe is best described in terms of caring to the point of giving. Phileo would best be described as 'like' – Liking to the point of strong friendship.
So in the verses before us we need to keep in mind the meaning … caring to the point of giving.
4 ¶ Love suffers long (is patient) and is kind (gentle); love does not envy (wish to have what someone else has); love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;(quiet humility would be opposite of parading oneself or announcing ones accomplishments)
5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, (but rather gets fulfillment out of giving), is not provoked, thinks no evil;
6 does not rejoice in iniquity (does not get satisfaction out seeing a person fall into sin), but rejoices in the truth;
7 bears all things, believes all things (this is not being gullible, but saying, 'I hear what you are saying and I accept that.'), hopes all things, endures all things.
This is not a picture of the Corinthian church about which we have been reading. Is it a picture of our church? Is it a picture of you or of me?
Next Paul says, Love never fails. It would be easy to put any number of meanings to that little phrase. We might be tempted to say, 'It is the gift that just keeps on giving.'
But we might miss the point if we did that. Paul has something particular in mind when he says that love never fails.
We need to consider 'love never fails' in contrast to other comments he makes right here.
He says – prophecies (as a gift) will fail. Tongues (or languages as a gift) will cease or stop, knowledge, as a gift would vanish.
Then skip down to the last verse, (13). He says, “On the other hand, faith, hope and love remain (abide). The greatest is love.” How did he start this section? Love never fails. It (the gift of love) will never cease, it will never fail, it will never vanish away.
Before we go back and look at verses 9-12, let's ask the question: Why is the gift of love greater, even, than the gift of faith and the gift of hope?
We have been comparing love with some gifts that won't last forever. The gift of love DOES last forever. That alone is enough to say that it is greater.
Apparently the gift of love is God's gift to us even in eternity. What will not be needed in eternity is the gift of faith. The writer of Hebrews said, Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Heb 11:1
And yet faith is called one of the lasting gifts. How long does it last? Not into eternity … but right up to there. We could say … right up to the coming of Christ. After that our faith has become reality. Faith has become sight. That for which we have believed has become a reality. The same is true for the gift of hope.
For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. Romans 8:24,25
That for which we hope becomes reality when Jesus comes. Hope is swallowed up by reality. The gift of hope lasts right up to the coming of Jesus.
The writer of Hebrews in the chapter we call 'The Hall of Faith' says this;
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Heb 11:13
So the gifts of faith and hope last a long time but the gift of love lasts forever.
Now let's go back and talk about the gifts that don't last that long.
The gift of prophecy will not abide, or last as long as faith and hope. It will not abide til the coming of Christ.
The gift of tongues will not last as long as the gifts of faith and hope. They will cease or stop before the coming of Christ.
The gift of knowledge will not last as long as the gifts of faith and hope. The gift will vanish before the coming of Christ.
So now we have to ask, How much before the coming of Christ will they cease, vanish or fail?
Paul goes to his present time. He says, We (presently) know (gift of knowledge) 'in part'. The word part means a segment, or a piece. He is saying, “Knowledge come to us directly from God without the use of a book. He just puts it in our head, but its in bits and pieces. He doesn't give us the whole complete lump of truth all at once”.
He says the same about the gift of prophecy. “We speak words which God directly puts into our head and mouth to speak, but it is not the whole message from God. It is in part. It is not the whole complete Word of God. We just speak it as it comes.”
Next comes a statement that many people have misunderstood. And the reason for the misunderstanding is centered around the King James word, perfect. A further misunderstanding comes from verse 12 about looking in a mirror and seeing a dim image compared to seeing face to face. Some have assumed the 'face to face' to mean face to face with Jesus. This is incorrect, first of all because that would make prophecy, tongues and knowledge last up the coming of Jesus. That would make them 'abiding' or 'lasting' gifts just like faith and hope. Clearly Paul says that faith, hope and love are in a different category. Compared to tongues, prophecy and knowledge, there are three gifts which outlast them, faith hope and love.
This means that the non-lasting gifts would stop before the coming of Jesus.
Verse 10 tells us exactly (well, approximately) when that time was to be.
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with. 1Co 13:9,10 (WEB translation)
Paul new that something 'complete' was coming. God had revealed that to him. Paul did not know that it would be called 'The New Testament', but compared to what he was presently experiencing … the bits and pieces … it would be like looking at the word of God face to face. And how marvelous and how incredible it is, that we can have God's complete Word at our fingertips! Never take it for granted!
So Paul is sorting out some attitudes in the Corinthian churches.
He is saying, don't brag about your gift as though it is better than someone else's. It does not make you better and more important and it certainly is not loving. And besides, the gift upon which you are focusing is going to stop soon. Focus on three gifts that will not stop.
Are faith and love the only two gifts that will last until Jesus returns? Actually there are a few others. Let me list gifts by category:
Universal Gifts (for everyone.)
Faith, hope, love. Lasting gifts, and especially love because it lasts right into eternity.
Individual Gifts
tongues, interpretation, discernment, prophecy – disposable (or coming to an end)
Individual Gifts Lasting gifts
Evangelism, teaching, giving, serving, preaching, administration, mercy. These are taken from Paul's list in Romans 12 of lasting (but individual) gifts.
Love is the key for all of the gifts to work together in our church ministry. There is a little uncertainty about when gifts are given. Some say at the moment of salvation. Some say they may come at a later time. Maybe both are true. In the following chapter Paul talks about desiring certain gifts and even seems to suggest that the Corinthians could desire one gift over the other. That does seem to disagree a bit with I Cor. 12:38 which says that God set up the gifts. Again, we need to see how both can be true at the same time.
When we are ready to 'step up' our service for God, ready to move from being 'baby Christians' to becoming ministering Christians, we start to think about the gifting of God. (By the way, there is nothing wrong with being a baby Christian and enjoying the milk of God's word. It only becomes a bad thing if we want to REMAIN where we are, satisfied with our salvation and do not want to move on to ministry.)
So as we start thinking about gifts, our thoughts will be tied to what we want to do in God's service. Here is an example.
This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop (overseer, pastor), he desires a good work. 1Timothy 3:1
Paul is saying in the above verse that becoming a pastor or overseer starts with a desire. In my case that desire was very confusing, since I really am not a people person. At first I did not realize that it is God who places desires in your heart to get involved in a certain area of service … even if you are not equipped or suited for it. But then, that is where the gift comes in. God does the impossible through you.
In the next chapter Paul encourages us to 'walk in love' (you have that gift as a believer), and to desire spiritual gifts - specific ones in line with your desire for a particular ministry, but in all of that, he encourages us to seek the gift of prophecy, which at that time was speaking the very words of God to people who needed to hear it. Today that would be called the gift of preaching God's word rather than being a 'receptacle')
Regarding the gifts Paul says, … God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable. Romans 11:29
We will see how this works out in the next chapter. And it should answer the question, “If I am no longer walking with God, do I still have the gift?”
1I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all; yet in the church I would rather speak five words with my understanding, that I may teach others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue. 1Co 14:18,19
2…. for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. 2Pe 1:21