Sermon

1 Corinthians 13— What’s Love Got To Do With It?

April 6, 2003

This is one of the most cherished passages in all of scripture. It is the most popular passage to be read at Christian weddings. Maybe it was read at yours (Men, ask your wives at home later). Because it is so familiar and because it bears such sentimental attachments, we run the risk of missing its meaning. When a passage of scripture gets confused in our minds with a Hallmark greeting card poem, there is risk that we will not hear it for what it is. It is the Word of God.

This is where hearing this passage in its right context makes it so much more meaningful. As you know from our study of 1 Corinthians, the setting here is Paul addressing a very badly divided body (1 Cor 1:10). And in chapters 11–14 he is addressing the problem of controversy in their worship. Now don’t get me wrong. 1 Corinthians 13 has something very important to say that is directly applicable to the marriage relationship. It is a fitting passage to be read at weddings. But its original and most appropriate setting and application is not the Saturday afternoon wedding chapel but the Sunday morning sanctuary. Paul is telling the believers how they are to relate to one another.

And the key for Paul is the concept of love. Many of you no doubt know that the word translated “love” here is the Greek word agape. It is a Biblical word to describe love that reflects the heart of God. It is used to describe God’s love for us (John 3:16); to describe our love for each other as brothers and sisters in Christ (1 John 4:7-8); and to describe a husband’s love for his wife (Ephesians 5:25). When Jerome translated the Bible into Latin he chose the word caritas to translate agape and in some of the older English translation we get the word “charity” (cf. KJV). At the end of this letter Paul will write, “Do everything in love” (1 Cor 16:14). For Paul love is the all encompassing concept that is the key to right ethical living for believers.

1 Corinthians 13 falls into three distinct teachings:

a. The futility of life without love (vv. 1-3).
b. In praise of love (vv. 4-7).
c. The enduring power of love (vv. 8-13).

a. The futility of life without love (vv. 1-3).

You’ll recall that in chapter 12 Paul has been speaking of spiritual gifts within the body of believers. Chapter 12 ends with Paul saying, “And now I will show you the most excellent way” (v. 31). It is the agape way.

Paul begins by saying that a life lived without love is futile. Speaking in tongues was a controversial issue in Corinth (as we’ll see next week in chapter 14). Paul begins by saying, “If I speak in the tongues of men (the gift of speaking in a known language you have not studied) and of angels (an ecstatic spiritual or prayer language), but have not love I have become a resounding gong or clanging cymbals” (v. 1). To some speaking in tongues perhaps sounded like the cacophony of clanging instruments! Paul says that this vaunted gift is absolutely useless if it is exercised in a love-less way.

But Paul does not stop here. He goes on to prophecy. Paul prefers this gift over tongues (see 14:4-5), but he does not play favorites. “If I have a gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge ….” (v. 2). If I know where Cain’s wife came from, and if I can explain the great mystery of God’s sovereignty and human responsibility, and if I can tell you why a good God allows evil and suffering to occur ….

“And if I have faith that can move mountains ….” (v. 2). Paul echoes Jesus here when he told his disciples, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20).

How can you go wrong with the exercise of these wonderful gifts!?! But Paul says that we can do the right things with the wrong motivations and with the wrong spirit. “If I have the gift of prophecy … and … faith … but have not love I am nothing” (v. 2).

In v. 3 Paul then says something that is very significant. He says that I can live a morally and ethically exemplary life, I can live a life that to all appearances is self-sacrificial, and I can even do that in a distinctly unloving manner. Paul says, “If I give all I possess to the poor and if I surrender my body to the flames ….” (v. 3). That one gives to charitable organizations is no indicator of spirituality. We might do that to get a tax break or to get the praise and admiration of others or to soothe a guilty conscience. The mention of surrendering one’s body to the flames has been a puzzle. It may refer to offering one’s life as a martyr. Some have suggested that if refers to being branded as a slave. We know from the writings of an early Christian leader named Clement that some Christians actually sold themselves into slavery in order to provide for the material needs of their Christian brothers and sisters: “We know that many among ourselves have given themselves to bondage that they might ransom others. Many have delivered themselves to slavery, and provided food for others with the price they received for themselves” (1 Clement 55:2).

Paul says I can do all these super-spiritual things, but if “I have not love, I gain nothing” (v. 3). Do we need any other evidence that we do not gain righteousness by good deeds? “Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph 2:9). I think of the Lord’s word to Samuel in 1 Samuel 16:7: “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Life, even a super-spiritual life, lived without love is futile.

b. In praise of love (vv. 4-7).

And what exactly is this agape love? How does it express itself? How will we know it when we see it?

Paul provides us with 15 quick snapshots of what love is. Some are positive (love is …) but most are negative (love is not …). Sometimes it is easier to describe something by saying what it isn’t rather than what it is.

Love is patient (v. 4). Patience is one of the fruit of the spirit (Gal 5:22). Love does not demand immediate results. Love is willing to wait and wait and even, sometimes, wait some more. Love does not expect everything to have been done yesterday.

Love is kind. This too is a fruit of the spirit. Love takes into consideration the feelings of others. Love does not go on a rampage like a bull in a China shop. Love offers hospitality and simple courtesy to strangers and even to enemies.

It does not envy. The word for envy here is zeloi. We come here to something that is woven throughout. Many of the things that Paul says love is not, he has already said that the Corinthians are. In 1 Cor 3:3 Paul says, “For there is still jealousy (zelos) and quarreling among you, are you not worldly?” They are not living in love! Love is satisfied with life as it is. Love is content with what God has provided. Love does not have to have what everyone else has. Love does not need to keep up with the Jones.

It does not boast. Literally, it is not puffed up. Again, cf. 1 Cor 4:18; 8:1: “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” Love is not arrogant. It does not consider itself superior to or better than or above others. Love is humble.

It is not rude (v. 5). “Doth not behave itself unseemly” (KJV). Love is tactful and considerate. Love does not trample over others in a rush to get to the front of the line.

It is not self-seeking. Literally, “It does not seek the things of its own.” Love does not have a “Look out for number one” kind of mentality. Love is self-less. Our natural tendency is to be bent in upon ourselves. Llewellyn and I were discussing this week a passage from Elisabeth Elliot when she said that one of the best things one can do to overcome depression is to do something for someone else and get our minds off our own needs.

It is not easily angered. Love is not touchy. Some people need to be wrapped in emotional bubble wrap. You do not have to walk around on egg shells with those who live in love. Love can handle it if you fail. And love can forgive. A passage that speaks to me on this is James 1:19-20:

19 My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,
20 for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.

It keeps no record of wrongs. Literally, it does not impute (logizetai) the bad. Love does not act like a bookkeeper recording every fault and every wrong. We just heard that love does not get mad, and now we hear that it does not get even. Love both forgives and forgets. Love does not hold a grudge. It does not try to settle the score. How tempting it is for someone like me to do that. “Well, remember that time in 1972 when you did thus and such ….” Usually when we do that we are only trying to justify our own obnoxious behavior.

Love does not delight in evil (v. 6). Love is not happy when bad things happen to others. Not even their enemies. Love does not express ill will. Love does not have a scorched earth policy.

But, positively, love rejoices with the truth. Love loves truth. This is where love departs from some frilly Valentine’s Day kind of schmaltzy, overly sentimental tripe. Love is not never having to say you’re sorry. Love is not about overlooking error or sin in order to avoid conflict. Love rejoices in the truth. We are to speak the truth in love (Eph 4:11).

Then in v. 7 we get this great final expression of four things that love always does: It always protects. Love is a shield that would throw itself over others to guard them from unkindness.

It always trusts. Love expects the best of other and is always genuinely surprised when anything else than that raises its head. I recall a time when I did not trust. It was a Friday, my day off, and I had come by the office for a minute to do something. Thought I had locked the door behind me but it had stayed open without catching. At the office door window I saw a ball cap. It was a drifter with a story of needing a bus ticket. I did not believe him. I was jaded. I asked him to come back the next day and rake leaves (It would be the first Saturday in December) never thinking he’d show. Just put an obstacle out there and they bail. But there he was the next day. Worked hard. Elsom thought he was a new member. And at the end of the day I bought him his bus ticket and loaded him up with groceries. And before he left he looked at me and said, “You didn’t believe me, did you?” And I said, “No I did not, forgive me.”

I often tell couples in counseling that the greatest gift you can give your spouse is the gift of trust. To do that, of course, you have to prove yourself to be trustworthy.

Always perseveres (hupomenei). “Endureth all things” (KJV). Love is in it for the long haul. Hodge points out that this is a military word meaning “to sustain the assault of an enemy.” Love does not give up or bail out when the going gets tough.

This is Paul’s incredible song of praise to the love that reflects the heart of God himself.

c. The enduring power of love (vv. 8-13).

Finally, Paul tells us of what will be lasting and ultimate in life. Love, he says, never fails. It never comes up short. It does not end. In v. 8 he says that prophecies and tongues and knowledge will all cease at some point. These are all the things that the Corinthians had been arguing about as if these things were ultimate in God’s sight. The church age is going to come to an end some day when Jesus comes in glory to receive his bride. And these things won’t much matter anymore.

In v. 9 Paul says that what we live with now is not the final design. We know in part and we prophecy in part but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. Now it is so clear that we are not all that we should be.

Paul uses two powerful analogies to drive this home. First, in v. 11 is the analogy of a child growing into manhood. Paul says when I was a child I spoke like child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Paul is saying that in this life we are like children who are growing and maturing into adulthood. This is what we call sanctification, growing in holiness. Of course, it is a process that is not complete until the last stage of glorification that is God’s ultimate work on us. Paul is saying that in our immaturity sometimes we still speak baby talk. Our words are goo-goo-s and ga-ga-s. Children do not have the capacity for abstract reasoning. I am coaching four year olds in Y-soccer on Saturdays this Spring, and you forget that four year olds have a hard time following simple instructions. They do not even know how to get in a line. They have to be taken and shown. They cannot thing abstractly. They do not yet understand all the things about life that we adults know. I’ll never forget the winter when Hannah was about 3 or 4 and we built a snowman, and having watched “Frostie” she asked, “When is it going to talk?” Paul says now we are like children. But we are growing and a day is coming when we will be raised to the full stature of maturity in Christ.

The second analogy in v. 12 is that of a mirror. Mirrors in the ancient world were polished metals that did not have the same high quality of our modern mirrors. They were milky and it was hard to see one’s reflection. One of Corinth’s chief trades was mirror making. Paul says now we see but a poor reflection (Greek, en ainigmati). But then (when Christ comes in glory and the kingdom is fulfilled) we shall see face to face. Now we only get a milky, distorted glimpse, but then we shall know, even as we are known. You see there is not distortion in what he sees. And soon the veil will be fully lifted from our eyes.

In v. 13 Paul concludes by singling out faith, hope, and love as the cardinal virtues or qualities that will distinguish those who are in Christ. But he says that the greatest is agape.

Paul says that a life lived without love is futile. He then describes that love. And it is a daunting description. What can we say, but that we are not living up to this expectation. How many of us have been stung to hear these words when we reflect on how we have treated our spouse this week or our co-workers or our roomate or our parents or our fellow believers. Jesus is always raising the bar to impossible heights, isn’t he? But then this last part reminds us of why we fail. We are still children who are growing. We still see dimly. But we know what the final outcome will be.

And we know that this love does not spring from human capacities. It is divine love. And it is exercised in our lives only by grace.

Jeffrey T. Riddle
Pastor, Jefferson Park Baptist Church

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