Making Sense of 1st Corinthians CH13

Someone once noticed the Beatles said, “All you need is love.” Then they broke up.

Whitney Houston said, “The Greatest love of all is learning to love yourself.” Then she died of a drug overdose.

I’ve often said that I love ice cream, lasagna, and beer. They do not love me back. Not even a little bit. It’s definitely an abusive relationship and I should get a restraining order.

According to poets, authors, songwriters, and all the major religions of the world—love is the most important thing there is. But what is it? What is love? Don’t hurt me. Baby don’t hurt me, no more. Actually, love is usually confused with desire, infatuation, and lust. The word “love” is mostly used to describe the powerful feeling and emotion associated with something or someone we want. To possess. To make our own. We mistake love for the pleasure we get from all that.

Jesus said love is the whole point. Of everything. What’s the most important commandment? What’s the most important thing God told us to do? To love Him in response to His love for us—with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. He said a really close runner-up is to love your neighbor as yourself—by neighbor, He made it clear that He meant anyone who happens to get your attention.

Then, after the Last Supper, just before He showed us what ultimate love actually looks like, He said, “I have a new commandment. Love one another the way I have loved you.” Then He laid down His life for us. Love one another like that.

So, love is giving, not taking. Love is sacrifice, love is something we do for other people—even when we don’t feel like it. Especially when we don’t feel like it.

It kinda means most of the love songs have it backward. 

I know, it’s really confusing. The Bible is so vague about all this.

In John 13:34 Jesus says

“Love one another.”

In John 13:35 He says,

“Love one another”

but then in John 15:12 He says

“Love one another,”

just before He turns around in John 15:17 and confuses us by adding,

“Love one another.”

Those were all Jesus, but then mean ol’ St Paul in Romans 12:10 says,

“Love one another.”

He completely changes his tune in 1st Thessalonians and tells them to

“Love one another.”

Peter hears about what Paul is preaching and wants to correct all this unrealistic hippy-dippy nonsense in 1st Peter 1:22 and tells the Christians to

“Love one another.”

John must have had it up to here with both Peter and Paul because in his epistles he corrects them six times—1st John 3:11, 1st John 3:23, 1st John 4:7, 1st John 4:11, 1st John 4:12, and 2nd John 5:5—he says, and I quote,

“Love one another.”

How are we supposed to reconcile all these contradictions in Scripture? I guess some things will just have to remain a mystery.

Obviously, I’m joking to make a point. The Bible is clear, we are to love one another. What’s not so clear to most of us, though, is how to do that. What it means.

John also tells us twice that God is love. Most of us have a backward understanding of that, too though. Instead of looking to God to understand what love is, we look to our understanding of love to understand who God is. That’s not going to work. God is love, but love is not God. We don’t look at how we feel about lasagna to understand how we’re supposed to feel about Jesus.

We’ve been going through 1st Corinthians line by line, chapter by chapter at NewChurch. I think it’s been pretty awesome and very eye-opening. Paul keeps coming back to the idea that the only thing we need to know is the Gospel. That Jesus gave His life for us. Christ and Him crucified—that’s all we need to know. He doesn’t mean that’s the only theological fact we need to remember, he means the act of Jesus laying down His life for us is how we should understand everything else.

Chapter 12 was all about spiritual gifts. The powers, abilities, and roles the Holy Spirit gives each member of the church, which he calls the body of Christ—He gives us these gifts so we can serve each other. Encourage each other. Build each other up. Minister to each other. Everything God gives us, He gives us for other people. Blessed to be a blessing.

Always keep in mind that the chapter divisions are not part of the original inspired Word of God, neither are the verse numbers—those things just help us keep track of what we’re reading. So, when he said at the end of chapter 12, “earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way,” the very next sentence is Paul telling us exactly what that more excellent way is. What is the most important gift the Holy Spirit gives us so that we can serve each other, encourage each other, build each other up, and minister to each other in the church? 

Absolutely none of us should be surprised. The greatest gift from God is love. 1st Corinthians 13 is probably the most beautiful chapter in the entire Bible. Preaching on this chapter makes me really happy.

The Absolute Necessity of Love:

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

Speaking in tongues was apparently something that the super-spiritual were abusing in the Corinthian church. Tongues is another way of saying languages, so some people in their church had a supernatural ability to speak in languages they didn’t actually know. Paul’s laying it on pretty thick here to make a point but I appreciate the way he doesn’t just scold them—he says everything in first-person to soften it up. Even if “I.” If God gives me a supernatural ability to just start talking in a language I don’t know, even if it’s the heavenly language of angels (which would be pretty cool—I’d probably think I really had something going on) but if I don’t have love while I’m doing it—I might as well be a bunch of irritating noise. The pagan temples in Corinth were noisy places where a lot of bronze gongs and cymbals were clanging all the time. Also, Corinth was known for making really loud bronze instruments. Without love, my cool superpower is just a bunch of noise. “Sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

He goes on to say If I have prophetic powers—if God actually speaks through me. Again, he’s laying it on thick, “if I understand all mysteries. If I’m not only the smartest guy in the room, but I actually do know everything. A bonafide Mr Know It All.” I’d probably think I’m really something—wouldn’t you? Paul says without love, I am nothing.

The next one is pretty surprising though. Even if I have all the faith in the world. Even if I have enough faith to remove mountains. Having faith isn’t the point. Demons completely believe in God. 

Jesus said if you have the tiniest bit of faith, like a mustard seed, that you could move mountains. But without love, it doesn’t mean anything. Even if you lay down your life, give away everything you own, but somehow you manage to do all that without love—selfishly, begrudgingly, in anger—you gain nothing. It doesn’t do any good. 

That’s pretty heavy. Jesus said some people were going to prophesy in His name, call Him “Lord,” and then when they stood before Him, He was going to look them in the face and say, “I don’t know you, you’re not welcome here.” That’s what Paul’s talking about—anyone who does anything without love is not doing it for God, not doing it by the power of the Holy Spirit. Not doing it as a Christian.

So it might be a good idea for us all to pay attention to what the Bible says love is, and what it isn’t—this is what it actually means to love.

The Character of Love:

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful (doesn’t keep a record of wrongs); it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

That’s a big ol’ giant pile of countercultural thinking. We are not naturally wired like that. We think we fall in love with people with hearts dancing around our head like a cartoon. We think we’re “in love” with someone as long as we like the way they look, the way they make us feel—as long as we’re “feeling it.” As long as we don’t have to be too patient with them, as long as they are kind to us, as long as they’re not rude to us, as long as they don’t insist on their way, or irritate us too much. We tend to say we love someone as long as we think they have something we want—as long as they make us feel good about ourselves. Paul says we’ve got it all backward.

This gift of love that comes from God is not the same thing as our sentimental notions of modern love. Any love that’s based on our desires and appetites is going to lead us to all kinds of bad ideas. Actual love is not selfish. Self-serving imitations of love will lead us to every kind of sin. Paul says the love that comes from God is absolutely not about celebrating sin. God’s love is about truth. 

Since God is love, Paul is actually describing the character of God when he describes love. And every one of these fifteen descriptive words is a verb. Sometimes our English Bibles resort to adjectives to translate these words but in Greek, they’re all verbs. They’re all action words. Actions for the benefit of others. Love is something we have to do for other people.

Love bears all things, it puts up with all that stuff you don’t like—it’s not short-tempered. Love is kind—treats people with kindness. Love believes all things, stays on the grace side of the fence, takes people at their word, holds on to God’s Word even when we’re tempted to doubt, believes in people even when they’re not acting faithfully, even when they’re not particularly believable. Love hopes all things because our hope is in Jesus, He promises this is all going somewhere good. Love endures all things because there will be an end to all the drama and pain. Jesus said that He’s going to return, make everything new, set everything right—which means you can love people and put up with all the ways they disappoint you because it’s not going to last forever. You can love people who disappoint you because God loves you and puts up with all the ways you disappoint Him. 

The Permanence of Love:

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 1 Corinthians 13:8-10

God’s love isn’t going anywhere. There is no end to love. God is love, so love is eternal. When Jesus returns and all of us are resurrected in glorious new bodies in the New Heavens and the New Earth. When our hope in Christ is completely realized, when all the mysteries are revealed—there won’t be any need for prophecy or speaking in tongues, because the perfect state that all those things were talking about will have happened. “When the perfect comes, the partial will pass away” is clearly a reference to the 2nd coming and perfect kingdom of Christ.

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:11-12

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13

When the perfect kingdom of heaven comes, it will be as different from the world as we currently know it as childhood is from adulthood. Compared to what it will be like when Christ returns, we’re all just a bunch of little kids fighting over a swing on the playground—trying to get our way. Our understanding of who we are in Christ, how God sees us because of Jesus, is as distorted as our reflection in an antique bronze mirror. When the perfect kingdom of Christ comes, our understanding of love—God’s love for us, what love actually is—will be like the comparison of what we see when we look in a dark distorted mirror compared to seeing someone face to face in the light of day. We know in part. We have a glimpse of the glory of God, the love of God, the way He sees us through grace—but one day we’ll see it for what it actually is. We will know even as we have been known. A clear reflection of who we are in Christ because of the perfect love of God.

Until then we have three things to hold onto—Faith, hope, and love. One day we won’t need faith because we’ll see God face to face. We won’t need hope because we’ll have everything we ever hoped for. But love isn’t going anywhere. Love will be with us forever. Real love. God’s love.

Act One: Challenge

So Paul says we should start practicing now. We should love one another. Love is the law. Love is God’s will. It’s not a suggestion, it’s a command. Love one another.

This chapter is read at a lot of weddings—and that’s fine—but it’s not only about the love between a husband and wife. This is the calling of all Christians to all people. 

So let’s do an experiment. Think of someone in your life who’s hard to love. Think of the person in this church who drives you a little crazy. Think of someone who has disappointed you—let you down. 

Now replace the word “love” in verses four through seven with yourself and how you treat them.

Let’s all do it together. Think of that person, the first one who came to mind, and let’s say this out loud: “I am patient and kind with them; I do not want what they have or think I’m better than they are; I am not rude to them. I let them have their own way; I am not irritated by them and do not keep a record of how they have wronged me; I do not rejoice when they get what’s coming to them, but love to share the truth with them. I will never give up on them, I hold on to my faith in Jesus no matter what, I am always hopeful, and I keep following Him faithfully no matter what they say or do to me.” 

Hmm. Is that a fact? You willing to put your right hand on a Bible and say that again? I’m not.

Sometimes in marriage counseling, I’ll have the couple read this to each other and replace the word “love” with their name. Most people are reduced to a puddle of tears.

Because we don’t love like that. Not even close. We’re all way too selfish and impatient. If love is the will of God and this is what love is supposed to look like—then this is probably the most powerful confession tool that exists. God says if we humble ourselves and confess our sin then He is faithful and just to forgive us. We have to be willing to call it like it is. 

So let’s try this again. This time let’s tell the truth. Let’s say this together, as a prayer:

Act Two: Confession

Forgive me Lord. I have not been patient and kind to the people in my life; I have been envious and prideful; I have been arrogant and rude. I have been selfish and insisted on my own way; I have been irritable and resentful; I have been too comfortable with my sin, and I have ignored the truth. I have given up on people, I have given in to doubt, I have lost sight of hope, and I have not been faithful.

Wow. That’s a lot. We’re not very good people, are we? 

You know what God’s response to us admitting how bad we are is? When we put down our pride and come to Him with complete humility and honesty? When we confess our sin.

He says, “I know. I forgive you. I love you anyway.”

You know why? Because He is love. Everything in that list is a description of His character. It’s who He is. That should be very comforting to you.

Act Three: Comfort [and v 4-7]

God is patient and kind with you; He’s not petty, He’s not arrogant, prideful, or rude. Jesus humbled Himself and submitted to the Father all the way to the cross for you; He is longsuffering with you, you don’t irritate Him—He doesn’t hold anything against you. The whole point of the Gospel is that He doesn’t keep a record of your wrongs; He also doesn’t rejoice when you do wrong things and have to deal with the consequences—that doesn’t make Him happy. He shows you mercy. Jesus is the Way the Truth and the Life. He will never give up on you, He will be faithful and loyal no matter what. This is who God is. God is love.

The Lord doesn’t count your sin against you because of Jesus. Your sin was nailed to the cross. God remembers your sin no more. Why does He do all this for you? What’s His motive? You know.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him will never die.” John 3:16

His motive was love. You should have a better understanding of what that means now. Love is action. Love is sacrifice. 

But you know how you are. You’re going to attempt to try His patience, test His kindness, say and do irritating things, you know you are—you can be a real turkey. Me too, I’m the King of Turkeys. But He’s going to love you anyway. Believe in Jesus and there is no condemnation for you. That’s the Gospel truth. That’s your hope. Hold on to that hope until you don’t need it anymore. Until the day when you stand before Jesus face to face and He looks at you and says, “I sure do love you.”

Prayer: Father in heaven, thank You for loving us. For seeing us as lovable. We don’t feel loveable most of the time. We don’t act loveable most of the time. Thank You for loving us anyway—and for seeing us through the perfect love of Jesus. Fill us with Your Spirit and give us love—so we can love each other. Really love each other. Help us to live in Your love. AMEN