1 Corinthians 13

                We’ve worked our way through 1 Corinthians to the epistle’s most familiar chapter, “The Love Chapter.”  You can find verses from 1 Corinthians 13 printed on wedding programs and wall hangings.  I often find myself quoting parts of it to our children: “Love is not rude,” I’ll say, or “love is not easily angered.”   While the verses are appropriate in a variety of situations, in context Paul pens this chapter to a particular group of believers who, as he noted in chapter 1, “come short in no gift” and eagerly anticipated the coming of Christ.  And yet, as we worked our way through the remainder of chapter 1 and subsequent chapters, we saw that in spite of the spiritual riches they possessed, the church in Corinth was also marked by a tolerance of immorality and division among its members.  Many in Corinth exhibited a tendency to pride and favoritism toward those who seemed wise, were eloquent, or possessed certain spiritual gifts, like speaking in tongues.  Paul emphasized in 1 Corinthians 12 that God had given them spiritual gifts for the good of their fellow believers.  He concludes chapter 12 by encouraging them to “earnestly desire the best gifts” – those gifts that most benefited others – “and yet,” he continues, “I show you a more excellent way.”

And what is that way?  The way of love.  Or, to use the language of the King James Version, the way of charity – a love that is active, a love that serves others.

 The characteristics of love are many.  Read through them on a day when all seems to be well, and they read like poetry.  Read through them on a day when you have had a spat with your spouse or are holding a grudge against a fellow believer, and they are some of the most convicting verses in the Bible.

Here’s an exercise for you.  It’s one Elisabeth Elliot employed when she was feeling bitter toward her husband – she would put her name in place of the word “love,” only negatively.  When I do that, the chapter reads this way:

Sarah does not suffer long, nor is she patient or kind.  Sarah envies; Sarah vaunts herself and is puffed up.  Sarah behaves unseemly, is arrogant and rude.  Sarah insists on her own way, is easily provoked, and keeps record of other’s wrongs.  Sarah rejoices in sin, rather than with the truth.  Sarah does not bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, endure all things.  Sarah’s love fails.

                Paul goes on to point out that spiritual gifts like prophecy, tongues, and knowledge will pass away.  Just as a child grows into an adult and puts away childish speaking and thinking, so the Christian will put away such gifts in glory, where we will know God fully, as if seeing Him face to face.  That’s our hope, by faith, isn’t it?  Heaven.  So faith and hope remain ‘til that day.  And love, which we experience only in part now, we will have fully then, and forever.  For God Himself is Love, the Love that never fails.