Chapter 13
The More Excellent Way - The Way of Love
13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 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. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Paul writes about the necessity to love (Greek ‘agapē’, considered the highest form of love, often described as unconditional love), but he is not referring to the love of oneself or the love of those who love you back, he is writing about loving like God, a love for all people without constraint. Paul is pointing to others, we must love total strangers, love the undesirable, to have a love for those that are unsaved. Otherwise all the Spiritual gifts and roles God has in mind for us will be totally wasted and useless for His kingdom. But note as Paul proceeds to describe this love that he is certainly not talking about any love a human being can naturally produce, it’s a love that can only come from God. He did create us to love, but in our sinful fallen state we can only love to a point (varies from person to person) but we can’t love everybody like He does without the love of God in us.
Paul says even if he could speak many languages (including that of angels), without love the message is meaningless, just like the dissonant sound of a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal the message would be dismissed.
13:4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Paul proceeds to list the attributes of the agapē love he is writing about. He begins by saying love is patient, the Greek word carries the meaning of long-suffering. When we think about patience most don’t mind waiting for a short period of time but to be a long period (hours, days, weeks, or perhaps years) while suffering (not simply waiting or being inconvenienced) perhaps in discomfort or pain, this would be unacceptable to most people. The next on Paul’s list is kindness, a term that is often reduced to the concept of being nice, but the Greek also implies one who is willing to oblige and help.
Paul then lists eight negative characteristics that love is not, beginning with envy. From the Greek word that refers to being zealous, which can have both negative and positive connotations, in context one burning in zeal strongly desiring something. If someone is envious of anything, they cannot love others, their passion is focused on the object of their desires. Love does not boast, though one can boast for others, the term is generally used in regard to self-promotion, in other words, bragging. If someone loves themselves so much to boast then they are probably not loving others much. On a similar note, love is also not arrogant. The Greek word means “to inflate,” or puff up, used only figuratively in the New Testament referring to pride and self-conceit. Again, like boasting, being arrogant leaves little room for the love of others. Love is not rude, while the definition of the word may vary from person to person, it minimally encapsulates ill-mannered or discourteous behavior. Treating someone rudely certainly doesn’t qualify as a loving trait. A person who loves doesn’t insist on getting their way, they are considerate of others. What is implied is the willingness to listen to others and share in decision making. Love is not irritable, the Greek can be translated as “to sharpen,” metaphorically meaning to sharpen the mind, to incite, to provoke into anger, or become irritable if things continue to go wrong. Bringing us to the last item that love does not do, and that is to rejoice when things do go wrong, implying also that injustice or anything that is unrighteous, will not be tolerated.
Paul then proceeds to list five favorable (positive) attributes. On the top of the list is that love “rejoices with the truth,” the Greek word that is translated as ‘rejoices’ is unique (only found seven times in the Bible) as it refers to rejoicing with another person, to share in someone’s joy! Paul further notes “with the truth,” While the truth may not always be good or even beneficial, believers always have hope in eternal life with Him! Regardless of the situation, love remains and “bears all things.” The Greek word means “to cover” or conceal, in context love hides the faults of others, but it also points to holding out or enduring. The application is not specified which can range from enduring insults to physical pain. Paul next states that, “love believes all things,” this is not a blind statement that in order to love, one must believe all things, it is referring to others that they trust others, to have faith in them. Again, this is not a blanket statement, but does call for the person to not start out being suspicious or doubting. Love hopes all things, to hope for all that is worthy of being hoped for, one doesn’t hope for disaster or something to go wrong, it is an expectation of something good. Then the last item on Paul’s list is about endurance, love endures all things. Both the English and the Greek words refer to being under pressure while quietly enduring the physical pain, persecution, problem, etc.
13:8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
Adding a sixth favorable attribute of love, Paul states that love does not expire, love never ends. To clarify he notes that prophecies, words that were once valid will become old news, that words heard or spoken will eventually stop, that knowledge at some point will also be no longer important, that everything we know is limited when compared to everything that can be known, and that when someone prophesies it is also limited. But when the perfect comes, when we are in heaven, the partial will end, everything will known. Paul returns to the subject of the Spiritual gifts. He notes that the gifts, though valuable at the time, are only temporary, but love lasts forever.
13:11 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. 12 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.
Paul uses himself as an example of humanity growing up. As a child he spoke, thought and reasoned like a child. But when he became a man he no longer had a child’s perspective, he matured and gave up his childish ways. Paul is connecting our present condition, still being sinful and imperfect to being like that immature kid, we can only relate to what see and know to be true. Like looking in a mirror whose image is not real clear. But when we arrive in heaven, face to face with Jesus, everything will be fully known. The old ‘immature’ self will be gone, but some things will survive that transition.
13:13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Paul concludes his short essay about love by first stating that faith, hope, and love are eternal and will be with us in heaven, but quickly elevates love over the others. Which should not surprise any believer as, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:16-17, ESV) That is true agapē love!
Considerations
Supernatural Love
Anyone reading this chapter would soon either start feeling guilty as they see themselves coming up short or recognize the futility in trying. On our own, we humans can’t love anything like what Paul wrote here. We see what Paul was trying to say regarding Spiritual gifts, both in the application of the gifts and the desire to obtain the higher gifts (see 1 Corinthians 12:31), without a strong love for others, it’s all a waste of time and resources. But what message is he conveying about love? Since God is the only one that can love as presented here in this chapter, Paul is saying we need God’s love, not ‘like’ God’s love, but His love in us, and then through us to others. In order to do that we must remain in Him, that’s why we don’t want to lose our fellowship with Him.