1 Corinthians 13:1–13
1 Corinthians 13 has been called “the hymn of love.” According to one writer, Harnack, this chapter is the greatest, the strongest, the deepest thing Paul ever wrote.
To understand the message of this “hymn of love” more clearly, we have to take into account where it sits and what its context is. It falls between chapters 12 and 14 of the letter, both of which speak about spiritual gifts and their use in the church. If we compared chapters 12, 13, and 14 to a sandwich, we would say that chapters 12 and 14 are the slices of bread and chapter 13 is the filling. Like the filling of a sandwich, chapter 13 is the best part of it. Yet, on the other hand, we could never understand chapter 13 well without the help of the chapters that come before and after it.
The apostle Paul closes the previous chapter, chapter 12, with these words:
31 Now eagerly desire the greater gifts. And yet I will show you the most excellent way. (1 Corinthians 12:31)
And chapter 14 begins with these words:
1 Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. (1 Corinthians 14:1)
In other words, the apostle Paul does not want to set love and spiritual gifts against each other. It is our responsibility to long for the spiritual gifts and to desire that they be manifested among us. But the thing that must govern the gifts and their expression is love.
What is this “most excellent way”? What is the thing that surpasses the gifts of the Holy Spirit? It is the way of love. This way is most excellent for three reasons:
- Love is irreplaceable. It cannot be substituted with anything else.
- Love is unattainable. We can have nothing better than it.
- Love is unending. The gifts will pass away, but love remains.
THE IRREPLACEABILITY OF LOVE (vv. 1–3)
Love is irreplaceable. By this we mean that it cannot be compensated for by anything else.
First, the lack of love cannot be compensated for by spirituality. Gifts cannot take the place of love.
1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. (1 Corinthians 13:1)
In the first century, at the entrance of most pagan temples there stood a great gong. When people came in to worship, they would strike the gong to wake up the gods, so that the gods would hear their prayers. Without love, tongues are nothing but a lot of noise about nothing — “sound and fury.” In other words, according to the apostle Paul, a church that prays in unknown tongues yet does not practice love is nothing more than a piece of pagan idolatry.
The picture of “a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal” creates the impression of monotony, of something that grates on the nerves, something dull and isolated. Both the resounding gong and the clanging cymbal give off only one and the same sound. Their problem is that they cannot play a melody or create any musical harmony. They are a metaphor for individualism and narrowness.
Second, the lack of love cannot be compensated for by supernatural manifestations.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:2)
Both the priest and the Levite in the parable of the Good Samaritan had faith, but… their problem was that they had no love. The lack of love robs faith of its power. In Galatians 5:6 the apostle Paul says:
6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Galatians 5:6)
For us the lack of love is a truly enormous problem, because the lack of love robs our witness of its power. People do not care how much we understand about God until they understand how much we care about them.
Notice this: even if, because of God’s miraculous working in us, we think we are “something,” if we do not have love, we are “nothing.”
Third, the lack of love cannot be compensated for by religious acts. Philanthropy and martyrdom are great deeds, but if they are not motivated by love, they are worthless.
3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:3)
In these first verses of chapter 13, the apostle Paul describes for us a super-spiritual man. This man speaks in the tongues of men and of angels. He prophesies; he stands up in the assembly and says, “Thus says the Lord…” He knows “all mysteries” — he knows the Bible perfectly, from cover to cover. He has all knowledge — nothing is hidden from him, he knows everything. He has faith, so that miracles and signs follow his ministry. He has faith not only in words but in deeds — he gives away all he possesses to feed the poor. Finally, he even becomes a martyr for his faith — he surrenders his body to the flames. But if he does not have love, this super-spiritual man is nothing, and out of all his good deeds he gains nothing at all. Nothing of all that he possesses can compensate for or replace love. This is precisely why we say that, according to the first part of chapter 13, this “hymn of love,” love is irreplaceable. Spiritual gifts, supernatural power, martyrdom, and charitable activity are religious deeds, but without love they are stripped of all value and gain nothing.
Love is the only thing that counts. Without love nothing counts for us, nothing is credited to us, because love is the only thing that gives value to all our other actions and deeds. If you do something out of love, it is credited to you as a good deed before God. If you do something without love, it does not count, it is not credited.
So let us examine our lives; let us test ourselves. Let us think about ourselves and about the way we act. Are our actions lined with love? Are our good deeds motivated by love, or by personal advantage and our own interests? Because if it is the latter, then we are to be pitied. The only thing that gives value to all our actions and deeds is love.
THE UNATTAINABLENESS OF LOVE (vv. 4–7)
One of the dangers when we listen to a sermon about love is that “love” is a popular subject. Because of this we tend not to listen carefully to it. We say to ourselves, “I already know this!” and so we miss essential things that God wants us to store in our hearts. But let us concentrate and hear with our hearts what the Holy Spirit, through the apostle Paul, has to say to us about love.
First, what is love; what is its character?
4 Love is patient, love is kind. (1 Corinthians 13:4)
1. Love “is patient.” This means that love exercises inner and outer control over itself in difficult circumstances. It shows patience regardless of the difficulties. We are often impatient with one another. We cannot bear each other. But if we say we are Christians, then we ought to behave like Christians. If we have love, it will make us patient with one another. Love will help us to put up with one another, to bear with one another. It will make us gracious toward the weaknesses of others.
2. Love “is kind.” Love is not only merciful, it is kind. To be kind means to do something good for someone in order to show him your goodwill toward him. To be kind to someone means not merely to tolerate him, but to greet him, to smile at him.
This is why I say that love is unattainable. Because when we look at ourselves in this chapter, we find ourselves lacking. We see ourselves falling short of the standard that God wants us to reach.
But this must not make us resign ourselves. On the contrary, we must repent, change, and be transformed. We must keep being transformed until we reach God’s standard for love — to be patient, to be kind, loving, and gentle.
Second, what does love not do?
First, with regard to itself:
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud, 5 it does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking. (1 Corinthians 13:4–5)
Here the apostle Paul describes love by using negatives. By using negatives, the apostle Paul shows us that true love recognizes and acknowledges the existence of selfishness and its consequences, yet it flatly rejects its expressions and changes them from evil into good. All of these realities are common to human beings. It is common for us to envy, to lift ourselves a little above others — to admit that they are something, but that we are a little above them; to do whatever we please. That is human, isn’t it? But love takes all of this and changes it. It brings it about that even when it is under pressure or when it is provoked, it does not allow selfishness to take power over it. It “does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud, it does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking.” This is the way of love, and these are the steps we must walk in if we want to be true followers of Christ.
This chapter, in fact, describes the character of Christ. And if we want to be His followers, then we must be like Him. And that means having love. When Christ speaks of love, this is precisely the love He has in mind.
3. Love does not envy. In it there is no envy and no bitterness. It harbors no ill feelings toward anyone. It is not irritated by the successes of others. It does not become angry because someone else has something more than we do. On the contrary, it rejoices when others succeed.
4. Love does not boast. Love does not brag excessively about itself. It does not consider itself a big deal.
5. Love is not proud. Love is not arrogant; it does not think itself something more than others. It does not strive to win recognition. It seeks God’s approval.
6. Love does not dishonor others. It does not behave shamelessly. It does not do things that are ill-mannered and crude.
7. Love is not self-seeking. It does not insist on having its own way at any cost, nor does it demand its rights. As someone has said, “Love begins where another person’s need becomes more important than my own need.” This is why I say that love is unattainable. Because it seems as though we have not even begun to love. We say, “Others are kind to us, but we are kinder still.” If we want to have love, we must reject the worldly way of thinking and truly put others above ourselves.
Second, with regard to others. Here the apostle Paul goes on to give us the characteristics of love with regard to other people.
It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. (1 Corinthians 13:5)
8. Love is not easily angered. Love does not have a short fuse. It does not flare up easily. If we blow up quickly, it means we lack love.
9. Love keeps no record of wrongs. Some people carry big black notebooks in which they mark down big black points against others. Love does not keep a ledger of the wrongs done to it. It quickly seeks reconciliation and forgets the offenses.
One of the most pitiful things one can see is a Christian who keeps a list of the ways others have wronged him. The forgiveness of love erases all such “accounts.”
God “keeps no record” of the times of ignorance in which we lived in unbelief and sin (Acts 17:30):
30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. (Acts 17:30)
Humanly speaking, love is unattainable, and we need the Holy Spirit to change us and to make us truly have love within us.
Third, what does love do? So far we have seen what love does not do. Now let us see what it does. The love the apostle Paul is speaking of is a love that can be felt, but above all it is a love that acts, that does something for others.
6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. (1 Corinthians 13:6)
10. Love does not delight in evil. Love is not like the old saying, “I don’t care whether things go well for me — I just want things to go badly for my neighbor!” That saying, of course, carries a large dose of self-irony, but it mocks precisely this kind of low behavior, in which a person gloats over the unjust suffering of others or over the fact that someone has failed.
11. Love rejoices with the truth.
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (1 Corinthians 13:7)
Notice that here, in verse 7, the apostle Paul repeats one and the same word four times — “always.”
12. Love always protects. It keeps bitterness out of the heart in the same way that a boat keeps the seawater from flooding into its interior, and in the same way that a roof keeps the rain from falling inside the house. And what do we say? “I’ll keep quiet, I’ll keep quiet, but in the end I’ll let him have it…”
13. Love always trusts. This does not mean that love is naive, but that it believes the best about others until it is convinced otherwise.
14. Love always hopes. Love is an optimist. Instead of being full of negativity and fault-finding, love is always positively disposed and expects the best in others.
15. Love always perseveres. Love endures all things; it goes on bearing up regardless of the difficulties and the sufferings.
What a perfect description of love! What a perfect description of the character of Jesus Christ, our Lord! This is the love that Christ has for us. God loves us in exactly this way. This is something truly encouraging. If we replace the word “love” with the name “Jesus” in these verses, we get a wonderful description of what Christ is like:
4 Jesus is patient, Jesus is kind. Jesus does not envy, Jesus does not boast, Jesus is not proud, 5 Jesus does not dishonor others, Jesus is not self-seeking, Jesus is not easily angered, Jesus keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Jesus does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 Jesus always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (1 Corinthians 13:4–7)
This is true of our Lord, but as His followers, it ought to be true of us as well. Would you now try to say these verses, putting your own name in the place of love?
4 ………… is patient, ………… is kind. ………… does not envy, ………… does not boast, is not proud, 5 does not dishonor others, is not self-seeking, is not easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs. 6 does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (1 Corinthians 13:4–7)
What do you say — when we said this about ourselves, was it true? It is not easy, is it? Love is so lofty that it could not be reached in any other way than through a change brought about by the working of the Holy Spirit in us.
“There is no love in this church…” Have you heard these words? And who is to blame that “there is no love in this church”? Is the pastor to blame? Yes, he too is to blame, but he is not the only one to blame. Are the others to blame? Yes, they are to blame, but they are not the only ones to blame. Then who is to blame? We are all to blame. Every single one of us.
“There is no love in this church…” There is not. But can there be? Yes, there can! How? When every single one of us repents of his selfishness, prays for forgiveness, and is filled with the Holy Spirit. When the one who is proud and struts and exalts himself over others humbles himself. When the one who is irritated by the way others express themselves gains self-control and begins to “be patient.” When the one who bears grudges forgives and stops “keeping a record of wrongs.” When we stop delighting in evil and begin to “rejoice with the truth.” When all of us stop thinking about our own concerns and begin to think about others. When every single one of us is filled with the love of Christ, then there will be love in our church too. But let us not toss the responsibility for the lack of love back and forth to one another like a volleyball; rather, let us humble ourselves and repent, each one personally before God. And may the Lord bless us and make us His true followers and a true church of Christ!
Why is love the most excellent way? Because it cannot be replaced or compensated for by anything else, because it is priceless, because it gives meaning to everything we do.
Furthermore, love is the most excellent way because it is unattainable. It is the highest thing that exists, and the only way it can be reached is by the power of the Holy Spirit.
And finally, love is the most excellent way because it is unending.
THE UNENDINGNESS OF LOVE (vv. 8–13)
Another danger, when we hear about love, is the picture of love that this world builds up in us. The world makes us confuse being in love with love itself. Films and songs glorify romantic love. But the problem with romantic love is that it withers and goes out very quickly. It is an emotion, a feeling that depends on circumstances. But romantic love is not God’s love. Being in love is something temporary, but love is eternal. Passion is temporary. In the Bible there is a story of a man who was so much in love that he made himself sick with love. Do you remember what this man was called? Amnon. He was a king’s son, one of the sons of King David. He loved Tamar so much that he pretended to be ill and raped her. And what happened immediately afterward? Having raped her, according to the Law he was supposed to take her as his wife. But what did he do? He hated her. It is said that the love with which he hated her was stronger than the love with which he had loved her (2 Samuel 13:15):
15 Then Amnon hated her with intense hatred. In fact, he hated her more than he had loved her. Amnon said to her, “Get up and get out!” (2 Samuel 13:15)
Why did this happen? Because it was not love, but fleshly passion, romantic love. This is what the world says love is. And when that love comes to an end, what are we to do then? Nothing, says the world — you simply fall in love again, you just change the object of your “love.” And after that, a third, a fourth, and so on — a whole lifetime of “love”…
But it is not about such “love” that this passage speaks. In verse 8 it says that “love never fails.”
8 Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:8)
Love never fails. It is for now and forever (v. 8). Why? Because, unlike being in love and romantic love, true love is rooted not in the emotions but in the will. True love is not conditional but unconditional. It does not love because it feels a certain way, but loves because it has decided to, and nothing can change its decision. The love spoken of in this chapter is, in Greek, “agape.” This word was not used much in the ancient world, and this made it convenient for Christians as a word for love, in contrast to “eros.” So the “love” that is spoken of here is not romance, not eroticism, but a higher, divine, unselfish, eternal love.
The gifts are temporary; love is eternal.
But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. (1 Corinthians 13:8)
Prophecies will cease. Prophecies will cease, but love will remain! Tongues will cease. Tongues will cease, but love will remain! Knowledge will cease. Knowledge will cease, but love will remain! The gifts are partial and imperfect; love is perfect.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. (1 Corinthians 13:9–10)
“When completeness comes”… When will this be, and what “completeness” is this verse talking about? According to some, it is Christian maturity; according to others, it is the completion of the New Testament. But in the light of verse 12, which speaks of “then” — of “then, when we shall see God and know all things in fullness” — in the light of that verse, “the coming of completeness” can refer only to the moment of Christ’s coming and our resurrection — the moment when we will be transformed and enter into God’s glory.
Notice the two comparisons the apostle describes in these verses. First, love is as much more excellent than the gifts as maturity is more excellent than childishness. Maturity renders immature acts and conflicts meaningless.
11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. (1 Corinthians 13:11)
When he mentions “talking,” “feeling,” and “reasoning” in this verse, the apostle Paul is alluding to tongues, prophecy, and knowledge. But here I remind you once again that in this chapter the apostle does not condemn these great gifts. He is simply emphasizing that, as great as they are, love stands above them and is essential to their gracious expression.
Love and the gifts must not be set against each other. In these verses the apostle Paul is not saying that love is mature and the gifts are immature. Such a statement would contradict everything he has said in the preceding and the following chapters. It is simply that the gifts are precious for now, for the time in which we live. In eternity they will not be necessary. Unlike them, love is necessary not only now, but will also be necessary to us in eternity. It is always valid — it holds true for now, and it holds true in eternity.
And second, the comparison of reality and reflection. Love surpasses the gifts as much as reality surpasses its reflection, and as much as the whole is more excellent than the partial.
12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. (1 Corinthians 13:12)
Mirrors in those days were made of polished metal, and the reflection they showed was quite blurred and inaccurate compared with a direct view.
Verse 12 reminds us of Numbers 12, where Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses and said, “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us too?” But the Lord heard them, and He summoned them, and He set a kind of “double standard” — one for His ordinary prophets, and one for His chief prophet (Numbers 12:5–9):
5 Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When the two of them stepped forward, 6 he said, “Listen to my words: When there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, reveal myself to them in visions, I speak to them in dreams. 7 But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. 8 With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” 9 The anger of the Lord burned against them, and he left them. (Numbers 12:5–9)
The word rendered “a reflection” in 1 Corinthians 13:12 actually carries the sense of “in a riddle,” “enigmatic.” You see, the gifts are often dim and enigmatic, but love is clear and real.
Love is the most excellent way because it is greater even than the greatest.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)
Faith will become sight. Hope will become fulfillment. But love will remain love.
And so, love is the highest Christian value. It is the chief mark of maturity. It, and not supernatural manifestations, is the main criterion of spirituality. It is precisely by this that we ought to be recognized, according to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ (John 13:34–35):
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34–35)
If we look at ourselves as a church this morning, as into a mirror in God’s Word, and if we are honest, we will have to admit that we do not have love among ourselves. Perhaps we have some first beginnings of love, but we are far too far from God’s standard of unconditional love. And without love, we are “nothing”; without love, we gain nothing; without love… we have become “a resounding gong” and “a clanging cymbal.”
Therefore, let us repent sincerely and with all our hearts, and let us pray that God would change us and pour out His love into our hearts.
May God help us! May God change us and grant that, as we welcome Christmas, we would do so with a new, “agape” love — a love that would warm our hearts and gladden our Lord Jesus Christ!