Beloved, I am glad to share with you today the above theme from 1 Co 13:1 and following. Indeed, after the different members of the body of Christ: foot, hand, ear, eye…, it is as if we find the heart here. Because its role is to animate and warm all the other organs. Let us note that love is not a gift among those of the previous chapter, but the motive necessary for the exercise of all gifts. It is a “path” open to all and leading to all (1 Co 12:27-31). Just as a path is made to walk there, love is only truly known through experience. That is why this wonderful chapter does not give us any definition. It makes a list (not exhaustive but sufficient to humiliate us deeply) of all that love does and especially of what it does not do. This path has been that of Christ here on earth; and note that His Name can be substituted for the word love in this chapter without changing its meaning (1 Jn 4:7-10).
Because in our knowledge of things that are still invisible, everything is partial, indistinct, precarious. But soon we will see “face to face”. Then our Savior, who knew us thoroughly, will bring us into the full knowledge of Himself (Ps 139:1-6). And the imperishable love will be perfectly and eternally satisfied in our hearts and in His. The apostle then exhorts the Corinthian Saints to “ardently desire spiritual gifts.” I often hear these words in the mouths of Christians, but I wonder if they express a real desire coming out of the depths of our hearts and consciences. To desire with ardor is not a simple desire, but a burning need. We may not run out of gifts, in the form of various services, but these are the larger gifts of grace.
That Christians, accustomed to following a man, instituted by men, have no ardent desire for spiritual gifts for themselves, is not surprising, for they have what they desire; but do those who possess better than that, and whom grace has come out of an environment where gifts are unknown, really desire them? Let this thought work on our hearts. We will obtain the greater gifts only if, coming out of our spiritual apathy, we desire them ardently. Never are the gifts that put man in sight the greatest. Even knowledge swells: a man who has studied the Word a lot and who has the intelligence of it, is in danger of believing something to himself. Only the knowledge of Christ humbles us.
Setting aside the apostles a little, as if clothed with a mission that was not entrusted to others, he said: “Secondly prophets”. It is not as in Eph 2:20, where he speaks of the gift of prophecy as belonging to the apostles; here He separates the prophets from them, as in Eph 4:11, and thirdly adds doctors. They are therefore two classes of men, the first of whom, the prophets, were called to reveal to others the thoughts of God, and the second to teach them the truth. Have you ever met that gift? Didn’t you say, when he practiced in the congregation: “This man is a prophet; he revealed to us the things of God, and placed us in His presence in a whole new and unexpected way”?
For without love, let us remember it well, they are absolutely useless. One can possess the most eminent gifts; they have no value, if love does not put them into activity. That judges us. For if our action in the assembly comes from the desire to please men, or to assert ourselves, it is less than null, it is evil and has nothing to do with the service of the Lord. “Is it,” said the apostle, “that I seek to please men? If I still indulged men, I would not be a slave to Christ” (Gal 1:10).
Thus, the “much more excellent path” is love. We will see later that everything follows from it, although the word “love” is not pronounced there. Here, the apostle always returns to edification, but it is impossible to build the assembly without love. “Knowledge swells, but love edifies” (1 Co 8:1). I could communicate to the listeners some very interesting things, but if they draw attention to me, they will have only served to exalt me and turn away the souls of Christ. And the apostle begins by showing that one can possess all the spiritual benefits without any result: “If I speak in tongues” (things that the Corinthians sought above all) “men and angels, but that I do not have love, I am like a brass that resonates or like a resounding cymbal”. If you knock on a brass bell, it produces a sound that extends a little, then everything goes into silence. The sound may have been very harmonious or resounding, like that of the cymbal, but produced no other effect than to fly into the air. “If I have prophecy, and I know all the mysteries and all knowledge…”
Here he speaks of the revelation of future things and the knowledge of the mysteries contained in the Word. “… And that I have all the faith so as to carry mountains…” He alludes to the power that the Lord maintained his disciples: “If you have faith and … you said to this mountain, ‘Take off and throw yourselves into the sea, it would be done'(Mt 21:21). If I possess this power without love I am nothing. One can exert great influence, be gifted in a special way to accomplish extraordinary deeds, and yet be reduced to nothing, for these gifts are nothingness to God.
Such words make us better understand the importance of love in the exercise of gifts. If it is absent from our hearts, it must be a subject of deep humiliation. How, without love, can we be useful to our brothers and sisters? How without him can we proclaim the Gospel to the world? In this regard, the apostle said of himself: “The love of Christ embraces us”. Love gave power to his preaching; without him, the most eminent gifts had no value. On the other hand, it can happen that a gift without appearance or value in our eyes, produces the most blessed results, because it has love for mobile.
All these things lead the apostle to the description of love. He does not give a definition of it per se, for love is the very essence and nature of God, but rather the description of love in action, and that is what we need to know. Chapter 11 of Hebrews gives us a similar description of the subject of faith, presenting us with the activity of faith, while faith is properly the reception of the testimony that God has given us about his Son.
By considering all the verses in 1 Co 13:4-7, we can convince ourselves that one man, Jesus, fulfilled love in a perfect way. For these verses are therefore a description of the activity of Christ’s love in this world. You find here, and not without reason, fourteen characters of love. Indeed, the number 7 is that of fullness, the number 14 is, so to speak, the fullness of fullness; for the number 7 is perfect, and the number 14, more than perfect.
When it comes to our own state, we can ask ourselves whether, even imperfectly, we are carrying out the activity of love, as presented to us in this passage. At the end of this list, we will have to confess, with deep humiliation, that this was not our conduct. And, stopping at each of his characters, we will say: I have lacked love. But by this examination of ourselves before a perfect model, we gain experience, and we are encouraged to show more love in our Christian activity.
Let’s notice in these verses, the various qualities of love: The general character of all is the renunciation of oneself. For envy, boasting, and pride are all traits of human selfishness: “He does not act inappropriately.” A Christian who lacks tact, to speak the language of the world, certainly does not act in love. As a result, you will often find much more tact in unebred Christians than in others who have received it. For the sole reason that they act in love, they do not say a word, nor do they do an improper act. “He does not get irritated; it does not impute evil; he does not rejoice in injustice.” How much does that judge us? Are we not quicker to bring out the defects of our brothers and sisters than their qualities, and when we speak of them, is denigration not our first thought? Love does nothing like it. For love “rejoices with the truth.” One often encounters the truth without love; then, instead of attracting souls, it hurts them, diverts them and pushes them away. The apostle could not hurt anyone, because he had love. —We often also encounter love without the truth. In this case, it is a love without object that does not deserve the name of love because the truth is Christ, his Word, and his Spirit.
The following verses have been compiled for your edification and grouped together for your better understanding.
- Brotherly love
Pr 10:12 Hatred stirs up quarrels, but love covers all faults. 1 Co 13:1 When I speak the tongues of men and angels, if I do not have charity, I am a brass that resonates, or a cymbal that resounds. Gal 5:13 Brethren, you have been called to freedom, only do not make this freedom a pretext to live according to the flesh; but make yourselves, through charity, servants of one another. Phil 1:9 And what I ask in my prayers is that your love increase more and more in knowledge and full intelligence;1 Thess 4:9 As for brotherly love, you do not need to be written about it; for you yourselves have learned from God to love one another;1 Pet 4:8 First of all, have for one another an ardent charity, for charity covers a multitude of sins. 1 Jn 2:10 He who loves his brother dwells in the light, and no opportunity for fall is in him. 1 Jn 4:21 And we have from him this commandment: that he who loves God also loves his brother.
- False profession
Ps 78:35-36 They remembered that God was their rock, that the Most High God was their liberator. 36 But they deceived him with their mouths, and they lied to him with their tongues; Pr 26:23 Like silver slags applied to a vase of earth, so are burning lips and an evil heart. Isa 48:1 Listen to this, house of Jacob, You who bear the name of Israel, And who have come out of the waters of Judah; You who swear by the name of Jehovah, and who invoke the God of Israel, but without truth or righteousness! Ez 33:31-32 And they go in crowds to you, and my people sit before you; they listen to your words, but they do not put them into practice, for their mouths make them a subject of mockery, and their hearts indulge in greed. 32 Behold, you are to them like a pleasant singer, possessing a beautiful voice, and skilled in music. They listen to your words, but they do not put them into practice. Mt 7:21 Those who say to me, Lord, Lord! will not all enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one alone who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Mk 7:6 Jesus answered them: Hypocrites, Isaiah has prophesied well over you, as it is written: These people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Tit 1:16 They make a profession of knowing God, but they deny Him by their works, being abominable, rebellious, and incapable of any good work. 1 Jn 3:18 Little children, let us not love in words and with tongue, but in deeds and with truth.
- Spiritual Love: The Pre-Eminence of Love
1 Co 13:13 Now, then, these three things remain: faith, hope, charity; but the greatest of these things is charity. Gal 5:6,22 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value, but faith which is active through charity. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, benignity, fidelity, meekness, temperance; Eph 3:17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that they may be rooted and founded in love; 19 and to know the love of Christ, which surpasses all knowledge, so that you may be filled to the fullness of God. Eph 5:2 and walk in charity, following the example of Christ, who loved us, and who gave himself up to God for us as an offering and a sacrifice of good smell. Col 3:14 But above all these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfection. 1 Jn 4:16 And we have known and believed in God’s love for us. God is love; and he who dwells in love dwells in God, and God dwells in him.
- Spiritual Discernment
1 Kings 3:9 Therefore, grant your servant an intelligent heart to judge your people, to discern good from evil! For who could judge your people, this people so numerous? Isa 11:3 He will breathe the fear of the Lord; He will not judge on appearance, He will not pronounce on hearsay. 1 Co 2:14 But the animal man does not receive things from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot know them, because it is spiritually that they are judged. He 5:14 But solid food is for men made, for those whose judgment is exercised by usage to discern what is right and what is evil.
From all the above, we note the apostle Paul ends with these words: “He endures everything, believes everything, hopes for everything, endures everything.” We find, in love, not only the negative characters of which we have just spoken, but a positive energy that makes us capable of bearing everything, work, fatigue, suffering; to believe everything. To believe everything is not the credulity that believes lies, but the readiness to accept the good in others, instead of questioning it. “To hope for everything” is to look forward with confidence, expecting to see for others the realization of the good, instead of defying us of them, which is nothing other than defying us with grace. “To endure everything” is to go through, without complaint, slander, outrages, bad reputation. The apostle ends by saying, “Love never perishes.” He then shows that all gifts, tongues, knowledge, prophecy, will cease to make way for what is perfect. Then we will be done with what belongs to the child. The latter speaks (tongues), thinks (prophecy), reasons (knowledge), like a child; but all this will come to an end, when we see face to face and know as we have been known. Three things, the Apostle adds, characterize the Christian and remain now, in the midst of so many things that do not last: faith, hope and love. But faith too will end and be replaced by sight; hope will end and be replaced by the possession of Christ, his object. Only one will not end, the one of which it is said: “Love never perishes”. It is greater than the “greater” gifts of grace; even greater than faith and hope, things that remain now. If love is the very Being of God, it is also his supreme activity; a sea of delights on which we will sail eternally without ever reaching the shores, because it has none. We will see Him, as we have been seen, know Him as we have been known, love Him, finally, as He loves us, with an inexpressible love. May this thought fill our hearts and overflow with them. Our prayers are with you all.
PRAYER OF ACCEPTANCE OF JESUS CHRIST AS LORD AND PERSONAL SAVIOR
I now invite every person who wants to become a new creation by walking in the truth, to pray with me the following prayer:
Lord Jesus, I have long walked in the lusts of the world ignoring your love for humans. I admit to having sinned against you and ask your forgiveness for all my sins, because today I have decided to give you my life by taking you as Lord and personal Savior. I recognize that you died on the cross of Calvary and rose from the dead for me.
I am now saved and born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lead me every day to the eternal life that you give to all who obey your Word. Reveal yourself to me and strengthen my heart and faith, so that your light may be shining in my life right now.
Thank you, Lord Jesus for accepting me into your divine family, so that I may also contemplate the wonders of your kingdom.
I will now choose a nearby watering point to baptize myself by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
All adoration, power and glory are yours, now and forever and ever. Amen!
I would be happy to respond to any questions and comments you may have, before sharing with you tomorrow on “the exercise of gifts in the assembly, the order in the assembly.”
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you abundantly.
David Feze, Servant of the Almighty God.