Doug Van Meter - 3 March 2024
What’s Love Got to Do With It? (1 Corinthians 13:1–8a)
What’s love got to do with it? Well, everything. When it comes to one’s relationship with the Lord and with one another in the local church, love has everything to do with both salvation and service. The major lesson of 1 Corinthians 13 is that the Spirit’s ordinary grace excels extraordinary gifts. We will study this under three headings: 1. The Priority of Love (vv. 1–3) 2. The Personification of Love (vv. 4–7) 3. The Permanence of Love (v. 8a)
Scripture References: 1 Corinthians 13:1-8
From Series: "1 Corinthians Exposition"
An exposition of 1 Corinthians by Doug Van Meter.
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Having addressed the matter of spiritual gifts for the previous 31 verses, Paul seems to change the subject with these next thirteen verses as he expounds the theme of love. We might ask, when it comes to spiritual gifts, what does love have to do with it? Actually, it has everything to do with it! According to 1 Corinthians 13, if love is absent, so is the Lord.
Paul instructs that the Spirit’s ordinary grace of love excels any of his extraordinary gifts. This is good news because, though most of us don’t have extraordinary gifts, we are all recipients of the Spirit’s lavish gift of love.
Throughout this epistle, Paul is seeking the reformation and revival of this local church. Though he is confident that the church members were truly saints (1:2), nevertheless, some of those behaved less than saintly!
There were divisive attitudes in the church over favoured leaders. There were lax views concerning sexual immorality. Church members were suing other church members. There was arrogant behaviour and informational pride in the congregation. Members were compromising with idolatry and behaving selfishly in association with the Lord’s Table. There was self-absorbed individualism when it came to the pursuit and practice of some of the spiritual gifts.
This all comes to a head in this thirteenth chapter in which Paul shows them a far more excellent way than the way they were currently living as a local church. It is the way of love.
German Theologian Adolf von Harnack described this chapter as “the greatest, strongest, deepest thing Paul ever wrote.” Whether or not one agrees, most agree that this is one of the most referenced biblical chapters of in the church and the wider world. Many wedding ceremonies have alluded to this, and I suppose many love songs as well. In fact, it is a kind of love poem.
We will begin studying this powerful chapter under three headings.
- The Priority of Love (vv. 1–3)
- The Personification of Love (vv. 4–7)
- The Permanence of Love (v. 8a)
The Priority of Love
We first observe the priority of love:
This chapter is appropriate for a wedding because it describes the expected character of the bride of Jesus Christ, the church. But if you are looking for cosy, cushy, mushy sentimentality, don’t look here. This passage is a sobering and searching diagnostic revealing the reality and/or health of our profession of faith. To appreciate this, we need to examine the context.
The Context
The historical context was a local church whose corporate gatherings were anything but edifying. Like the best-selling book, Bowling Alone, many of the members of the church at Corinth were guilty of selfish individualism pursuing what they could get, rather than what they could give. This was apparent in many ways, including the use of spiritual gifts, the gift of tongues apparently being the gift most in-demand and certainly the most desired (see 12:27–30; chapter 14). But Paul here points them to “a more excellent way.” Literally, a hyperbolic way.
Paul indicates a far surpassing way for church life than a mere practising of the Spirit’s gifts. Namely, the grace of the Spirit’s love, coupled with the exercise of his gifts. Jonathan Edwards long ago wrote with reference to 1 Corinthians 13, “The Spirit of God is a Spirit of love, and when the former enters the soul, love also enters with it.” However, the way the Corinthians were behaving indicated anything but the presence of the Spirit of love. Paul seeks to correct this. Hence, he exalts the ordinary grace of the Spirit over his extraordinary gifts.
This is to be our priority. This is to be the church’s priority. But what does Paul mean by “love”?
The word that Paul uses for “love” is the well-known word agape. Though it is sometimes over-emphasised, agape is a word in the New Testament that seems to have special reference to God’s love. It is love that is others oriented; love that sacrifices; love that serves for the betterment of another. Witherington writes that this kind of “love is a matter of behavior, not feeling. In particular it is other-directed behavior, not self-directed action.”
Jesus said that this love is to characterise and control the Christian community (John 13:34–35). This is the love that displays before the world that Jesus is the Son of God, the Saviour of the world.
This is how Paul uses agape here. He wants his readers to know and to appreciate the Spirit’s greatest gift to God’s people is divine love: love for God and thus love for one another (1 John 4:7–19). Whereas the church was gobsmacked over the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, they needed to be awed by the ordinary grace and gift of the Spirit: divine love.
The Caution
Nyet. Nada. Verniet. “Nothing.” Regardless of the language, without love, all of one’s claims to spiritual significance are nothing.
Paul pulls no punches. Regardless of one’s Spirit given privilege and/or performance, if love is not the priority, the results are inconsequential. Without the motive of godly love, a church member will experience futility of purpose (v. 2) and fruitless spiritual profit. Hence, he writes, “I am nothing” and “I gain nothing.”
Paul uses first person singular perhaps to diplomatically rebuke what is happening in the church. That is, he speaks hypothetically to soften the blow while making a strong and serious point at the same time. Without godly love as the motive, ministry is ultimately useless.
This love was obviously lacking in this church and hence the one-upmanship, the selfish individualism, the social, and spiritual stratification. Though this church was graciously privileged by God in so many ways (1:4–7), without love these privileges were gutted of their power, and their spiritual performances were empty, vain—“nothing.”
As we evaluate our own lives as individual church members and corporately as a body, let us ask: What’s love got to do with my church life? How is my love for God? Does the commandment to love God with all my heart, mind, and soul move me? Am I making progress? Do I care? What do I think about when free to think?
Really, how is my love for one another in the church? Am I okay with merely showing up on a Sunday and then dashing out the door or sitting in a corner, aloof, perhaps critical, and cynical? Am I reaching out to embrace others in and “into” the body? What do I desire from my fellow church members? Do I desire help in holiness? Do I chafe at accountability?
What do I desire for my fellow church members and what am I doing to assist them towards this? Do I desire for them to know God in Christ? Am I concerned that they experience the love of God? Do I really or only rarely give thought as to how I can contribute to our church’s corporate love for God and for one another?
These are not superficial matters. This of the upmost importance. Again, to quote Edwards, “We love God for his holiness and we love others with the same desire: their holiness. Love for God is the foundation of gracious love to men.”
To drive this home, Paul provides three hypothetical examples of the priority of the ordinary grace of the Spirit over the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit. Generally, Paul identifies what we might call extraordinary (hypothetically) privileges. This can be broken down further into the categories of prestige, position, power, and performance. His conclusion is the same. If these are not motivated by love, they amount to nothing.
A Noisy Nuisance
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (v. 1). Paul cautions against those with what we might call a “loveless love to show and tell.” The gift of tongues was being used as a mark of prestige. But without love, it was nothing.
I was speaking with a pastor once whose church was facing a trial and there was much sadness and hurt. I asked him if there was unity or if anyone was provoking the situation. He immediately answered, both sadly and matter-of-factly, “We have one member who is a noising gong.” This induvial made a lot of noise but added nothing of value to the welfare of the church. He had a lot to say but little love to show. His loveless communication made no contribution to harmony in the church. Like a clanging cymbal, everyone knew he was there, but his presence was less than edifying. This is Paul’s point.
We should note that, in those days, as is often still the case, an idolatrous temple had gongs and cymbals to either wake the false god or to call idolators to worship. Of course, the experience would prove ultimately worthless. It would be “nothing.” So it is with the use of true spiritual gifts that lack the Spirit’s love.
The “if” is significant. Paul is not suggesting that anyone in the church actually spoke with a heavenly language. Rather, he is driving home a point with hyperbole that regardless of the privileged prestige, a gift exercised absent love is ultimately useless. A bunch of noising nothing (if not nonsense!). However, divine love contributes beautiful notes making a beautiful symphony.
A Pathetic Poverty
“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” (v. 2). Paul’s next hyperbolic example is someone with extraordinary gifts of prophetic ability, cryptic insight, and incredible faith but empty when it comes to love. Such an individual’s performance and position is deemed to be nothing. Such people may be seen to possess great influential power, but without love they are as poor as one can be. All their ecclesiological accomplishments are illusory.
I have known some such individuals. They are scholars, biblical experts, accomplishing great feats in and for the church, but whatever drives them is short of the required love. And it shows. A short visit to YouTube exposes many like this. Yes, even Reformed men and ministries. Pastor David Jackman says, “Proud Christians are self-confident in their knowledge, by which they can put others down. Loving Christians long to build others up.”
Be careful. All that glitters and impresses is not necessarily gold or good. Garland comments, “One can put on a show of love without having love, but one who truly has love cannot help but show it.” Thiselton provides this convicting thought: “How much behaviour among believers and even ministers is actually ‘attention seeking’ designed to impress others with one’s own supposed importance?”
A Superficial Sacrifice
“If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing” (v. 3). There is some debate about the translation, but I will assume that the translation we have before us is a good one.
Paul provides the hypothetical example of giving away all he has, depleting his own resources to feed the hungry. Further, when called upon to be martyred for Christ—by burning—if done without love, “I gain nothing.” That is, “I produce nothing of value.” Such loveless sacrifice is shallow, superficial and in the end, superfluous.
Though this is an extreme hypothetical example it aims to point us to the reality that we can do externally extraordinary things all for a wrong motive. In fact, in the early church, self-pursued martyrdom became a very real problem. Christians believed that, if they died as martyrs, they would experience a better resurrection, and so they deliberately put themselves in harm’s way. It may have looked noble, but love for the church, in most cases, would have meant staying alive to serve others.
Paul’s point in these examples is obvious: The “ordinary” of divine love is the priority of the Spirit of God, not the “extraordinary” of dynamic duty. As Morris summarises, “The central thing is not the exercise of any of the ‘gifts.’ It is the practice of Christian love.” Church, let’s seriously consider this.
Beware of boasting in the size of the congregation, or in its liturgy, or in its various ministries, or in its financial position, or in its missions outreach, or in its aesthetics, or in its giftedness, or in its popularity, or in its wider ecclesiological footprint, or in its biblical soundness, or in its emphasis upon discipleship, or in its healthy view and practice of church membership. These are good things, but they are flimsy replacements for the greatest thing which is love.
All of the above can exist in a church and yet they “gain nothing” of lasting value. In the world’s eyes, even in the wider church’s eyes, we can be seen as “something” and yet, in God’s evaluation, be nothing. That is humbling. That is sobering. That is frightening. May God rescue us from a “rightness” that, in the end, is ruinous. May he give us a greater knowledge of his love for us, creating in us a greater love for him and for one another!
The Personification of Love
Second, we read of the personification 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; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (vv. 4–7).
So, if love is the greatest thing—if love is what makes a church a church—then what does it look like? If vv. 1–3 provide the test of what we do in relation to God and the church, then vv. 4–7 provide the template for how we are to do it.
In these verses, Paul uses verbs to describe or personify love because biblical love is more than a feeling; it is active. Further, as Morris notes, this passage “is so strong on the negatives—what love is not. This is because the love of Christ is the polar opposite of our sinful, self-centred human nature.”
In these verses, we have what seems to be an exhaustive explication and expectation of the love to be experienced and expressed by Christians. To exegete it is exhausting, because this description is intensely convicting. But we can be hopeful because Paul is describing the ordinary grace of the Spirit in the life of the Christian. Further, such love is revealed relationally.
So often, Christians are enamoured with exceptional gifting in the lives of other Christians and in the life other local churches. But if we would contemplate what the Spirit of God does in every Christian—putting the love of God in our hearts (Romans 5:5)—we would marvel at the extraordinary way in which we can love others! The extraordinary ordinary! The description of love can be divided into a few sections.
Verses 4–5 read, “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude.”
“Patient” means, literally, to be long-spirited or long-suffering. Just as the Lord is patient with us (2 Peter 3:9) so we are to “bear long” with one another. When we suffer—even at the hands of another—the Spirit of God empowers us to keep on loving. As someone has said, “love has an infinite capacity for endurance.”
This would have been necessary in the life of the Corinthian church. Rather than suing a fellow church member, divine love would equip for “suffering long.” Love enables us to take the high road. Such love empowers us to calmly endure injuries from others. Such love enables us to rise above the wrong. Much like Jesus with his disciples.
Love is “kind.” The word connotes being benevolent or mild, and hence showing oneself to be useful to those in need. “Harshness severity and meanness are contrary to love, especially given God’s kindness in Christ Jesus to sinners” (Schreiner). Rather than being grudgingly, stoically patient, the love the Spirit empowers us to do good to those who wrong us.
Jesus showed kindness to those marginalised. Do we? Someone has said that “kindness recognises that everyone carries a heavy load.” Whose load are you patiently helping to carry? Or do you sit on the side-lines merely throwing stones of criticism and condemnation?
Love does not “envy.” “Envy” means to covet what belongs to another. This seemed to be a particular problem when it came to spectacular spiritual gifts. I doubt people were covetous of gifts of mercy, giving, or serving!
Jesus, knowing the fullness of God’s love, was always content. This is the Spirit’s gift to us. Be content with what you have (Hebrews 13:5).
If we experience the ordinary grace of the love of God, we will be thankful for the church in which God has placed us and we will be patient and kind. We will make the most of the church in which we have been placed by our God.
Love does not “boast.” This is the only occurrence of the word in the New Testament. It means “braggart,” one who excessively exalts himself. For example, “I am of—”. “I have knowledge.” “I have accomplished such and such.”
Prior says, “Exaggerated, let alone sensationalized, descriptions of how God is using us betray a lack of in our acceptance by God.” But resting in Christ alone, the love of God empowers us to live for the glory of God rather for the glory of themselves. Quit talking about yourself. Quit making it all about you. Quit giving glory to God with one hand while taking it for yourself with the other.
Love is not “arrogant.” This pictures someone bearing themselves loftily and strutting their “stuff.” This was apparently a big problem for the Corinthian church since Paul uses this word six times in this epistle, and once elsewhere. Some members were puffed up with inflated egos. But the love from the Spirit doesn’t need to be the centre of attention and the hero of every story. It keeps its mouth shut rather than spewing the hot air of an over-inflated ego. We can summarise, “Love is not narcissistic, self-absorbed, or self-obsessed” (Schreiner).
Love is not “rude.” Some translate, “Love does not dishonour,” meaning that “love does not shock others but acts in a fitting way.” The word-group is often used of appropriate behaviour in sexual matters, which, of course, was very relevant to this church. “Rudeness” may include burping at the dinner table, but it primarily speaks of sexually shameful speech or actions. When someone says, “If you love me, you will—” recognise lust and know that love is not present. Remember that, young people, and not so young people.
Verses 5b–6 continue: “It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.”
Love “does not insist on its own way.” Older translations read “seeks not its own.” Those having experienced the love of the Spirit don’t plot to put themselves first but rather, with the mind of Christ, put the interests of others before their own (2:3–5). “Love is concerned rather to give itself than to assert itself” (Morris). Was not the cross the ultimate example of this?
The love of God empowers us to die to self, to realise we are a part of a wider body, and to behave like a team player. Such a mindset would have made 1 Corinthians 11 unnecessary to write.
Love is not “irritable or resentful.” Those empowered by God’s love are not easily provoked by the unacceptable behaviour of others. They are not quickly angered. They are not “touchy.” They sing “Let it go!”
But we might also note that those who experience this ordinary grace of the Spirit are “stirred up” about the right things (see Acts 17:16). Love is not passive; it is active about the right things.
Because those motivated by the love of God are not easily irked, because they can let many things roll off them like water off a duck’s back, they do not keep a record of wrongs and therefore they are not resentful. And if you don’t think this requires the grace of God then think again.
When you join a church, you join a community of sinners, some of whom will hurt you. You will be wronged, sometimes deeply. And then you will have the choice to either forgive and forget or to record and resent. You can either enjoy freedom or you can be enslaved to bitterness.
Aren’t you glad that Jesus does not keep a record of wrongs? If you keep a record of wrongs, you, in practice, deny the doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. You are denying the gospel (see Matthew 18:21–35).
But what if the offender does not repent, does not confess, does not seek forgiveness? Then take up your cross and take up v. 3!
Love does not “rejoice in wrongdoing.” This has at least two implications.
First, it means that divine love is not entertained by that which God hates. Its joy is pure joy. The Corinthians needed to think about this when it came to the matter of church discipline of the immoral church member (chapter 5).
Second, divine love does not take delight in the failures and wrongdoing of others. It does not get a kick out of the fall of others. And with this metric, it is clear that there is a lot of loveless forms of Christianity on YouTube and social media. Consider the many who well-nigh took delight in what they considered to be Alistair Begg’s unwise (or, in the opinion of some, sinful!) advice recently to a grandmother to attend her grandchild’s trans wedding. Too many were far too quick to jump all over Begg.
The plethora of “discernment ministries” indicates disease in the wider body of Christ. May God have mercy on us, giving us revival and the experience of the ordinary grace of the Holy Spirit. May he help us to grow up and put away such childless things (v. 11; 14:20).
Love “rejoices in the truth.” When was the last time your social media feed celebrated a faithful preacher or praised a Christian for their fidelity? Godly love does. Godly love takes delight in the multitudes of faithful Christians and churches who have not departed from the truth. When was the last time you warmly said a kind and encouraging word to a fellow church member who is remaining true to the faith?
Verse 7 reads, “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
In this final description of divine love, there is a rapid staccato of four verbs describing love. The net result is that love endures. It endures because it bears all things; it endures because it believes all things; it endures because it hopes all things.
Love bears up like a thatched roof bears the sun and rain protecting what it covers. Paul says that love conceals and covers faults. Though, sometimes, faults need to be exposed (Matthew 18:15–20), this is a last resort because love believes the best of others. But more so, it believes in a God who can rescue the fallen. It believes in God who can transform lives and situations.
Such love hopes. This is not a Pollyanna, naïve hope but rather the biblical conviction that, despite evidence to the contrary, it is well with my soul and well with God’s plan. With such a conviction, divine love perseveres. The ordinary grace of the Spirit of God—that is, divine love—remains a characteristic of the Christian. It just doesn’t end.
The Permanence of Love
“Love never ends” (v. 8a). That is, love never falls or fails. God’s love, this ordinary grace and gift of the Spirit, never ceases. Paul will demonstrate that the gifts of the Spirit will come to an end but not so divine love. God will never stop ushering forth his love. Therefore, love should be constantly flowing from us to others. This, doubtless, was part of the message Jesus proclaimed in John 7:37–39.
Brothers and sisters, we need to dwell on this unceasing love from God, particularly after swimming through the convicting waters of vv. 1–7. Who among us does not feel conviction about our sin of lovelessness? Who among us can really say, “All’s good. Nothing here for me to improve on”? If so, then go back to “love does not boast, is not arrogant”!
But if you are under conviction then consider John 13:1–17. Jesus loved his disciples to the end—to their deserting end. But this was not the end of them. For Jesus died to wash them clean from their sin. He died to wash you from your sin. And he lives to continue to wash you (Hebrews 7:25; 1 John 1:9).
We all far short of this glorious love of God, and yet it is this same glorious love by which God saves and sanctifies us. So let each of us ask for forgiveness. Let each of us seek this “more excellent way,” this ordinary way of the Spirit who sheds abroad God’s extraordinarily love conforming us to the image of the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ. And so, what’s love got to do with it? Absolutely everything.
AMEN