1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (NRSV)
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
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 do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.
For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.
And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
In his autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain, Thomas Merton describes the chaplain of his (all-male) boarding school by referencing his approach to 1 Corinthians 13:
“He was a tall, powerful, handsome man, with hair greying at the temples, and a big English chin, and a broad, uncreased brow, with sentences like ‘I stand for fair-play and good sportsmanship’ written all over it.
His greatest sermon was on the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians—and a wonderful chapter indeed. But his exegesis was a bit strange … ‘Buggy’s’ interpretation of the word ‘charity’ in this passage (and in the whole Bible) was that it simply stood for ‘all that we mean when we call a chap a gentleman.’ In other words, charity meant good-sportsmanship, cricket, the decent thing, wearing the right kind of clothes, using the proper spoon, not being a cad or a bounder.
There he stood, in the plain pulpit, and raised his chin above the heads of all the rows of boys in black coats, and said: ‘One might go through this chapter of St. Paul and simply substitute the word “gentleman” for “charity” wherever it occurs. If I talk with the tongues of men and of angels, and be not a gentleman, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.… A gentleman is patient, is kind; a gentleman envieth not, dealeth not perversely; is not puffed up.… A gentleman never falleth away…’”
Merton then goes on to make this pointed observation:
“… The Apostles would have been rather surprised at the concept that Christ had been scourged and beaten by soldiers, cursed and crowned with thorns and subjected to unutterable contempt and finally nailed to the Cross and left to bleed to death in order that we might all become gentlemen.”
It’s a dated illustration to be sure, but it has resonance even today. It resonates because I think we, too, can fall into the trap of thinking that the kind of love the Bible calls us to as Christians is more about “being nice” than a radical, sacrificial giving of ourselves. We can all too easily pat ourselves on the back for the occasional act of kindness and think we’re demonstrating Christian love, when the truth is that Christ calls us to so much more.
As Christians, whenever we think of what “love” truly means we need only look in one direction—the direction of the cross of Calvary. It is there that God put love on full display for the world, as Paul says in Romans:
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8, NIV)
I once heard someone describe 1 Corinthians 13 as a “character sketch of Christ,” and I think that’s accurate. The kind of love Paul describes in this passage is a radical love, a love that echoes the very sacrifice of Jesus. It is the root of who God is, and as such it should define who we are. On paper, it seems impossible to live out…but that’s because it is impossible, at least on our own. The only way we can know and demonstrate this kind of love is by the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit.
Perhaps the power of this passage has dimmed for us because it’s been so omnipresent in weddings, making it forever linked in our minds with romantic love. Yes, it’s a perfect passage for that event, because it reminds those entering the marriage covenant who they are to be for one another, but it is not just a pleasant exhortation for those entering matrimony. It is a call to everyone who claims the name of Jesus.
For today’s song, simply listen to this version of 1 Corinthians 13 set to prayerful music. As you listen, ask God to move in your heart by the Spirit to root this kind of love deep in your being.
Song: “1 Corinthians 13” by Watershed
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
Who in your life has modeled a “1 Corinthians 13” love to you? Spend some time in prayer giving thanks to God for their presence in your life.
Which of the descriptions of love in this passage seem most out of reach for you today? Where do you struggle to live it out, and how can you be praying for God to build that kind of love in your heart and life?
Spend some time simply meditating on the death and resurrection of Jesus and how they demonstrate God’s perfect love. Sit in that love and let it transform you so that it might shine through you.