Unending Love -- Lectionary Reflection for Epiphany 4C (1 Corinthians 13)

1 Corinthians 13 New Revised Standard Version

13 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. 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 do not have love, I am nothing. ³ 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.

⁴ Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶ it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. ⁷ It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ 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. ⁹ For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; ¹⁰ but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. ¹¹ 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. ¹² 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. ¹³ And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

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                Love is a many splendid thing, is it not? In fact, nothing is greater than love. But what is love? That is the question of the ages. The Greeks have several words that speak of love. There is agape, phileo, and eros, top name but three. Each has its own meaning and purpose, though they can overlap at points.

                In his first letter to the Corinthians Paul brings love into a conversation about spiritual things and spiritual gifts. Love is the key to bringing harmony to the body of Christ. Paul situates this conversation about love in the middle section of his larger discussion of spiritual gifts. Paul ends chapter twelve by encouraging the Corinthians to “strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way” (1 Cor. 12:31). He picks up the conversation in chapter fourteen by encouraging the Corinthians to “pursue love” as they “strive for the spiritual gifts.” You could remove chapter thirteen of 1 Corinthians and not miss a beat, except that it provides the key to understanding the “more excellent way,” the way of love that Paul wishes the Corinthians would pursue.

                So, although 1 Corinthians 13 is a favorite for use at weddings (I’ve used it quite often in this context), that is not its original purpose. It applies to relationships in general, but Paul is using it here in the context of trying to resolve a problem existing within the Corinthian congregation.

                The Greek word for love used here in 1 Corinthians 13 is agape. That word is translated in the King James Version as “charity,” which draws upon the Latin caritas. It will help us if we can define what love is. I have often turned to the definitions offered by Tom Oord. His basic definition of love is this: “To love is to act intentionally, in sympathetic response to others (including God), to promote overall well-being” [Defining Love, p. 15]. Tom uses this basic definition as the foundation for defining different forms of love. When it comes to agape he adds modifiers so that the definition of agape involves “acting intentionally, in sympathetic response to others (including God), to promote overall well-being when responding to acts, persons, or structures of existence that promote ill-being” [Defining Love, p. 43]. As you can see, there’s nothing romantic about this definition.

                With this definition in mind, we can return to our reading from 1 Corinthians 13. It should not surprise us that the first word here has to do with speaking in tongues, considering that it appears to be the contested gift. Thus, whether we speak in human or angelic tongues is of little use if we lack love (agape). Without love, we’re nothing more than noisy gongs and clanging symbols. Following the above definition of love, noise doesn’t contribute to well-being or the common good. In fact, it is a response here to efforts undertaken within the Corinthian congregation that threaten the well-being of the congregation. But, it’s not just speaking in tongues that can become problematic if love is not present. Paul speaks here of prophetic powers, understanding mysteries, having knowledge, mountain-moving faith. But he’s not finished yet, since even giving away all one’s possessions or even handing over one’s body to martyrdom so one can boast, without love it’s nothing. We gain nothing without love. Yes, love is the key to life in the body of Christ.

                Paul doesn’t define love here. In fact, the Bible doesn’t define love. Rather, it tends to illustrate what love entails. So, in verses 4-7 Paul lists several qualities that express the love that he believes will contribute to the well-being of the congregation.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶ it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. ⁷ It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

That is a powerful set of qualities that if they are embraced and made part of one’s life, then the kinds of problems afflicting the Corinthian congregation would disappear. After all, this congregation was being torn apart due to enviousness, boastfulness, and arrogance. People, especially, the spiritual elites, who likely were counted among the social elites, insisted that the church follow their lead, even if that did not contribute to the well-being of the entire community.

                With this set of characteristics in mind, Paul continues with his exposition on love. Having told the congregation that love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (vs. 7), he then declares that love never ends. The same is not true for the gifts of the Spirit, whatever they might be. Prophecy? It will end because it’s no longer needed. The same is true for tongues and words of knowledge. That is because when the perfect comes, everything that is partial will go away. When we experience full union with Christ we won’t need these intermediaries. This is a very eschatological declaration. We’re not there yet, but someday we’ll experience what Paul speaks of here. When we do, the one thing that remains will be love. As Charles Campbell suggests, this is Paul’s “central eschatological claim for the church.”  Regarding Paul’s understanding of love, “it is the Christ-shaped embodiment now of the new creation that will come to fulfillment when God is all in all (15:28).” [1Corinthians: Belief, pp. 222-223]. The presence of love now is a foretaste of God’s new age. That is why it is the one element that will never end. In this declaration, Paul says something similar to what we find in 1 John 4:6, which declares that God is love. Again, turning to Charles Campbell, “If love never ends, then God indeed is love. This implicit claim pulls together much of what Paul has been saying about God throughout the letter” [1 Corinthians: Belief, p. 223].

                Of course, we are still living in the old age. But we can begin living in love, and therefore inhabit the new age. But that means growing up and moving toward spiritual maturity. Earlier in his letter, Paul had suggested that he couldn’t speak to them as spiritual people because they were still infants in Christ. He had to continue feeding them with milk rather than solid food because they weren’t ready for it. They remain in the flesh, and “as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations?” (1 Cor. 3:1-2). So, Paul returns to this image by telling them that when he was a child, he spoke, thought, and reasoned like a child, but when he grew up and became an adult, he put away childish things. In other words, he tells the Corinthians that they had been acting like little children, but now it’s time to grow up and be an adult so that they will be ready to receive that solid food Paul spoke of earlier in the letter.  

                When Paul talks about the coming of the perfect, he has in mind that moment in which God becomes all in all (1 Cor. 15:28). When that happens love will be all in all. Right now, we only see partially, as in a mirror. When Paul speaks of looking in a mirror, it’s good to remember that first-century mirrors were not as clear in their reflection as modern mirrors.  These reflections tend to be distorted and incomplete. But a time is coming when all this will change. That is when we will see Christ face to face. Now we see in part, but someday we’ll see fully. When that happens not only will we see fully, but we will be fully known. In the meantime, let us embrace “faith, hope, and love,” all of which abide. The greatest of these is love. Why? Because faith and hope will find their fulfillment when God becomes all in all. That is when love becomes all in all.     

Image Attribution: Reva, Mikhail. Heart of the World, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56476 [retrieved January 24, 2022]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Children_sculpture_by_Mikhail_Reva.jpg.