If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 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 have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 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 childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor 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.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1st Corinthians 13: 1-13)
One of my favorite passages of the Bible; 1st Corinthians 13 and yet I got to thinking about it quite seriously a couple of days ago, inquiring of God, “God, why did Paul feel the need to write about it in the first place? God, what was really going on at Corinth anyway?” Apparently something, something was going on at Corinth, something that prompted Paul to write a letter and pen this infamous “Love” chapter, and Paul wrote this specifically to the Christians at Corinth, but why? Could it be it was because they had forgotten what kind of love God had called them to have in the first place? A love that, “does not envy, that does not boast?” The kind of love that Christ had, “that it is not self-seeking, that it is not easily angered?” Yes, the kind of love that Christ had.
And I think on that a lot; the kind of love that Christ had. The kind of love the apostles had. The kind of love that martyrs have. A love that stands in the face of persecution, that doesn’t feel the need to defend itself. A love that says, “here take my cloak also.” The kind of love that prays for one’s enemy’s, that is self sacrificing. The kind of love that’s willing to die even, even as Christ died on a cross though He was innocent and not guilty. The kind of love that cried out, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do!” The kind of love that Paul saw in the eyes of Stephen as they stoned him to death, who said nothing but only looked to heaven. The kind of love that keeps no record of wrongs, but continues steadfast, always hoping, always praying even for those who persecute God’s Children. It is this kind of love that can only come from God and humanly is impossible but time and time again through the history of the Church has been found evident in the hearts of men and women who have given their all to God, allowing His Spirit to be poured through them and His love to be found as evidence that He does indeed live within them. This is the kind of love that Paul is writing about here and this is the kind of love that truly does and can only come from God. And so… what was the problem/problems of the Corinthians?
Obviously Corinth was having problems, not only falling short in their lack of Love but also in so many other areas concerning their walks with God and though they believed they were still within His good graces, Paul was writing them to tell them otherwise. Corinth, though it started off on the right foot was quickly headed in the wrong direction, and instead of being salt and light to the world around them, instead they were allowing the world’s ideas to infiltrate them, corrupting the Church to the point that one could no longer tell the difference.
Paul was writing them to remind them in the whole book of 1st Corinthians, “don’t you remember how it was when you first began? When you first believed? How you loved the Lord your God and put Him first in everything? But then… you started to listen to the wisdom of men and now? now you have hardened your hearts, no longer holding fast to what was first preached.” And the love that Paul speaks of in 1st Corinthians 13, the love that should be found in the heart of every Believer is no longer found at the church of Corinth.
And this, this is what I’ve been thinking on a lot lately; how easy, how easy it would be for any of us to fall into many of the same sins as the Corinthians, praying, “oh God, don’t ever let us get like the church of Corinth! Don’t ever let us stray that far from you! Don’t ever let us lose our salt and flavor, or harden our hearts that your love can not even dwell there anymore! Oh, Lord, don’t ever let us stray that far.” And it is and this must be a prayer of ours because I do believe it can be so easy, so easy for any of us to fall away, so easy to grow complacent, more concerned with being “pleasers of men” then “pleasers of God” forgetting our first love, and so our prayer must be, “oh God, never let me! Never let me!”
These last few days I have been reading a study on the book of 1st Corinthians and I would love for you to join me. It’s called The Corinthian Crises and I have found it to be incredibly insightful into why Paul wrote 1st Corinthians in the first place.
As we near Valentine’s Day may you find your heart reflecting His love more and more and may you experience all of His blessings, praying always even as David did:
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24)
