1 Corinthians 13: Don't Tell the Wedding Planner

(NRSV, 1989)

Thank you for tuning into First Day; I am your host Patrick Cooley, currently the pastor of Northport Methodist Church. Please like, subscribe, and share. 

In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul gives the Corinthians something to consider: that each person has an equally important and necessary part to play in completing the mission of the Church and that although the Holy Spirit has equipped each person with a different gift, this one Spirit is the source of all charismata—spiritual gifts. It seems as if members of the church are using the perceived quality of their gifts to distinguish themselves one from the other. Of the eight charismata identified by the apostle, speaking in tongues is the gift most desired by the Corinthians, although Paul states that it is best to be considered a steppingstone to the next, “better”, gifts—gifts that begin to cost their user more and more. 

Of course, every Christian and even most non-Christians are familiar with 1 Corinthians 13. It is the most used scripture in religious and marginally religious wedding ceremonies. Who knows, it may be THE only scripture used in non-religious weddings, too.

If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Okay. This is something that I won’t be going too deeply into in this episode but may dedicate an episode to it in the future. As you are aware, English is a unique language—a scientific language with mixed up grammar and vocabulary coming from many sources, Latin, German, French, and Greek—I’m sure along with a few others. This hodgepodge of an origin makes English the world’s most spoken language—though not its most natively spoken one. English’s origin has an interesting side effect: It has a different word for everything—except for some things—including what is arguably the most important thing in life: love. We love our spouses, milkshakes, doing yardwork, quiet evenings, and loud football stadiums. This is not so with Greek. 

There are eight different words used in Greek to distinguish between different types of love: eros—passionate love; pragma—enduring love; ludus—playful love; agape—selfless love; philia—friendship; philautia—self-love; storge—familial love; and mania—obsessive love. I’m sure you can guess to which of these eight words for love Paul is referring. 

“If I don’t have selfless love (agape) it doesn’t matter if I can speak every language on earth or in heaven, nor if have any other charismata—prophecy, teaching, wisdom, or otherwise,” Paul says. If we are not selfless, we are nothing. Paul continues:

Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love seeks everything that certain members of the Corinthain church do not. In fact, love seeks everything that many of us still don’t. How can a person be selfless without the qualities that Paul identifies here? Patience, kindness, humility, meekness, satisfied, forgiving, serving, patient, and gracious, these are the makings of agape. 

“Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth.” To possess selfless love, obviously, mean that you don’t live for yourself—you don’t live unrighteously—but for God—to live righteously. And those who loves long only for the truth—the truth about God, about Christ, about others, and about themselves. 

“It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” Paul has already written to the Galatians, “For we eagerly await through the Spirit, by faith, the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything; what matters is faith working through love,” (5:5,6) and to the Thessalonians, “We recall, in the presence of our God and Father, your work produced by faith, your labor motivated by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ,” (1 Th1:3) and, “But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled and put on the armor of faith and love, and a helmet of the hope of salvation.” (1 Th 5:8) 

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. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end. 

To have selfless love—to have agape—is to have faith. Paul has already told the Corinthians that faith is a charismata—a gift—and one that they all share; therefore it isn’t a stretch to see that Paul declares here that agape is a gift of the Spirit, too. But unlike the other gifts, it will not come to an end: Selfless and its products never fade. Of all the gifts, however, the Corinthians seek the least, while Paul urges them to seek the greatest. 

I may get some hate mail because of what I am about to say, but I’m going to say it anyway. Here in the South, in the fall, the day you DO NOT PLAN to offer ministry is Saturday—for there is a love that is greater than agape. It never ceases to amaze me when Christians devote so much time to things over which we have no authority, yet neglect the very things that we do. I guess that goes for non-Christians as well. Let’s expend our resources on the things that don’t matter—things that won’t last—until we have nothing left for the things that do.  

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put aside childish things. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known. Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love—but the greatest of these is love.

Paul tells the Corinthians that it is time for them to grow up, to “put aside childish things” like status and worldly ambition. Because there will come a time when what should matter will be displayed before their very eyes. After putting away these things, the adult Corinthian will have only three concern left: faith, hope, and selfless love—the last being the greatest according to the apostle. When we love selflessly, we place all our hopes in God; when we love selflessly, we place ourselves solely in His capable hands.

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Patrick: 00:12

Thank you for listening to First Today. I am Patrick Cooley. Please like and subscribe and share. In 1st Corinthians 12, Paul gives the Corinthians something to consider, that each person has an equally important and necessary part to play in completing the mission of the church, and that although the Holy Spirit has equipped each person with a different gift, this 1 Spirit is the source for all charismatic, or all spiritual gifts. It seems as if the members of the church are using the perceived quality of their gifts as a way of distinguishing themselves 1 from the other.

Patrick: 00:57

Of the 8 spiritual gifts identified by the apostle, speaking in tongues is the gift that is most desired by the Corinthians. Although, Paul states that it is best to be considered only as a starting point for the next better spiritual gifts And these better spiritual gifts are the ones that will, in fact, cost their user something. Of course, every Christian and even most non Christians are familiar with 1st Corinthians chapter 13, or at least parts of it, you know, the great love chapter. It's the most used Scripture in religious and marginally religious, people's wedding ceremonies. And who knows?

Patrick: 01:45

It may be the only scripture that the non religious people use in theirs too, so we don't know. But, again, this is the it's a text that is very very commonly known but maybe because of that, because we hear it so much, we we might assume that it means something that it really doesn't mean. So he begins chapter 13. If I speak human or angelic tongues, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

Patrick: 02:29

And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. This is something that I won't go too deeply into in this episode, but may dedicate an episode to at some time in the future. Though, you know, what we're about to talk about here is love, and it may very well be good enough. So, as you're aware, English is a very unique language. It's a it's a scientific language and it's this mix up of grammar and vocabulary coming from all sorts of sources, from Latin and German and French and Greek.

Patrick: 03:13

And I'm sure there are a few other stone in there too that I'm not too aware of. This hodgepodge of an origin makes English the world's most spoken language, though not its most natively spoken 1. So, you know, no no no hate emails on that. 1. But it is the world's most spoken language overall.

Patrick: 03:32

And it and its origins as a language has an interesting side effect because it comes from all of these different sources, and that is that English seems to have a different word for everything, except an example of 1 thing, and it's arguably the most important thing that there is in life and that is love. We love our spouses. We love milkshakes. We love doing yard work. We love quiet evenings.

Patrick: 04:03

We love loud football stadiums. This is not so with Greek. There are 8 different words used in Greek to distinguish between different types of love. There's eros, passionate love pragma, enduring love ludus, prayful love playful love, sorry agape, which is selfless love philia, it's friendship, self love, storge, familial love, and mania, obsessive love. I'm sure you can guess which 1 of these 8 words are for love that Paul is referring to.

Patrick: 04:44

If I do not have agape, it doesn't matter if I can speak every language on Earth or in Heaven, nor if I have any other charismatic, prophecy, teaching, wisdom, or otherwise. If we are not selfless, we are nothing. Paul continues in verse number 4, love, agape, selfless love. Love is patient. Love is kind.

Patrick: 05:16

Love does not envy, and it is not boastful, it is not arrogant. It is not rude, not self seeking, is not irritable, and it does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Agape seeks everything that certain members of the Corinthian church do not.

Patrick: 05:46

In fact, love seeks everything that many of us still don't to this day. How can a person be selfless without the qualities that Paul identifies here? With patience and kindness, humility, meekness, being satisfied, forgiving, being- having a service heart, a servant's heart, being patient, being gracious, all of these things are the markings of agape, and these were the very things that the church of Corinth were not showing to each other. Paul writes, love finds no joy in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth. To possess selfless love, obviously, means that you don't live for yourself.

Patrick: 06:29

You don't live unrighteously, but you live for God, which is what it means to be righteous. In order you live according to the word of God, according to God's will, I guess is a better way to put it. This is what it means to be righteous. And those who love long only for the truth, the truth about God, the truth about Christ, the truth about others, and also, the truth about themselves. He says it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Patrick: 07:04

Paul has already written to the Galatians that for we are eag for we eagerly await through the Spirit by faith the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything. What matters is faith working through love. That's, Galatians 5:5 and 6. To the Thessalonians, he writes, we recall in the presence of our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor motivated by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Patrick: 07:46

1st Corinthian 1st Thessalonians 1:3. And finally, he writes in 1st Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 8, but since we belong to the day, let us be self controlled and put on the armor of faith and love and a helmet of the hope of salvation. Paul goes on here in 1st Corinthians 13:8, 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.

Patrick: 08:19

But we know in part, and we prophecy in part. But when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end. To have selfless love, to have agape, is to have faith. It's really sort of the same thing. Paul has already told the Corinthians that faith is a charismatic, it is a gift, and 1 of the gifts that they do actually all share.

Patrick: 08:46

Therefore, it's not a stretch to see that Paul declares here that agape is a gift of the Spirit too. But unlike the other gifts, it will not come to an end. Selflessness and its products never fade. Of all the gifts, however, the Corinthians seek the least, which is that, while Paul urges them to seek it, the greatest. The gift they want is glossolalia.

Patrick: 09:12

The gift they want is speaking in tongues. But Paul says, that should be the last of the gifts that you really want. That's really just the starting place. Seek the higher gifts. I may get some hate mail because of what I'm about to say, but I'm gonna say it anyway.

Patrick: 09:30

Here in the South, in the fall, the day that you do not plan to offer ministries in your church is Saturday, for there is a love that is greater than agape. It never ceases to amaze me when Christians devote so much time to things over which they have no authority whatsoever, yet neglect the very things that they do. I guess that goes for non Christians as well. We expend our efforts and our energies and our resources on things that don't really matter, things that won't last until really we have nothing left for the things that do. Verse 11.

Patrick: 10:10

When I was a child, I spoke like a child. I thought like a child. I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put aside childish things. For now, we see only a reflection as in a mirror, but then face to face.

Patrick: 10:26

Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known. Now these 3 remain, faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love. Paul tells the Corinthians that it is time for them to grow up, to put aside childish things like status and worldly ambition and social position, because there will come a time when what should matter will be displayed before their very eyes. After putting away these things, the adult Corinthians will have only 3 concerns left, faith, hope, and selfless love, the last being the greatest according to the apostle. When we have and love selflessly, we place all of our hopes in God.

Patrick: 11:22

And when we love selflessly, we place ourselves solely in his capable hands. Thanks for listening to, 1st Corinthians 13 here on the FirstDay podcast please like and subscribe and share you can reach out at connect at firstday.us if you have any, questions or comments. Visit the website at WWW dotfirstday.us, where you can link over to our, different podcast to the different places where the podcast can be found, like Apple and Amazon and Spotify. So until next time, I'm Patrick Cooley. Blessings, Thanks for listening, and goodbye for now.