Posted: 12/11/06
Bible Studies for Life Series for December 17
The intermingling of faith, hope & love
• 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
By Kenneth Lyle
Logsdon School of Theology, Abilene
In the concluding verse of this week’s focal passage, Paul writes the justifiably well known admonition: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13).
Faith, hope and love—ideas often linked together by Paul (Romans 5:2, 5; Galatians 5:5-6; Ephesians 4:2-5; Colossians 1:4-5; 1 Thessalonians 1:3; 5:8). Faith, hope and love—seen today, as then, as life-changing gifts from God. It is faith, or more precisely Jesus’ faithfulness to God’s plan to save the world, that allows us to have hope (Romans 1:16-17). Hope, the result of faith, that allows us to live with confident expectation about what God has done, is doing, and will do in the world. Love, that quality for which Paul claims the privileged position amongst the three, expressed in word and deed in and through the community of God.
Discussions of love often lend themselves to curious and difficult comparisons. In English, we really only have one word for “love.” We express our “love” for fried catfish with perhaps the same enthusiasm that we say “I love church!” We announce our undying love for our husband or wife, and then turn around and say, “I love ice cream.” Obviously, we don’t mean the same thing in each instance.
There are other words we could employ—affection, appreciation, enjoyment, admiration—but, we generally resort to the easy and often used “I love …”—fill in the blank.
Hellenistic Greek provides a way through the maze of conflicting understandings about the nature of love. The language employed by the New Testament writers held several words which translate into English as “love.” Eros, or erotic love, suggests the feeling between lovers. Storge, or affection, expresses the feeling of parents to offspring. Philia, or friendship, speaks of the bond between friends, brothers or sisters. Different words for different sentiments.
The word most often used by New Testament writers to express the peculiar kind of love expressed by God to humanity, by Christian to Christian, and from Christians to the world is agape. In 1 Corinthians 13:13, the King James Version renders agape as “charity,” placing the focus on the necessity of Christian love for the world. Agape expresses love as the love God has for us, and when applied to Christians, agape expresses the reality that Christians should act in behalf of others without taking into consideration their worthiness.
In addition to the variety of terms used to express the variety of loves we have, we also must consider the verbal nature of these nouns that mean love. As we have seen with faith and hope, nouns often have a verbal element that forces us to ask the question, “Is this thing (faith, hope, love) something I have or something I do?” The long answer made short is, yes!
We possess faith, but it must be exercised. We hold on to hope, but we live it. Likewise, we have love, but we must express it.
I am reminded of a skit performed at a Baptist Student Union meeting a long time ago where the main character received the gift of God’s love. He held on tightly to the wonderful feeling of love, grasping it in his hands, refusing to share with passersby. At the end of the skit, the miserly holder of God’s love risked a peek into his clasped hands only to see that God’s love—God’s agape—was gone! Love is something we have, but it also is something we do.
Paul’s discussion of love in 1 Corinthians comes after his reflection on the variety of spiritual gifts expressed in the church (1 Corinthians 12). The church at Corinth faced many of the same kinds of difficulties the 21st century church faces today.
The church was divided into various factions that looked to different personalities for leadership (1 Corinthians 1:10-7; 3:1-23). There was a fundamental misunderstanding about the nature of spiritual experience, and how to be both a spiritual and physical person in the world (1 Corinthians 5-8). This misunderstanding of spiritual experience expressed itself either in libertine behavior that indulged the desires of the flesh or ascetic tendencies that prohibited natural human behavior. Perhaps worst of all, some in the church were trumpeting their spiritual gift over and against the spiritual giftedness of others.
Against this backdrop, Paul discusses the variety of spiritual gifts available the church. Paul admonishes the Corinthians and Christians of all ages that differences in spiritual gifts allow the church to minister effectively in the world. They are not a reason for boasting. Everyone in the church cannot do everything, but each one can do and should do something, and no single gift is more important than another.
Paul concludes his discussion of spiritual gifts by encouraging us to “…eagerly desire the greater gifts,” and he begins his discussion of love by saying, “and now I will show you the most excellent way” (1 Corinthians 12:31).
The lesson writer outlines the focal passage focusing on the priority of love (vv. 1-3), the practice of love (vv. 4-7) and the permanence of love (vv. 8-13). This outline provides a convenient, appropriate and easy to remember means for focusing themes in this text.
In the opening paragraph, Paul draws our attention to the various kinds of sound that might fill our churches; the deep discussions that may dominate our Sunday school classes; the charities that vie for our attention; and he reminds us all of this is worthless without love. As Christians, all our actions must be grounded in love.
The central paragraph describes Christian love in powerful descriptive terms—patient, kind, not envying, not boasting, not proud, not rude, not self-seeking, not easily angered, keeping no record of wrongs, not delighting in evil, rejoicing in truth, protecting, trusting, hoping and persevering. Easy words to memorize, read and talk about, but difficult tasks to complete. But, as Christians we are not excused from the practice of love both to each other and to the world.
In the final paragraph, Paul reflects on the permanence of love. While other things like knowledge will pass away, Paul is convinced “love never fails.” Paul acknowledges that while we may not understand all there is to understand, love remains above all things. There is faith, there is hope, there is love; but Paul reminds us that the greatest of these things is love.
Discussion question
• How are faith, hope and love interwined?
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