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I Cor 13 - Love and practical grace
Many times when read it is followed by a deep sigh, this is not what Paul meant. The Corinthians did not think this was a lovely passage.
V 1-3 describes what the Corinthians are like – gifted/talented
V 4-7 almost every Greek word that shows up has already been used to criticize them – all the things they are not. Your giftedness is great, but your character isn’t much. Your DOING is great, but your BEING stinks. The emphasis should not be on performing.
You can be the most successful, most talented, but if you irritable, impatient, self-absorbed, self-pitying, and anxious, you got nothing, you are nothing. Character is everything.
What the Bible says about heart character doesn’t fit into most discussions about virtues.
What is heart character? What is inner love/joy, the super-natural change in character God can bring?
2 negatives and a positive, 2 things it is not and 1 thing it is.
Inner heart character is not the same thing as being gifted.
Faith to move mountains is a leadership gift. Prophecy is direct revelation. You could have these and be spiritually nothing, not a Christian at all. “Many bad men have had spiritual gifts (Matt 7:21). …Gifts of the spirit are excellent things, but they are not things that are inherent in the nature as true grace and holiness are. Gifts of the spirit are then as it were as precious jewels that a man carries about him, but true grace in the heart is at were the preciousness of the heart itself by which the soul becomes a precious jewel by the Spirit of God.” Edwards
It is possible to give your talents to God, and not give your heart. Giftedness is so different from spiritual growth in grace and spiritual character.
2 questions:
If that’s true, why would God work in people who are weak Christians or not one at all? He is a very kind and loving person. Just think how crummy the world would be if only mature Christians could do the work of God.
How is it possible to do great works and have little or no grace? You mistake your talent for character. You mistake gifts for grace. We assume the gifted is walking with God. Because we do this, lots of times lots and lots of talent can be spiritual poison. It is possible to do, do, do and be nothing.
Am I hiding behind my abilities and underneath I am joyless, I am always feeling slighted, I am impatient, I am irritable, I do keep a record of wrongs, I do give up...?
Second thing… it is not just being GOOD. I can be good, but gain nothing. What we really need is not talents, what we need is moral virtuous behavior. This list unites the liberal and the conservative type person. Give to the poor… die for the faith.
Paul is going deep, and pointing out the virtue lists are still not down to the heart level. They can be done for two very different heart motives. You can be committed and still be nothing.
GAIN nothing. Gain = to count. You can do it all, and you still don’t merit, or earn, anything. You can DO all these things without being loving. If you do behaviorally loving things, to get a sense of worth, they are worthless. They don’t please God and they don’t help anyone else.
Love – to serve other people instead of yourself. If the reason you are kind to someone, even an incredibly generous person, is to count, to know others will see me as kind, to know that now God will love me… it is about YOU, not others. You are being loving without love.
How do you know this is really about you? 2 things the text tells us – a. This list. It is more subtle, below the rules. This is how you are with people in private. Are you impatient? Do you get irritable? Are you harsh? Are you vain? Are you self-centered? Are you driven? Are you always getting your feelings hurt? b. There is a loveless service; the final test is the last verse. Real love doesn’t give up, doesn’t fall down. The way you’ll know is when an amazing loving relationship is over, it turns to disdain almost immediately. When the whole relationship was about you, and not the other person. It wasn’t love at all.
Not gifted, not good, it is about BEING GRACED. First, inner character comes from a completely different way to approach God. “Gong and cymbal…”, Paul is talking about temple worship. It was a spectacle, epic pageantry. God or gods had be attracted and merited. Paul is saying it is possible to get into the church and DO all the right things and still worship like a PAGAN. “Look I count… look at me don’t you want to bless me.” You can be very christiany and not become a Christian. To get so wrapped up in it, and not see that how fundamentally different Christianity is from every other religion in the way you approach God.
The implication is you are supposed to know you count with God before you do it. Not out there meeting some inner vacuum you have, but a response to fullness, not emptiness. How do you do it? In almost every English translation, the words in v4-7 are adjectives, but it is really a set of verbs. Paul is strikingly personifying love. This translation is better - “Love suffers a long time with patience. Love shows kindness. Love does not burn with envy. It does not get inflated with its own importance. It is never rude and ill mannered. Rather love joyfully celebrates truth, gives all kinds of support, never loses faith, never exhausts hope, love never gives up.” Paul is deliberately not giving a set of rules; he is giving us a person who is love. Two reasons for doing this: 1. You will never be a loving person if you see it as a list of rules that you have to breathe life into. It is a living active power that has to get a hold of you and breathe life into you. 2. He is thinking of somebody specifically. In the context of the whole book of Corinthians, he is telling them they are forgetting the cross. How can they fight and bicker with each other in light of the cross? How can you be so emotionally needy if you remember the cross?
Where is the ultimate example of suffering patiently? Where do see you the ultimate example of not keeping a record of wrongs? Where do you see the ultimate example of love never giving up? Jesus, by enduring the cross, put his happiness into your joy. It is a love that has been done to you and for you FIRST.
Jonathan Edwards’ definition of love – love is putting your happiness in the happiness of others. When you put your happiness in the happiness of others, so their happiness is the only happiness you have. It’s the other person’s joy that is your joy. There is no other joy. You can’t produce that, but you can pass it along, when you realize you have already gotten it from somebody else.
You have to change your entire approach to God and see the ultimate source of love is Jesus dying on the cross.
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