In my Everyday Bible Study on 1 Corinthians, I observed that the made-famous-by-weddings Chapter 13 seems to interrupt the discussion of spiritual gifts between Chapters 12 and 14. But is it an interruption, or is it a transformation of how to think about and practice the spiritual gifts?
Chapter 13 so transforms spiritual gifts that the chapter needs to be understood as the centerpiece of these three chapters. Gifts are good and varied, and everybody’s used by the Spirit to minister to others — but what matters most is love.
As you read this chapter you may notice that spiritual gifts come up both in 13:1-3 and in 13:8. Our chapter does not interrupt; it transforms. And transforming spiritual gifts empowers us to live together well.
Love Matters More Than Spiritual Gifts
Four times Paul writes “If I,” and what follows with each is a spiritual gift: tongues (13:1), prophecy (13:2a), faith (13:2b), and giving donations and one’s body (13:3).
Okay, giving to the poor and surrendering one’s “body to hardship” are not in any of the lists of spiritual gifts. But, if we are correct that the contribution we make to the body of Christ is our gift, we could say “giving” too is a gift.
Notice that: if giving is not a gift, what is? The logic of these verses is clear: if you are exceptional in your exercise of a gift “but do not have love,” you will “gain nothing” (13:3).
Transformed by Love
Love even transforms the terms Paul has used for gifts: “gifts” and “service” and “working” and “manifestation.” Each of them is transformed by love into genuine actions for the “common good” (12:4-7). Maybe instead of calling them “spiritual gifts” we should call them “love-gifts.”
I have stood before many audiences. At times the lights were so bright on the stage I could not even see most of the people. At times I felt like a machine spitting out words to unknown people. I vastly prefer the classroom because I know my students, and (for the most part) I love them.
I learned from a seasoned professor what teaching was. When I asked him, “What do you teach?” he answered, “Students. How about you?” Turning the classroom from the subject matter to the people transforms teaching into the opportunity to love. And to teach in light of love.
What Love Is and Is Not
“Love is” and “love is not” shaped how Paul orders his thinking in 13:4-7. As you read, notice how Paul moves in a chiastic manner from “Is” to “Is Not” and back to “Is.” That is, A – B – A. (Quotes taken from the NIV.)
A: Love is: “Love is patient, love is kind.”
B: Love is not: “It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking,it is not easily angered,it keeps no record of wrongs.Love does not delight in evilbut rejoices with the truth.”
A: Love is: “It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
These are not definitions of love but behaviors expressing love, or behaviors that don’t express love. Those not expressing love (B above) may well be the sorts of behaviors that have been reported to Paul. Some of the items in B can be found in earlier parts of 1 Corinthians.
Of course, each of the “love is” behaviors can be faked to weaponize them against others. Paul would know that, but his concern is to reshape how the Corinthians exercise their gifts. All he wants is for them to exercise gifts for others. He frowns on comparisons and competitions over gifts.
Love Stays
Verse 8 in the NIV has “Love never fails.” This is a fair translation, but the Greek word, piptō, means “fall.” I have more than once wondered if someone wrote two “l’s” (fall) instead of an “il” (fail), and the translation stuck.
Love doesn’t fall; love stays standing up.
Paul chooses the word “fall” to sum up the permanence of love. As he did in 13:1-3, so here: love is permanent, but the spiritual gifts of prophecy, tongues, and knowledge will “cease” or “be stilled” or “pass away” (each being similar to “fall”).
People in my field (Bible, theology) need the reminder that our knowledge is “in part,” an expression occurring several times in this passage. The infinite God is ungraspable by finite human minds. We may know some things, but what we know remains only a glimpse of God.
The reason each of the gifts will “fall” is because they pertain to the “in part” or incompleteness of our time, the time between now and the final kingdom of God. The in-part-ness is like being a child while completeness is like being a mature adult (13:11). Love is permanent; it never falls, ceases, or passes way. Gifts will pass away, and that is why Paul began the passage and ended with the superiority of love.
Love Is Superior
Read again 12:31 and 13:13 together: “And yet I will show you the most excellent way” and “But the greatest of these is love.” The passage begins and ends announcing love to be the foundation for Christian behavior. Spiritual gifts are but one form of Christian behavior.
Each of the three (now classic Christian) virtues of faith, hope, and love can reshape how any spiritual gift is exercised. But of the three virtues, love is superior, or “greater” than the other two. Therefore, the way of love is superior (12:31; 13:13).
Learned from Jesus (Mark 12:28-34; John 13), love formed into the very center of Christian behavior for Paul (Galatians 5:14; Romans 13:8-10). John outdoes both Jesus and Paul, using the terms more than thirty times (1 John 3:16-17, etc.).
Ecstatic experiences, special languages, the marvels of miracles, the thrill of preaching, the exhilaration of performing on stage on Sunday morning in a megachurch, the pride in seeing your name in print — none of these compares to the fundamental Christian virtue of love.
Love matters, all else falls.
And to love means that when we exercise spiritual gifts properly, we have the transforming power to live together well for the common good.
Questions for Reflection and Application
1. How does the context into which Paul wrote this passage differ from the contexts in which it is most often used today?
2. Why does love matter so much for the usage of gifts in the church?
3. What difference does the translation “fall” versus “fail” make for you?
4. Why will gifts end? Why won’t love end?
Adapted from1 Corinthians: Living Together in a Church Divided, a Bible commentary by Scot McKnight, in which he explains the historical context of Corinth’s divided churches, connects the book to the larger story of the Bible, and provides parallels that bring the story alive to us today.
1 Corinthians: Living Together in a Church Dividedis published by HarperCollins Christian Publishing, which is also the parent company of Bible Gateway.
Scot McKnight
Scot McKnight(PhD, Nottingham) has been a Professor of New Testament for more than four decades. He is the author of more than ninety books, including the award-winningThe Jesus Creedas well asThe King Jesus Gospel,A Fellowship of Differents,One.Life,The Blue Parakeet,Revelation for the Rest of Us,andKingdom Conspiracy.
