The More Excellent Way
Trouble in Corinth
Church life in first-century Corinth had a lasting impact. Paul met Aquila and Priscilla there and taught there for eighteen months. Persecution and Roman ambivalence marred those early days. Yet, the Corinthian church’s strength to endure persecution fostered a fatherly affection in Paul (1 Cor 4:14-16).
But, over time, Paul’s first letter tells us they were drawn into quarrelling and factions (1 Cor 1:11), boastfulness in vain wisdom (1 Cor 3:18), ineffectiveness in discipline (1 Cor 5), and defeat through conflict (1 Cor 6:7). Their sexuality was anemic (1 Cor 5:1), and their consciences weak (1 Cor 8:2) —built on puffed-up knowledge rather than built-up love.
In Chapter 13, Paul’s great letter to this dearly loved church reaches its pinnacle. Paul’s prose breaks into poetry, presenting love as the excellency that will bind those wounds better than gifted speech, persevering faith, self-denial, or insight into God’s mysteries.
Though greater than both faith and hope, love will last as long as hope endures and faith soars--for all eternity. Love, says Paul, makes all the world’s great things worth something, for without love, everything is as nothing.
The Nothings
The gift of tongues accompanied the Spirit’s outpouring at Pentecost (Acts 2). But Paul says if they sought tongues only to claim elite status (like the apostles), they weren’t Spirit-given at all. No matter how elegant (”of men and angels!”), such utterances were just clanging metal.
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge…” (1 Corinthians 13:1-2a ESV)
Like tongues, understanding all mysteries and knowledge (with the prophetic power to explain them) is a glorious thing. Solomon taught that it befit a king to speak of hidden wisdom (Proverbs 25:2). Royal majesty marks God’s hidden things, but Paul says they’re wasted on the loveless mind.
Even if those great insights are paired with the mightiest mountain-moving faith, they’re nothing without love. Men and women the world over martyr themselves for their convictions without a drop of love in their hearts for another. However noble, it’s pointless to stand for truth if your truth is a loveless lie. Paul writes,
“If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:2, ESV)
In times of persecution and waves of religious fervor, Christians have made grand displays of their rejection of this world. While such hope in Christ’s return is good and right (Luke 14:33), apart from love such displays are vain martyrdom. Loveless ascetics, just like the hypocritical alms-givers, (Matthew 6:2-16) gain nothing—as Jesus said, “they have received their reward.”
“If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:3, ESV)
Restoring Love
Do you see how Paul carefully removes false hopes and redirects misguided ambitions? The Corinthians had lost the plot, but their folly is common to men (1 Cor 10:12-13). If we are wise, though we think we stand firm, we’ll take heed lest we fall. Do we think that good preaching will safeguard us from moral failure? Do we live as though faithful attendance makes up for cold hearts? Do we believe that if we all just pursued modest living, abstaining from the world’s empty distractions (movies, music, “the lake”), then our church would thrive? Is discipling our children consistently and clearly the guarantee of their future? (Consider 1 Cor 12:29-31)
Let me warn you. While it is a good thing to insist on sound preaching, consistent fellowship, careful living, and well-behaved children, without love it’s all a waste of time.
Who do you want those good things for? Why do you pursue them? Do you fight for them in a loveless way?
If your conscience--like mine--is pricked, and you’re not sure where your heart is, start with Paul’s portrait of love:
Are you patient? Are you kind? Do you envy others’ success? Do you boast when you succeed? Are you arrogant or rude? Do you insist that your way is the only way or become irritable with difference, or resentful at minor disagreement?
Love does no such thing, and it is truly the more excellent way.