Earnestly desire the greater gifts... the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 12:27-13:13New American Standard Bible (NASB)

²⁷ Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it. ²⁸ And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues. ²⁹ All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they? ³⁰ All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they? ³¹ But earnestly desire the greater gifts.

And I show you a still more excellent way.

The Excellence of Love

13 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, ⁵ does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, ⁶ does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; ⁷  bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part; ¹⁰ but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. ¹¹ When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. ¹² For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. ¹³ But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter, is certainly one of the most familiar and most often quoted and reprinted chapters in the Bible. It is one that is even accepted and quoted by those who reject most of the rest of scripture. The truth is though that this text is much more than an essay or poem about human love. In order to fully understand and appreciate the “love chapter”, we need to go a little deeper into the full meaning of the text.

The first thing we need to recognize is the deficiency of the English language to accurately translate the meaning from the Greek. The English word love is applied to many different situations. We may love pizza, but that is nothing like the emotion we have toward our family and friends and certainly is nothing like the passionate love that we share with our spouse. In the Greek language there is philia, which is friendship or brotherly love. The city of Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love, derives it’s name from the Greek philia. There is eros, from which the English word erotic is derived. Eros is deeply passionate love with physical and sexual implications. Storge is another Greek word for love, describing the love between families, particularly parents for their children. Finally there is the love that Paul is writing about in the text. There is agape. Agape is steadfast, sacrificial, unconditional love.

"For God so loved (agape) the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

"Greater love (agape) has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13)

That is the kind of love that Paul is writing about here. It is agape that:  is patient,  is kind and is not jealous;  does not brag and is not arrogant,  does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,  does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;   bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Agape never fails.

Agape is Godly love, a love that in and of ourselves we are incapable of consistently sharing with others. Human nature causes us to be the opposite of many of these attributes of agape. Most of the things agape is we are not and most of the things agape is not, we are, at least at times.

In order to fully understand and appreciate chapter 13 we need to view it in the context in which it is written. At the end of chapter 12, Paul is speaking about the use and application of spiritual gifts within the body.  He says:

And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues. ²⁹ All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they? ³⁰ All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they? ³¹ But earnestly desire the greater gifts.

We need to remember that in the original manuscripts there were no chapter and verse divisions in the text. Those were added in order to help make the words more easily read. So when Paul moves from the spiritual gifts mentioned in chapter 12 and say we should desire the greater gifts, he says: And I show you a still more excellent way.

The love that Paul writes about, agape, is not simply a human emotion. Agape is a spiritual gift. It is the greatest spiritual gift that we should desire.  We love, because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19)

Jesus says: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the great and foremost commandment. ³⁹ The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40)

Love, agape is a spiritual gift. We can only express that kind of love if we have first experienced the love of God. In response to God’s love for us we then, love Him with all our heart, soul and mind. Only then, because of the love of God, can we begin to love others with the steadfast, unconditional, sacrificial love that Paul is writing about.  Only through the Holy Spirit, who we receive by faith in Christ can we live and experience the fullness of agape.

 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part; ¹⁰ but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. ¹¹ When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. ¹² For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. ¹³ But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Thank You heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit for all of the spiritual gifts You give. Most of all thank You for the gift of agape love. By Your Spirit empower me to love as You love. Amen.