Love Or Cosmetology? Series

Neil Postman writes in his book Amusing Ourselves to Death, “that we have reached the point where cosmetics has replaced ideology [or “practice”] as [a] field of expertise.”(1) The verb “cosmeticize” means, “to make something unpleasant or ugly superficially attractive.”(2) It’s common for people in our society to practice cosmetology instead ideology. If we can’t have the ideal or genuine article, then we attempt to make something look good, which is cosmetology.

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul addressed the issue of Christian cosmetology, which was practiced by the first century Corinthian church, and is still being practiced by many believers and churches today. In this chapter, Paul emphasized how a church can portray the image that it’s functioning properly, but at the same time be on the path of self-destruction. If church members do Christian things like feed the homeless, or go on mission trips, and these acts are not done out of genuine love for others and with the motive of glorifying Jesus Christ, then people are just wasting their time. Paul wants us to realize that without love, God doesn’t care what we do for Him. Love is the only genuine article when it comes to serving the Lord.

We Are Nothing without Love (vv. 1-3)

1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

One of the characters in the play Inherit the Wind tells of something that happened to him as a little boy. He would stand outside the general store and dream of the rocking horse that stood in the window of that shop. The horse’s name was Golden Dancer. The boy said that Golden Dancer became his fantasy. He was seven years old and a very fine judge of rocking horses.

He began to say, “If I had Golden Dancer I would have everything I would ever want.” The rocking horse had a bright red mane, blue eyes, and was gold all over with purple spots. The boy said that when the sun hit the horse’s stirrups, she was a dazzling sight to see. But the boy’s family was poor, and though they knew he wanted that rocking horse, they could not afford it.

Yet one birthday he woke up and there was Golden Dancer at the foot of his bed. He couldn’t believe that his dream had come true. He said he jumped on the rocking horse and began to rock, and a terrible thing happened. It broke. It split in two. The wood was rotten. The whole thing was put together with spit and sealing wax. The boy said, “Whenever you see something bright, shining, perfect seeming, all gold with purple spots, look beneath the paint! And if it’s a lie, show it up for what it really is!”(3)

Paul wrote this chapter to the Corinthian church because he wanted to “show it up for what it really was.” Since they were having problems unifying the church, they tried to sustain it with golden things and purple spots, such as the practice of tongues, prophecy, and knowledge. They had hoped that the manifestation of spiritual gifts would prove to the citizens of Corinth, and to their own church members, that God was truly alive and at work in the world.

The problem was that they were trying to build and unify the church through their own efforts instead of from a genuine concern for the people around them. They wanted the church to grow for their own glory instead of God’s glory; and if they had continued on this path, then the church would have eventually fallen apart. The only thing that would truly sustain the church was love.

In these verses, Paul portrayed the significance of love in the Christian walk. Commentator Richard Pratt states that in verse 1, Paul presented us with a hypothetical situation of an extra human ability – the tongues of angels.(4) If it were possible for a person to speak in the heavenly language of angels, then it would be as nothing without love. It would be as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. The reference here to brass is not to a beautiful brass trumpet, but to a piece of clattering brass used to beat on just as the cymbal.(5)

Back in the first century there was a big gong or cymbal hanging at the entrance of most pagan temples. When people came to worship, they hit it to awaken the pagan gods so they would listen to their prayers. Here, Paul was saying that even if he were so blessed that he could speak with the greatest of eloquence in every language, but didn’t have love, then his life was as useless as this ridiculous act of pounding on a gong to awaken nonexistent gods.(6)