Notice the five things here that are empty without love:
Tongues, prophecy, faith, generosity, sacrifice. Not just any kind of tongues, prophecy, faith, generosity and sacrifice, but the ultimate kind. Tongues of men and of angels. Prophecy that fathoms all mystery and knowledge. Faith that can move mountains. Generosity that includes every possession. Sacrifice that demonstrates total commitment.
These are normally considered great things. What we see here is that motives matter. Motives are what make actions worthwhile. The one most excellent motive that fills all of these with true greatness is love.
We learn from this section of the chapter, what’s on the inside is at least as important as what’s on the outside. Some would say, more so. When someone gives a gift we sometimes say, it’s the thought that counts. We have to be careful not to let this become an excuse for doing something inappropriate. Like the man who loves to hunt so he bought his wife a gun and four-wheeler for Christmas. But these verses speak of doing good things. We see here things that would be associated with great ability or extravagant sacrifice. These things would normally be considered great spiritual maturity or deep godly love. Paul selected these things because they are very good things. The actions he describes here are superior actions. He is using this as an illustration to say that even the greatest and most noble actions are hollow without the greatest motive of love.
A hollow action may benefit someone else, but notice what it does for the actor. Nothing. Performance is measured by motive here. These Corinthians seem to have been somewhat blind to this. They are going for the great actions, wanting the big show, but missing the real value that makes it all worthwhile. Acting is hollow when it is measured this way.
In the Ozarks there is a place where they have an ongoing play of the last days of Christ, including his death, burial and resurrection. Eureka Springs is the place, I think. I heard a story that one year as the play was going on, a heckler sat in the audience and he kept verbally mocking the actor who played Christ. At one point in the play Jesus was carrying his cross through the scene and his path took him right past the place where the heckler was sitting. As the actor was carrying his cross the heckler said some especially foul insults and the actor dropped the cross and stepped over and punched the heckler out.
Later the director met with the actor and told him he was fired. You can’t play the part of Jesus, and do that. Jesus would never have done that! The actor begged for another chance saying that he would never do that again and that he really needed this job. The director finally let him have another chance. The next play came and who should be sitting right in the same place, but the same heckler doing even worse than the last time. This time though the actor kept his composure and managed to get through the play until at the same place as the first time, the heckler said something that just flew all over the actor. Holding his cross, he turned and stared at the heckler and said, “Meet me after the resurrection!”
To some degree we are all acting the part of Christ. It is difficult to follow in the steps of one so full of God’s love and grace. What motivates you to be like Christ? If it isn’t love, you’ll find yourself burdened beyond your ability very quickly.
We need to imitate the actions of Jesus. But we also need to discover his motives and allow God to build these into our hearts and minds.
Lets think about the context of this chapter on love: This is in a letter written to a Church in trouble.
The church of Corinth was a place of division, immorality, disobedience to God, chaos in the assembly, jealousy and strife. Now that’s a church that needs this chapter. More immediately in the context we find that the chapters that come before and after this one are all about spiritual gifts. These Corinthians could do a lot of amazing miraculous things! They could speak in tongues, they could do healings, they could prophecy, and do other sensational works. But with all those gifts, they were still a spiritual wreck. Why?
Because of the motives by which they practiced them. If you read 1 Cor. 13 carefully, you will see that it addresses every one of the things they were NOT doing as they should. This chapter also opens and closes by placing the miraculous gifts on the sideline of character and the attitude and heart of Christ.
Let’s notice the outline of this chapter briefly:
Notice how it begins by sidelining sensationalism and elevating the center of Christian character which is love. What good is it to do or have everything in the world if you don’t have love? Zero! He speaks of tongues, prophecy, miraculous understanding, mountain moving faith, and ultimate physical sacrifice, and says that without love, these are what? Nothing. N- O- T- H- I- N- G, that’s what these things mean to me! Nothing, absolutely nothing!
Second, we see the description of what is love. In verses 4 through the first part of verse 8, we are given this beautiful word picture of the qualities of love. In each word there is a lesson for these Corinthians. These are hard hitting words. Each one carefully selected to provide the most punch and deliver the best medicine. Anyone looking at this must reflect on themselves and ask the hard questions: Is this the way I live? Does this describe the motives of my heart? Does my attitude reflect this?
What do you suppose the Corinthians would have to say in answer to those questions? What about you and me today? On a scale of 1 to 10 how do you measure up to this description?
Well, the next section of 1 Cor. 13 is a return to sidelining the sensational exterior and elevating the spiritual interior. If it were not for the final few words, this chapter would form a perfect sandwich. The bread slices would be a devaluation of miraculous exteriors and the meat and seasonings would be the description of love. In the first part the scripture says, tongues, prophecy, miraculous knowledge and mountain moving faith without love prophet the person who does them nothing. In the last part the scriptures he says that tongues, prophecy, miraculous knowledge, will not last and are signs of immaturity!
He compares tongues, prophecy, miraculous faith with childishness. The best that we see today is but a dim reflection of the glory that we will see when face to face.
Many attempts have been made to make Paul’s statement “that which is perfect” to be the completion of scripture. You may read the arguments yourselves in the commentaries. I am not convinced that this is true. Seeing face to face and knowing fully as I am known sounds more like an experience of glory than a completion of scripture. Since the Bible has been complete, do you know as you are known and do you see face to face? I’ve read the Bible all my life, and the more I read it, the more questions I have. But one day, I believe that God will reveal everything that is now a dim reflection. One day we will see him face to face and rejoice forever in his presence and shout hallelujah before his awesome glory.
John says, in 1 John 3: 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
That sounds more like what God’s word is talking about to me. You are free to disagree. I know that eternity does not hang in the balance over whether we see this exactly alike. But I challenge you to study this for yourselves and seek to apply what God says to your lives.
I want you to imagine something for a moment. Think about what happened on the cross. Think about Jesus Christ, dying there for you and me. Now, I want you to remove love from the picture. Just imagine this event apart from God’s love or any love. What is left? You see, even the cross without love is nothing! It is love that made that happen, and love that makes it beautiful. God’s love!
