The Greatest of These is Love

A Study on 1 Corinthians 13:8-13

So far in this chapter of 1 Corinthians we have examined a beautiful poem on love. In the first part we looked at Paul’s argument for the necessity of love as an inseparable ingredient to the Christian life and practice. That which is done without love, is to Paul, not Christian. Paul then moved into the famous description of love. Again, not an exhaustive description by any means, but a general description through the personification of love. We saw what love is and what love isn’t. And most importantly, what love does in all things all the time. In today’s passage Paul begins with the phrase “love never fails” which in some sense is a continuation of the list prior (especially considering the last point Paul makes, that love endures all things), but this descriptor of love begins an emphatic teaching from Paul, a summative lesson on love, that concludes this chapter’s overarching teaching. Love, Paul writes, never fails. That’s a double statement: first, that love knows no failure, but secondly, that love is a constant. That love always will be, and in that everlasting nature, love will always triumph. He contrasts love with the very things that the Corinthians ‘love’ , that being things they deem to be of higher spiritual value, such as tongues. But it is love that is our end. Our road ends where love is found. Sometimes in the pursuit of doing what is “right” we lose sight of doing “right” in love. They go hand-in-hand and so we are taught today that love is something that will never fade, and that love is the reality that awaits those who are made complete. Let’s dive deeper into the text.

Love Remains (8-10)

This section of text is very difficult to split up and I prefer to exegete it as a whole to you so don’t get so attached to these headers, but I do want you to have a sense of the flow of Paul’s argumentation. In this section we will focus our attention on a few points, points of debate in the church today, as to what Paul means. At face value and shallow reading, it is easy to overlook the complexity of Paul’s words. Let me point out a few things he notes and then we will dive in; love never fails, the charismata or gifts will stop, and they will stop when the perfect comes.

• Love never fails This may seem like a simple statement in line with all that has been said thus far about love, but in its Greek position here it is not as simple. It really renders this meaning, that love does not fall or is never brought down. It stands both to continue and end the list prior, but also to open this final paragraph. To this point, Paul has been contrasting love with the charismata or the gifts of the Spirit. Paul has argued that without love, these gifts are but noise, useless even. He has contrasted the value of the virtue of love with the supposed value that the Corinthians placed on the possession of gifts. Paul has made clear that there is no competition between the two, but that love holds superior value because it unlocks the purpose of the gifts themselves. But in these verses, he adds one more element to this contrast, love does not cease. It will be forever, whereas the gifts shall not. Now, for the theologically educated here, you can tell where this is going. This text, some have argued, is the central text from which our modern debate between Christians who believe in the ongoing practice of the spiritual gifts and those who believe that the use of the gifts has ended stems from. But that is a debate that distracts from Paul’s centrality in these verses on love, rather than gifts. Our draw towards the gifts is almost comical, in that Paul is writing to draw the Corinthians away from valuing the gifts, and yet here we are today still focusing on that aspect and not on what Paul is saying about love. Love will not end as a virtue and value piece in the Christian life, gifts will.

• Charismata I’ve already made mention of the debate over the gifts. On one hand we have cessationists who no longer believe that the spiritual gifts are in play. That they have ended and no longer apply to the Christian practice. On the other we have charismatics who believe the total opposite. That although the gifts will end, they have not yet done so. Some even go far as to pick at Paul’s writing here and argue this: that Paul removed in verse 9 the gift of tongues. So tongues is the one gift that continues today. Very convenient for those that practice tongues, but a complete omission of verse 8 and a poor exegesis of biblical text. And then there are those who see both gifts as a reality that once was and in parts of the world an experience that is ongoing in churches. And yet, understand that gifts are temporary. The debate is not so much whether the gifts will end, we are all cessationists in a sense, if you are Bible believers, but rather the debate is over when the gifts will cease. Paul gives one time stamp: when the perfect comes. Paul goes further into that in verses 11-13 so we will examine that when we get there. But make note that the emphasis, in contrast to love that never fails, is that the gifts will ultimately fall down or cease.

• Pausontai The last thing I want to make note for you in this section is an understanding of the term pausontai or cease. Paul uses the term for cease or done away here which holds the simple meaning of stop. It is the same term used for when the storms ceased or stopped at the command of Christ. The implied understanding in the Greek is lost in the English to some degree but it is this: that there is a middle voice in the language that acts as the authority. An invisible voice that although not mentioned, is the catalyst by which the object ceases. The storm does not stop on its own power nor do the gifts. It is by Jesus’ command, the middle voice, that the storms cease. It is by God’s will, by his command, that the gifts too will cease.

Love Completes (11-13)

Verse 13 is really where we get the emphatic conclusion and very dramatic end to this whole chapter, but before we get there we need to first look at this idea of completion. In verse 9 Paul mentions “for we know in part…” In verse 11 Paul says he used to be like a child and reasoned like one too. And that even now he only knows in part, but that there is full knowledge to come. This is the biblical idea of scholars call parousia. D.A. Carson does an excellent job of breaking down this concept in this text, as it unlocks a lot of what Paul is saying in regards to love and the gifts. In a way, you could sum up the points in this way: we only know in part or partially what we do with these gifts but when the perfect comes, then we will know fully. Parousia means coming or arrival, typically this references the Second Coming of Christ. But we know that hasn’t happened yet. So in one sense, charismatics have a strong argument, that the Second Coming has not yet come. But parousia also entails a progression in the church towards that day. We’ll take a quick look at what Paul is saying here.

• (11-12) We have two analogies made by Paul here: the first is the maturation of a child to an adult, and the second is that of a mirror. Reasoning and childishness is at the heart of the child analogy. Paul is saying that revelation from God has resulted in a change in thought process and in character. He is not using this analogy, like before, to denote maturity but to denote knowledge and self-centredness. As a child grows into an adult, the child begins to know more about the reality of the world they live in, and proper understanding leads to proper conduct and true maturity is marked by the one who grows less and less self-centred. Adults are expected to be responsible for others, not just themselves. And then the mirror, a mirror reflects back to you a perfect copied image of exactly who you are. But currently, in our sin we are incapable of even knowing ourselves as God knows us. We have a false understanding of who we are. In both analogies, we only know in part so we behave as such. But like when Moses came face-to-face with God, or Isaiah or Daniel, only then will we know perfection and only then will we know ourselves truly. That we are sinner and unworthy. To steal a quote from Karl Barth, “Because the sun rises, all lights go out.”

  • But like a child, one does not go from child to adult in a moment, but gradually over time. With changes made as you grow into that mature form. So too, each of us, grow into that form through a process or gradual progression. Parousia anticipates that final form, but we can’t lose sight of the things that are meant to be lost now and in the moments to come. What we hold to so dearly, if not eternal, is something we must be willing to lose.

• (13) This final verse is likely one you are familiar with. But in context, do you see now what it really means? Even for scholars, the meaning is lost and there are admittedly different schools of thought on the interpretation of this verse. But the orthodox understanding of this verse is what makes most sense and what I believe, captures the heart of the chapter.

  • “But now” does not mean now temporally as a timestamp, but rather as a logical but now. It is to say, “now look.”

  • The Pauline triad of faith, hope and love are not one thing but literally three things.

  • These three will remain. But Paul has said that it is love that will never fail, no mention of the other two into eternity so why now? So is this contradictory?

    • Although faith and hope will remain they will not enter eternity without change, but love will remain the same. Here’s Carson on why, “In eternity faith becomes sight and hope is taken over by reality.” Thiselton expands, “Hope vanishes when what we hope for comes firmly into view, and since faith, at least in some of its various meanings, stands in contrast to sight, at the very least, if faith and hope survive forever, these will assume different forms. Barth on love however, “Love is the future eternal light shining in the present, it therefore needs no change of form.” Thus, the greatest of these is love.

One might conclude on the basis of Paul’s writing and the teaching given today that Paul is anti-spirituality or anti-gifts. But that is not the case. Paul is not diminishing the gifts as being meaningless or without value or purpose, he is correcting the Corinthian understanding that the ends are not to be gifted nor “spiritual.” But rather, that the Christian life is ultimately made complete by becoming one who is loving of God and loving of others. Love is to be our hallmark, our lasting impression, our legacy, our pursuit, and our story. Love never fails and love remains. How amazing it is to know that God is shaping us and transforming our lives into conformity with Christ’s, that in our wholeness we will be able to be perfect demonstrators of love. All these things that Paul mentions about love, will be true of us! That means, what we do in the end will not be the measure of our lives, but rather for what we lived. The love of God, the love of others. What a glorious thing God is doing in us, so take heart brother and sister, our end is love for Christ showed us on the cross that love is truly the way. We love because He first loved us, and he demonstrated his love for us in this: that He died for us. I end with a quote from Jonathan Edwards as he was asked about what makes the church is like heaven:

The church’s manifestation in time of the

glories that are yet to come is not accomplished

in the gift of tongues, nor even in prophecy, giving, teaching.

It is accomplished in love…The greatest evidence

that heaven has invaded our sphere, that the Spirit

has been poured out upon us, that we are citizens

of a kingdom not yet consummated, is Christian love.