BIG IDEA:
SPIRITUAL MINISTRY MUST FLOW THROUGH THE CHANNEL OF LOVE
INTRODUCTION:
Gordon Fee: This is one of the greatly loved passages in the NT, and for good reason. It is indeed one of the apostle’s finest moments; so let the interpreter beware lest too much analysis detract from its sheer beauty and power. Unfortunately, however, the love affair with this love chapter has also allowed it to be read regularly apart from its context, which does not make it less true but causes one to miss too much regarding Paul’s own concerns about the situation in Corinth. . .
In the opening rhetoric (vv. 1–3), and using himself as a hypothetical negative example, the apostle urges the absolute necessity of love; the second paragraph (vv. 4–7) describes the character of love; and in the last, now alternating between first person singular and plural pronouns (vv. 8–13), he illustrates the permanence of love — all to the one end that they eagerly desire “gifts of the Spirit” (14:1) for the sake of the common good (12:7).
John MacArthur: It is easier to be orthodox than to be loving, and easier to be active in church work than to be loving. . . Chapter 13 is the central chapter in Paul’s lengthy discussion of spiritual gifts (chaps. 12-14). Chapter 12 discusses the endowment, receipt, and interrelatedness of the gifts. Chapter 14 presents the proper exercise of the gifts, especially that of languages. In this middle chapter we see the proper attitude and atmosphere, the proper motive and power, the “more excellent way” (12:31), in which God has planned for all of the gifts to operate. Love is certainly more excellent than feeling resentful and inferior because you do not have the showier and seemingly more important gifts. It is also more excellent than feeling superior and independent because you do not have those gifts. And it is more excellent than trying to operate spiritual gifts in your own power, in the flesh rather than in the Spirit, and for selfish purposes rather than for God’s.
David Garland: To be sure, Paul considers love to be the panacea for their factionalism, but he does not appeal to it simply because of its utilitarian benefit to bring about concord. Bornkamm (1969: 188) connects it to the grace-gifts:
“Love” is related to the multiplicity of the “gifts of grace”; as Christ is to the many members of his body . . . ; indeed, we may not speak of an analogy at all, but must understand the relationship between Christ and love as being still closer: love is the new aeon already present now; that is, the presence of Christ himself in the congregation.
In this context, “love means concern for the community and is the check on the exercise of the gifts for personal gratification or the gratification of some rather than all” (Stendahl 1977: 124). Though God and Christ are not mentioned, the cross of Christ as the manifestation of God’s love for the world (cf. Rom. 5:8; 8:37; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 5:2) is the central defining reality for Paul’s understanding of ἀγάπη (agapē). He is speaking not about some human virtue but about love that is rooted in God’s love in Christ.
Paul Gardner: Chapter 13 forms a climax to Paul’s discussion of the role of both grace-gifts and the marker of “love” in the community. As in 8:1–3, love is contrasted with the grace-gifts. For Paul “love” and “grace-gifts” must not be presented as an “either-or.” He has argued, especially in chapter 12, that the grace-gifts are needed, and he has thanked God that this church is well blessed with them by God’s Spirit (1:4–9). He will continue to discuss them in chapter 14. However, they only make sense when used in a context where people are marked out as the Lord’s by “love.” The gifts themselves, therefore, are not to be seen as community markers.
The Status of Spiritual People Is Authenticated by Love (13:1–13)
A. Love Alone Authenticates Spiritual People (13:1–3)
B. Love Controls the Thoughts and Actions of Spiritual People (13:4–7)
C. Love Is Eternal and Complete, While Grace-Gifts Are Temporal (13:8–13)
Daniel Akin: Main Idea: No spiritual gift, no natural ability, no human achievement is greater or more important than love.
I. The Matchless Value of Love (13:1-3)
A. Love is greater than beautiful speech (13:1).
B. Love is greater than brilliant scholarship (13:2a).
C. Love is greater than bold spirituality (13:2b).
D. Love is greater than benevolent sacrifice (13:3).
II. The Marvelous Virtues of Love (13:4-7)
A. Love is patient (13:4a).
B. Love is kind (13:4b).
C. Love does not envy (13:4c).
D. Love is not boastful or arrogant (13:4d).
E. Love is not rude (13:5a).
F. Love is not self-seeking (13:5b).
G. Love is not irritable (13:5c).
H. Love does not keep a record of wrongs (13:5d).
I. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth (13:6).
J. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (13:7).
III. The Majestic Victory of Love (13:8-13)
A. Love is permanent (13:8-12).
B. Love is preeminent (13:13).
Richard Hays: Two common misunderstandings of the chapter must be set aside in the beginning.
- First, Paul does not write about love in order to debunk tongues and other spiritual gifts. His point is not that love should supersede spiritual gifts but that it should govern their use in the church—as chapter 14 will clearly demonstrate. Love is not a higher and better gift; rather, it is a “way” (12:31b), a manner of life within which all the gifts are to find their proper place.
- Second, love is not merely a feeling or an attitude; rather, “love” is the generic name for specific actions of patient and costly service to others. If we attend closely to what Paul actually says in this chapter, all sweetly sentimental notions of love will be dispelled and replaced by a rigorous vision of love that rejoices in the truth and bears all suffering in the name of Jesus Christ.
I. (:1-3) NECESSITY OF LOVE — IN THE EXERCISE OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS, NOTHING CAN COMPENSATE FOR A LACK OF LOVE –
MINISTRY WITHOUT LOVE FAILS IN 3 AREAS:
Robert Gundry: But without love, even speaking in angelic as well as unlearned human languages would grate on the ears. Without love, even omniscience and mountain-moving faith would count for nothing. And without love, even investing in other people not only all one’s possessions but also one’s very own body would give grounds for boasting but not bring any profit at the final judgment bar. Love must imbue all these activities, and those associated with the remaining Spiritual gifts; for only love makes speaking in tongues musical, prophecy and understanding helpful, and self-sacrifice profitable.
David Garland: Persons with the attributes listed in these verses may seem on the surface to be invaluable to the church, but God, who inspects beneath the surface, sees the lovelessness, which makes all these glorious endowments worthless.
A. (:1) No Reception of Revelation . . . Just Annoying Noise of Proclamation
“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.”
Gordon Fee: In saying “but do have not love,” Paul does not mean to suggest that love is a possession of some kind. The language has been formed by the elevated style of the prose. To “have love” means to “act in a way that is loving,” just as to “have prophecy” (v. 2) means “to speak with the prophetic gift”; and to act in a loving way means, as in the case of Christ, actively to seek the benefit of someone else. For Paul it is a word whose primary definition is found in God’s activity in behalf of God’s enemies (Rom. 5:6–8), which was visibly manifested in the life and death of Christ himself. To “have love,” therefore, means to be toward others the way God in Christ has been toward us. Thus, in the Pauline parenesis, for those who “walk in the Spirit” the primary ethical imperative is “love one another.” This is found at the heart of every section of ethical instruction, and all other exhortations are but the explication of it.
David Prior: No doubt the streets of Corinth resounded with the noisy gongs and clashing cymbals which were a feature of such worshippers. A chalkos (gong) was a piece of copper; a kymbalon (cymbal) was a single-toned instrument incapable of producing a melody. Both were used in the mystery-religions, either to invoke the god, to drive away demons or to rouse the worshippers. They were neither melodious nor capable of producing harmony. Both beat out a heavy monotone and caused as much offence as constantly barking dogs.
Equally offensive, maintains Paul, are those who use the gift of speaking in tongues without the controlling motive of love. It does not matter whether the tongues are human languages (as they sometimes seem to be) or even ‘the language of heaven’ (which some people rather tendentiously assume): if there is no love they come across as unattractive and boorish. Some Christians with this particular gift insensitively impose it on others in the congregation; with considerable self-indulgence rather than a deep desire to build up the church, such people override the feelings of those who are either unaccustomed or unsympathetic to this gift.
B. (:2) No Spiritual Impact . . . Just Empty Knowledge and Faith
“And 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.”
Gordon Fee: In this second sentence Paul widens the perspective to include three of the charismata from before (12:8–10), a list which in that argument came from Paul himself as his way of expanding their own horizons as to the work of the Spirit. Thus he includes prophecy, the gift he regularly considers to be of primary significance for the community (cf. 1 Thess. 5:19–20; 1 Cor. 14:1–25); knowledge, which was another of the Corinthian favorites (cf. 1:5; 8:1); and faith, which, together with its qualifier, “that can move mountains,” means the gift of special faith for mighty works (see on 12:9). In order to make this point as emphatic as possible, Paul thrice emphasizes the totally inclusive “all”: all mysteries, all knowledge, all faith. If one person could embrace the whole range of charismata and the full measure of any one of them but at the same time would fail to act in love toward someone else, such a person would amount to nothing in the sight of God.
C. (:3) No Eternal Reward . . . Just Meaningless Sacrifice
“And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor,
and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love,
it profits me nothing.”
Ray Stedman: In the next section the apostle goes on to show us that love must be practical. Love is not an ethereal thing; it is not just an ideal you talk about. It is something that takes on shoe leather and moves right down into the normal, ordinary pursuits and aspects of life. That is where love is to be manifest. Nothing is more helpful, in reading a chapter like this, than to ask yourself the question. “Am I growing in love? Looking back over a year, am I easier to live with now? Am I able to handle people more graciously, more courteously? Am I more compassionate, more patient?” These are the measurements of life. This is why we were given life, that we might learn how to act in love. Nothing else can be substituted for it. There is no use holding up any other quality we possess if we lack this one. It is the paramount goal of every human life, and it is well to measure yourself from time to time along that line.
II. (:4-7) NATURE OF LOVE — IN THE EXERCISE OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS, LOVE CAN COMPENSATE FOR A MYRIAD OF DEFICIENCIES –
15 WAYS LOVE PROMOTES EFFECTIVE MINISTRY:
A. 2 Fundamental Expressions of Love
Mark Taylor: The first two qualities of love, to exercise patience and to show kindness, form a complementary pair. The cognate nouns often occur together in Paul’s writings (Rom 2:4; 2 Cor 6:6; Gal 5:22; Col 3:12). Patience is the more passive idea and, coupled with kindness, indicates a relational quality. In other words, the patience and kindness Paul has in mind is lived out in community in relation to others.
- Love is Patient
Thomas Leake: Be inconvenienced; allow yourself to be taken advantage of by others without getting angry; be slow to anger; be aware of the faults of others but still show love and care; help to preserve the unity in the church; Eph 4:2; 2 Pet 3 – look at how God views time; Rom. 2:4; Eph. 5:3-5; Listen well Prov. 18:13; show patience with newer believers and with unsaved friends and in discipling others; spiritual learning is a slow process; spiritual leaders must be persistent; patience with correcting our children; patience with traffic; sometimes action is needed or we would be called neglectful; the trouble is when I am in a hurry and God is not; Col. 3:12
Gordon Fee: These first two clauses, “Love is patient [= forbearing], love is kind,” represent respectively love’s necessary passive and active responses toward others or difficulties in general. The first verb pictures long forbearance toward them — indeed, it is difficult to improve on the KJV’s “suffereth long” (without the archaic verb); the second verb pictures active goodness in their behalf. In Pauline theology they represent the two sides of the divine attitude toward humankind (cf. Rom. 2:4). On the one hand, God’s loving forbearance is demonstrated by his holding back divine wrath toward human rebellion; on the other hand, God’s kindness is found in the thousandfold expressions of divine mercy. Thus Paul’s description of love begins with this twofold description of God, who through Christ has been shown to be forbearing and kind toward those who deserve divine judgment. The obvious implication, of course, is that this is how God’s people (i.e., the Corinthians themselves, not to mention all others who would claim to belong to Christ) through Christ and the Spirit are to be toward others.
- Love is Kind
Thomas Leake: Be gracious in serving and helpfulness; connotes action of some kind; deeds of kindness; must be shown first in the home; opposite = bickering and sarcasm; recognize that everybody carries a heavy load; unlocks hearing for the gospel; Ruth showed kindness to Naomi; David to Mephibosheth; kindness is the oil that takes out the friction in the machinery of the church; Prov. 3:3; think of others first; show hospitality; pray for others
Ray Stedman: Notice in that paragraph there are only three positives; all the rest are negatives. So love is really only three simple things, basically. It is patient, it is kind, and it is honest. It rejoices in the right. (The word really is “truth.” It rejoices in the truth.) The quality of love we are talking about is that which produces patience, kindness and honesty. The negatives that are given here are associated with love in the apostles though — because these are the things we must set aside in order to let the love of God, which is patient and kind and honest, manifest itself. We do not have to produce this love in the Christian life. We only have to get the things that are hindering it out of the way. Those are the negatives that are suggested here.
B. 7 Contrasts Showing What Love Is Not
- Love is not Jealous
Thomas Leake: wants what others have – their toys, their popularity; joined with spite and envy; there is a godly form of jealousy – 2 Cor. 11:2; Ex. 34:14; Deut. 4:24 = zealous for the name of God and for the purity of His people.
Jealousy is the inability to rejoice when others have success and you do not; robs you of happiness and fruitfulness; cf. Rachel vs Leah over Jacob; Prov. 27:4; first sin in heaven and first murder on earth sparked by jealousy; selfishly possessive; sometimes lazy people are jealous; they feel that others owe them; you can see it in their countenance; they turn into backstabbers in the church; their success should be your success – Phil. 2; James 3:16; Rom. 13:13 – coupled with arguments and strife.
Gordon Fee: Love does not allow fellow believers to be in rivalry or competition, either for “vaunted positions” or to curry people’s favor in order to gain adherents. Indeed, love seeks quite the opposite: How best do I serve these for whom Christ died, whatever my own desires?
- Love does not Brag
Thomas Leake: Don’t talk conceitedly; gloat; show off; trash talk; if it is all of God’s grace there is no room for bragging; empty yourself; Paul viewed himself as a servant; 1 Cor. 4:1; 1 Pet. 5:6; Mark 9:35; Phil. 2:17
Gordon Fee: It is simply not possible to “boast” and love at the same time. The one action wants others to think highly of oneself, whether deserving or not; the other cares for none of that, but only for the good of the community as a whole.
- Love is not Arrogant
Thomas Leake: Humility involves lowliness of mind; 1 Pet. 5; lower your view of yourself; Romans and Greeks saw no use for humility – they valued power, control, intellectualism; 1 Cor. 1:26-30; 2 Cor. 10:17-18; 11:30; we like to commend ourselves; but should boast only in our weakness = the things that I can’t do; 12:9 – we need the power of Christ; don’t take pride in our knowledge of Scripture and the conclusions we come to; church leaders need to watch out for pride in themselves; how do you receive correction? Do you need to be at the center of attention? Are you always bragging about your children? Do you need to be seen as one of the cool ones? Do you associate with the lowly?
David Garland: Love is not puffed up (ϕυσιοῦται, physioutai). Arrogance is one of the particular faults in Corinth. Six of the seven occurrences of this verb in the NT appear in this letter (4:6, 18, 19; 5:2; 8:1). Judge (1984: 23) claims that Paul’s clashes with the Corinthians stimulate “his reflection on constructive as opposed to destructive relations.” Love is constructive. It builds up the building (8:1). The puffed-up spirit blows up the building.
- Love does not act Unbecomingly
Gordon Fee: The verb means to “behave shamefully or disgracefully.” In this letter it recalls
(i) the activities of the women who are bringing shame on their “heads” by attiring themselves so as to disregard the distinctions between the sexes (11:2–16), or
(ii) the actions of the “haves” at the Lord’s Table, who are humiliating (shaming) “those who have nothing” (11:22). Christian love cares too much for the rest of the community to behave in such “unseemly” ways.
- Love does not Seek Its Own
Gordon Fee: It does not seek its own; it does not believe that “finding oneself” is the highest good; it is not enamored with self-gain, self-justification, self-worth. To the contrary, it seeks the good of one’s neighbor — or enemy (cf. Phil. 2:4).
- Love is not Provoked
David Garland: Love is not cantankerous (παροξύνεται, paroxynetai). The verb refers to an inward state of arousal and can have a positive sense, “to stimulate,” or a negative sense, “to irritate.” As a passive verb, it means to be irritated. Love does not go into paroxysms (fits) of anger, nor does it provoke anger in others with its irritability (LSJ 1342–43). Where tensions arise in a community, one may assume that the disputants engaged in irascible responses (see Seesemann, TDNT 5:857).
- Love does not Take into Account a wrong suffered
Doug Goins: Love doesn’t take into account a wrong suffered; it isn’t resentful. “Take into account” is a bookkeeping term. It means to calculate something, as when entering numbers into a journal or a ledger. It’s to keep a permanent financial record. That’s good practice in business, but in human relationships that’s a bad thing. It’s very destructive to keep records of imagined or real slights against us, because it means we end up living with indignation toward other people, holding a grudge, feeling victimized by an affront or personal injury. We must remember that God does not view us this way. God is not a record-keeping God. And love won’t keep records against other people. It never evaluates people that way.
David Garland: Love absorbs evil without calculating how to retaliate. On the other hand, keeping count of wrongs allows us to take advantage of another’s guilt (Bornkamm 1969: 183). Spicq (1965: 157) describes it as “absolute forgetfulness, as if the marks of the stylus vanished from the wax tablet.”
C. Basic Orientation of Love
- Love does not Rejoice in Unrighteousness
- Love Rejoices With the Truth
D. 4 Enduring Expressions of Love
Gordon Fee: Love has a tenacity in the present, buoyed by its absolute confidence in the future, that enables one to live in every kind of circumstance and continually to pour oneself out in behalf of others. Paul’s own ministry was a perfect example of such love.
Daniel Akin: There is a staying power to true love, like a flame that cannot be quenched. Love takes the long view not the short view. It keeps the big picture in mind. It hangs in there with other people even under their worst circumstances and refuses to quit. For married couples, it takes seriously those words “until death do us part.” You simply cannot kill a love that bears, keeps believing and hoping through, and endures all things. That is a love that will last through all adversity and stand the test of time.
- Love Bears All Things
- Love Believes All Things
- Love Hopes All Things
- Love Endures All Things
Doug Goins: Finally, love endures all things. Literally that means to stay under pressure. It’s a military term that means to hold a position at all costs, even unto death, whatever it takes. So love holds fast to people it loves. It perseveres. It never gives up on anyone. Love won’t stop loving, even in the face of rejection.
III. (:8-13) THE CAPSTONE OF THE SUPREMACY OF LOVE = ITS PERMANENCE AND VALUE
Andrew Noselli: The present age contrasts with the age to come. Love is superior to spiritual gifts because love never ends. Love is not a spiritual gift, but it is essential for using them. Prophecies, tongues, and knowledge will end because they will no longer be necessary in the age to come. At this point in the history of salvation, what we know is only partial and what we prophesy is only partial. But that partial understanding will pass away when the completeness comes – that is, after Jesus’ return. Our knowledge now is like a child’s, and our knowledge later will be like an adult’s. Now we indirectly see a reflection, but later we will see Jesus face to face. Sin hinders us from knowing more fully now, but later sin will no longer hinder us. Our knowledge now compared to our knowledge then will be like being outside in pitch darkness with a flashlight compared to being outside when the sun is brightly shining: just as we would no longer need the flashlight, so we will no longer need spiritual gifs such as tongues and prophecy.
A. (:8A) Promise of Permanence for Love
“Love never fails”
John MacArthur: Love cannot fail because it shares God’s nature and God’s eternity.
Gordon Fee: With the next paragraph he brings this description of love into focus in terms of its permanence, over against the gifts of the Spirit that belong only to the present age. And in so doing he leads the Corinthians back to the concern at hand, that they should above all “make love their aim” and at the same time in that context “eagerly desire the gifts of the Spirit” — but always with a view toward their benefiting others.
B. (:8B) Contrast with the Transitory Nature of Spiritual Gifts
- Example of Gift of Prophecy
“but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away”
- Example of Gift of Tongues
“if there are tongues, they will cease”
- Example of Gift of Knowledge
“if there is knowledge, it will be done away”
John MacArthur: Prophecy and knowledge will be stopped by something outside themselves (the coming of the perfect), but the gift of tongues will stop by itself. . . Tongues will have ceased at an earlier time (when the New Testament was completed).
C. (:9-12) Supremacy of Full Revelation Over Partial Revelation
- (:9-10) Full Knowledge Will Replace Partial Knowledge
“For we know in part, and we prophesy in part;
but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.”
Gordon Fee: At the coming of Christ the final purpose of God’s saving work in Christ will have been reached; at that point those gifts now necessary for the building up of the church in the present age will disappear, because “completeness” will have come. To cite Barth’s marvelous imagery: “Because the sun rises all lights are extinguished.”
David Garland: “The perfect” refers to the state of affairs brought about by the parousia (Robertson and Plummer 1914: 287, 299–300; Lietzmann 1949: 66, 189; Fee 1987: 646; Schrage 1999: 307–8). Paul uses the (elthein) in Gal. 4:4 to refer to the coming of the fullness of time. Here, the battery of future tenses, the disappearance of the partial replaced by the complete, and the reference to knowing as God knows us, all point to the end time. He contrasts the present age with the age to come. The “perfect” is shorthand for the consummation of all things, the intended goal of creation; and its arrival will naturally displace the partial that we experience in the present age. Human gifts shine gloriously in this world but will fade to nothing in the presence of what is perfect. But they also will have served their purpose of helping to build up the church during the wait and to take it to the threshold of the end. When the anticipated end arrives, they will no longer be necessary.
- (:11) Maturity Preferred Over Immaturity
“When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child,
reason as a child; when I became a man,
I did away with childish things”
- (:12) Full Knowledge Will Replace Partial Knowledge
“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face;
now I know in part, but then I shall know fully
just as I also have been fully known.”
John Piper: My conclusion is that the contrast between seeing fuzzily in an old mirror made out of metal and seeing face to face is not a contrast between first century spiritual knowledge and the knowledge we have from the New Testament today, but rather it’s a contrast between the imperfect knowledge we have today in this age and the awesome personal knowledge of God we will have when the Lord returns.
Mark Taylor: The metaphor of the mirror enjoyed widespread use in the ancient world and was particularly relevant to Corinth where bronze mirrors were manufactured. Although looking into a mirror could carry different connotations, the use of the metaphor in context points to the indirectness of one’s vision, to partial and incomplete knowledge. Seeing in a mirror is contrasted with seeing “face to face” and having full knowledge. The phrase “poor reflection” renders a phrase occurring only here in the New Testament, but scholars concur that the reference is to Num 12:6–8, which contrasts Moses’ prophetic experience with other prophets. Other prophets received revelation through visions and dreams (Num 12:6), but the Lord spoke to Moses face to face (Num 12:8). Ciampa and Rosner submit that Paul’s allusion to Num 12:8 “is consistent with other early Jewish interpretations in understanding that in the age to come all God’s people would have an experience similar to that which distinguished Moses from the other prophets. We already see the Lord as through a mirror (imperfectly) and know him as well as that experience allows (cf. 2 Cor 3:18), but the day is coming when we will see him as Moses did, face to face, an experience of knowing him fully as we are already fully known by him.”
Gordon Fee: Thus Paul’s point with all of this is now made. He began (v. 8) by arguing that love, in contrast to the charismata, never comes to an end. Precisely because the gifts have an end point, which love does not, they are of a different order altogether. This does not make them imperfect, although in a sense that too is true; it makes them relative. Paul’s concern throughout this paragraph has been to demonstrate the strictly “present age” nature of these gifts. They will pass away (v. 8); they are “in part” (v. 9); they belong to this present existence only (vv. 10–12). Most likely the purpose of all this is simply to reinforce what was said at the beginning (vv. 1–3), that the Corinthians’ emphasis on tongues as evidence for being people of the Spirit is wrong because it is wrongheaded, especially from people who do not otherwise exhibit the one truly essential expression of the Spirit’s presence, self-giving love. As good as the Spirit’s giftings are, they are nonetheless only for the present; sacrificial love, which the Corinthians currently lack, is the “more excellent way” in part because it belongs to eternity as well as to the present.
D. (:13) Supremacy of the Value of Love Over Even Faith and Hope
- The Top Three Christian Virtues
“But now abide faith, hope, love, these three;”
Gordon Fee: But why this triad in the present context where the contrast has been between Spirit gifting and love? The answer probably lies with Paul’s concern to emphasize that love is not like present manifestations of the Spirit, in that it is both for now and forever. The preceding argument might leave the impression that, since the “gifts” are only for the present, love is basically for the future. But not so. Love never comes to an end; it always remains. So now he concludes the argument by emphasizing the presentness of love as well. In so doing, since he is trying to emphasize the nature of their present life in Christ, he adds faith and hope to love somewhat automatically, since for him these are what accompany love, not Spirit gifting. They simply belong to different categories.
That also, then, explains why he adds at the end, “But the greatest of these is love.” Even though love “continues” in the present, along with its companions faith and hope, love is the greatest of these three because it “continues” on into the final glory, which the other two by their very nature do not.
David Garland: The triad of faith, hope, and love appears elsewhere in Paul’s letters (see Rom. 5:1–5; Gal. 5:5–6; Col. 1:4–5; 1 Thess. 1:3; 5:8; Eph. 4:2–5; Titus 2:2) and in Heb. 6:10–12; 10:22–24; and 1 Pet. 1:3–9 (see also Barn. 1:4; 11:8; Pol. Phil. 3:2–3). They are well known as essential Christian virtues. Paul probably added faith and hope to love here to allow the familiar combination to balance the triad of prophecy, knowledge, and tongues. The inclusion of faith and hope also allows Paul to magnify love even more. Not only is love superior to spiritual gifts that are partial and will come to an end, but also it is superior to virtues that are absolutely essential to being a Christian.
- The Winner is. . .
“but the greatest of these is love.”
John MacArthur: Love is the greatest of these not only because it is eternal, but because, even in this temporal life, where we now live, love is supreme. Love already is the greatest, not only because it will outlast the other virtues, beautiful and necessary as they are, but because it is inherently greater by being the most God-like. God does not have faith or hope, but “God is love” (1 John 4:8).