What is Love?
Okay, if your brain did not immediately follow reading the title of this article with, “Baby don’t hurt me” we might not be able to be friends. Extra points if you continued it with, “ don’t hurt me, no more.”
Take a pause and read 1 Corinthians 13
You probably are already familiar with it. Maybe you recently heard it read at a wedding. Maybe it was read at your wedding. It might even be fancily framed in your house on a wall somewhere. It really is a great wedding passage. It’s just that Paul probably didn’t pause as he was dictating this letter with the goal of putting on papyrus the world’s best wedding passage. This section of his letter has a deep purpose that Paul intended to remind believers that how you lead and treat people is vitally important, especially in a body that is meant to model God’s amazing grace, mercy, and patience for the world.
The Church at Corinth
The church that developed in the city of Corinth is, perhaps, the most dysfunctional of the bunch. They were experiencing all sorts of issues, controversies, and questionable practices. They sent a number of questions to Paul and received more than a few direct responses from him! The church had developed a hierarchy of gifts and the gatherings had devolved into chaotic messes because things weren’t being practiced in a spirit of love. The heart of their dysfunction stemmed from a lack of God’s unconditional love forming the basis of their lives and practice. They were trying to ”DO” for God rather than letting God work “THROUGH” them.
Meaningless without love
A unique structure of this chapter in the original Greek is the use of the article with the word, “agape.” Agape is the Greek word for unconditional love used most often in terms of God’s love for us. Scores have been written about this word and the concept overall. The point is that our lives are designed to be lived from the overflow of God’s unconditional love in us. Leading into these verses Paul writes about the orderly use of spiritual gifts within the church and its services. Paul encourages the use of gifts in their proper form and place. Yet, he says that there is still a better way that he is about to share. As he begins this “more excellent way” he begins to use the Greek article with the word agape. The article use signifies something different. In the original language the article signifies the ultimate example of the quality, or thing. So the article with agape points to the most real, most incredible, truest form of love. It points to God’s ultimate show of love at a blood-stained cross. Our best practice in life is founded upon God’s ultimate act of grace at the cross, not our own efforts. The introduction of the article leads us to recognize the purest qualities of God’s love over and above our own. Our love has frailties. Our love has failures. Our love can lose its patience, its kindness, its humility, and its grace. God’s love doesn’t. When we drift into service, actions, and deeds void of God’s love we drift into meaninglessness.
God’s unconditional love is greater
The final couple verses of this chapter tell an awesome truth to us. IN our current context we live life while viewing the world, our circumstances, and the events as if we are looking through a dirty window. We can’t quite see things for what they really are. We just don’t see things fully. However, don’t miss one of the most profound little nuggets that exists at the end of verse 12. Paul points out that each of us are “fully known” by God. God knows us fully. We can’t know Him fully yet because of the presence of sin, but we will in time. God knows every part of us. The good. The bad. The ugly. The uglier. The ugliest. God knows all of it. And He still loves us. He still sent His Son. He still made a way for us to know Him. So, Paul points out the scandalous magnitude of God’s grace and then proceeds to the final statement. As people, we have three great virtues - Faith, Hope, Love. We believe. We look forward with expectancy. We love each other. Most of us would then add that the verse finishes with pointing out that the greatest virtue is our love. However, Paul adds the Greek article back in when he finishes the thought. The point is that God’s love trumps even our most virtuous acts. It means that the true foundation of how we should live is out of God’s love, not even our own version of it. It isn’t that our virtues are worthless, or not good. The point is that we are sustained in our virtues by standing on the greatest virtue of all. God’s unconditional love for us.
Take a moment and go back to 1 Corinthians 13 in your bible. Reread it with a recognition of the article being involved. Instead of “love” read it as “God’s love.” Read the passage through the lens of God’s amazing love for us and how we love others in our lives. Recognizing how much God’s love covers over things in our lives changes how we view and love others. God’s unconditional love ought to spur us on into great love for, kindness towards, and patience with others. What is love but a reflection of the greatest love of all that we receive from God?