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Tuesday, September 27, 2005
1 Corinthians 13
My dear friend Jenn has been on a bit of a journey. We don't know where it'll end yet, but I'm certainly glad to watch her progress. :) As part of that, today, she studied 1 Corinthians 13. Since I suggested that particular chapter, I figured it would be a good idea for me to look at the same passage today. Even though I'm supposed to be doing my Exodus chapter 1 summary. :) (I'll do that this evening with T.)
First I'd like to look at the first three verses:
1 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. 2 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. 3 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.
What is God saying here? He's taken love, and he's put it up against some pretty seriously important concepts, and actions, and decisions. And love trumps them all. Education, spiritual gifts, intelligence, wisdom, faith, generosity, self-sacrifice -- all these are meaningless to God without love as their basis. And not just any love, either.
Now when this passage says 'love', it's not love like we might think of today (to make things even more confusing, the King James version uses the word 'charity' in this passage). You might know, or you might not, that the Greek language didn't (and probably still doesn't) lump a bunch of different ideas under one word, like we do with the word 'love'. They used the word phileo to denote brotherly love -- the love that we have for our friends and family. Chummy, happy, long-lasting, you-are-important-to-me-and-I-have-fun-with-you love. Eros meant passionate sexual love. Storge is the kind of love you have for a child -- it's frequently translated "natural affection". And then there was agape, which is the word used here. Agape is selfless love -- the kind of love God has for us; the kind He wants us to have for one another. It's love that puts the needs of the other person first. And we're about to get a great description of how that all works, in the next few verses.
4 Love is patient, love is kind, {and} is not jealous; love does not brag {and} is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong {suffered,} 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails; but if {there are gifts of} prophecy, they will be done away; if {there are} tongues, they will cease; if {there is} knowledge, it will be done away.
Wow. What a tall order. Whenever I want to pat myself on the back for being such a loving person (and I am, really, a very loving person) I should come read this passage instead. All these things that love is -- real love, agape love -- does my love look like this?
Patient. People aren't going to be everything we want them to be all the time. To me, patience goes beyond the idea of waiting for everyone to be ready to leave on Sunday mornings without starting to shout and tear my hair; it means letting God work on the people I love at His own pace, and theirs, and not expecting people to be more than they are, or to move through life at my pace.
Kind. Am I kind in word and deed? Am I generous? Am I thoughtful? Not always. Ouch.
Not jealous. Does this mean that if I love someone, I should be able to be happy for their good circumstances without bemoaning my own situation? I should be willing to share their time and affection? I have always had a bit of a problem with this. Not just with what we would call love relationships, but with my friendships. As a teen I wanted to be THE best friend. I ached with jealousy when a friend of mine did things with someone else, loved someone else. And let's not even get into boyfriends, shall we?
Doesn't brag. I was about to type that I don't quite "get" this idea, but I just realized that perhaps God's telling us that when we love people, we won't boast of our accomplishments, possessions, happiness, etc., in a way that would cause jealousy or envy. Interesting inverse of the concept before it, really.
Isn't arrogant. Going through life and relationships with a high idea of our own worth compared to those around us certainly isn't loving. Or agape-ing, to be more precise.
Does not act unbecomingly I wonder what God meant by "unbecoming". It's a word whose meaning seems to change culturally. Maybe it means I shouldn't embarrass the people I love. Sorry, guys.
Does not seek its own. Meaning it isn't selfish. This, for me, is the crux of this whole passage. A love that is selfless -- that seeks to put self on a lower level of priority than others -- will naturally be all of these other things, if you think about it.
Is not provoked. I have a hard time with this one. I get "provoked" easily. It burns off quickly (that's the next phrase, hee hee), but it happens.
Does not take into account a wrong suffered. I love this phrase. Love does not take into account a wrong suffered -- love doesn't hold grudges. LET THINGS GO. Forgive and move on. It's a hard lesson at times, but it's key.
Does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth. Another interesting concept to relate to the idea of love. Naturally we shouldn't rejoice at unrighteousness, right? We shouldn't get happy about sin, that's pretty easy. But to say that love doesn't get happy about sin -- are we not to get happy about others' sin? Does this mean simply that when we love, we aren't glad when bad things happen to people? We don't get a kick out of people we love getting away with doing wrong? I am confused. Input please. :)
Bears, believes, hopes, and endures all things. Also key. Real love doesn't die easily, through trials, over long periods of time, past obstacles, through dry spells -- our love for each other and for God can't die out just because things get tough, or we feel distant.
And in keeping with that:
Love is eternal. There are other very important things in our lives, but when they're all gone, love will still be there. Love for and from God; love for and from each other.
9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 11 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 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.
We're not done yet. We don't know everything yet. We're not perfect yet; we're not complete. Nothing around us is perfect or complete, nothing we do is. Not until we are with Jesus in heaven will we know true completeness and perfection, although our goal as Christians is to continually move toward that goal. (What this has to do with the rest of the passage about love is a little bewildering to me. Paul's writing style can do that to me sometimes. :)
(edit: In thinking about this, if you put it next to verse 8, which is really, I suppose, where it belongs, you can see that the contrast is between these things that will pass away and love, which won't. We know a little, but "when the perfect comes" [there are about as many ideas about what "the perfect" is in this phrase as there are Bible commentaries -- the gist seems to indicate "at the end of things, when we get to heaven" to me], these things we know now will be revealed in the full light of God's truth, and since love is the only thing in that long list that won't pass away, maybe -- love provides a lot of that light? I still dunno. Just wanted to add this. T, HELP ME. :)
13 But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Back to the beginning here (reminds me of teaching my kids to write paragraphs with a topic sentence and a closing one) to sum up: There are important things in life, no doubt, but love is the most important.
Love for what? Love for whom? For each other? For our husbands and friends? Beyond a doubt. But it's my opinion, taking the rest of Scripture into account, that our love for God -- agape at its best -- trounces even these.
Comments
While Paul is NOT my favorite theologian, it may be helpful to look at where he's coming from. Given that he began as a Jew (given in fact that most of Jesus' followers before him would have considered themselves Jewish) it might be that by "acting unbecomingly" he's referring to the practice of niddah. If you Google it you'll get a screenful of more detail, but basically it refers to purity, modesty and chasteness.
As for the "through a glass darkly" passage (much as I like KJ rhythms, "through a mirror dimly" probably *is* a better translation, for modern meanings) I love the bit in one of Norma Johnston's books where Tish (14 years old or so) suddenly has an epiphany and realizes that this is pretty much the same as Plato's shadows on the wall of a cave allegory, saying that what we know here and now isn't reality but a mere shadow thereof.
Posted by: dichroic at September 27, 2005 03:08 PM
Wow, Paula, thanks for your input. I did research the concept of "niddah" -- Wikipedia (oh how I love Wikipedia) has a great article about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niddah. Fascinating.
Posted by: Rachel at September 27, 2005 03:18 PM
I had far too much to say here, so I just made my own post. www.learningthruinquiry.com. I hope you don't mind me posting that here, Rachel.
Posted by: jenn at September 28, 2005 02:40 AM
Paula, that's fascinating. I used Rachel's link to niddah's definition.
Rachel, that's a great breakdown of this. Thanks for doing that -- I looked at in a different way, I think. It's one of those passages you hear a million times (weddings, anyone?) and it's good to hear it in a fresh voice.
Posted by: mary at September 28, 2005 05:59 AM
This is fabulous...excellent job. Wow.
Posted by: Kristen at September 28, 2005 06:04 AM
Sorry, all, guess I was a little off. (This is what I get for talking about Orthodox topics as a not-Orthodox Jew. On further research, it becomes clear that what I meant was tzniut, modesty in dress and behavior, of which niddah, menstrual purity, is only a part. (So if you were thinking my comment didn't make much sense, that's because it didn't.) And Wikipedia comes through again: .
Posted by: dichroic at September 28, 2005 03:44 PM
Um, I thought it made sense, Paula. Shows what I know. ;) But this makes even more sense. Thanks for the clarification!
Posted by: mary ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.1970dodgecharger500.com/oldsite/nav-commenters.gif)
at September 29, 2005 08:01 AM
Not sure why the Wiki link doesn't show, but it's here.
Posted by: dichroic at September 29, 2005 10:08 AM
Can I just throw this in?
From a complete laypersons point of view?
"Does not rejoice in unrighteousness" says to me : if one loves all-encompassingly (is that a word?) both those one knows and 'cares about' and those one doesn't, then if one sees the 'bad guys' doing something unrighteous, then one cannot pat oneself on the back as being 'the good guy' but must observe without bias, and without smugness.
Does that make sense?
Posted by: Carol at September 29, 2005 10:47 AM
