"Love" According to Paul

Studying through 1 Corinthians can be an eye-opening experience in many ways.  Throughout this text, we learn much concerning doctrinal issues, proper worship of God, self-denial in non-essential issues, dealing with erring brethren, putting aside pride, not being envious of one another, and many other things.  What we find in Corinth is a group of Christians in which pride and an excessive sense of self-worth seems to have taken over; while there were some working hard at getting things correct (the covering, the Lord's supper, etc), the vast majority seems to have been caught up in their own so-called "knowledge" (also evidenced by the misuse of the covering, the Lord's supper, etc).  Most of all, what we learn is that Paul utilized an array of approaches to deal with the issues within the church, from praising them (1 Corinthians 11:2) to not praising them (1 Corinthians 11:17) to using sarcasm to express his point (1 Corinthians 4:7-8).  It seems that in nearly every case in this letter (if not EVERY case), Paul mixes what many people today would consider the positive with the negative (such as in 1 Corinthians 11 where he praises them, yet he still deals with the contentious, or his noting of the brethren seeking to partake of the Lord's supper in a worthy manner while there is essentially chaos surrounding them in 1 Corinthians 11:19).  In other words, Paul does not simply keep the praise separate from the condemnations, nor does he keep the condemnations separate from the praise.  Rather, he uses one to juxtapose the other! 

Many people in modern America, including Christians, absolutely adore Paul's description of "love" in 1 Corinthians 13, and with very good reason.  Paul paints a picture of "love" in its perfect form; Christians caring for one another, suffering with and for one another, etc.  Often, this passage is printed in brilliant calligraphy, but have we considered the context? Yes, Paul absolutely paints a wonderful picture of love, but why does he do so? Why was it necessary in the midst of his discussion concerning spiritual gifts to shift his focus to love? As with the aforementioned examples from 1 Corinthians 11, Paul is mixing the positive (perfect love) with the negative (addressing once again the pride and envy of the Corinthian Christians).  

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul discusses the necessity of all spiritual gifts to the establishment of the church in the first century.  All spiritual gifts served a purpose, even if they were less desirable by man's standards.  It seems likely that the Corinthians had created an arbitrary hierarchy of spiritual gifts, and that they had placed the gift of tongues at the very top of it.  This should not be surprising to us since we know that pride was a very serious issue among the brethren there and the ability to speak in a tongue would be apparent to all.  However, Paul explains that all gifts were necessary, as were all members of Christ's body who had such gifts.  The Corinthians seemed to have lost sight of the reason the gifts were given because they were so focused on obtaining the best spiritual gifts ("best" in their own opinions).  

Thus, when we get to 1 Corinthians 13, Paul is showing them that they needed to go back and work on their brotherly love.  Note how he ties together many of the previous rebukes into this description of love:

• "...love does not envy..." - the Corinthians were envious of the "best" spiritual gifts

• "...does not behave rudely..." - the Corinthians had made a mockery of the Lord's supper and disrupted those trying to partake appropriately (1 Corinthians 11:17-34)

• "...love does not parade itself, is not puffed up..." - the Corinthians were puffed up in their lack of diligence do put sin away from among them, which they did under the guise of "love" (1 Corinthians 5)

• "...does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in truth..." - the Corinthians were at the very least accepting of sins of a sexual nature, if not condoning of it (1 Corinthians 6:12-13)

• The list goes on...

And so, what we have in 1 Corinthians 13 is Paul explaining that all the things for which the Corinthians were envious of or over which they were prideful would pass away or would cease to be of use.  All the spiritual gifts, whether prophecies, tongues, etc, would fail (cease to be of use), but love would never cease to be of use.  God never meant for those things to remain, but He always meant for brotherly love to remain, which is what Paul means in 13:10-11; childhood is necessary for proper human development, but eventually you have to stop being a child and become an adult.

While we need to strive to fulfill the depiction of love in chapter 13, we must also remember the context and the purposes for which it was written.  This is an instance in which Paul's rebuke is rather subtle, but it is still a rebuke nonetheless, as well as an encouragement to love one another appropriately.  Such love is not "unconditional" as the world sees it, but rather it requires accountability.