One of the problems with theology is that we sometimes use big, strange words which almost nobody understands. Another problem is when we use simple, ordinary words like “love”! And that’s because sometimes when we think we know what a word means, we may miss what the author intends. “Love” is a particularly difficult word, because we use it so often and in so many different ways. “I love chocolate” and “I love my kids” have really different meanings of “love.”
And so it’s really important to understand what the Bible means when it talks about God;s love. In fact, there are three words for “love” in ancient Greek: “philios” (meaning “brotherly love” from which we get the modern name “Philadelphia”); “eros” (meaning “sensual love” from which we get the English word “erotic”); and “agape” (meaning total, self giving love and compassion.) Agape is the kind of love which causes you to lay down your life for someone – it’s the kind of love which would make you run out into the street to push your child out of the way of a car even if you knew it would mean your own death. It’s this “agape” kind of love that the New Testament always says God has for us.
And it’s this “agape” that Paul is talking about when he writes to the early Christians in Corinth. So while we often read this text at weddings to reflect on how beautiful “love” is, Paul is first and foremost not talking about human love. Instead, he’s talking about God’s love, and how God employs that love to save and care for us. It’s only in that context that we can begin to understand what our love for one another should look like. So, as you read 1 Corinthians 13, try reading it first as the answer to: “what is God’s love for us like?” That will help you to understand what Paul is really trying to get across.
And so it’s really important to understand what the Bible means when it talks about God;s love. In fact, there are three words for “love” in ancient Greek: “philios” (meaning “brotherly love” from which we get the modern name “Philadelphia”); “eros” (meaning “sensual love” from which we get the English word “erotic”); and “agape” (meaning total, self giving love and compassion.) Agape is the kind of love which causes you to lay down your life for someone – it’s the kind of love which would make you run out into the street to push your child out of the way of a car even if you knew it would mean your own death. It’s this “agape” kind of love that the New Testament always says God has for us.
And it’s this “agape” that Paul is talking about when he writes to the early Christians in Corinth. So while we often read this text at weddings to reflect on how beautiful “love” is, Paul is first and foremost not talking about human love. Instead, he’s talking about God’s love, and how God employs that love to save and care for us. It’s only in that context that we can begin to understand what our love for one another should look like. So, as you read 1 Corinthians 13, try reading it first as the answer to: “what is God’s love for us like?” That will help you to understand what Paul is really trying to get across.
1 Corinthians 13
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.4Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
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