First Corinthians 13
Monday, March 2 1 Corinthians 12:31b-13:3
“The most excellentway”
Love is more important than all the gifts listedin chapter 12, for without love the gifts are worthless. That truth is driven home in verses 1-3 byusing five of the spiritual gifts as illustrations. In verse 1, Paul makes the point withreference to speaking in tongues: without love the use of such a gift merelyresults in unwelcome noise. In verse 2,Paul uses the example of gifts of spiritual insight and of a faith that workmiracles; they gain nothing without love.
Verse 3 hammers home the point one moretime with the most extreme example yet – seemingly total self-abandonment inexercising the gift of giving. Here“giving up one’s body” could include the martyrdom of being burned at the stakefor one’s faith, but might also refer to the ancient practice of sellingoneself into slavery to raise funds for distribution to the poor.
Love itself is not a spiritual gift. Rather it is the supreme Christian virtuewhich must be present with all the gifts if they are to be used in ways thatwill please God and have eternal value.
May love be my way of life, Lord, infusingall that I do. Amen.
Tuesday, March 3 Mark 12:28-34
“The greatestcommandment”
The teacher isnot asking which laws need to be obeyed and which can safely be ignored. He is asking, “What is the fundamentalpremise of the law on which all the individual commands depend?” Jesus’ response is to proclaim that God isthe only God, and one is to love him with one’s whole being: heart, soul, mind,and strength. But one cannot love God inisolation from one’s other relationships in life. For this reason, Jesus couples the command tolove God with the command to love one’s neighbor as oneself.
Love is ourinner commitment to God that is expressed in all our conduct andrelationships. Those who do not showlove to others can hardly claim to love God. The statement that no other command is greater than these two can meanthat the other commands simply spell out different ways in which to apply thesetwo primary ones. Or it may be moreradical: These are the only two commands that matter. Paul reflects this radical understanding inRomans 13:8 when he writes that “he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled thelaw.”
Ourlove for you, Lord, is a response to your love for us. Amen.
Wednesday, March 4 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
“Love is . . .”
In fifteensuccinct phrases Paul defines love by the way it acts. He is not describing a natural human kind oflove but that love which was defined by God’s gift of Himself in JesusChrist. If we were to go through thesefour verses and everywhere the word “love” appears substitute the word“Christ,” they would still be true because the kind of love being described islove that has its source in God. And aswe look at each of the phrases it becomes obvious that we are defining a styleof life that is beyond our reach at a human level – something absolutelyimpossible unless God’s Spirit dwells within us and helps us.
Were we to holdthis list of the characteristics of love up before our life like a mirror, wewould be immediately shaken by the many ways in which we fall short of theperfect love that Christ modeled for us. But we also know that nothing will be more important to our life thanletting God perfect the gift of love in us, not in some abstract theologicalway but by helping us to learn to truly love every person as God loves us.
We treat ourneighbors, Lord, as we know you have treated us. Amen.
Thursday, March 5 Romans 15:1-7
“Accept one another just as Christ has accepted you”
Paul is encouraging the believers to putthe good of others before their own. When they act in this way, they will be following the example of Christwho “did not please himself.” If Christcould give up his own right to life itself, these believers should certainly beable to give up their right to eat meat or to drink wine or to ignore Jewishholy days, when such actions caused their fellow believers to stumble in theirfaith. When the community treats one anotherwith this kind of love, a unity is achieved which brings praise to God.
To “accept” one another in verse 7 meansnot just to tolerate other believers but to welcome them as brothers andsisters in the body of Christ. The “justas” in the next clause may suggest Paul is drawing a comparison: We shouldaccept one another in the same way as Christ has accepted us. But “just as” probably has a causal sensehere: We are to welcome one another because Christ has welcomed each oneof us. What right do we have to refusefellowship with a person whom Christ himself has accepted into the body?
When we seek thegood of each other, Lord, we follow your example. Amen.
Friday, March 6 1 Corinthians 13:8-10
“Love never fails”
Paul continues his thesis of thesuperiority of love over spiritual gifts, giving a list of sample gifts thatwere of particular importance in Corinth. There will come a time when these (and all other) gifts will “become useless”(New Living Translation). The NewInternational Version states that the gifts will “cease,” “be stilled,” “passaway,” and “disappear.” When will thishappen to the spiritual gifts? When“perfection comes,” that is, when Jesus Christ returns to earth at his SecondComing.
In the meantime, the spiritual gifts arepresent in the church and are be to be used to build up and encourage thefaithful, but even their best use does not provide perfection in Christ. They are partial and incomplete when comparedto the fullness of God’s love. So, whileit is important for every believer to know that they have received at least oneand perhaps several spiritual gifts, and to use them as God directs and forGod’s glory, we must never think that they in any way can replace the priorityof love for God and for neighbor.
The most important ingredient in ourrelationship with you, Lord, is love. Amen.
Saturday, March 7 1 Corinthians 13:11-13
“The greatest ofthese is love”
Even of those things that abide forever,such as faith and hope, love is the greatest. When I was a Junior High Minister, the young people would ask me to tellthem what God is like. I would respondby asking and answering four questions (all based in John 3:16). How does God feel about you? He loves you. How has he shown his love for you? By sending his Son to die for you. What does he want you to do? Hewants you to believe in him. What willGod bring to your life when you respond to his love? He will give you life with him in heaven thatnever ends.
Of course, this greatest-of-all quality oflove is true only of God’s love, not of human love. Sadly, all too often human love fails. The song “Love Will Keep Us Together” by the‘70s husband-wife duo "Captain & Tennille" was a world-wide hitand the number one pop song in the United States in 1975. Unfortunately for them, and for so many others,the kind of love they sang about was not enough to keep them together and theyeventually divorced.
MayI see your love clearly, Lord, and not be fooled by weak imitations. Amen.