"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal" (1 Cor. 13:1).
Returning to our study of 1 Corinthians, we find that many Christians, like the Corinthians, exalt gifts instead of character. They foolishly substitute what is outward with what is inward. If someone who is greatly gifted in the church is unloving, or even living in some known sin, he is too often excused with the flippant statement, “Well, it doesn’t matter, he is a great teacher.” But throughout the Scriptures, God requires mercy and love “from the heart,” not sacrifice, not the exercising of gifts. We must remember that Satan is a master at mimicking the gifts of the Spirit, but He cannot mimic the heart. He can set up a puppet teacher who is endowed with great knowledge, but He cannot give that person love for God and love for other Christians. This is solely a Christian grace and can only come by the Spirit of Christ.
In chapter 13, Paul teaches us that love is more important than the gifts we are so prone to exalt. When we leave love out of the equation, we become like the Corinthians: impatient, discontent, envious, prideful, selfish, unkind, suspicious, and resentful. The exercising of gifts without love always has a degenerating effect of the church. This is what happened to the Corinthians, and it is what happens to many of us today. To counter this spiritual decline, “the apostle personifies love, and places her before them and enumerates her graces, not in logical order, but as they occurred to him in contrast to the deformities of character which the Corinthians exhibited,” Hodge wrote.
To those Corinthians who were defensive and easily provoked, Paul tells them that love suffers long. It endures provocation and is not quick to assert its own rights or resent an injury. It is kind, good-natured, disposed to that which is good, not evil. Christians, therefore, should rejoice in righteousness, not in the unrighteous. And when they have been sinned against, they should be forgiving and not resentful. Most importantly, love does not seek to win admiration and applause, and it is not envious of the success of others. “The man who has a high conceit of himself is apt to be boastful and desirous of praise,” Hodge wrote. “Love, on the other hand, is modest and humble; modest because humble.”
Meditate on 1 Corinthians 13:1–7. Do you endure patiently under provocation or are you quick to defend yourself? Do you secretly envy the success of others, pridefully thinking you could do better than they? Do you put the feelings of others before your own? Prayerfully consider whether you are truly a loving person.
