1 Corinthians 12:31b-13:13—The solution to opposition
is love.
The solution to opposition, of course, is love. In a
third series on the Spirit, Paul explains that love is the best gift of the
Spirit. Love, says St. Paul, is the best gift of the Holy Spirit. Love causes
the hearer to love and accept the preaching of God’s Word regardless of his
hurting. The Law condemns and accuses always. But it is important. It drives us
to the Gospel.
Continuing the thoughts that Paul has expressed to the
Corinthians these past several weeks, emphasizing that all Christians are
members of the body of Christ and that the Spirit gives various fits to various
persons, the Apostle I n this lesson notes that apostles are the highest
authority in the church; next comes the prophets, the teachers and so on
throughout the list as we as will hear it. He notes that not all can be these
things, but that all should pursue the “higher gifts.” And then he launches
into the ecstatic “love chapter” in which he claims that this love, apace love,
the love of God is the “more excellent way” of living.
The way in which this ext has been sentimentalized and
even trivialized by careless readers is will know. Genuine love is an easily
misunderstood concept. Letting the Word speak in its proper contest is the
means of illustrating the profound truth that Paul is seeing to teach.
Clearly, love is “still a more excellent way.” (12:31)
Spiritual gifts have a purpose, but genuine love binds them all together. Its
value is understood by the repeated use of conditionals “if” in the early
verses of chapter 13.
The frequent use of the negative “not” in verses 4-7
proves that love is not easily defined by human language, which can often
describe only what something is not instead of what it truly is. Love is not easily
defined by what it is so Paul here tells us what it is not. Love in truth is
the premier divine quality that gives significance to every other valued
Christian fits, including faith and hope. (13:13)
The words of this chapter are both amazing and surprising,
worthy of more than an inscription on a wall plaque or a reading at a wedding.
Love is part of God nature and the enduring quality that is most to typify His
people. If we by the Spirit’s guiding truly let Him speak to us in this text,
we will learn the surprising value of love.
A prayer for
newness of life in Christ—Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the
works of darkness and put upon ourselves the armor of life, now in the time of
this mortal life, in which Your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility,
that in the last day, when He shall come again in glory to judge both the
living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal.[2]-27
January 2022
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