1 Corinthians 13:4-7

CHRISTIAN LOVE

‘Charity suffereth long … endureth all things.’

1 Corinthians 13:4

It is indeed the occasion of astonishment that in the face of this chapter theology should ever have imagined that there was antagonism between St. Paul and the other sacred writer who teaches that ‘faith is dead apart from works.’

In the early verses, 1–3, the Apostle contrasts love with various other attributes which combine to form character. And then in these he proceeds to analyse the quality itself somewhat minutely, and finally in those which follow (1 Corinthians 13:8) he extols it as the crowning glory of grace.

I. Love will show itself to be in its essence that which we speak of as ‘charitable.’—‘Love suffereth long and is kind.’ That is to say, it is patient, not in a hurry or easily put out, strongly calm, able to wait, because it understands and sympathises. Kind not only in spirit, but in fact. The original term thus rendered is derived from another word meaning ‘useful.’ Love is always devising plans for helping others. There are no drones in love’s hive.

II. The Apostle then mentions seven respects in which bad features, spoiling the characters of all of us, are absent from love.

(a) ‘Love envieth not.’ She has a large and generous soul, giving no place to those mean and unworthy moods which so often bring bitterness to the life and take away its peace. Whenever you attempt any good work, you will find others doing quite as well, and better, on exactly the same lines. Love finds herself able without affectation heartily to delight therein.

(b) ‘Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up.’ This is the same thing regarded from two different standpoints: from the outside and from within. ‘Vaunteth not itself,’ makes no display, does not show off. ‘Is not puffed up,’ does not swell out with a sense of its own importance. We have here humility on its negative side. True love shrinks instinctively from all false glitter, from exaggeration and self-satisfaction. It prefers to retreat into the shade. It never ever thinks, How admirable and how good I am! It is not self-occupied.

(c) ‘Love doth not behave itself unseemly.’ See it as it goes out into society. There is not a trace of bad breeding. Vulgarity is so full of itself that it cannot love. So far from its being true that ‘manners make the man,’ it is man that makes the manners. Nature’s gentleman is the child of love. It was Carlyle who said there was no truer gentleman in Europe than the ploughman poet. There is no brusqueness in love.

(d) ‘Love seeketh not her own.’ That is, she acts and speaks from disinterestedness of motive. Self is in no respect her centre. She has learnt that it is ‘more blessed to give than to receive.’ It is not so hard every now and then to give up our rights, especially if we get some credit thereby; but it is hard habitually to ignore ourselves, and what gives us gratification. The reason is because we love so little. Love is never self-seeking.

(e) Nor is she ‘easily provoked.’ The Revised Version leaves out the ‘easily,’ and rightly so. Love never flies into a rage, never says bitter things, nor feels bitterly. It is not in her to do so; she always keeps the rising temper under control, and is always sorrowful to discern it in others. Let us never look upon ebullition of anger as a harmless weakness, as a mere infirmity of nature. Its presence betrays the absence of love, a disposition uncontrolled by the God of love. ‘Souls are made sweet not by taking the acids out, but by letting something else in.’ ‘Only let that mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,’ and His love will leave no room for bad temper and bitterness.

(f) ‘Love taketh no account of evil.’ That is the revised translation. Keeps no diary of wrong suffered, instinctively forgets as soon as possible, allows the unpleasantness to glance off unrecorded, putting a charitable interpretation on the actions of others, imputing no evil because it suspects none.

(g) ‘Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth,’ as the margin and the text of the Revised Version have it. The reason why love finds no pleasure in any sort of wrongdoing is because it sets itself to be a cherisher of all that is morally beautiful and true. Thus iniquity melts away under the genial warmth of heaven-born affection.

III. The third group of ideas in St. Paul’s analysis of love shows us how she manages to accommodate herself to her environment, especially when it is not altogether congenial.

(a) ‘Beareth all things.’ The margin of the Revised Version substitutes ‘covereth.’ The Greek word so rendered means properly either to ‘keep in,’ as a cup retains what is poured into it, or ‘keep out,’ as the roof keeps out rain. The foundation idea is power to resist all adverse forces, whether the pressure comes from within or from without. It might be rendered ‘is proof in all things,’ that is, especially against everything which is calculated to disturb the health of the soul. As faith is the shield in which the Christian catches the shafts of the evil one, so love is the mysterious coat of mail hidden out of sight which will make him absolutely invulnerable, an essential ingredient of that peace which passes all understanding.

(b) ‘Believeth all things’—not the credulity of inexperience, but the guilelessness of a single mind, that innocency which instinctively puts the best interpretation on the mistakes and sins of other people.

(c) ‘Hopeth all things.’ Though herself greater than hope, love delights in her friend’s cheerful companionship. Her very presence clears the sky; she bears a brightness in her face, like Moses of old, even when she pities most. Thus she finds her way to the despairing, and assures them that there is pity with God, and that effectual pity which is ever waiting to minister help. So despair flees before love into the world of darkness which is her proper home. Love, being always sanguine herself, seeks to infuse others with her own cheerfulness.

(d) ‘ Endureth all things.’ Thus the Apostle, before we notice it, brings us back to the thought with which he started. Having taken us round the whole radius of the circle and shown us all the principal excellences of this chiefest of Christian graces, he assures us, in conclusion, that love is the source of true fortitude. The word ‘endureth’ is properly a military term, and suggests that love supplies the Christian soldier with that which will enable him to bear the brunt of the assaults of the enemy. Hence it is used in the New Testament to express the idea of withstanding attack. For example, 2 Timothy 2:10, ‘I endure all things for the elect’s sakes’; Hebrews 10:32, ‘Ye endured a great fight of afflictions,’ ‘a great conflict of sufferings’ (R. V.). Just so in Hebrews 12:2, ‘Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, endured the cross,’ bracing Himself, as it were, against all that was so intensely distressing and painful.

—Rev. J. A. Faithfull.

Illustration

‘O love that casts out fear,

O love that casts out sin,

Tarry no more without,

But come and dwell within.

True sunlight of the soul,

Surround me as I go;

So shall my way be safe,

My feet no straying know.

Great love of God, come in,

Well-spring of heavenly peace;

Thou Living Water, come,

Spring up and never cease.’