1 Corinthians 13 - Introduction

Butler's Comments

Chapter Thirteen
THE PROBLEM OF MAINTAINING LOVE
IN THE MIDST OF DIVERSITY
(Miraculous Gifts)

(1 Corinthians 13:1-13)

IDEAS TO INVESTIGATE:

1.

Why does Paul assume some of the Corinthians might not have love?

2.

What is love? Who has authority to define love?

3.

Why would the miraculous gifts pass away?

4.

To whom does the analogy of childhood and manhood apply?

5.

Why is love greater than faith and hope?

APPLICATIONS:

1.

If God said he would grant you one wish, either the supernatural power to predict the future, or the trials and tribulations that would help you love your enemies like David or Jesuswhich would you wish?

2.

What do you think this chapter has to say to those today who insist the church, and Christians, need to have miraculous gifts of tongues, healing, prophecy, etc.?

3.

Do you really believe that just plain, old, Christian love is the most important thing for Christ's church today, or ever?

4.

Do you think the church has it?

5.

How do you think the church, or Christians, may get it?

6.

Do you know people who believe that Christian love accepts all thingstrue and false, right and wrong?

7.

Where do you think you might improve your agape-love-life?

8.

Do you think the church today is more mature (less childlike) than the church of the first century? How?

9.

Is love the most important virtue you wish to cultivate in your Christian experience?

10.

May agape-love be cultivated? In what way?

APPREHENSIONS:

1.

What is agape-love? How is it different from other aspects of love?

2.

Why are all Christian gifts and Christian actions hollow without love?

3.

May a Christian do an act of love without feeling like it?

4.

What is kindness?

5.

What does courtesy have to do with Christian love?

6.

Why were miraculous gifts destined to pass away?

7.

When did miraculous gifts pass away?

8.

What is the perfect that was to come?

9.

When did the church see in a mirror, dimly?

10.

When did the church see face to face?

Special Study
LOVE IS A MANY-SPLENDORED THING

LOVE is a many-splendored thing. So says a popular song title. But no popular song can really plumb the depths of love's splendor.

But what is love? Love is not self-defining. This is the supreme fallacy of situation ethics, which says do the most loving thing in every situation. We must go to the Word of God for precept and example. And 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 is not the only Biblical definition of love.

Some will say, Love is concern, but how do you explain the many hungry people whom Jesus did not feed; the many lame He did not heal? Must a concerned love always be manifested according to our concept of concern?
Some will say, Love is giving, but how do you explain Jesus-' rebuke of Judas when he suggested that the precious ointment Mary had poured upon Jesus could have been sold and given to the poor? Must a giving love always be manifested in the way the world thinks?
Some will say, Love is speaking pleasantly, but how do you explain the words Jesus spoke to the Pharisees, and sometimes to His disciples, which were harsh, demanding, and rebuking? Must love always be communicated in such a manner as to please the hearer?
Love is many-faceted. There is more to love than often meets the spiritual eye. I hope to present you three oft-unseen facets of the brilliance of God-like love, agape love. Love is discerning, demanding, deliberate.

Love is discerningLove is discerning (discriminating; critical; judgmental; penetrating). In reality love is truth-oriented; truth-focused; truth-centered; love is something done but always in a truth frame-of-reference. Agape love makes every attempt to see things, issues, and persons as they are in reality for a purposea good purpose. Agape love could never reject truth in favor of falsehoodit could never be satisfied with only half-truth about issues or persons. Little children, let us not love in word or speech but in deed and in truth (1 John 3:18).

The Christian loves truth (Ephesians 4:15; 2 Thessalonians 2:10), but he never cruelly or unsympathetically uses the truth in order to hurt.. The Christian is never false to the truth, but he always remembers that love and truth must go hand in hand. Christian love does not shut its eyes to the faults of others. Love is not blind. It will use rebuke and discipline when these are needed. The love which shuts its eyes to all faults, and which evades the unpleasantness of all discipline, is not real at all, for in the end it does nothing but harm to the loved one (Barclay, Wm., More New Testament Words, Harper & Row, p. 22).

Love. does not rejoice in wrong, but rejoices in the right. (1 Corinthians 13:6). Would Jesus have shown love to Judas by concealing from Judas the truth about himself? Would Paul have shown love to all the churches to whom he wrote the epistles had he concealed from them the truth about themselves? In that penetrating, piercing confrontation between Jesus and the Jews, Jesus seemed almost astounded that they would seek to kill Him because He told them the truth about themselves (John 8:39-47). He did it because He loved them.

Paul wrote the Christians in Galatia, Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? (Galatians 4:16). When God's Word pierces our facade of sham and discerns us as we are and deals with us realisticallyit is an expression of God's love.

In relationships love is person-oriented; it deals with persons discerning, judging, estimating what they ought to be and can be with the help of God and Christian brethren. A person who, by experience and wisdom, knows something that would benefit me and keeps it from me does not love me. If I do not share with my children some truth that will help them, I do not love them.
There are some of you here this morning living in the joy of being better than you were because your teachers have dealt with you on the basis of their judgment of what you could become! It seemed distasteful to you at firstyou disliked us and accused us of putting you downbut now you know we judged that you could be better than you were and we insisted on it. Love demands that those who have the advantage of experience and leadership relate to others on the basis of building upnot leaving others to go backward. or even to remain where they are!

In remedies, love is always seeking that which is practicalhelpful. That which is the most helpful in a situation, may not always be the most glorious or win the most applause. But love seeks the long-range remedy. Love is never satisfied with superficialities or stopgap measures. (Read Hebrews 12:11-12.)

In an old book given to me by Seth Wilson, I found some ageless principles stated as well as I have ever seen them stated. One of those principles is:

... If the moral powers (of man) are not employed on right objects and directed to a right end, there is not only perversion but deterioration. The more inactive they are the more they deteriorate. If, therefore, we would do the highest good to men we must seek, not only to perfect their powers, but to perfect the moral powers by directing them rightly. Our object must be to produce a change not merely in the condition, but in the state of men; and not merely in their intellectual state involving acquisitions and capacity, but in their moral state which involves, or rather which is, character (Hopkins, Mark, The Law of Love and Love As a Law, 1881, p. 199).

Loving, doing the highest good to men, means discernment!

Love is demandingLove restrains.

Our love to God is shown in the keeping of His commandments (Exodus 20:6; 1 John 5:3; 2 John 1:6). Love is more than a mere affection or sentiment; it is something that manifests itself, not only in obedience to known divine commands, but also in protecting and defense of them, and a seeking to know more and more of the will of God in order to express love for God in further obedience (compare Deuteronomy 10:12). Those who love God will hate evil and all forms of worldliness, as expressed in the avoidance of the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life (Psalms 97:10; 1 John 2:15-17). Whatever there may be in his surroundings that would draw the soul away from God and righteousness, that the child of God will avoid (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 1933, article, Love).

Love does not indulge. Dr. James Dobson, in his book, Dare To Discipline, says,

Perhaps the most common parental error during the past twenty-five years has been related to the wide-spread belief that love is enough in raising children. the greatest social disaster of this century is the belief that abundant love makes discipline unnecessary.

A New York psychologist, Peter Blos, is quoted in Time, November 29, 1971:

... Parents should set limits, affirm their personal values, deny the calmor for grown-up status, and refuse to be intimidated by charges of authoritarianism.

Permissiveness, or indulgence, is no sign of love! Permissiveness can be the most unloving thing one person ever does to another! Jesus would not indulge Peter and the other disciples even in some actions that appeared correct (e.g., when they would forbid Him from going to Jerusalem and be killed, etc.). He would not indulge the rich young ruler to keep the riches which were strangling his loyalties.
Love refuses. It sometimes has to say No!

When we understand what agape means, it amply meets the objection that a society based on this love would be a paradise for criminals, and that it means simply letting the evildoer have his own way. If we seek nothing but a man's highest good, we may well have to do the hardest thing to himfor the good of his immortal soul.. In other words, agape means treating men as God treats themand that does not mean allowing them unchecked to do as they like (Barclay, More New Testament Words, p. 16).

Curtis Dickinson, in the Christian Standard, January 25, 1958, Love's Constraining Power, wrote,

It is easy to camouflage weakness and conformity under the disguise of love.. It is just because God loves you that He cannot overlook you.. It is precisely because we love our children that we cannot let them escape punishment. How ridiculous, if we said of a child, I love her so much that no matter what she does I will consider it all right.

God said No to the perfect man in Eden, because He loved Adam! God said No to one of the greatest saints of all. Three times God said No to Paul, because God loved Paul! For a good mental and moral exercise why don-'t you personally run through your mind all the great men of the Old Testament to whom God said No! Now list mentally all the churches and people to whom the apostles wrote letters stating many emphatic No'S! Add them all together!
Those whom the Holy Spirit has made overseers in the Lord's church are bound by their love for the Lord, for His church, and for its people, sometimes to say No! It is not something in which they take selfish, prideful pleasureit is something for which they feel an obligation, and consider a privilege, because it gives them an opportunity to love for real!
Love reiterates and reinforces. Love does not give up with the first discernment or demand. Love repeats and repeats and repeats (read The Hound of Heaven, by Francis Thompson). Love hounds, stalks, trails. The immature tend to classify discerning, demanding love as nagging or harping, or nit-picking. Does the discerning, demanding love of God give us cause to accuse Him of nagging or harping? Were the Old Testament prophets nit-picking when they repeated and repeated God's message?

Continued reminders to you students to keep your dormitory room clean and orderly, continued reminders to pay your accounts, continued reminders to dress modestly, continued reminders to drive like a Christian, continued reminders to conduct your man-woman relationship with decorumthese are not nagging, nit-pickingthese are fundamental issues of life and Christian witness. and the reminders are reiterations of love! It never ceases to amaze me that athletes and choir members, can so graciously accept all the repetition of practices and dress-alike uniformity; and then get all upset and accuse their deans of nagging and nit-picking when they reiterate and reinforce moral and spiritual values.

Love is deliberateIt is real. Agape love is sincere, genuine. J. B. Phillips translated Romans 12:9, Let us have no imitation Christian love. Let us have a genuine break with evil and real devotion to good. Agape love will not stand for sham, superficiality, or unstable emotionalism. (Note: I said emotionalism. Love is part emotion but not all emotion.) Agape love is not the silly, selfish sentimentalism so often portrayed by the world.

This agape, this Christian love, is not merely an emotional experience which comes to us unbidden and unsought; it is a deliberate principle of the mind, and a deliberate conquest and achievement of the will. It is in fact the power to love the unlovable, to love people whom we do not like (Barclay).

Agape has to do with the mind: it is not simply an emotion which sweeps over us at intervals when we are in the right mood. It is a principle by which we deliberately live, every day, no matter what

mood we-'re in or how we feel. It is a conquest, a victory, an achievement. No one ever naturally loved his enemies. Agape love demands the whole man; mind, will, and heart. There may be some of you students I know more intimately than others. But it does not mean that my agape love for any of you is any more or less than the other. A gape love does not depend upon circumstances! It is a real love! Many is the time we have been tempted to love some of you only according to how we feel, or by emotions alone, but that is not real love!

Love is reliable. It is decisive, dependable, firm, stable, consistent. Dennis Vath wrote in Christian Standard, November 5, 1966:

Jesus loved consistently. True agape love is consistent. It does not always compliment. It is not always manifested in a pat on the back, for this is not always in our best interests. Agape love does not always agree. Scripture tells us that the one God loves is the one He chastens. Agape on the human level does not allow itself to be dominated or abused, because it is not in a person's best interests to allow him to take advantage of anyone.

One mark of love often overlooked is that characteristic of being able to make a decision, a consistent decision, a stabilizing decision and then to stand firm in that decision. Could you honestly say you believed the leadership of this college loved you if it could not make a decision, consistently, and stand firm?
Love is risky. Agape love will never let a man be selfishly-safe. Agape love insists upon self-sacrifice. Eugene Nida writes in God's Word in Man's Language:

The Conob Indians of northern Guatemala. describes love as my soul dies. A man who loves God according to the Conob idiom would say, My soul dies for God. This not only describes the powerful emotion felt by the one who loves, but it should imply a related truthnamely, that in true love there is no room for self.. True love is of all emotions the most unselfish, for it does not look out for self but for others. False love seeks to possess; true love seeks to be possessed. False love leads to cancerous jealousy; true love leads to a life-giving ministry.

The person who will not risk being hurt or thought badly ofthe person who is afraid to do what is best for another because he is afraid of that person's displeasure with himthat person does not know how to love! Beloved, it may seem to you that we deliberately set out at times to court your displeasure with us! We do! Because we want to love you with a real love, we are not primarily concerned with what you feel toward us at first. Because we know that almost always you will someday understand the love behind our counsel and love us in return! Any parent who so fears to risk his child's temporary displeasure that he fails to enforce some genuine, loving restraint, is not worthy to be a parent. And this applies in the family of God!

ConclusionLove is a many-splendored thing. Love is like a many-faceted jewel; there are many sides to it and they all reflect the glory of God. I have tried in these moments to catch your spiritual eye with three of the more brilliant facets of this superb gem. I would invite you to take up the Word of God and make your own study of the nature of God, finding still other facets and reflections as you hold it in your gaze.

Our love for you is an attempt to reproduce in you this splendored thing. We are going to love you discerningly, demandingly, deliberately, We are going to love you with our mind and our will as well as our emotions. You may not be pleased with us always, but we are not going to let our love be directed by that. C. S. Lewis writes in The Four Loves:

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one.. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket of your selfishness. But in that casketsafe, dark, motionless, airlessit will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.

To you, my beloved brother or sister, I am vulnerable. I cannot lock myself up. Break my heart if you will, I will still love you discerningly, demandingly, deliberately. To appropriate a phrase from Isaiah, Behold, I have graven you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.

Special Study

THE CHRISTIAN SYNDROME (John 15:1-17)

If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my life; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full (John 15:10-11).

The word syndrome is a technical word used in the field of psychology, applied to a group of symptoms or signs that occur together and characterize a mental or physical state. The word syndrome is from two Greek words syn and dramein and literally means run together. There are three fundamental elements (symptoms) which run together and form the joyful Christian syndrome. If any of these elements is missing, the syndromatic cycle is broken and the Christian life is unstable. Interestingly enough, all three elements in the Christian syndrome were present in man's experience in the Garden of Eden before man sinned. And the thrust of the redemptive plan of God through Christ is to restabilize man in this cycle of joy.

LibertyBefore a person can have joy, he must be free. The real hindrances to true freedom are not rules and regulations, but guilt, fear, and selfishness. The man who is free of guilt, fear, and himself is a truly liberated man no matter what his circumstances. Guilt, fear, and selfishness are the elements the devil uses to keep men in bondage (compare Hebrews 2:5-18; John 8:31-36). Psychiatrists tell us that guilt and fear and selfishness are probably the most mentally and spiritually enslaving, unbalancing elements affecting men.

The real and only cure for this bondagethe only way to be set freeis simple, complete, unreserved faith in the substitutionary, atoning death of Christ. There is no way in this world or the next for man to punish himself enough, or do enough good works, or sacrifice enough to get rid of his guilt, fear, and selfishness. There is no way for man to psyche himself into good and positive feelings each day to get rid of his bondage. The only way for man to be absolutely certain he is not guilty is to believe God. God has said in His Word that Jesus Christ died your death for you. He suffered your guilt for you.
Many Christians today bring themselves into bondage by refusing to accept God's offer of liberty, gratis. They insist on atoning for their own guilt or trying to earn their own righteousness by competing, even in the Christian ministry, for success according to a carnal or worldly standard. Before the Christian life-style or ministry can ever become a joy the Christian must be freed of the guilt that comes from a sense of failing to meet worldly standards of success.

God's standard is faithfulness. We are going to be surprised when we get to heavenJesus says so in Matthew 25:31-46. God does not count success as the world does. He keeps a different set of statistics from those of worldly-minded, success-oriented, guilt-ridden men.

God has punished my guilt in Jesus Christ. His Word says it. I believe it. That settles it. I-'m free. I don-'t have to earn my own absolution or succeed as the world measures success. I don-'t have to get rid of my own guiltI couldn-'t if I tried! When Christ died, the guilty me died.

LoveBecause God has objectively, judicially, and propositionally freed me, I love Him. Loving Him is not something I can produce without an adequate cause. We love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19). Jesus commanded His disciples to love others as He had loved them. Perfect love has its origin in the divine Lover. Our love is a rebounda reactiona response.

God motivates love in us. Love in us is the motivating factor in the syndrome. This is where the system of situation ethics falls into a fundamental fallacy. It makes love the standard rather than the motivation of Christian conduct.

Love can never of itself be a standard to determine what is right or wrong. I might love my country with all my heart but that love itself does not tell me how to express my feelings for my country. There must be laws to tell me what taxes to pay as my share in government and what rights and privileges my neighbor and I have in relation to each other. Without such laws it is obvious that anarchy would prevail (Donald A. Nash, Situation Ethics or Social Ethics, Christian Standard, March 8, 1969).

Love moves me to want to do something. Love demands and insists that I seek an acceptable expression of the urge to do. Just doing will not satisfy lovedoing what is pleasing is the only acceptable expression of love. Who is to say what is pleasing and edifying? Ultimately God alone can say!

LawThis is where law becomes a necessity in the syndrome of joy. Law defines love. Even before man sinned, God defined how Adam was to love his Creator. God gave Adam the command that he should not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God also gave Adam the command to till the Garden of Eden. As long as Adam believed God and remained free of the bondage of selfishness, guilt, and fear, Adam loved God. But Adam's love did not of itself tell him how to love God. God told Adam how, by giving Adam commandments.

FIRST CORINTHIANS

We do not even know how to love our fellowman properly without the divine commandments of God. Love does not indulgeit edifies. But who knows what is edifying for his fellowman? Who even knows what is edifying for himself? God, the master psychologist, knows. He made man. In Him man subsists (lives) and consists (holds together). Without Him, man comes apart.
Once for all, keeping the commandments of God is not legalism! Nor is the keeping of the rules and regulations of man necessarily legalism. Legalism is an attitude. If the laws are made, or kept, with the intent that in so doing one is justified before God in the keepingthis is legalism. If, on the other hand, the commandments are made in love and kept from a motivation of lovethis is where true liberty is found!

If commandments are given from a motivation of love they will be given only to assist the one obeying to reach the fullest potential for which he was created. If commandments are obeyed from a motivation of love they will become a way, a method, a tool both pleasing and profitable (certainly, not grievous) to reach toward that highest potential for which the obeyer was created.
This is truly liberating, maturing, perfecting. Now whether we make laws or keep laws in love depends on whether we are truly liberated in the grace of God.
The syndrome of Christian joyliberty, love, lawone follows the other and they all run together in a never ending cycle.

Applebury's Comments

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Analysis

A.

In a series of conditional statements with their conclusions, Paul argues for the necessity of following the most excellent way of love as a means of avoiding schism over spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).

1.

He assumes the possibility of using the gifts of tonguesthe ability to communicate in foreign languages or even to use language that is on the angelic levelwithout being controlled by love; as a result, he says, I have become echoing brass or a noisy cymbal.

2.

He assumes the possibility of using the gift of prophecy, and having knowledge of all mysteries, and having the gift of knowledge without love as the controlling factor; as a result, he says, I am nothing.

3.

He assumes that he might go so far as to dole out all his goods to feed the poor or even suffer martyrdom and still not have love; as a result, he says, I gain nothing.

B.

Paul explains what love does and what it does not do (1 Corinthians 13:3-7).

1.

He mentions two things that it does:

a)

Love suffers long.

b)

Love is kind.

2.

He lists a series of things that love does not do:

a)

It doesn-'t cause one to be filled with jealousy.

b)

It doesn-'t cause one to brag.

c)

It isn-'t puffed up with arrogance and pride.

d)

It doesn-'t behave unbecomingly.

e)

It doesn-'t seek its own things.

f)

It doesn-'t become irritated.

g)

It doesn-'t count evil.

h)

It doesn-'t rejoice over wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

3.

He indicates what love does in relation to all things:

a)

It covers all things.

b)

It believes all things.

c)

It hopes all things.

d)

It endures all things.

C.

Paul points out the enduring quality of lovethe most excellent wayin contrast to the transitory nature of the spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 13:8-12).

1.

He declares that love never fails, but the gifts which are transitory will pass away.

a)

Whether these gifts be prophecies, tongues or knowledge, they will pass away.

b)

He shows why this must be: We know in part and we prophesy in part.

c)

These transitory gifts that are in part will pass away when the perfect (completed) thing comes.

2.

He illustrates the meaning of this contrast.

a)

He does so by referring to the time when he was a child and to the time when he had become a man.

(1)

When he was a child, he spoke, felt, and thought as a child. This corresponds to the time when the church had spiritual giftstongues, prophecy, and knowledge.

(2)

After he had become a man, he put away things that belonged to childhood. This corresponds to the transitory spiritual gifts that were abolished when the perfect revelation came.

b)

He does so by referring to the contrast between seeing in a mirror and seeing face to face.

(1)

The gifts correspond to the imperfect reflection in a mirror. Now refers to the time when the church had these gifts.

(2)

The completed thing (the Bible) corresponds to seeing face to face. Then refers to the time when the completed revelation had come.

D.

He sums up this important lesson on the most excellent way of love (1 Corinthians 13:13).

1.

He mentions the three things that abide now: faith, hope, love.

2.

He declares that of these three love is the greatest.

3.

He urges them to follow after love.

Questions

1.

How does Paul show the connection between this chapter and what he had written in chapter twelve?

2.

How does he indicate that the thought of both Chapter s is completed in chapter fourteen?

3.

What is the first point that he makes in this chapter?

4.

Why was it necessary to begin at this point?

5.

What is meant by tongues of men?

6.

What is the purpose of language?

7.

What is there to indicate that Paul is speaking about foreign languages in this section of the epistle?

8.

What is a possible meaning of tongues of angels?

9.

What suggestions does Paul give to help explain this phrase?

10.

Why can we say that he was not referring to the gift of tongues when he mentioned tongues of angels?

11.

Why can we say that the pagan pretense at communication with their gods was not the tongues of angels?

12.

Where do we find the message that was delivered through the apostles when they spoke in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance? What is the content of that message?

13.

Why was it unnecessary to translate that message?

14.

What are the three conditional statements by which Paul argues for the necessity of following the most excellent way of love?

15.

What is the result of failing to be motivated by love in each of the assumed situations?

16.

What is the nature of love as Paul uses it in this chapter?

17.

Give an example of Jesus-' use of this same term and show how it is possible to obey His command.

18.

Why was it necessary to translate the message spoken in a tongue in the church at Corinth?

19.

What is faith to remove mountains?

20.

Why do we say that it does not mean mountains of trouble?

21.

How does it differ from the trust in the Lord that makes for a victorious Christian life?

22.

How would love in action which is longsuffering and kindness put an end to the problem at Corinth?

23.

How would love put an end to the sin of jealousy in the church at Corinth?

24.

Why did Paul say, Love vaunteth not itself?

25.

What is meant by not puffed up?

26.

Of what unseemly conduct was the church at Corinth guilty?

27.

How would the principle of love overcome this problem?

28.

Why did they need love that is not provoked?

29.

What is meant by taketh not account of evil?

30.

In what way were they guilty of rejoicing over unrighteousness?

31.

What is meant by beareth all things?

32.

How was this to meet the problem at Corinth?

33.

What is the difference between gullibility and love that believeth all things?

34.

What was the situation of the unconverted Gentiles so far as hope was concerned?

35.

What is the basis of Christian hope?

36.

Why is love the way to defeat schism in the church?

37.

Why did Paul say, Love never fails?

38.

How does this statement introduce the thought of the transitory nature of spiritual gifts?

39.

In speaking of the transitory nature of spiritual gifts, why did Paul mention only three?

40.

In what sense were the gifts in part?

41.

What is meant by that which is perfect?

42.

What does the word translated perfect mean when it refers to things?

43.

How had Paul used the same term to refer to persons?

44.

How does Paul show that the possession of spiritual gifts is not a mark of spiritual maturity, but something that belonged to the childhood period of the church?

45.

To what does Paul refer when he says now we see in a mirror darkly?

46.

What evidence is there to show that this is not a contrast between time and eternity?

47.

What was to take place that was like seeing face to face?

48.

To what period did he refer when he said, now I know in part?

49.

When was he to know fully?

50.

Why did he speak of the three things that abide?

51.

What is the meaning of faith in this context?

52.

Why can it not be faith to remove mountains?

53.

What is the basis of Christian hope?

54.

Why did Paul say that the greatest of these is love?

For Discussion

1.

What is to be said about division in the church today that possesses the completed revelation of God's will, the Bible?

2.

What place should the most excellent way have in the work of evangelizing the world?