“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am only a sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.” Hitherto the apostle had put the gift of tongues at the end of each of his lists (1 Corinthians 12:10; 1 Corinthians 12:28; 1 Corinthians 12:30). Here he puts it foremost,... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 . Without love, the most eminent gifts confer no real worth on their possessor.... [ Continue Reading ]
II. THE WAY PAR EXCELLENCE. CHAP. 13. This chapter has been called a hymn. In tone indeed it is truly lyrical, especially in the first verses. Charity is poetically personified. In this respect the passage resembles some others in St. Paul's writings, such as the end of chap. 15 of our Epistle, that... [ Continue Reading ]
“And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and [though I have] all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not charity, I am nothing.” The apostle rises to the higher gifts. The gift of the _prophet_ and that of the teacher (_kno... [ Continue Reading ]
“And though I distributed all my goods, and though I gave my body to be burned, but had not charity, it profiteth me nothing.” The apostle here comes to acts which appear to have the greatest value, because they seem identical with charity itself. In the first, it is the office of ἀντίληψις, _help_... [ Continue Reading ]
The following picture is not drawn at random, and, so to speak, at the good pleasure of the author. It is as closely connected with the state of his readers as the foregoing passage. It is a mirror in which the Church is called to contemplate the humiliating image of what it has become, while it beh... [ Continue Reading ]
“Charity never faileth. As to prophecies, they shall be done away; as to tongues, they shall cease; as to knowledges, they shall be done away. 9. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 10. But when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away.” The first words: _ne... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 13:8-13 . The absolute duration of charity is developed in these last verses: first, in opposition to gifts, then even in contrast to the other two fundamental virtues, faith and hope. Thus the apostle completes the demonstration of his thought: charity is the supremely excellent way.... [ Continue Reading ]
The reading γάρ, _for_, is evidently preferable to the δέ, _then_, of the Byz. The apostle wishes to explain why this doing away shall take place. Prophecy lifts on each occasion only a corner of the veil which covers the plan of God and its final accomplishment. Similarly the isolated acts of spiri... [ Continue Reading ]
But far from being an impoverishment of the Church, this loss of gifts, on the contrary, will coincide with her rising to the possession of perfect fulness; it will be the imperfect melting into the perfect. In contrast to the term ἐκ μέρους, _in part_, one would expect τὸ πᾶν, _the whole_, the enti... [ Continue Reading ]
“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child; when I became a man, I put away childish things.” Man's natural growth is a figure of that of the Church; both follow the same law, that of development and transformation. In proportion as the faculties, in course of... [ Continue Reading ]
“For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I have been known.” The ordinary application of the two parts of this verse to the gift of knowledge seems to me mistaken. Why should the apostle in this application omit the gift o... [ Continue Reading ]
“But now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” As Paul so often does (1Th 1:3; 2 Thessalonians 1:3-4; Col 1:4-5), he here sums up the Christian life in the three dispositions: _faith_, which takes salvation as already accomplished, Christ come; _hope_, whi... [ Continue Reading ]