The surpassing beauty of this chapter has been felt and expressed wherever it has been read, by persons of the most opposite religious views, and by those who can appreciate only its literary qualities. In the Chapter s that go before it there is eloquence too, but of a very different kind keen, imp... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 13:1. THOUGH I SPEAK WITH THE TONGUES OF MEN. The gift of tongues seems to have been largely possessed and eagerly exercised in the Corinthian church. AND OF ANGELS who doubtless have a way of holding mutual communication, though here the reference seems quite general, for ‘the most... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 13:2. AND THOUGH I HAVE THE GIFT OF PROPHECY a gift above tongues (chap. 14), for uttering the mind of God by immediate inspiration, but often for the opening of the Scriptures, to which the reference is here, as appears from the next words. AND UNDERSTAND ALL MYSTERIES, AND ALL KNOW... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 13:3. AND THOUGH I BESTOW [1] ALL MY GOODS TO FEED _THE POOR, _ AND THOUGH I GIVE (‘DELIVER UP') MY BODY TO BE BURNED [2] a practice not unknown even to heathenism, as witness _Sutteeism_ in India, happily now abolished. In the early Church, martyrdom was held in such honour as at leng... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 13:4. LOVE SUFFERETH LONG. This long-suffering is the protracted endurance of wrong, such as is fitted to provoke resentment. It is that command over natural impulse which keeps just displeasure from breaking forth into action. This is one of Jehovah's most conspicuous names: “The Lord... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 13:5. DOTH NOT BEHAVE ITSELF UNSEEMLY [1] indecorously, unbefitting oneself and towards others unbecoming. There is in the Christian character a beautiful symmetry, instinctively suggesting what is befitting, and what is out of harmony with propriety and decency: it is sensitive to the... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 13:6. REJOICETH NOT IN UNRIGHTEOUSNESS, BUT REJOICETH WITH THE TRUTH. Love's native element is goodness and truth: apart from the truth it knows neither father nor mother, husband nor wife, son nor daughter: its antipathies are only with evil, its sympathies with truth and with those w... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 13:7. BEARETH ALL THINGS from the wronging party. BELIEVETH ALL THINGS about him that are at all believable; such as that he has been misled, that he is prejudiced, that he is better than his actions, and may live to repent of it and do better. Accordingly, love HOPETH ALL THINGS even... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 13:8. LOVE NEVER FAILETH neither absolutely ceases, nor passes into any other and higher phase. This general proposition is next broken up into three details, referring to three of the gifts already dealt with. BUT WHETHER _THERE BE _ PROPHECIES... TONGUES... KNOWLEDGE, IT SHALL BE D... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 13:9. FOR WE KNOW IN PART even in respect of the supernatural gift of knowledge AND WE PROPHESY IN PART in necessarily broken, fragmentary utterances, giving at best but imperfect views of Divine truth.... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 13:10. BUT WHEN THAT WHICH IS PERFECT IS COME, THAT WHICH IS IN PART SHALL BE DONE AWAY the partial of necessity giving place to the perfect, the temporary to the enduring. In the next two verses this is beautifully illustrated by the change that takes place from childhood to manhood,... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 13:11. WHEN I WAS A CHILD, I SPAKE AS A CHILD prattling; I FELT AS A CHILD, I THOUGHT (or ‘reasoned') AS A CHILD. My thoughts were all a child's thoughts, my notions of persons and things were childish, and my way of connecting things as causes and effects, premises and conclusions was... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 13:12. FOR NEW WE SEE IN A MIRROR [1] DARKLY or ‘dimly:' _Gr._ ‘in a riddle.' The mirrors of those days were not like ours, but polished metallic surfaces, reflecting objects but imperfectly; and since the figure seemed to be _behind_ the mirror, the observer seemed to see “through” it... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 13:13. AND NOW ABIDETH FAITH, LOVE, HOPE, THESE THREE; BUT THE GREATEST OF THESE (_Gr._ ‘greater than these') is love. Most modern interpreters take “abideth” here to mean ‘are of equal duration' eternal. Some (as De Wette, Stanley, Alford) understand “faith” and “hope” as eternally “a... [ Continue Reading ]