God's Love

 

One of the passages that is likely to be quoted out of context, more than most, is 1 Corinthians Chapter 13, often known as The Great Love Chapter. It is usually read and understood as something separate and apart from chapters 12 and 14, which both speak of what our Christian community and gatherings ought to look like. Like a diamond, Chapter 13 is best displayed in a fine setting, and its fine setting is chapters 12 and 14 (though of course it is really the entire Epistle and then the entire Bible).

 

All of my Christian life I’ve seen people with heartburn about chapters 12 and 14, who conjure up no end of excuses to avoid confronting the anemic state of the professing church – the great gap between what should be normative and our actual condition. I’ve also seen those on the other end of the spectrum who run wild without wisdom, understanding, or teaching in chapters 12 and 14.

 

If the structure of 1 Corinthians says anything to us, we ought to acknowledge that Chapter 13 is the heart of love that beats so that chapters 12 and 14 come to life in mutual growth, edification, and glorification. After all, if we are indeed the Body of Christ, then Christ remains on this earth within His People and we should expect no less than to see our Lord living in His Body just as He lived in the body that came from Mary and was raised from the dead.

 

Paul writes that if he speaks in tongues, has the gift of prophecy, knows all mysteries and has all knowledge, and has all faith…but doesn’t have love “I am nothing.” This covers the spectrum, it includes the demonstrative and the cognitive, it covers the emotional and the intellectual – it doesn’t make any difference how much we know or what great things we can do, if we don’t have the love of God, we are nothing.

 

What do we think of this?

 

Are we living lives of love in our Lord Jesus Christ?

 

Are our relationships within the Body of Christ animated by love?

 

How is the love of God flowing through us to other members of His Body?

 

How is the love of God touching those around us at work, in family, in our neighborhood, in school? In our congregations?