1 Corinthians 13:1–3

At the same time Paul tells the saints to desire the greater gifts eagerly, but these gifts were for building up, not for show. And yet he points them to a far better way. It is not merely a way, however good, to get these gifts, as some suppose. It is a way for souls to feel and think, to walk and worship, beyond all gifts. It is the way of love, and he opens it out in the next chapter.

To prove the supreme value of love, the Apostle names three things the Corinthian believers were boasting about: their eloquent speech, their spiritual possessions, and their activities. They may try to lift themselves up by these things. But he shows that these things count for nothing in God's sight if love is not the motive.

Today people usually take the word "charity" to mean kind feelings toward others, or gifts of money to the poor. But that is not what the Greek word agapee means, the word Paul uses all through this chapter. The Revised Version and all good modern versions translate it "love." In 1 John 4:7-12 this same word agapee appears several times, and there too it is translated "love." To say "God is charity" (the same word) instead of "God is love" would shock our ears, and rightly so.

Ancient musical instruments, made of metal plates struck together. On their own they made no tuneful sound, and they could only be played alongside other instruments… In Corinthians the cymbal is a picture of someone making a show in speaking without love in the heart.

Whatever the estimate of the value of tongues in modern days, the apostle rates them, whether of men or of angels, to be, in the absence of love, no more than "a mere instrument of sound without sense, dead, mechanical, devoid of moral worth." There is much clangour and clatter, but no true ministry of the Spirit bearing witness to the spirits of the saints. No edification results, for it is love that builds up, while tongues like knowledge puff up.

A brother stands up in the meeting and speaks words of rare sweetness and thrill, though we cannot understand a word of them. We find that he has given a message from God in a language of heaven, one that angels use. How wonderful! How we would stare at him! Yes. But if he has done this without love, he might as well have brought an old brass pan into the meeting and hit it with a poker. That is all the good he has done for the Lord's interests in the assembly.

Love is what God is. If I do not have it, I am not born of God, and so I do not share His nature… You say, I have no gift. Maybe so, but you can love. Every Christian can do that. And it is worth more than the brightest gift, because love is the nature of God and seeks the blessing of others. It thinks of everybody but itself.

Still, there was something more excellent than all gifts. Gifts were the displays of the power of God and of the mysteries of His wisdom; love was the display of His nature itself.

As this is what 1 Corinthians 12 sets before us, so the apostle goes on to remind the Corinthians that there was one thing even better than gifts. This was love. Looking at God's nature, He is certainly Light, but what is the energy of that nature? It is love. It is love that actively comes to us from God and blesses us. Love is the energy of the divine nature. It is what Christ showed us God to be, and what the Spirit would now work in us.

Of course, "all faith" in this verse has nothing to do with believing in the Son of God, for whoever believes has everlasting life. It means only faith as a miraculous power, which a man who is not born again might have (Matthew 7:22-23).

The Apostle is not speaking of faith in Christ, for this faith works by love. He is speaking instead of faith which enables people to overcome great obstacles and do great exploits. And he says it is possible to have such faith without love.

God's mysteries mean those secret things which are now revealed, in contrast with what Israel had of old (Deuteronomy 29:29). They are not, as most people suppose, things too deep to understand. They are truths God kept back in Old Testament times, now displayed in Christ on high and made known by the Spirit in the New Testament.

Saul the king could prophesy too. Balaam the prophet prophesied while loving the wages of unrighteousness. Caiaphas the priest prophesied while he was thirsting for innocent blood. Judas the apostle worked miracles while he carried the heart of a traitor. Each of them had received a new heart, or "another heart," as a gift for office, and in the Spirit they prophesied or worked miracles. But all this tells us that it is not gifts that make us what we should be, and that nothing will do if the heart is not with God.

He not only reaches the heart of divine things; through his gift of prophecy he can also tell others what he knows. He also has faith of an almost miraculous power. Yet he has not love! We are not told that he is like a clanging piece of brass. It is possible that we may gain some help and understanding from what he says, and some inspiration from his remarkable faith. What we are told is that he himself is nothing. If we are unspiritual ourselves, we might imagine him to be a giant. Really he is less than a pygmy. He is nothing.

Verse 1 deals with what I speak; verse 2 with what I have; and verse 3 with what I do. Where love is missing, the motive for using the gift is selfish; it is not genuine concern for others, or for the glory of God. So in my every effort to be something, "I am nothing."

This word appears often in the Authorised Version where the word "love" would be much better, and indeed the same Greek word is often translated "love." 1 Corinthians 13:3 shows that a person may be very charitable or benevolent but have no love.

We may readily admit that a man can talk well without love, and boast in his spiritual knowledge without love. We may tell such a person to talk a little less and do a little more. But the apostle further warns us that it is also possible to do much without love. He says a man's good works may rise so high that he gives all his goods to feed the poor, and gives his body as a martyr to be burned. Yet the motive may not be love, and so all his activities profit him nothing.

A philanthropist may give only to draw attention to how generous he is. Another may give freely to quiet a bad conscience, troubled because he did not gain his wealth honestly. But let the believer always be moved by love toward the Lord, and toward others.

Neither almsgiving nor self-sacrifice necessarily implies a living faith. Even the most lavish spending on causes that look "charitable" may spring from motives quite foreign to the life of God. In the same way, blind fanatical zeal may lead a person to die for a lie against the truth.

The lesson here is not that active zeal is a bad thing. It is that growing in divine love matters more than any single act.

So God may use words without love, knowledge without love and activities without love to do His own work. Yet they add nothing to the one who speaks and acts this way. Without love he will be nothing and profit nothing, whatever his words, his possessions and his activities.

Love was conformity to the nature of God. It was the living expression of what He is, and the evidence that a person has been made a partaker of His nature. It was acting and feeling according to His likeness. This love develops in relation to others; but others are not the motive, though they are the object. Its source is within. Its strength does not depend on the people it is occupied with. So it can act where circumstances would stir irritation or jealousy in the human heart.

Love must be the driving power, or nothing counts. But we cannot love in order to gain something for ourselves by it. There is only one way to get it: as flame lights flame. So love alone kindles love: "We love because he first loved us."