Paul takes a whole chapter to emphasize the crucial matter of love. His first emphasis, on speaking, occupies just three verses; his second emphasis, on the Spirit, occupies nine or ten verses; and the third and fourth matter he emphasizes, the Body and administration, occupy sixteen verses and three verses respectively. But when Paul comes to the crucial matter of love, he devotes an entire chapter to it. This shows how important love is.
Love is a matter of life. Certain gifts are also related to life, for they are developed from the initial gifts: the Holy Spirit and the divine life. However, other gifts, especially miraculous gifts such as speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, works of power or miracles, and healings, are not developed out of life. For this reason, Paul opens chapter thirteen by saying, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.” Sounding brass and clanging cymbals give sounds without life. This is a genuine illustration of tongue-speaking. In chapters twelve and fourteen Paul places tongues and interpretation of tongues last. But here he mentions tongue-speaking first, but in a negative way that indicates that it is not a matter of life.
In the same principle, divine healing may not be a matter of life. There is a healing which comes by gift and a healing which comes by grace. This latter kind is of life, even of resurrection life. During my Christian life I have experienced the gift of healing. But I wish to testify that many times I have enjoyed healing by grace. For two and a half years, from September, 1943, until the spring of 1946, I was seriously ill with tuberculosis. For many months I was confined to bed. Every day I prayed to the Lord and was dealt with by Him. I did not pray for the church or for the work, but for my own situation. Eventually what mattered most was not that I would be healed, but that I would be thoroughly cleansed and purified. I can testify that during that period of time, my motives, intentions, and every part of my inner being were dealt with. Then the Lord healed me not by a gift in power, but by grace in life. That healing was thorough and absolute. I draw on my experience to point out that to receive healing by means of a gift has nothing to do with life. However, there is a healing by grace in life.
I appreciate the gifts in life much more than the miraculous gifts. I have seen some believers who genuinely received certain miraculous gifts only to later turn from the Lord in unbelief. What we need is life and love, the best gift, which ministers life to others.
As those who love the Lord, who are absolute with Him, and who are seeking the building of His Body so that He may have the instrument to carry out God’s administration on earth for the accomplishment of God’s eternal purpose, we must pursue love. Elders and co-workers, you need love. Brothers and sisters, you all need love. Only love builds up the Body. Moreover, according to chapter thirteen, the gift of love is everlasting, for it is constituted of the divine life and is the expression of God, the expression of eternal life. Therefore, we all should pursue love.
In 13:2 and 3 Paul says, “And if I have prophecy and know all the mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I dole out all my goods, and if I deliver up my body that I may boast, but have not love, it profits me nothing.” To deliver up the body in verse 3 is to die as a martyr. Instead of “that I may boast,” some manuscripts read “that I may be burned.”
In 13:4-7 Paul gives us the definition of love. This definition includes fifteen virtues of love: suffering long, being kind, not being jealous, not bragging, not puffed up, not behaving unbecomingly, not seeking its own things, not provoked, not taking account of evil, not rejoicing over unrighteousness, rejoicing with the truth, covering all things, believing all things, hoping all things, and enduring all things.
In verse 4 Paul says, “Love suffers long, and is kind.” Love is the expression of life, which is the element of God. Hence, God is love (1 John 4:16). God as life is expressed in love. All the fifteen virtues of love listed in verses 4 through 7 are the divine virtues of God’s life. Such a life differs from the outward gifts listed in chapter twelve. The Corinthians were after the outward gifts, but they neglected love, the expression of life. Thus, they were still fleshy, fleshly, or soulish (3:1, 3; 2:14). They needed to grow in life, expressed by love, by pursuing love, not the outward gifts, so that they might be spiritual (2:14).
In verse 4 Paul says that love does not brag. Bragging is somewhat different from boasting. To brag is to boast of one’s self in a way to damage others. It is a kind of boasting which depreciates others and puts them down. Love certainly does not brag.
In verse 5 Paul points out that love “does not take account of evil.” The Greek word here indicates that love does not keep a record like a bookkeeper. This means that if you love others, you will not keep a record of their mistakes.
Verse 6 says, “Does not rejoice over unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth.” The totality of unrighteousness is Satan, and the totality of truth is God. Love as the expression of the divine life does not rejoice over Satan’s unrighteousness, but rejoices with God’s truth. Love does not rejoice over anyone’s unrighteousness; instead, it rejoices with the truth.
According to verse 7, love covers all things. The Greek word, also used in 9:12, can be rendered “bears.” Literally, it means to contain (as a vessel), to conceal; hence, to cover (as a roof). This word is used in the Gospels regarding the incident where some people broke up a roof in order to bring a certain sick man to the Lord Jesus. They made a hole in the roof and then lowered the man to the place where the Lord was (Mark 2:4). This Greek word means to make a hole in someone’s roof. We may do this by gossiping about others. As we talk about them, we make a hole in the roof over them; that is, we uncover them. However, love covers all things; it does not make a hole in anyone’s roof.
If we consider the fifteen virtues of love listed in these verses, we shall realize that love is nothing other than God Himself. Who other than God could have all these virtues? We cannot endure all things or believe all things. Neither can we truly have longsuffering. Only God has all these virtues. Hence, the love described here is God Himself. Furthermore, the Bible elsewhere says clearly that God is love (1 John 4:16). God is also life. Life is God’s essence, and love is God’s expression. In Himself God is life, but God expressed is love. The love which is God Himself with His divine essence as life has these fifteen virtues. This is the reason that in 1 Corinthians Paul charges the believers to grow in life. They were short of life, short of love. In other words, they were short of God and needed to grow in life.