In this chapter, we must see that love is the practical living of the church. The church’s living is love. The word “living” can also mean “expression”; the expression of a local church is love. If we only demonstrate a certain kind of teaching or form, we are wrong. The expression of the local church must be love.
Why did the Apostle Paul write 1 Corinthians 13? Chapters 12, 13 and 14 are three chapters forming a section which deals with gifts. The middle part is the chapter on love. The church at Corinth had left the proper expression of the local church: they had turned from love to the exercise of gifts; they had become a kind of manifestation of gifts rather than love. The first thing seen at Corinth was the practice of gifts-mainly, the speaking in tongues. The Apostle Paul then wrote and adjusted them. Tongues and other gifts are not the most excellent way. Only love is the excellent way, and in a sense, love is the best way. At the end of chapter 12, the Apostle Paul says, “But desire earnestly the greater gifts. And moreover a most excellent way show I unto you” (ASV). What is the most excellent way? The answer is in the following chapter, that is, love. He opened the next chapter in this way: “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love...” (1 Cor. 13:1). This verse proves that tongues and other gifts are different from love. We may have the gifts and still lack the love. We may speak in the tongues of men and of angels and still be short of love. If so, we are as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. There is the sound, but not the love; the noise, but not the life.
I have been concerned for many years because some Christians pay too much attention to tongues. They have neglected this verse, which tells us that speaking in tongues is not something in life. Tongues are only a kind of sound. They are not life. Sound without love proves that speaking in tongues is not of life. Otherwise, the Apostle would not speak in this way. He opened this chapter by saying that the Corinthian believers need life, not just sound. What is the expression of life? It must be love, for life is expressed in love. Love is not sound; love is the expression of life.
We must never try to love by our own strength. I am not encouraging you to love, because I know that you cannot love. The more I exhort you to love, the more you will hate. The more I demand love from you, the more I will get hatred from you. We simply cannot love. We can do many things, but we cannot love. It is easy to speak in tongues, but it is not so easy to love. Love is the most excellent way; therefore, it is the most difficult way.
The greatest difficulty in the church life is love. We can teach, but we cannot love. We can serve, but we cannot love. We can clean, but we cannot love. We can mow the lawn, but we cannot love. The sisters can play the piano, but they cannot love. It is easy for us to pray-read, but we cannot love. We simply cannot love. It is easy to do anything but love.
What is love? If we read the description of love again in this chapter, we will realize that Christ is love. Love is Christ Himself. “Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil” (1 Cor. 13:4-5). Love is a person. The whole description of love in this chapter pertains to a living person, and that person is Christ.
What can exist forever and ever? Only Christ. In this chapter, the Apostle Paul minimizes all things but love. Nothing can compare with love. All the offerings, donations, and gifts cannot compare with love. Even prophecy and knowledge cannot compare with it.
First Corinthians 13:8 says, “Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.” Paul uses these three words in this verse: fail, cease, and vanish. What shall fail? Prophecies! What shall cease? Tongues! What shall vanish away? Knowledge! Tongues, prophecies and knowledge shall fail, cease and vanish. The Word is exceedingly clear in this verse, but many so-called Pentecostal groups simply pay all their attention to prophecies and tongues. Love never fails. Prophecies will fail, tongues will cease and knowledge will vanish away, but love remains forever. Who is this love? It is God Himself. God is love. What can compare with God? Tongues? Prophecies? Knowledge? No! Only God is eternal.
“Knowledge puffeth up, but love builds up” (1 Cor. 8:1). Christians think they need the teachings, but this is wrong. We should not put too much trust in teachings or gifts. We must put absolute trust in love.
In the first of the seven epistles in Revelation, the Lord Jesus says that they had lost their first love. The word “first” in Greek also means “best.” First love is best love. Philadelphia, the church to whom the sixth epistle was written, means brotherly love, and this is the best of the seven churches. The best church is the church of brotherly love, not the church of gifts, knowledge or power. The Lord only wants a church of love.
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