We’ve learnt that love is crucial, generous, has nothing to prove, no hidden agenda at work and no axe to grind. We know that love comes first from God (1 John 4), that Jesus commanded it as the best expression of our discipleship (John 13) and that it is one characteristic of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5). We know too that the greatest expression of love is seen when someone lays down their life for their friends (John 15), and that we have seen and experienced this when Jesus laid down his life for us.
In Romans 13, Paul sums up the importance of love by declaring it to be the fulfilment of the Law. In other words love achieves everything the law set out to achieve. Earlier in the same letter he points out that Jesus is also the end of the law, the culmination of it all. Jesus and love, both expressions of the fulfilment of the law.
Isn’t it interesting that when Jesus either asked or was asked what the greatest commandment was, the answer was all about love. Love the Lord your God.. Love your neighbour.
Love sums up the law. But if the law is now fulfilled by Christ, and in Christ. If it is satisfied through his sacrifice. And if the law no longer rules over us, then what outward sign of our obedience do we have?
For the church in Corinth the answer seemed to lie in the secret knowledge we possess or the gifts we exercise. Position and status replace legal observance as the discriminating mark of those who rank higher in the kingdom.
In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul reasserts the primacy of love as the true mark without denying the principles of gifts in their proper place.
Love grows us up!
As Paul draws this passage about love to a close, he uses a series of images and metaphors to reinforce the primacy of love.
Firstly he talks about those things that will come to their natural end. Prophecy will cease, tongues will be stilled and knowledge will pass away. All the things that the Corinthian Christians have made most important will, in the end, disappear. It is of course in this context that Paul introduces the language of imperfection and perfection. A phrase that has caused many questions to be asked. At the heart of Paul’s use of these terms is the idea of incompleteness. We know in part, we prophesy in part. But a day is coming when God will bring all things to completion and on that day we will know fully, see clearly and be fully known. Clearly that day has not yet arrived!
Paul’s second image is about moving from childhood to maturity. Again the picture is of a transition from incomplete to fully formed. His point here is not that spiritual gifts are immature but rather that the Corinthian Christians, with their over-zealous focus on gifts have failed to come to a mature appreciation for and application of the gifts. They have not yet grown up in their understanding. It has produced a playground mentality: “My gift is better than your gift”, a kind of Top Trumps game being played out in the life of the church.
The grown up church certainly needs the gifts, but it also needs to recognise that the gifts are only “partial”. They are not the full story. The gifts operate in the present, love is forever. To rediscover spiritual gifts is to rediscover their true place and value in the life of the church. Not to return to a less mature approach to being the church.
Thirdly he speaks about seeing clearly against seeing unclearly. Again this image reinforces Paul’s point that we are in fact all immature when we put ourselves in the context of eternity. Certainly none of us would put ourselves in the category of “perfect”.
All three images remind us that things change, that we are on a journey. But the one thing that doesn’t change is love. Love outlasts spiritual gifts. Gifts have their place in the life of the church, but they are not the most important thing. I don’t think that Paul is suggesting that a preoccupation with spiritual gifts is a sign of immaturity and that if we are mature Christians we should have left these things behind by now.
In chapter 12 he has clearly made his case for the value of spiritual gifts in the life of the church. The problem in Corinth was that they were speaking, thinking and reasoning as if spiritual gifts, knowledge and wisdom were to be more highly valued than anything else. The consequence of this was that there were divisions among them.
Paul’s point is rather that if you have all the gifts, no matter how great they are, all you have is something that will one day pass away. And when that day comes you will be left incomplete.
Signs of maturity
Love becomes the pre-eminent way to live and the testimony to our spiritual maturity. It is, according to Colossians, the virtue that binds all others together (3:14). But let’s take the image of the child, the immature young of the species so-to-speak, and reflect on maturity for a moment.
Paul says that when we are children we speak, think and reason like children. When we grow up, we put childish ways behind us. This is not about rejecting the learning experiences of childhood but about the process of coming to maturity. How does Christian maturity impact these three areas?
How we talk
James reminds us that the tongue can be difficult to control. It can be like a spark that sets light to a forest. It needs monitoring.
It’s fascinating to watch a child learn to speak. Sounds become words, words build into a vocabulary, sentences begin to emerge. Without being told, they experiment with creating tenses, not that they know that’s what they are doing, but they do it.
We’re wonderfully impressed when they use their first word, say please and thank you for the first time, and maybe, just maybe, rather pleased when they produce their first example of an adverb used in a correctly constructed imperfect tense! Or maybe that’s just me!
As Christians we learn a new language. In our context of 1 Cor.13 we could say we learn a new language of love. And it takes time. But if learnt properly it will affect the way we talk. We will learn to control our speech, to not say that which will hurt and wound, but instead to say that which builds up and encourages. We “speak the truth in love” (Eph. 4:15) and we refuse to allow “unwholesome talk” to be our pattern. (Eph.4:29)
Prov. 16:23 A wise man’s heart guides his mouth, and his lips promote instruction
How we think
In Philippians 4 Paul encourages his readers to think about those things that are noble and pure.
- Finally, dear brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.
How we reason
Perhaps the most preoccupying idea for many children is simply this: Is it fair? Is his piece of cake bigger than my piece of cake? Has she had a longer turn on the swing that I have? Why can’t I have what I want?
As we grow up however, we discover that fairness is not the issue, or at least ought not to be the issue uppermost in our minds. We reason differently. Isaiah Spoke of a generation that would see with perceiving, hear without understanding, and as a result would be hard hearted. That's not a description to which any us aspire!
Conclusion
Perhaps Paul’s challenge to the church in Corinth was to become mature. To get things in their right perspective and to begin to live out the good news more than they preached the good news.
When we come to Christ we begin to think differently, talk differently and reason differently.
All this we do, not in the context of what’s best for me, but in the context of what’s best for everyone.
