1 Corinthians 13:1

1 COR. 13

Barclay said, "For many, this is the most wonderful chapter in the New Testament";[1] but as McGarvey said, "It has been admired by all ages, but, unfortunately, practiced by none!"[2] A sample of the marvelous praise which has been heaped upon this chapter is the following:

It is a glorious hymn or paean in honor of Christian love, in which St. Paul rises on the wings of inspiration to the most sunlit heights of Christian eloquence. Like Psalms 45, it may be entitled "A Psalm of Love.[3]

There are elements of misunderstanding, however, in the view that "This passage found in the middle of a protracted argument suggests that we have here the result of a sudden burst of inspiration!"[4] Not part of, but ALL that Paul wrote was inspired of God. Furthermore, this whole chapter may not be separated from the argument in the preceding and following chapters; for itself is part of the argument, a very telling part of it.

The chapter falls easily into three divisions: (1) the absolute necessity of love (1 Corinthians 13:1-3), (2) the characteristics of love (1 Corinthians 13:4-7), and (3) the permanence of love (1 Corinthians 13:8-13). Despite this classification, 1 Corinthians 13:13 evidently stands apart. The disorders of the Corinthian church are continually in view. Both the positive and negative attributes of love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 are clearly the opposites of conditions among the Corinthians. Also, such words as "tongues ... prophecy ... knowledge ... faith so as to move mountains cannot be understood, except as references to the miraculous gifts at Corinth. This chapter should never be construed as merely an abstract teaching on love, parenthetically inserted. The situation at Corinth was still the center of Paul's attention here.

[1] William Barclay, The Letters to the Corinthians (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1954), p. 131.

[2] J. W. McGarvey, Commentary on 1Corinthians (Cincinnati, Ohio: Standard Publishing Company, 1916), p. 127.

[3] F. W. Farrar, The Pulpit Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1950), Vol. 19, p. 422.

[4] T. Teignmouth Shore, Ellicott's Commentary on the Holy Bible (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1959), p. 337.

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. (1 Corinthians 13:1)

Tongues of men and of angels ... No affirmation is made here regarding the language of angels. Hodge paraphrased this as "all languages, human or divine."[5] That the speech of angels should have been brought in here could have derived from Paul's own experience in which he was caught up into heaven and heard words "unspeakable, unlawful to utter" (2 Corinthians 12:4). There is also an assumption here that "angels are superior in all respects to men."[6] Thus, Paul made his argument more overwhelming with the contrast between the tongues of angels and the distressing tongues of Corinth.

But have not love ... Three Greek words for "love" are [@eros] (erotic love), [@fileo] (affection), and [@agape], the latter being the word here. "The word was not classical Greek. No heathen writer had used it."[7] Yet it was in the Greek language and was used in the Septuagint (LXX). Thus, the Spirit chose a word for Christian love which was free of the sensual overtones of more common Greek words. [Agape] is considered to be one of the grandest words in the New Testament.

Sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal ... The cacophonous pretense of heathen worship included the clashing and banging of gongs and cymbals and the braying of brass trumpets. Barclay identified such noises as characteristic "especially of the worship of Dionysus and Cybele."[8] Paul teaches two things by this: (1) that the exhibitions of the Corinthian tongue speakers were of the same significance as heathen worship and (2) that both were noisy, empty and worthless.

[5] Charles Hodge, An Exposition of the First Epistle to the Corinthians (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1974), p. 266.

[6] Albert Barnes, Notes on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1949), p. 242.

[7] F. W. Farrar, op. cit., p. 422.

[8] William Barclay, op. cit., p. 131.