Verse 3
And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing.
Bestow all my goods ... "The Greek word here means to feed others by giving them morsels of food,"[11] giving the meaning of giving away all the giver's property a little bit at a time so as to reach the greatest possible number.
My body to be burned ... Coining as it did before the savage persecutions in which Christians were burned for their faith, this is surprising, being perhaps prophetic. Some have supposed that Paul was here thinking of the Hebrew children (Daniel 3:23), and Barclay thought it possible that Paul "referred to a famous monument in Athens called `The Indian's Tomb.' It honored an Indian who had burned himself in public."[12]
Whatever may have prompted Paul's words here, the lesson is clear, that no liberal giver nor fanatical ascetic may be assured of eternal life without the all-important, indispensable virtue of love. In the days of the persecutions, some were tempted to seek martyrdom as a sure means of attaining eternal life; but a proper regard for what Paul said here would have discouraged such a thing.
Paul in these first three verses did not mention all of the miraculous gifts, but the most respected; and thus what is said here of the examples chosen applied with equal force to all the others.
[11] T. Teignmouth Shore, op. cit., p. 338.
[12] William Barclay, op. cit., p. 132.
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