1 Corinthians 13:1-13 - Exposition

The supremely excellent way of Christian love. This chapter has been in all ages the object of the special admiration of the Church. Would that it had received in all ages the loftier and more valuable admiration which would have been expressed by an acceptance of its lessons! Tertullian says that it is uttered "with all the force of the Spirit" ( totis Spiritus viribus ) . It is a glorious hymn or paean in honour of Christian love, in which St. Paul rises on the wings of inspiration to the most sunlit heights of Christian eloquence. Like the forty-fifth psalm, it may be entitled "A Psalm of Love." Valcknaer says that the "oratorical figures which illuminate the chapter have been born spontaneously in an heroic soul, burning with the love of Christ, and placing all things lower than this Divine love." In 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 he shows the absolute necessity for love; in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 its characteristics; in 1 Corinthians 13:8-12 its eternal permanence; in 1 Corinthians 13:13 its absolute supremacy.