If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. 2 And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated, 5 it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, 6 it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing. 9 For we know partially and we prophesy partially, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. 12 At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. 13 So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Love is the greatest of all gifts and a condition for salvation. It is only through love that one can have miracle-working faith. The love Paul speaks about is agapē, self-sacrificing love, the highest of all forms of love, Christ on the cross. Paul tells the Corinthians that if one has the gift of speaking in tongues (the lowest of the charisms), the gift of prophecy (the highest of the charisms), possesses all knowledge, has great faith, gives away all possessions, and even sacrifices oneself, it would all amount to nothing unless love is the foundation of one’s actions (vv. 1-3). Christians can only have the existence ordained by God by loving. Love is not only the most important but the most necessary component of the Christian spiritual existence.
The Corinthians had been living in an immoral way (1 Cor. 5:1-8). Some were not acting properly towards others (1 Cor. 7:36) and some thought only about themselves without regard for others (1 Cor. 10:24). Paul personifies love and describes the virtues the Corinthians needed to cultivate. Love will help them to endure the difficulties and sufferings that are to come. Love rejoices only in the truth and puts up with all things for the sake of the Gospel (1 Cor. 9:23). “The love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5),” Paul describes the qualities of the divine gift love which is an active and dynamic reality (vv. 4-7).
The Corinthians are spiritually childish (1 Cor. 3:1) and place a high value on spiritual gifts, but that will come to an end. Knowledge and prophecy are partial gifts because they are limited by what one can grasp in this world. When the Corinthians receive the gift of eternal life at the end of the world (the Eschaton), they will know fully, and the partial will pass away (vv. 8-10). In the future when they mature spiritually, they will place a higher value on the virtues of faith, hope, and love that define authentic Christian living. Faith in God and hope in the coming of the kingdom in its fullness are for this world only. Love is essentially the same on earth and in heaven with love in Heaven being to a greater degree. The greatest of the gifts of the Spirit is love which is eternal. This eschatological quality distinguishes it from all other spiritual gifts.
Almighty God thank you for the gifts of faith, hope, and love that you so abundantly shower upon us. Help us embody love in all we say and do and grant us the strength to love without reservation. This we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen!
__________________________________
References
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
Orchard, Bernard, et al. A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture. Feb. 1953.
Comments