Love, the Measure Part 2

1Cor 12.31 – 13.3

 What are the implications?

Paul has established that without love, superlative spiritual gift and heroic Christian service amount to nothing. Several profound implications flow from this.

First, love is indispensable. With love, all the these gifts and services would be a great blessing to all concerned. Without love, no one is benefited. Take out love and leave all the other stuff = no blessing. Leave in the love and take out the other stuff = blessing.  Love is the indispensable ingredient.

Second, love is the goal. The reason why love is indispensable is that it is not just another element, it is the goal of all the elements. Love is not a gift or talent but a fruit – indeed, it is the chief of all the fruits of the Spirit (Gal 5.22-23). And the chief end of a tree, according to Jesus, is to bear fruit (John 15.5, 8). Gifts, talents, and services are like stems, leaves, and  flowers.  They are good and desirable, even beautiful. But they are all means and not the ultimate goal. When we have no love, we are like a fruitless tree. Our stems, leaves, and flowers don’t matter.

Third, love is the measure. If love is the goal, then it is necessarily the measure as well. A business is measured by whether it achieves the goal for which it was created, and so are we. Jesus curses a tree with leaves and no fruit (Mat 21.19) and promises his Father will do the same (John 15.2, 6). Without fruit, our stems, leaves, and flowers only tell people what we should have but don’t. Our stems, leaves, and flowers are false advertising and bring us greater judgment. Jesus did not curse a tree with no leaves; he cursed a tree with leaves but no fruit.

Fourth, love is easily overlooked and left out. It is a scary thought, but one we need to face head on:  It is perfectly possible to have great spiritual gifts and to do heroic Christian deeds apart from love.

Experience proves that a man, after opening his heart with faith to the joy of salvation, may soon cease to walk in the way of sanctification, shrink from complete self-surrender, and, while making progress in mystical feeling, become more full of self and devoid of love than he ever was.*

If this were not a very real possibility, the epistles to the Corinthians would never have been written. The Corinthian church is a monument to how easy it is to be spiritually “great” while being spiritually nothing.

Where should our emphasis be?

It is clear what our core emphasis should be – not gifts or ministries, but love. Our spiritual gifts and ministries are simply vehicles through which to express love and the other fruits of the Spirit. Spiritual gifts were given in love, for love. How then could they be exercised any other way? If we pursue gifts and ministries in their own right, there is nothing inherent in them that will lead us to love. On the other hand, if we pursue love, we will develop our gifts and find opportunities to serve, for love will compel us to do so.

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* F.L. Godet, 1887, Commentary on the First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, vol. 2: Chapters 9-16, p. 237, quoted in David E. Garland, 1Corinthians, p. 608.