A Still More Excellent Way
1 Corinthians 13 — the love chapter — is one of the most famous passages in the Bible. Even beyond the Bible, it is a classic text in the history of literature and spirituality.
Paul’s discussion of “love” is not sappy or sentimental. “Love” in this chapter is the Greek agape. Other Greek words that could be translated love include philia, a fondness or appreciation found in friendship, and eros, a passionate, intense desire. (For a good discussion, see Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Philosophy of Love.”) In ancient Greek thought, agape does not exclude eros and philia — indeed, agape “draws on elements from both eros and philia in that it seeks a perfect kind of love that is at once a fondness, a transcending of the particular, and a passion without the necessity of reciprocity.” (IEP, above.) Although Paul is not writing Greek philosophy as such, this is a good summary of the concept of agape in the New Testament generally and in Paul.
Chapter 13 is the pinnacle of Paul’s plea against the divisions in the Corinthian congregation. All of the apparently virtuous acts Paul mentions verses 1-3 are things that gave some person or group in the Corinthian congregation a claim to superiority: speaking in tongues, prophecy, mystical understanding, knowledge, faith, acts of charity. All of the virtues Paul mentions in verses 4-6 are things Paul found lacking in some person or group in the Corinthian congregation: patience, kindness, humility, faith, hope, and endurance. Notice that the substantive virtues in verses 4-6 overlap with the facially virtuous acts of verses 1-3. These virtues are also referred to as the “fruit of the Spirit” in another of Paul’s letters (Galatians 5:22-23).
Paul suggests, then, that virtue is not just about action — it is also, and primarily, about motivation and inner character. Without the motivation and inner character of love — agape — a seemingly virtuous act is really nothing — a “noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” This reference to the “noisy gong or clanging cymbal” refers back to Paul’s discussion of idolatry and eating meat at pagan temple feasts, which would have been accompanied by this kind of ceremonial action, perhaps at the moment of sacrifice./1/
Verses 8-13 shift to the theme of epistemology Paul raised at the beginning of the letter, tied also to the apocalyptic themes woven throughout the text. The apocalyptic principle is found in verses 8 and 13: “love never ends [fails]”; faith, hope, and love “abide”; and love is greatest. The gifts we use now — tongues, knowledge, prophecy — will one day become inactive because they will no longer be needed. They are needed now because we only see “in a mirror, dimly [ainigmati — an enigma, a riddle]” and because we “know only in part.” But “then [at that time] we will see face to face” and we will “know fully even as [we] have been known.” Paul thereby ties his epistemology of of the cross, of weakness and partial knowledge, to the current time the church inhabits, while looking forward to a time when a different epistemology of perfect seeing and knowing. We will see in chapter 15 that Paul’s apocalyptic hope springs from the resurrection of Christ, which secures victory over death and the promise of our resurrection and transformation.
Some Discussion Questions on this Section
- How do we discern if we “have” love? From where do we “get” love?
- In verse 7, Paul says love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all tings, endures all things.” (“All things” in Greek is just the word panta, all — panta stegei, panta pisteuei, panta elpizei, panta hypomenei — these phrases can serve as a kind of contemplative prayer.) What things today are you finding beyond your ability to bear, beyond the capacity of your faith / belief (pisteuo), beyond hope, beyond endurance? How can “love” (agape) provide the capacities you need in these circumstances?
- Verse 12 refers to seeing your reflection in a mirror. In the ancient world, mirrors were made of polished metal, not glass, so the reflection was imperfect. Below are examples of some ancient mirrors in a museum. What do you take from these statements of Paul’s about our present and future knowledge? How does knowing, and being known, relate to seeing, and being seen? Do you ever feel unknown, or unseen?
- The apocalyptic vision of this chapter is not how we usually think of the word “apocalypse”: what remains, and what triumphs, is love. Does this change your concept of “apocalyptic?”
Tongues, Prophecy, and Other Gifts
In Chapter 14, Paul applies his discussion of love and the spiritual gifts to the question of speaking in tongues. Apparently this was another point of tension in the Corinthian congregation. The group that claimed to be wiser and more spiritual seems to have used the practice of speaking in tongues as evidence of their superiority.
There is little doubt that the “tongues” here refers to ecstatic speech, presumed to be a heavenly or angelic language, and not to an ordinary human language. The practice of uttering ecstatic speech would have been familiar to the Corinthians. It was a common feature of pagan worship.
Paul does not condemn the (Christian) practice of speaking in tongues, and in fact, claims that he is its foremost practitioner (14:18). Nevertheless, Paul sets limits on the use of tongues in public worship, to preserve order in worship and to show unbelievers who are present that this is not just another pagan mystery cult.
Paul’s preference is for the Corinthians to develop the gift of “prophecy.” This is not so much a reference to telling the future — foretelling — as it is to telling the truth about the way things are and about how they need to change — forthtelling. It is plain speech, not esoteric oracles, that demonstrates God’s presence even to unbelievers (14:25). Even prophecy, however, should be exercised within proper order (14:29-33). Note that Paul says anyone can offer a word of prophecy, as well as a hymn, a lesson, a revelation (Greek apokalypsis), a tongue, or an interpretation, not only a professional minister.
Chapter 14 also includes another difficult passage on women in the church (14:14-15). Many scholars consider these verses a later interpolation — that is, not part of Paul’s original letter to the Corinthians — because they disrupt the flow of the argument, refer to “all the churches” rather than to the Corinthian situation, and contradict the direct mention in 11:5 of women praying and prophesying in the assembly. This view is taken by noted New Testament scholar Richard Hays in his commentary on 1 Corinthians. As Hays also notes, however, even as an interpolation, this segment is part of the canon of scripture, and it echoes (probably intentionally) later deutero-Pauline texts in the canon such as 1 and 2 Timothy (deutero-Pauline means that those texts were sent in Paul’s name but probably not written by Paul himself). For Hays, this shows that the diverse texts of scripture usually give principles for ethics and practice, which must be assessed in cultural context, rather than timeless, legalistic rules.
Others suggest that, like the references to head coverings in Chapter 11, these verses refer to some cultural circumstances in the early church. In the Synagogue, women and men sat on different sides of the assembly, and this practice also obtained in some parts of the early church. If we imagine an ecstatic assembly, in which various people are speaking in tongues and prophesying all at once, with some women letting their hair down in culturally shocking ways, and other women shouting across the aisle towards their husbands, perhaps this set of instructions makes a bit more sense, even if we would not state them in the same way today. The idea then would be not an absolute prohibition against women speaking in the assembly, but an instruction addressed to the particular problem of some women in the Corinthian assembly often speaking or shouting over others.
Some Questions on this Section
- Do you think our Reformed tradition emphasizes good order at the expense of the full exercise of gifts within the congregation?
- What might the gift of “tongues” or “prophecy” look like today? Does our renewed interest in Christian contemplative practices open space for thinking about this question?
- Can you think of some powerful examples of “prophetic” speech? Are there any such examples that have impacted you?
Notes
/1/ The reference in verse 3 to “hand over my body so that I may boast [or, in some manuscripts, to be burned]” is unclear and has prompted much discussion. “So that I may boast” is likely the more authentic text, and “to be burned” is probably a later change, although this is not entirely clear. If “so that I may boast” is the correct text, it might refer to committing one’s self to slavery in exchange for the manumission of someone else — a practice that apparently sometimes happened in the early church.