This piece is part of a work, Choose Love, that I hope to make into a second volume, following my book Choose!. Who knows if it will ever get finished. But perhaps you'll be uplifted by this installment.
Some have considered 1 Corinthians 13 as a parenthesis in the discussion about the use of gifts. In truth, it is the center and peak of the whole discussion, with the discussion in chapter 12 on gifts and chapter 14 on edification as the slopes of the peak. It all comes down to love. Or rather, it is up to love at the peak where we must climb.
Not everyone has the same gift. But every single saint must have the same motivation of love. Here, Paul personifies love. Some think he has the Lord Jesus Christ in mind. If so, he will move quickly from Jesus as love to the disciple as love. But perhaps he seeks to pass on the idea that wherever love is present, this is how it will act.
Chapter 13 divides naturally into three parts: the superiority of love (vv. 1-3), the behavior of love (vv. 4-7), and the permanence of love (vv. 8-13). Again, the centerpiece of the chapter is the middle element. Here is how love behaves.
Our modern world conceives of love as an emotion or a feeling, an idea that’s light years away from the biblical truth. Love is a choice to behave in a certain way. And that way can be clearly identified. This way is what Paul wants the Corinthians to show in their relationships with each other, because it is lacking in their use of God’s gifts. This loving conduct will solve this and many of the other problems in the congregation. So Eduard Schweizer is right in his Theological Introduction to the NT, that this chapter “sees in unlimited love the way in which faith in [Christ] can be lived” (p. 64, emphasis his). Love is the only way.
Paul agrees with the Lord Jesus Christ that love is at the center of the Way. Christ identified love as being in the two major commandments. And Paul plainly puts love at the center of the solution for the Corinthians. Love is what makes it all work.
What would you add to this? Share it in the comments below.