If I speak in tongues of human beings and of angels but I don’t have love, I’m a clanging gong or a clashing cymbal. — 1 Corinthians 13:1
The heart of the famous “love chapter” of the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13, starts at verse 4, with “Love is patient, love is kind…” and if you’ve ever been to a wedding, you know how the rest of it goes. However, how it’s set up, in the opening verses 1-3, is a key to really understanding how radical this love thing is.
He lists some very important, mountain-moving things that any Christian leader in the early church could strive for. Things like eloquent speech, tremendous insight, faith that produces miracles, extravagant generosity, and even a willingness to be martyred. But then he concludes that if he does all these things, “but I don’t have love, I receive no benefit whatsoever.”
What a psychologist Paul was. All those spiritual qualities and actions he mentioned can be an invitation to stoke the ego. “Look at ME! My gifts, my talents, my humility!” No wonder in the opening three verses he uses “I” or “I’m” fourteen times.
Love is the most important spiritual gift of all because it keeps all the others in check. All the love qualities in verses 4-8 have one thing in common: they put the emphasis always on the needs of the other person. A Christian focuses on caring for others and giving them center stage. It’s this outward emphasis that puts guard rails on ego and vanity.
No wonder Paul closed his love chapter with, “Now faith, hope, and love remain–these three things–and the greatest of these is love.”
Love is the answer.
I love it!