Characteristics of Love

What we learn in the Scripture is that God is love, so however God acts that is how we define love. You don’t define love in some abstract way and then say God fits that standard. God is the standard, what God does is love. What Paul is doing in the first seven verses of 1 Corinthians chapter thirteen is giving us a description of love. But this is not an exhaustive definition of love, it is a description of love that have been nuanced in contrast to the behaviour of the Corinthians. He does say everything there is to say or everything that could be said about love in these seven verses, he is particularly structuring what he says in relationship to the carnal behaviour of the Corinthians. So he begins in the first three verses by emphasizing the priority of love and that no matter how much we know about Scripture or how great the spiritual gifts are but he is saying that even of you have certain gifts, certain knowledge, certain types of application, if it is not done within the framework of love then it is useless and meaningless, it is nothing more than pseudo-spirituality and pseudo-humility. The word “love” is used ten times in this chapter and whenever a word is used again and again and again then that is the subject the Holy Spirit is emphasizing.

Even though the chapter is in the context of spiritual gifts and it is not an anacoluthon, it is not going down a rabbit trail into a side topic. He is not diverting in a major way, he is emphasizing what must be at the core of spiritual service. It is not done to serve oneself, to put oneself forward, to emphasize one’s own position, but it is done from the viewpoint of love, that which is best for other believers and the congregation. So all gifts operate and start from a position of grace orientation, and grace orientation means that you have genuine humility. Genuine humility is foundational to being able to advance to spiritual maturity. Grace orientation involves also giving or serving others, but the correlation to that is that you are also able to be served and you are also able to receive gifts. If you don’t know how to receive you don’t understand grace.

As we get into chapter 13 this fits into the broader context that was introduced back in 8:1 where Paul made the statement that knowledge [gnwsij], academic knowledge, information, makes arrogant. But the Christian life is based on knowledge [e)pignwsij]. We have to know something to apply it, and we always know a lot more about any field than we apply. We only apply a very small percentage of our general field of knowledge, so it stands to reason that the more we know the more we will apply. So we emphasize knowledge, but not for knowledge sake. Knowledge is the means to an end which is spiritual growth, knowing how to think biblically, how to think in terms of divine viewpoint for the application of doctrine and spiritual growth. This chapter is going to focus on the Corinthians’ real underlying problem which is their arrogance and lack of love.

So we come to verse one, and verses 1-3 all follow the same pattern. 1 Corinthians 13:1 ^NASB “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” It begins with a third class condition in the Greek—it is either true or it is not true; maybe yes, maybe no. It expresses a hypothetical situation. It should be translated “Even if.” Paul is not saying that you can speak with the languages of men and of angels, he is simply using a hypothetical situation, an extreme situation in order to make a point. He is not saying that you can, or even saying that there are angelic languages. There is no biblical evidence that there is a distinct angelic language. The verb “speak” is laleo [lalew], present active subjunctive, and this indicates the hypothetical or contingency of the 3^rd class condition. The 3^rd class condition is always expressed with the particle e(an plus a subjunctive verb. This subjunctive verb indicates potentiality but it doesn’t suggest that it is indeed real. Paul is starting here with the pseudo priorities of the carnal Corinthian believers: to speak in languages. The word translated “tongues” is glossa [glwssa] which means languages. He is saying that even if he can do all of these things and have this tremendous manifestation of what you think is the Spirit and spirituality but it is missing love… “if I have not love, I have become.” This is the perfect active indicative of the verb ginomai [ginomai] which means to move from one state to another, and if it is in the perfect tense it is indicating a present reality from a past completed action: “I would already have become.” Paul is emphasizing here the priority of love. This isn’t just everyday love, it is a love that is unique to the spiritual life. For example, in Galatians 5:22 we are told that the fruit of the Spirit is love, so this is something that is supernaturally produced in the believer who is walking by the Holy Spirit. It denotes volitional acts of regard, respect and concern for the welfare of others. He says that if he does not have this kind of love, if this isn’t what under girds my use of the spiritual gifts and service to the body of Christ “I have already become a noisy gong [sounding brass] or a clanging cymbal.” A “sounding brass” is the Greek word kumbalon [kumbalon] which has the idea of bronze material. These were acoustic resonators that were used to produce sound. The participle echon [h)xwn] indicates sounding that goes on and on and on and continues to resonate. He is not talking about some sort of resonator used in the worship of the false gods, as has been previously thought. Recent discoveries invalidate that idea. It has been discovered that the Greeks in the theatres, in order to enhance sound and to develop the acoustics in their amphitheatres, would use bronze jars that they would put in niches around the audience so that as the speakers spoke the sound would resonate off of the brass and enhance the sound. It was a sound reverberator.

1 Corinthians 13:2 ^NASB “If I have {the gift of} prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” The same 3^rd class condition is used to begin the verse: “Even if I have the gift of prophecy.” He is not saying that he does, he is simply expressing an extreme; “and know all mysteries and all knowledge,” which he didn’t, and that is clear from the fact that in verse 9 he will say: “For we know in part and we prophesy in part.” That is, our current knowledge is partial. So it is clear from the context that nobody has “all mysteries and all knowledge,” he is simply using this in a hyperbolic sense to express the fact that no matter how much you may have been graced out by God and been given extreme spiritual gifts, if it is not done with love it is meaningless. The word “mysteries” is the word musterion [musthrion] which has to do with previously unrevealed truth. He is speaking about temporary gifts here: prophecy, knowledge and faith; “so as to move mountains,” and that doesn’t mean to be able to literally move a mountain, it is simply an idiom to do something that one would think would be impossible. Without love these have no benefit to the spiritual life, it doesn’t provide any value for me or anyone else because it is nothing more than arrogance and self-absorption.

1 Corinthians 13:3 ^NASB “And if I give all my possessions to feed {the poor,} and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.” Again, the same construction: 3^rd class condition used to express a hypothetical condition, and Paul is using hyperbole here. The word “give” [some translations ‘bestow’] is psomizo [ywmizw] and it is a present active subjunctive, indicating potentiality. It means to feed, to nourish, and it comes from a root noun which means a morsel, and it is usually used with the accusative case to express giving something in instalments, to dole something out. In this verse it is used to describe selling off one’s possessions and property one thing at a time in order to feed the poor and to take care of those who are less fortunate. Then we have a textual problem with “and if I surrender my body to be burned.” It is expressed by two words: kauxesomai [kauxhsomai] and kauthesomai [kauqhsmai]. The first word means “that I might boast: and the second means “that I might be burned.” So there is some debate as to just exactly which way the text reads here. The preference is to “be burned.” It is an extreme position: “even if I am martyred” … but don’t have love, it doesn’t profit me anything. He is emphasizing grace here because he uses the word paradidomi [paradidomi]. The prefix para adds an intensity to the verb didomi [didomi], so it has the idea of to give up, to hand over, or to deliver up “my body to be burned.” Then he concludes, “it profits me nothing.” This is a good economic term ophileo [wfilew], present passive indicative, meaning “it is to me of no value.” The subject receives nothing from all of these manifestations of religiosity.

Beginning in verse four we start a four-verse series where Paul provides various adjectives to describe love. Remember, this is not an exhaustive conclusive list. He is primarily using these characteristics in order to contrast the behaviour and the attitude of these carnal Corinthians with what genuine love will look like that is produced by the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 13:4 ^NASB “Love is patient, love is kind {and} is not jealous; love does not brag {and} is not arrogant.” “Love is patient” is the Greek word makrothumeo [makroqumew; makra = long; qumew = anger], and this has the idea of long on anger. In other words, it is going to take a long time before this person becomes angry. In actual usage the word emphasizes patience, steadfastness, the ability to remain tranquil and calm while waiting. It means to endure provocation without complaint. The idea here is to not seek revenge or retribution or to get back at someone when you are wronged. It is not trying to justify one’s self—just the opposite of Greek thought and modern thought, the idea that if we are wronged we have the right to be vindicated. MAKROTHUMIA has the opposite idea, that you are going to rest in the Supreme Court of heaven for your vindication and your are not going to try to get it yourself. Love is going to put up with provocation and not make an issue out of it. Second, “love is kind.” This is the verb chresteuomai [xrhsteuomai] which has the idea of showing yourself to be mild or relaxed. It is sometimes translated as being benevolent. The idea is to emphasize the positive aspect of reaching out to help someone or to be useful to someone else. Then we get into some negatives: “is not jealous,” the Greek verb zeloo [zhlow] which means to be jealous or envious, and emphasizes uncontrolled outbursts of envy or jealousy. Once again, envy or jealousy come out of self-absorption; “does not brag” (^NKJV parade itself), the verb perpereuomai [perpereuomai], and it has to do with someone who is conceited, who is bragging on empty accomplishments and making an issue, again, of self. So love is something that is not oriented to self and is contrasted with arrogance and self-absorption. Then the last word is phusioo [fusiow], the same word as used in 8:1 for “puffed up.”