Ep. 312. 1 Corinthians 13-14 | What's Love Got To Do With It

EPISODE 312

WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT: 1 CORINTHIANS 13-14

In chapter 12, Paul addresses the mishandling of the spiritual gifts of the people of Corinth, but in chapter thirteen, he shows them how to handle the gifts correctly. Now, I can say with certainty that when I was growing up, I only heard chapter thirteen talked about from the perspective of what love should look like. And that isn't necessarily wrong, but it is absolutely incomplete. This thirteenth chapter is not a wedding text or a marriage text, in general, but is actually a response to chapter twelve. Remember, the Corinthians were boastful people. They boasted about their favorite teachers, they boasted about a sinful man in their congregation, they boasted about their right to eat meat sacrificed to idols, and now they were boasting about how this particular gift was better than that one.

Paul reminds them that without love (remember the gifts were for the building up and encouragement of the body), their gifts were worthless. So you might have the "higher" gifts, but that gift was made void if not used according to the love of God. There are people with spiritual gifts today, like preaching or tongues, who get a little bit too big for their own britches and believe their gift is THE gift of the church. And, abandoning love and the equipping of the body, they have shown that their gift now has no value before God at all.

Paul does spend an extensive amount of time, for one of his letters, on the gifts of tongues and prophecy. I still believe these gifts are active, but I think they are seldom used biblically. More times than not, they seem to be used for the elevation of the individual rather than the body as a whole, and as we've already said, the gifts are for the building up of the body and must be done in love rather than a boastful way. I don't think we should automatically disregard these gifts, though I know that many, even of my friends, disagree with me on whether or not these gifts are still active in the world today.

ADDITIONAL READING: Acts 15:32; Isaiah 28:11-12; Exodus 23:27; Deuteronomy 7:23; Deuteronomy 28:20