A Study Through 1 Corinthians Chapter 13

A chapter that is so loved by many, even by those who are outside of the faith, has much to teach all of us, even to those who are mature in the faith.

To get a few things out of the way first, this chapter fits within a three-chapter section of this epistle from the Apostle Paul regarding the use and the misuse of the spiritual gifts. It is of interest to note, that within the entirety of the Pauline epistles, this section alone speaks regarding the spiritual gifts, and it is in an epistle to the congregation that is best known as being carnal, as we find out early on:

1 Corinthians 3:1–3 — “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men[1]?”

Yet it is unto this congregation that the spiritual gifts were on display, and it was done carnally. What should this teach to any who would say today that the most spiritual will exercise the spiritual gifts? The most carnal here had them, and we will talk about what the apostle said about them later in this chapter. It must be remembered from Acts chapter one that the original bestowal of many of these gifts had nothing to do with an extraordinarily high level of spirituality, but that it was “the promise of the Father”, Acts 1:4.

This chapter is also controversial ground for those called cessationists, versus those who are continuationists regarding the spiritual gifts. Now we are cessationists because of our church doctrine, right? Well, we need a better standing. The best standing would be understanding from this epistle to the Corinthians what the spiritual gifts were, and what they are for.

“For the Jews require a sign”, 1 Corinthians 1:22 says much, when it is coupled with 14:22, where we read “Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not.” The verse before that reads:

“In the law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that they will not hear me, saith the Lord.”

The gift of tongues here is for a sign to unbelieving Jews. The gifts that we see in the early chapters of Acts in general can be best understood as “the powers of the world to come” as we read in Hebrews 6:5.

The last thing that I will add regarding the spiritual gifts, before we move on, is that the spiritual gifts of healing and other things, as they were shown in the book of Acts, when performed in the presence of Gentiles, cause the people who they were performed in front of to worship the apostle and not the Lord who gave the power.  See chapters 14 and 28 as examples. Even now, when miraculous healings are proclaimed, the greatness of the so-called “healer” are extolled. Healings and signs and spiritual gifts are not the gospel. The crucified and risen and ascended Savior Jesus Christ is the gospel, and it is the gospel of His death for sin and resurrection that is the heart of the message of the grace of God, and distractions from that are no gospel at all.

The second thing that I want to get out of the way is the issue of the term “charity” versus the word “love” in this chapter. Tyndale used “love”, much to the chagrin of his Romanist adversaries who wanted to stick with “charity”. He used it to move away from the ecclesiastical terms that had morphed in meaning to be understood differently than the original intent. In this term, and even in our day, charity often has the connotation of “alms deeds”, or gifts to the poor and needy, whereas we can see from 1 Corinthians 13:3 that one can do acts of charity as we would call them without charity. It isn’t as easy to say that using love here is simply a “modern version corruption” as we might want to say as we hold fast to the King James version. We must understand how we are using the word. “Charity” is perfectly fine, if we understand how we are using the word, as is the word “love”, if we understand the same. The simple definition that we might put forward is that this “charity” is the Christian love that we have because of who we are in Christ. If we can put that forward rather than dwelling on controversy surrounding the right word, we will better get to the heart of the Apostle Paul’s inspired words that speak to us even today regarding our conversation in our families, churches, and even among the unsaved.

So we can start with the first verse: “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.”

Granting that this is in context about men given supernatural ability to speak in tongues not taught, or for the benefit of the doubt, languages unknown to mankind, what can we learn and apply to ourselves now?

“Though I speak with the tongues of men…”. There are many people that might be fluent in several languages. One may know English, and French, and Japanese, and German, and, and, and….

One may even be fluent and conversant in the Biblical languages, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. We might even be able to add on to that the ecclesiastical, and legal Latin language, which often is employed to impress the hearers. Paul’s Spirit-inspired assessment of this would be a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal, in other words, just noise, if done without charity. It may impress men, or others of status or of those who are “academic elite”, but only noise, and annoying noise at that, if the one doing it does not have the Christian love or charity that the Lord really desires of us.

And not just sticking it to the elites, if we just know how to use the best King’s English to preach the word, but don’t have the charity in our speech that the Lord desires, at the end of the day, the Lord sees our speech as just noise. Even if our speech were as high as the language of angels, it is just noise.

And speaking of superiority in speech, the next verse is touching on superiority in knowledge:

“And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.”

While we can surely understand that there was a gift of prophecy that some could exercise when the Apostle first wrote this, he saw that it could be exercised without the charity that is required of the servant of the Lord. There was also a supernatural knowledge that was granted, as it was to Peter when he knew the intents and thoughts in the hearts of Annanias and Saphira in Acts 5. He knew by a supernatural bestowal of knowledge that no one has today. If one were to have this same type of gift, and be lacking in the charity that Paul is turning our hearts toward, there is no profit. Even among the children of this world, there is a maxim, “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”

Theologically, we might have all of the right doctrine and a fantastic understanding of the Scripture. Paul’s Spirit-inspired assessment would be that it is all without profit, if it is not to the edifying of the hearers and with building them up in love. “Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth” (1 Corinthians 8:1), were previous words to this assembly, and should be taken to heart. If we use our knowledge to tear others down, rather than using it to build each other up — the definition of edify — God is not impressed, nor pleased.

Ephesians 4:29 — “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace to the hearers.”

Sometimes our speech must involve rebuke, as we will read later, especially if directed against lies and deceit, but the goal should not be to destroy but to build.

1 Timothy 2:24–26 — “And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.”

Verse 3 of this chapter speaks of what we may denote as acts of charity, yet they are being done without charity:

“And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.”

This is where we can understand that when the Bible speaks of charity, it is not about what the world around us understands as charity, as in “giving to charity”. One can “give to charity”, without charity. Many set up “philanthropic” organizations, yet they themselves are without charity, but might think that the lack of true charity can be made up for by a large gift or organization to help the poor. But this is not true charity. True charity is a fruit of the Spirit that ministers grace for the Lord’s sake, and not for our own.

In the second half of this verse, martyrdom even, or maybe we would say heroism if done without the Christian love that the Lord desires is also unprofitable. So what does the Christian love, or charity, that the Lord desires look like?

“Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.”

When we read “suffereth long and is kind”, that is one thought. It seems in many cases in our Bible, when we see the words longsuffering and patience, they are similar but not necessarily the same. Longsuffering is often the translation of the word “makrothumia[2]”, meaning literally slow wrath and patience is often but not exclusively having to do with endurance, similar to the patience that it takes to run a marathon or to suffer hardships for an extended time. We can see that they are not identical by their use in Colossians 1:11 where we read “unto all patience and longsuffering”.

Long suffering means suffering long — there’s a surprise. What it says here is that charity suffers long and is kind, while suffering long. Something to think about when your patience is wearing thin.

The next we have some things about the place where charity places itself. It does not envy, or raise itself up to primacy, or make itself great in its own right. It is not concerned with self, but with the other to whom it shows this Christian love. In short it is concerned with others, not with itself.

Verse 5 reads “Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil…”

If we see this in behavior, we are not seeing charity. Again, we have the idea that charity does not place self as having primacy, but thinks of others first. This is the character of our Lord Jesus Christ in taking on our humanity. Paul doesn’t speak about teaching theology when teaching theology. He teaches theology as he answers issues. It is not “now we will learn the doctrine of the incarnation”. It is rather this:

Philippians 2:5–8 — “Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus: who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

This was to teach the Philippians, and preserved for us to teach us, how we ought to live together. Yet it does so much further. It teaches all that Christ did to show that to us, that love of God toward men[3]. In doing so, it teaches us the truth that we need regarding the incarnation of the Son of God. The importance here is about not putting self first, but in thinking of that of others as more important than that of our own.

The last term in verse 5 is one I learned to personalize, and it was life-changing. “Thinketh no evil”. I have a note in my Bible that I wrote myself when studying this many years ago. It has this circled and says “to you, Chuck”. Why did I write that? Because I saw characteristics in myself of not trusting people even when they do kind things and even when the things that are done appear good. I always would look to an ulterior motive with evil intent. I learned to leave that with the Lord and be thankful for goodness and kindness shown to me. I’m much more joyful thinking this way. Is there still evil and ulterior motives in the world? Yes, and we don’t overlook obvious evil. We just don’t have to immediately jump to those conclusions.

In the next verse, we do see that it is not charity to overlook evil or lies and deceit. “Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth.” We do correct errors and lies, sharply if necessary (Titus 1:13). But it is not to destroy the man but the idea and the lie. We do it to help the man, to correct the man, and to restore the man.

Verse 7 into 8 reads thus:

“Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth…”

This does expand on verse 4 where charity suffers long and is kind, while suffering long. Charity will look to the end when God has His ultimate say, so charity can be lived by when we trust God with outcomes instead of having to manufacture them ourselves. There will never be a time to not act in charity toward one another. It will never be the wrong answer.

Verses 8 through 10 teach us some important doctrinal matters regarding the supernatural, but again, not isolated from the over-arching thought of the importance of this Christian love as over all of this.

“Charity never faileth: but whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.”

Charity will not fail when these other things do. While these verses here do not say when they will cease or vanish, it does say that they will. That which the Corinthians thought fantastic was not destined to last. The sign gifts, as we call them, are not said to be lasting. But the charity that we are to show each other will last.

Verse 10 does give an indication of when these things will end, but does not tell us explicitly in the terms that we would like them to. It doesn’t say, for instance, “when the last apostle dies, the sign gifts will end”, or “when the canon is completed, the sign gifts will end.” That would have been easy. Sometimes, God wants us to think, but we should submit all of our reasoning to the word of God. With that, our reasoning can start with the question of what is “that which is perfect” that will come?

Some would say it is when we are in heaven. That would be the view of those that are continuationist in their understanding of spiritual gifts. Some would say that it is when the canon was closed, or the last apostle died, and would be understood as cessationist. One thing that can easily be understood from just this chapter can come from the next verse:

“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”

What are the childish things?

The signs that are the subject of chapters 12, 13, and 14 are the childish things that will be put away. That which is perfect is the faith being fully delivered. Perfect has to do with maturity in Biblical usage. The next verse, “For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known”, speaks about getting a fuller revelation from God to where there will be light shed on things that was not there at the present. We do understand the concept of progressive revelation, and in this, Paul himself spoke here about even himself not having all of the revelation that he would have. While some may make too much of this, we do know that 1 Corinthians was an earlier epistle than the later ones like Ephesians or 2 Timothy. We see in Acts that Paul could heal, bestow gifts, speak in unknown languages, and other things. Yet in the later epistles like Philippians when Epaphroditus was sick nigh unto death, or Trophimus, who in 2 Timothy, was left at Miletum sick the ability to heal seemed to vanish. Why could they not be healed? Why would Paul need “Luke, the beloved physician” (Colossians 4:14) as his companion as such if healing was still prominent?

These are important questions that we must ask ourselves in understanding this. With this as part of my understanding, I would put forward that “that which is perfect” is the completed revelation of the mystery that Paul was entrusted with by the Lord. As this revelation was fully revealed, the sign gifts began to cease, especially as the “Jew first” kingdom hope began to fade and Paul would become “the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles” (Ephesians 3:1). As the signs were intended for the Jews that believe not, the gospel would not be directed especially in their direction. Therefore, the signs ceased and the gospel of Christ crucified would take center and only stage, and the childish things would be done away.

Now dealing with those that think otherwise — in charity. We do need to rebuke the idea that the signs are a sure sign of salvation, and without them the indication is that we are not saved. The signs manifest by the Corinthians only magnified their carnality, not their spirituality. None of the sign gifts are enumerated in the “fruit of the Spirit” that we see in Galatians 5:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”

The spiritual gifts make no appearance there.

Paul ends the interlude of this chapter going on to speaking about the proper use of spiritual gifts when they were happening by reminding us about what will continue when the childish things are put away:

“Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”

Notice that this is very in line with what is the fruit of the Spirit.

Even before Christ’s all-sufficient work was finished on our behalf, He told His disciples that “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 12:35). Now that the work and the revelation is completed, we still have that same truth that is the greatest of Spiritual virtues. The greatest of these is that Christian love that we show to each other, and to all, though they despise us. The next chapter opens with “Follow after charity”, and that is the chase that we as Christians must follow, as we await the Lord’s return. None of us know all that there is yet, and none of us live without our failures this side of that return. But we can walk in love one toward another and that is greatly honoring to the God who purchased us with His own blood.

So, follow after charity…the bond of perfectness (Colossians 3:14)

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[1] Walking as men here has a different connotation that the idea of “quit ye like men” in the last chapter, where that phrase hearkens back to Joshua 1:6: “Be strong and of a good courage”. This walk as men has the connotation of walking in the flesh.

[2] There are places where this is translated “patience”, so we should not be dogmatic about this, but understand words in the context that they are used.

[3] In Titus 3:4, we have God’s “philanthropy” project: “But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared…” Love toward man is the Greek word “philanthropia”.