Thank you for tuning into First Day; I am your host Patrick Cooley, currently the pastor of Northport Methodist Church. Please like, subscribe, and share. 

In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul gives the Corinthians something to consider: that each person has an equally important and necessary part to play in completing the mission of the Church and that although the Holy Spirit has equipped each person with a different gift, this one Spirit is the source of all charismata—spiritual gifts. It seems as if members of the church are using the perceived quality of their gifts to distinguish themselves one from the other. Of the eight charismata identified by the apostle, speaking in tongues is the gift most desired by the Corinthians, although Paul states that it is best to be considered a steppingstone to the next, “better”, gifts—gifts that begin to cost their user more and more. 

Of course, every Christian and even most non-Christians are familiar with 1 Corinthians 13. It is the most used scripture in religious and marginally religious wedding ceremonies. Who knows, it may be THE only scripture used in non-religious weddings, too.

If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Okay. This is something that I won’t be going too deeply into in this episode but may dedicate an episode to it in the future. As you are aware, English is a unique language—a scientific language with mixed up grammar and vocabulary coming from many sources, Latin, German, French, and Greek—I’m sure along with a few others. This hodgepodge of an origin makes English the world’s most spoken language—though not its most natively spoken one. English’s origin has an interesting side effect: It has a different word for everything—except for some things—including what is arguably the most important thing in life: love. We love our spouses, milkshakes, doing yardwork, quiet evenings, and loud football stadiums. This is not so with Greek. 

There are eight different words used in Greek to distinguish between different types of love: eros—passionate love; pragma—enduring love; ludus—playful love; agape—selfless love; philia—friendship; philautia—self-love; storge—familial love; and mania—obsessive love. I’m sure you can guess to which of these eight words for love Paul is referring. 

“If I don’t have selfless love (agape) it doesn’t matter if I can speak every language on earth or in heaven, nor if have any other charismata—prophecy, teaching, wisdom, or otherwise,” Paul says. If we are not selfless, we are nothing. Paul continues:

Love seeks everything that certain members of the Corinthain church do not. In fact, love seeks everything that many of us still don’t. How can a person be selfless without the qualities that Paul identifies here? Patience, kindness, humility, meekness, satisfied, forgiving, serving, patient, and gracious, these are the makings of agape. 

“Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth.” To possess selfless love, obviously, mean that you don’t live for yourself—you don’t live unrighteously—but for God—to live righteously. And those who loves long only for the truth—the truth about God, about Christ, about others, and about themselves. 

“It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” Paul has already written to the Galatians, “For we eagerly await through the Spirit, by faith, the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything; what matters is faith working through love,” (5:5,6) and to the Thessalonians, “We recall, in the presence of our God and Father, your work produced by faith, your labor motivated by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ,” (1 Th1:3) and, “But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled and put on the armor of faith and love, and a helmet of the hope of salvation.” (1 Th 5:8) 

To have selfless love—to have agape—is to have faith. Paul has already told the Corinthians that faith is a charismata—a gift—and one that they all share; therefore it isn’t a stretch to see that Paul declares here that agape is a gift of the Spirit, too. But unlike the other gifts, it will not come to an end: Selfless and its products never fade. Of all the gifts, however, the Corinthians seek the least, while Paul urges them to seek the greatest. 

I may get some hate mail because of what I am about to say, but I’m going to say it anyway. Here in the South, in the fall, the day you DO NOT PLAN to offer ministry is Saturday—for there is a love that is greater than agape. It never ceases to amaze me when Christians devote so much time to things over which we have no authority, yet neglect the very things that we do. I guess that goes for non-Christians as well. Let’s expend our resources on the things that don’t matter—things that won’t last—until we have nothing left for the things that do.  

Paul tells the Corinthians that it is time for them to grow up, to “put aside childish things” like status and worldly ambition. Because there will come a time when what should matter will be displayed before their very eyes. After putting away these things, the adult Corinthian will have only three concern left: faith, hope, and selfless love—the last being the greatest according to the apostle. When we love selflessly, we place all our hopes in God; when we love selflessly, we place ourselves solely in His capable hands.