The apostle demonstrates the way Christian love ought to behave. What Paul does in this paragraph is to provide a retreat for the Corinthians to help them overcome their hospitality and bitterness. To that end, Paul writes: “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you’” (1 Cor 12:21). There was also division over the use of spiritual gifts. One goes hungry, another gets drunk” (1 Cor 11:20-21). For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. Their grievances spilled over to the point that they could not share with one another during the Lord’s Supper: “When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. Their jealousy and strife spilled over into the courts of law: “When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?” (1 Cor 6:1). “While there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?” (1 Cor 3:3).
What I mean is that each one of you says, ‘I follow Paul,’ or ‘I follow Apollos,’ or ‘I follow Cephas,’ or ‘I follow Christ” (1 Cor 1:11-12). “It has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. The Corinthians could certainly have used a retreat where they confessed their hostility and bitterness. Love filled their hearts and dissolved their hatred. As they confessed their hostility and bitterness to God, a spirit of unity prevailed among them. Then they came together.įrancis Schaeffer, who told of the incident, asked a friend who was there, “What did you do then?” “We were just one,” he replied. For several days, each person spent time in prayer, examining his own heart in the light of Christ’s commands. Leaders from each group met at a quiet retreat. Now I know in part then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.ġ3And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love but the greatest of these is love.Finally they decided that the situation had to be healed.
When I became a man, I set aside childish ways.ġ2Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror then we shall see face to face. But where there are prophecies, they will cease where there are tongues, they will be restrained where there is knowledge, it will be dismissed.ĩFor we know in part and we prophesy in part,ġ0but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away.ġ1When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.ĥIt is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs.ĦLove takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth.ħIt bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.ĨLove never fails.
1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal.ĢIf I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.ģIf I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body, a but have not love, I gain nothing.ĤLove is patient, love is kind.
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