1 Corinthians 13: Love, the Most Excellent Way

Introduction

1 Corinthians 13 is a chapter everyone loves. It is often read at weddings, and Antoine Youssef admits that he himself tends to associate this text with marriage. But this Sunday at Église Connexion, he preaches it as part of a series on 1 Corinthians. His aim: to put the text back in its original context, the Church in Corinth.

That context raises a question. Paul writes to a church that he says has been enriched "in everything" and lacks no gift. And yet, all through the letter, he rebukes it again and again: divisions, rivalries, spiritual immaturity, pride. If this church has everything it needs to function, what is it missing?

The message follows two big ideas: the gift is not an end in itself, and love is what we should pursue. It ends with a simple question: why is love the greatest?

Message Outline

1. The Context: A Church That Ranked Its Gifts

Antoine Youssef sees the letter to the Corinthians a bit like an "FAQ": Paul seems to be answering questions he was asked, and each answer becomes a section of the letter (married life, meat sacrificed to idols, and so on).
Chapter 13 belongs to the theme opened in 1 Corinthians 12:1: spiritual gifts, especially the ones that can be seen and that impress.
The Corinthians tended to rank the gifts. They went after the most impressive ones, and the members who did not have them felt left out of the body of Christ. This way of seeing things created divisions.
The preacher sums up chapter 12 in one sentence: the Church is one body made up of many members, each having received a different gift from the Spirit, and all these gifts are necessary and must serve the common good.
Paul ends chapter 12 with a sort of trailer: "But earnestly desire the better gifts. Moreover I show you a most excellent way" (1 Corinthians 12:31). So we are still on the subject of gifts.

2. Without Love, the Gift Is Worth Nothing

As a teenager, Antoine Youssef spent time with young Christians from a charismatic background. He admired them because they spoke in tongues, and he asked himself: "Did I miss something? Am I really the Christian God is calling me to be?"
He opens two parentheses: he does not want to disparage either those young people, who had a very positive impact on his life, or speaking in tongues, a secondary and debated subject that has no direct bearing on salvation. The danger is the exaggerated importance we can give to a gift, whatever it is.
Verses 1 to 3 answer his teenage question: speaking the languages of people and of angels, having the gift of prophecy, faith that moves mountains, giving away all you own, handing over your body to be burned, without love, none of it is of any use.
The real question was not whether he should aspire to speak in tongues. It was this: "Do I have love?" He had not even asked himself what he would do with that gift for the Church, or whether he wanted it for himself or for his brothers and sisters.
The same is true of more modest acts, such as giving to the poor or working for the noblest causes. Without love, these are earthly services with no effect on a neighbor's eternal life.

3. The Gift Is Temporary

Prophecies will come to an end, tongues will cease, knowledge will pass away, because we know only in part. When what is perfect comes, what is partial will pass away (1 Corinthians 13:8-10).
One day, everyone will have perfect knowledge and no illness will be able to touch us. No one will need these gifts anymore.
Paul uses the image of childhood (verse 11). The preacher thinks of his three-year-old son: a booster seat on his chair so he can eat at the same table, training wheels on his bike so he can pedal without falling. These things are useful, even necessary today, but they will soon end up "gathering dust in the attic."
The gifts of prophecy, knowledge, teaching, or healing, however useful they are today, are meant to end up in the attic.

4. A Gift Is Not a Measure of Spiritual Maturity

Antoine Youssef has heard preachers tell of the miracles they have experienced. That is not bad when the testimony is true and gives glory to God alone. But for a long time he felt very small next to them, and he even sometimes thought that God cared more about those people.
Yet if there is one thing 1 Corinthians teaches, it is that having impressive gifts does not keep you from being immature. The Corinthians lacked no gift (1 Corinthians 1:7), and yet Paul reproaches them for being divided, fleshly, proud, and without love.
Jesus says it in Matthew 7:22-23: many will say to him, "Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name?" And he will answer them, "I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity." For some, it is no longer maturity that is in question, but salvation.
The preacher is convinced that God still works miracles today, and he does not want the Church to cultivate extreme skepticism. He wants to put the gifts back in their place: within love, they are a blessing God uses to draw people to himself and build up the Church. "Thank you, Lord, for the gifts." But their role stops there.
So let us not judge a person or a church by their gifts, but by the fruit described in Galatians 5, and by the love that reigns among its members.

5. What Is Love?

Verses 4 to 7 describe love: patient, kind, not envious, not boastful, not proud. It does not seek its own interest, is not easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
During a study with group leaders, one of the facilitators said: "When I read this description of love, I understand that this is the love I want to be loved with myself." It is no accident that this text is chosen for weddings: you cannot read this description and be put off by it.
But this love is also attractive because we so rarely see it. It is first of all God's love, not ours. By nature, human beings do not know how to love.
Borrowing an expression he heard from a church leader, he speaks of a "consumer-provider" kind of love. We enter a friendship or a romantic relationship with expectations. When the other person does not meet them, impatience grows, we get irritated, we keep count of wrongs.
Even in the family, where love should be at its purest and most selfless, we end up losing patience. "And if we are unable to love our own family this way, let alone speak of the love we have for others."
The description of love echoes Paul's rebukes: the impatience at the Lord's Supper, where "one is hungry, and another is drunken" (1 Corinthians 11:21); the pride that keeps them from grieving over the sin committed in their midst (1 Corinthians 5:2); the injustice done against brothers (1 Corinthians 6:8). The root of Corinth's problems is a lack of love.

6. Love, a Gift From God That Grows Over Time

How do we love? The answer may sound like a cliché, but it is true: with God's help. Chapter 13 is set in a passage about gifts. Love is the framework for the gifts, but it is itself a gift from God.
"Just as I am unable to prophesy or heal, I am unable to love properly by my own efforts." God's love is given to us in Jesus Christ, whose death on the cross reconciles us to God. The Holy Spirit then comes to live in us and makes us able to love better.
This transformation does not happen with a snap of the fingers. God brings us from death to life, from sin to holiness, from hatred, pride, or indifference to love. It is a gulf we cannot cross by ourselves, and it takes time.
First consequence: make an effort. 2 Peter 1:5-7 calls us to make every effort to add virtue to faith, then knowledge, all the way to brotherly affection and love. As with holiness, God makes us able to love without removing the fight against the flesh. Our efforts are no longer in vain: God does his work through them, "sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly, but surely." Let us pray that he gives us both the desire and the strength to act.
Second consequence: be patient with yourself and with others. If a brother or sister hurt you through a lack of love and it keeps troubling you, it is probably a sign that God has work to do in their heart, but also in yours: no longer suspecting evil, no longer getting irritated, bearing all things.

7. Why Love Is the Greatest

"But now faith, hope, and love remain, these three. The greatest of these is love" (1 Corinthians 13:13).
To understand why, Antoine Youssef goes back to creation. God made man in his image, and the Bible says that God is love. He does not just show love from time to time: his nature is love. Knowing how to love therefore becomes essential, because it is tied to the very purpose of our existence.
It is to teach us to love that Jesus calls us to be servants of one another, to submit to one another, to wash one another's feet.
And it is to teach us to love that God gave the law. Asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus answers: love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind, then love your neighbor as yourself. "The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments" (Matthew 22:40).
"Loving is not a bonus commandment. Love is our goal, our reason for existing."
To the person who has not yet accepted God's love, the preacher says there is no point looking for love elsewhere: the love the world offers is fragile, selfish, self-serving, and hypocritical. Jesus said there is no greater love than to give your life for your friends, and he proved it.
To the person who has tasted this love and responded to it by being baptized, he asks them to desire to become more like Jesus, in their love for God and for others. At work, in the family, in the middle of a busy daily life, everything is fertile ground for learning to love. Even in serving the Church, you can pile up Bible studies and efforts and realize that love is no longer what motivates you. "I say this to you, but I say it first to myself."
While we wait to be with God, where our love will be complete, let us turn every failure to love into a chance to repent, to break our pride, and to ask God for help again and again.

Key Takeaways

The gift is not an end in itself: without love, even the most impressive one is of no use.
Gifts are temporary. Like a child's booster seat, they will end up in the attic when what is perfect has come.
Gifts do not prove spiritual maturity. A church is judged by the love that reigns among its members.
We are unable to love by ourselves. Love is a gift from God, given in Jesus and made possible by the Spirit, and it grows gradually.
Love is the greatest because it is God's nature and the purpose for which he created us.

Personal Application

Is there a gift, in you or in someone else, that you give exaggerated importance to?
If God gave you the gift you desire, what would you do with it for your brothers and sisters?
In which relationship do you come in with "consumer-provider" expectations, and how does that show up as impatience or irritation?
What concrete effort can you make this week to love, counting on God for both the desire and the strength?
Toward whom do you need patience, perhaps by recognizing that God also has work to do in your own heart?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Paul mean by "a most excellent way" in 1 Corinthians 12:31?

Paul has just spoken about the spiritual gifts that the Corinthians ranked and pursued because they were impressive. He then introduces chapter 13: the most excellent way is love. For Antoine Youssef, this is not a change of subject, it is the framework in which the gifts find their value.

Are spiritual gifts a sign of spiritual maturity?

No. The Church in Corinth lacked no gift, and yet Paul reproaches it for its divisions, its pride, and its lack of love. Jesus also warns in Matthew 7:22-23 that some will have prophesied and done miracles in his name without his ever having known them. Antoine Youssef invites us to judge a church by the love that reigns among its members.

How do you learn to love as 1 Corinthians 13 describes?

On our own, we cannot: love is also a gift from God. God showed it to us in Jesus Christ and gives us his Spirit to make us able to love. This transformation is gradual: it calls for persevering effort and patience with yourself and with others.