It is not a hard chapter to analyze. I think it is a hard chapter to preach on simply because it is so profound. There is a preface in the New International Version, which is carried over from the last chapter and printed properly with this one. Paul says, “Now I am going to show you a more excellent way.” Then he has three points which are easy to follow. He talks about the importance of love in verses 1-3. Then he talks secondly about love’s nature in verses 4-7. The third point is love’s permanence, which you have in verses 8-12. Finally, he wraps it all up with the very last verse about faith, hope, and love.
When he talks about the importance of love, he is setting love over against the kind of things about which the Corinthians were so preoccupied and which they obviously thought were most important. He contrasts love with these so-called “supernatural gifts” such as tongues or prophecy. He also contrasts love with the knowledge of the mysteries of God, and the related idea of wisdom which we saw earlier in the book. The Corinthians were dividing up in the church over their supposed wisdom. Paul had to knock that down in the first chapter and tell them that the only wisdom that counts at all is the wisdom of God; it is not a wisdom that expresses itself in the way they have been talking about it. Finally, in verse 3, he contrasts love with the doing of good deeds, even to the point of suffering martyrdom by surrendering our body to the flames. You can have each of those other things. You can have the supernatural gifts. You can have knowledge to an eminent degree. You can be noted all over the city and among your friends for somebody who does extraordinary good works. But if you have not love, it does not profit you anything.
You say, “Oh, that doesn’t sound right. I mean, certainly it’s important to have knowledge.” Certainly it is good to have knowledge of spiritual things. We spend a lot of our time reading books, studying the Bible, going to church, and listening to lectures in order that we might know these things. Paul is not saying that knowledge is unimportant. Paul is writing a whole book filled with knowledge for us to learn. But he says if you have that without love, it does not count for anything.
Somebody else will say, “Yes, but what about these supernatural things? What about tongues, prophecies, healings, and all these things that they were so concerned about?” As I read these chapters, I think Paul considers these kinds of things to be important. Rather he is saying that you can have those things which appear to be evidence of the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit in your life, but if you do not have love, you do not actually have the Holy Spirit in your life. And at that point all the supernatural works count for nothing.
Or another person will say, “Well, isn’t it important to do charitable things? Isn’t it important to do good works?” Yes, it is. If you do not do good works, which the Bible says you are ordained by God to do if you are a Christian, you are not born again. But there is a difference here because Paul says it is possible to do those things and not be born again. Therefore, he is right when he says if you have not love, that is, if you do not have the love that comes from the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life, you can do all those things but it counts for absolutely nothing at all.
During the Puritan age in America, the Puritans were very strong in trying to disabuse men and women of any kind of false confidence that they might have in spiritual things. They lived in a culture where people were all too ready to believe that things were right between them and God. So the Puritans spent much of their time disabusing their listeners of the idea that just because they knew certain things, just because they could recite the creed, just because they could be models of piety, that did not necessary mean, without any question, that they were in a right relationship to God. You could still be lost and go to hell.
In response someone would raise the question: If it is possible to do the things Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians—knowing all mysteries, speaking in tongues, doing miracles and other good deeds, and even dying for my faith—and still be lost, how can I know that I am saved? The answer the Puritans gave, which is certainly consistent with what the apostle Paul is saying in this chapter, is that you can know you are saved if the love of Jesus Christ is found within your heart. You can look down in your heart and say, “Regardless of my sin, regardless of my failure to understand spiritual things properly, regardless of my failure in the area of charity, nevertheless I really do love Jesus and want to serve Him. By His grace, I find that I am also able to love other people, both in the church and also those outside of the church. Then you can know that God has done something supernatural in you and that you belong to Him.
