The apostle John wrote his first epistle to reassure people who want to know they are saved. He gave them three tests by which they could know they were Christians. The first was to believe the right things about Christ, because if you do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the Lord, you are no Christian. The second was to obey God’s commandments and live a righteous life. The third test was that of love. Do you really love the Lord, and because you do, do you really love the brethren?
This is what the apostle Paul is saying here as well. As I read these different things that he writes about, it strikes me that they correspond to three kinds of Christianity we have in our day. The first of these are the supernatural gifts, such as prophecy, tongues, and healings, which corresponds roughly to the charismatic people in our day. The second is this knowledge of the mysteries of God, more of a theological kind of approach. This corresponds to people in the Presbyterian and Reformed tradition. The third area is that of good deeds, which corresponds to the social gospel churches, which is what most of the mainline Protestant denominations are.
If that is a fair analysis—and I think it is, up to a point—Paul could well say to Christians in America, “Look, you can be as charismatic as you please and go to hell? You can be as theologically knowledgeable as you please and go to hell. You can be as oriented around good works as you please and go to hell. What you need is the love of Jesus Christ.” Would he not also say that if the love of Jesus Christ, by the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration, is in our hearts so that this is what matters, and we really do say that this is the most important thing, then would he not also say that some of these divisions we have would appear far less important in our eyes, and we would find ourselves able to bridge those chasms and fellowship in a constructive way with those who perhaps do not see things the way we do?
Having discussed the importance of love, Paul next goes on to talk about love’s nature. He uses the word agape, which is the term the Bible uses for divine love. This is the love that has its source in God, but of which, in a limited sense, we are capable of by the grace of God. The two other best known Greek words for love are eros, which refers to sexual love; and the verb phileo, which is a strong love between family members or friends.
It is an interesting thing that the only word that the Bible and Greek culture had in common was phileo. Certainly the Bible writers knew eros, but it does not appear in the Bible. This term had become so debased in the Greek culture of the day that it seems the biblical writers avoided using it even though the theme is obviously treated. On the other hand, agape does not appear in Greek culture since the gods and goddesses did not love in this way at all. True brotherly love and true sexual love have their place and will be blessed to the fullest by God only when that first love, agape, is established between the individual and God.
As Paul talks about the nature of love in these verses, he gives a number of negatives and also some positives. He talks about actions, and mentions that, first of all, love is patient and kind. And then he goes on to list eight negatives. Love does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It is not rude. It is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. It does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth. After this there are some final items, four of them that show love expressing itself in action. Love protects. Love trusts. Love hopes. Love perseveres.
When I read that, I am inclined to ask whether we know anybody like that. Some days you might read that and respond negatively, “No, I don’t know anybody that measures up to that description.” That is not probably quite fair, since we do see those things in some measure in Christians. We know people who are patient because of the presence of Jesus Christ in their lives. We know people who are kind. They show great kindness to other people, especially people who need it. They take them in. They comfort them. They minister to them in a personal way. They do not deal with them harshly even though they brought terrible things upon themselves because of the way they live. Christian people are able to do that.
