To preach on this chapter is to run the grave risk of wrecking it, like studying a flower by taking it apart. The word ‘love’ (agape) is found nine times in this chapter. Karl Barth suggested that the reader should substitute the word ‘Christ’ for ‘love’.
- Love is greater than speaking in tongues.
- 13:1. Paul could speak in tongues more than the Corinthians could – 14:18. Angelic language may indicate something like Rev.14:1-3.
- Luke 10:26-28; Gal.5:6.
- Love is greater than great faith.
- 13:2. Paul as an apostle is a prophet who performed miracles. Note Jonah 4:1-3, 10-11. There will be preachers who do prophetic and miraculous things, who are all gifts, no grace – Matt.7:21-23.
- Faith to move mountains echoes a figure of speech used by Jesus – Mark 11:23. Judas was given remarkable powers – Matt.10:1, 7, 8a.
- Love is greater than self-sacrificing deeds.
- 13:3. We may do wonderful works of charity yet have no love, like Dickens’ Mrs Jellyby in Bleak House.
- some texts read ‘that I may boast’ rather than ‘that I be burned’. In Greek the two words look and sound alike, but the ESV has ‘burned’. See Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego – Dan.3:15.
- We can speak in tongues, utter prophecies, perform miraculous acts of faith, undertake acts of self-sacrifice, and suffer martyrdom – and still miss the point. Let me finish with two verses that we need to connect – 1 John 4:8 and Col.3:14.