Charity Transcends All

Background Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13
Lesson Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:1–13

Introduction

The Bible contains many subjects that deal with our relationship with God. They include our proper response to Him, our daily walk with Him, and His judgment on our transgressions. Faith and hope are subjects that run like threads of truth from the beginning to the end. Other themes are scattered throughout the Holy Scriptures; each of them is important and fills its own special place. However, no theme in the Bible compares to love. Truly it transcends all other attributes and virtues.

Key Verse

And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices (Mark 12:33).

Lesson Scripture

Studying the Lesson

Corinth, in Greece, was a progressive and cosmopolitan city. It served as a nexus of trade for countries to the east and west. The Christians who lived there and rubbed shoulders with its citizens were challenged in trying to maintain their purity. We recall from recent lessons that Paul had been giving the Corinthian church some much-needed teaching about godly living. This writing to the Christians in Corinth was an epistle, or letter, and would not have been divided conveniently into verses and chapters as in our modern Bible.

This is notable because the previous chapter to our lesson ended with Paul’s promise that he would show them a more excellent way. May we seek that more excellent way as we study this lesson. As we see how God blesses the church corporately as well as people personally, may we admit our failings and faults and sincerely seek the better way.

Even as the Corinthians, we are impressed with golden-tongued orators, the gifts of prophcey, the understanding of deep mysteries, unwavering faith in the face of adversity, and the willingness to sacrifice, though it cost one’s life. However, Paul simply devalues these attributes if they are not inspired by charity. Though it seems unlikely that anyone would do these extraordinary works without love, hypocrisy is common to man.

Paul had opened his epistle by urgently addressing the friction, disagreement, and dissension among them. As they evaluated and appreciated their own supposed impressive works, they were overlooking their unchristian attitudes.

Paul contrasted their performance with the way of true charity. Charity is longsuffering with the faults and failures of others. Charity treats others kindly and does not envy their abilities or status. It does not brag or display one’s own worth or attainments. It does not misbehave, avoids self-promotion, is slow to become upset, and puts the best construction on other’s actions. Charity refuses to find glee in iniquity and deeply respects all truth.

A Christian may suffer unpleasant and unfair treatment from others, but charity gives him the grace to bear it. Charity imparts a positive attitude, which gives a person living hope for the future and strength to endure persecution.

Charity and love are both found in the Bible. In the Hebrew Old Testament, several different words are translated as love in our English Bible. In the Greek New Testament, the several Greek words for love and affection vary in meaning, some relating more to the head and others more to the heart. The English word charity comes from a Greek word that means to love in a moral or social way. For some reason charity is only used as a noun in the thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians.

How does love relate to God? It is not inaccurate to say that God has love; rather, it is scriptural to say God loves. John 3:16 offers us a fair measurement of God’s action for which every human is eternally indebted: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

On the other hand, the apostle John made it clear in his second epistle that God is love. The difference between having love and being love may seem subtle, but it is important. It declares God as the essence and source of love. Man, who is created in God’s image, was originally, at least in some measure, created with the presence of love in his nature or at least with the ability to understand, enjoy, and exercise love. One wonders how much man’s fall into sin marred the original.

Practical Truths for Today

Paul, as a wise and experienced leader, was inspired by God with a satisfactory solution to his brethren’s problems. He understood that the goal was not to always have perfect alignment of all differences. As in a marriage when a husband and wife possess different temperament traits or varying convictions due to home training or even assorted regional and cultural outlooks, there may never be full agreement of opinion. However, there can and must be reconciliation. Reconciliation is based on love, mercy, and patience and often includes an agreeable compromise.

The Corinthian people did not have the benefits of the godly training the Jewish people had, which pointed in a generally good direction. The Corinthians had served a pantheon of gods with traditions built on many myths and godlike characters. Their religion did not acknowledge the God of the Bible as the Jewish religion did.

In evaluating contemporary religions, someone has said of the three prominent ones that one is the religion of hate, one is the religion of fear, and the Christian religion is one of love. The true Christian faith is based in the love of God. The problem is that anyone perusing secular Christian history will soon find that nominal Christian nations and some so-called Christian organizations are noted for their ungodly sponsorship of war and enslavement and mistreatment of innocent people.

In the true Christian faith, the community will testify that the members of the local congregation exemplify love in all their actions and dealings.

To explain the place of love in the Christian’s life, some have insisted that good works are always an indication of love. Jesus discounted this outlook. He said that on judgment day many would try to claim their reward by saying, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?” (Matt. 7:22), only to be summarily turned away by the Judge. Something other than love had motivated their wonderful works.

It was evident to Paul that charity was lacking in the Corinthian congregation. He wanted to lay the truth on their hearts that they would not be saved without charity. This warning echoes through time to us. The many programs, institutions, missions, and tract distribution on their own do not give us a claim to salvation. Paul declared that these works without the genuine motivation of charity will not profit us in the eternal outcome.

This chapter comes immediately after several chapters in which Paul clearly explained spiritual gifts and their attendant fruits and works. Perhaps this should be reviewed. He was not condemning works. He was only removing works as a crutch that would let them limp along in an unloving relationship.

Hopefully this lesson will motivate each reader to evaluate his own love for God. In doing so, the best place to begin is to remember God’s most ancient adjuration to His people. He earnestly desires our love. Once a Pharisee who was a lawyer asked Jesus, “Which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus wisely summarized the commandments into their gospel essence and said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” He added, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Matt. 22:36–39). The Pharisee perceived that Jesus had given the perfect answer.

People vary in their ability to perceive and express love. Those who grow up in a warm, loving, and expressive atmosphere may have a significant advantage. Does that mean that the person who grows up with some emotional handicap will never enjoy the blessing of a full cup of love? No, that does not fit the goodness and mercy of God. What Jesus did at Calvary makes a way for everyone to experience the infilling of the love of God. Though we all experience times of frustration when we feel deficient in both our love for God and for our neighbor, God’s love remains constant. In surrendering our will to God and praying for an infilling of His love, we find that love includes a choice.

God is love and the source of all love. He can pour out an unending stream without endangering His supply. The only love we can return to Him or to offer to someone else is the love He first gives us. In His love for mankind, He wants us to be vessels to distribute His love. The only way for any person to have his cup of love filled and overflowing is to be inspired by the love of the almighty God. May we pray for His love.

Illustration

When a lawyer asked Jesus, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life”? Jesus responded with another question: “What is written in the law”? The lawyer answered very well with the familiar injunction to love God with the whole heart and to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus said, “Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:25–29).

Then Jesus gave the apt illustration of the different responses to the man who was robbed, wounded, and left almost dead. The priest and Levite came by but ignored the plight of the wounded man, not considering him worthy of their assistance. The third man who came by was a Samaritan who, in an outpouring of love, charitably attended to the needs of his “neighbor.”

We do not know the ethnicity or religious persuasion of the wounded man, only that he needed someone to help him. Though the Jews despised the Samaritans, Jesus gave this Samaritan a high mark because of his humility and mercy. Charity grows well in the rich soil of humility.

Questions

1. Can we objectively evaluate our own love, or does that come only by revelation?
2. Jesus stated that offering a cup of cold water would not go unrewarded. Does even that act require charity?
3. Is there truth to the statement that those we love the most are those we hurt the most?
4. What makes charity greater than faith or hope?
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Source: COGICM Daily Bible Readings (Daily Bible Readings, PO Box 124, Glenn, CA 95943).