Verse for the week of January 31st:
And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. (I Corinthians 13:13)
When you hear this verse the first image that might go through your head is a wedding scene. The 13th Chapter of First Corinthians is sometimes known as the ‘Love Chapter’ and is the preferred reading at most weddings. Out of the 7 weddings I had last year, this was the reading at 3 of those weddings. However, if you read this verse and the entire passage within its proper context it is easy to see that the purpose of Paul’s reflection upon the concept of love is not for couples getting married—rather it is for the church to think about what it means to be the church. Paul in this letter is writing to the congregation in Corinth that is experiencing much conflict. People are attempting to lift themselves up over others. People are exalting their particular gifts over the gifts of others. People are thinking that they are more important than others and more necessary for the church. Paul, after talking about the notion of the church as a body and that the body is comprised of many and various parts—moves on to exhort people to an attitude of love. He is calling for people to take seriously the concept of love in how they relate to one another. When Paul is talking about love, he is speaking about a specific type of love. The word for love that Paul is using is agape. Agape is a love that is unconditional and self-sacrificing. The concept of love is more difficult to define in the English language as we use the word love in a variety of context. I can love anything from my wife (Michelle), to pizza and the TV show House. Most of us realize that I love these things in different ways, but it is the same word. In Greek, there are a number of words for the concept of love. There is Eros—an erotic/romantic love. Another word is philos—which is brotherly love. And agape—which is an unconditional love. The best notion of agape is Jesus love for the world. This is the love that Paul is talking about. He is calling the entire body of Christ to treat each other with this unconditional love. That we need to work together and be united even though we may have differences of opinion. We need to treat each other with respect and seek to lift one another up rather than tear each other down. We are all members in the body and have different gifts and whether we like it or not, we are part of the one body. And because of that we should seek to model and live out this understanding of an unconditional love for other parts of the church since we are a part of the body and that the body of Christ should not be divided. The only way to help keep divisions from happening with the body is to live in love and demonstrate love within our live. For after all—of these three faith, hope and love and greatest is love.
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