I was reading one of the most well-known passages in all of the Bible recently, 1 Corinthians 13, otherwise known as “The Love Chapter”. If you were to pick verses that are most likely to be quoted outside of an explicitly Christian context there are many that are likely to appear. I’m guessing the most frequently used verse would be Matthew 7:1 – “Do not judge or you too will be judged“. Even if people don’t know the full verse you will often hear people say, “doesn’t the Bible say you aren’t supposed to judge other people!” After that verse, pull quotes from 1 Corinthians 13 are among those most likely to occur on someone’s wall, in an Instagram post or even in a secular wedding.
Here are a few of the verses most likely to be pulled out of the chapter:
What these quotes and the use of these Bible verses in this way have in common, is they are all focused on the most common use of the word love, the romantic version. In society, when we hear about love, this is by far the most frequent usage. Songs about love are about falling in love, being in love or sadly, the end of love. There are other uses for the word love overall, but very few love songs and poems are written about parental love, brotherly love or love between any people who are not interested in wooing one another.
“I love you man”
This pattern has a definite influence on our ability to understand the use of the word love in general usage, but one specific way it has impacted followers of Christ, is that we often associate 1 Corinthians 13 with weddings and the love between a man and wife exclusively. That is an appropriate usage of the passage, especially when we are talking about 2 believers marrying one another, but it is not the original purpose of the passage in the letter in which it was written. Instead, you shouldn’t be surprised that 1 Corinthians 13 comes immediately following chapter 12, but you would do well to remember what chapter 12 (and the rest of the letter for that matter) was talking about as the proper framework for chapter 13.
If you read Paul’s letters to Corinth, it is obvious that the local church there dealt with divisions. These included racial divisions, socio-economic divisions, doctrinal divisions and differences of opinion about many things. They were a divided church, just like we sometimes see today. Paul didn’t tell them they were all the same. He didn’t say they all had to be the same. Instead, he highlighted that they were different and that they were better because of those differences. They were complete, as a body with many parts. They had different giftings that made them unique. They were not the same, but they were a part of the same body. Into that context, Paul writes chapter 13, which he says, “I will show you a still more excellent way.” (12:31b)
Chapter 13 is first and foremost a guide for how the church should treat one another. It is Paul’s church handbook for the church of Corinth. Here is how the people who go to that church should behave. Since Paul was just talking about giftings and gifts can be their own divisive part or church or family life, he spends the first 3 verses telling them that all the gifts in the world don’t matter if you don’t follow the standards of love that he is about to lay out. He mentions gifts like speaking in tongues, prophesying, having great faith or being a generous giver, but it just as easily could be giftings you might find in your church: speaking, writing, singing, even serving. Without love, these are as annoying as a fire alarm going off in the middle of the night.
Let’s revisit some of our popular verses, but keep in mind, these are how you are to treat the other believers you interact with on a regular basis. Both in your local church and as you chat, comment, or reply to each other online. When you talk to your believing “friends” are you:
“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
JOHN 13:35 (ESV)
Here is the chapter in its entirety. Read through it slowly, thinking of the believers in your life. Be prepared to confess and seek repentance if necessary.
13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
1 CORINTHIANS 13:1-13 (ESV)
Here is the full study as it originally appeared: The “Love” Chapter
Here are a few of the verses most likely to be pulled out of the chapter:
- 4a – “Love is patient and kind…”
- 7 – “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
- 8a – “Love never ends…”
- 13 – “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
What these quotes and the use of these Bible verses in this way have in common, is they are all focused on the most common use of the word love, the romantic version. In society, when we hear about love, this is by far the most frequent usage. Songs about love are about falling in love, being in love or sadly, the end of love. There are other uses for the word love overall, but very few love songs and poems are written about parental love, brotherly love or love between any people who are not interested in wooing one another.
“I love you man”
This pattern has a definite influence on our ability to understand the use of the word love in general usage, but one specific way it has impacted followers of Christ, is that we often associate 1 Corinthians 13 with weddings and the love between a man and wife exclusively. That is an appropriate usage of the passage, especially when we are talking about 2 believers marrying one another, but it is not the original purpose of the passage in the letter in which it was written. Instead, you shouldn’t be surprised that 1 Corinthians 13 comes immediately following chapter 12, but you would do well to remember what chapter 12 (and the rest of the letter for that matter) was talking about as the proper framework for chapter 13.
If you read Paul’s letters to Corinth, it is obvious that the local church there dealt with divisions. These included racial divisions, socio-economic divisions, doctrinal divisions and differences of opinion about many things. They were a divided church, just like we sometimes see today. Paul didn’t tell them they were all the same. He didn’t say they all had to be the same. Instead, he highlighted that they were different and that they were better because of those differences. They were complete, as a body with many parts. They had different giftings that made them unique. They were not the same, but they were a part of the same body. Into that context, Paul writes chapter 13, which he says, “I will show you a still more excellent way.” (12:31b)
Chapter 13 is first and foremost a guide for how the church should treat one another. It is Paul’s church handbook for the church of Corinth. Here is how the people who go to that church should behave. Since Paul was just talking about giftings and gifts can be their own divisive part or church or family life, he spends the first 3 verses telling them that all the gifts in the world don’t matter if you don’t follow the standards of love that he is about to lay out. He mentions gifts like speaking in tongues, prophesying, having great faith or being a generous giver, but it just as easily could be giftings you might find in your church: speaking, writing, singing, even serving. Without love, these are as annoying as a fire alarm going off in the middle of the night.
Let’s revisit some of our popular verses, but keep in mind, these are how you are to treat the other believers you interact with on a regular basis. Both in your local church and as you chat, comment, or reply to each other online. When you talk to your believing “friends” are you:
- Patient
- Kind
- Not boastful
- Not arrogant
- Not rude
- Not insisting your own way
- Not irritable
- Not resentful
- Rejoicing in the truth, not in wrongdoing
- Never giving up on them
- Never losing faith in them
- Always hopeful for them
- Enduring with them through all circumstances
“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
JOHN 13:35 (ESV)
Here is the chapter in its entirety. Read through it slowly, thinking of the believers in your life. Be prepared to confess and seek repentance if necessary.
13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
1 CORINTHIANS 13:1-13 (ESV)
Here is the full study as it originally appeared: The “Love” Chapter
