If you’ve been in or around Christian circles for very long you’ve listened to or read pieces of 1 Corinthians 13. “Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.” That famous excerpt is verses 4 and 5.
However, the entire book of 1 Corinthians is a book about love and chapter 13 is merely the climax. Chapter 13 is not out of place in the rest of the book.
In reality, how many of the people you know that like to pontificate about amazing love and being good people actually live up to being patient and kind? How many do not envy, do not boast, do not act arrogantly, don’t dishonor others, aren’t self-seeking, aren’t easily angered and don’t keep any record of wrongs? Not too many that I know of.
“Many claim to have unfailing love, but a faithful person who can find?”
– Proverbs 20:6
So much teaching in the Church suggests that grace and truth are somehow opposite, or that morality and love are at odds with each other. It seems like some people think that you can love people by being impatient with those that believe in the existence of moral principles. The reality is that if you aren’t being patient and kind you aren’t loving. Period. Paul is taking us back to morality 101.
1 Corinthians teaches us that a failure to value people constitutes a failure to love, and that love is a far bigger Kingdom Value than convenience is. 1 Corinthians also teaches us that love is the very foundation of all Biblical morality, and that morality that is not based on love is empty.
Paul’s Biblical writings were transformative for his audience in that they were calling people into the New Covenant, which was made by the blood ofJesus. I would say that 1 Corinthians is one of two New Testament books written by Paul that is by nature conservative, in the sense that Paul is attempting to go back to basic moral principles and educate an audience that seems to be largely Biblically illiterate.
1 Corinthians sits here in the New Covenant where Paul is teaching pagan Christians, whose minds are more highly influenced by the world around them than they are by God’s Word, about basic morality.