The Bible verses in chapter thirteen of the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians are, collectively, one of the most famous verses about love and one of the most famous passages in the Bible. The verses provide a description of what love is and what love is not. They lift the definition of love from the human level to the sublime, making love as the highest goal in life since it gives life eternal.
In chapter 13, we find that superior ability to communicate and use various languages do not amount to anything if they are not seasoned with love. Without love, these skills only make a lot of confusing noises that can build multiple towers of Babel. Love, then, must be an essential part of communications if communications are to serve God and humanity. We also find in chapter 13 that faith without love is valueless. To put in another way, love gives value to faith. Faith becomes a virtue when it is intended to show love for God and to manifest – in no uncertain terms – one’s concern for the well-being of another person. Faith with love builds trust, and trust connects humans to God and binds human relationships.
Love is also an essential ingredient of the ability to prophesy, the gift of revelation and superior knowledge. Prophecy is used in the service of God and people and that is prophecy with love. We prophesy to tell what is good or bad for the people. We prophesy not to condemn them but to warn them of the consequences of their evil actions and to show them that there are real solutions to the problems confronting them. Prophecy without love amounts to intimidation, bullying and corruption and it produces in the person an uncontrollable desire to lie over and over again to cover up the crimes and evil deeds that he or she had done.
What love is and what it is not is given in verses 4 to 8 of 1 Corinthians chapter 13. This is quite interesting. Verse 4 describes love as patient and kind. Verse 5 quite strongly suggests that love is forgiving. The same verses distinguish real love from what it is not: love is not envious, boastful, proud, rude, irritable or selfish. Verse 6 personifies love as one who rejoices in truth – fake love rejoices in injustice. Verse 7 depicts love as loyal, hopelessly hopeful, enduring and lasting. Real love has a lot of positive characteristics while fake love – what love is not – has a lot of negative characteristics. Notice that “patient” and “kind” are the first two positive characteristics of love mentioned in the chapter. These are two essential components of real love: patience and kindness. These components make it possible for a person to share real love, to forgive someone else’s shortcomings, to keep supporting someone who seems to have become a burden, to remain loyal to someone who have had a string of bad luck, to hope for a solution to a particularly difficult problem, to endure “dark periods” in life, or to keep a relationship forever in spite of the difficulties inherent in the relationship. On the other hand, fake love does not have patience and kindness, and that is the reason why fake love is envious, boastful, proud, rude, irritable or selfish and rejoices in injustice. It does not have the tolerance – or has little of it – to be able to deal with another person in a kind manner. It is quick and impulsive in its action and greedy and self-centered in its objective. It may seem to satisfy one’s human needs temporarily but it does not even satisfy the most elementary demands of true self-interest. It only produces injustice that leads to another injustice and another injustice which, in turn, leads to a vicious cycle of injustices. And on and on it goes – the violence does not stop until real love stops it.
Real love, then, is enduring as contrasted with what it is not. It is, essentially, eternal. It last forever. This is what verse 8 of chapter 13 tells. In addition, verses 8 to 10 compares love with the spiritual gifts of prophecy and speaking in different tongues. Prophecy and speaking of the tongues are spiritual gifts for use on earth. Prophecy, as stated earlier, is used to inform the people about what is good or bad for their relationship with God. Speaking in the tongues is a spiritual gift to help the person enrich himself, spiritually. Once the objectives are achieved, they cease to be, but love remains. So long as there are relationships between humans and God, there is love. This love as we see it here on earth is, quite simply, an extremely tiny dot of the love God intends to give to us in eternal life. That’s the reason why God wants us to be motivated by the love for God when we work for our fellow human beings. We got it all for good!
Chapter thirteen of the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians concludes with a verse which states that three things will remain: faith, hope and love. All three virtues require kindness and patience. All three virtues endure. But the greatest of the three virtues is love, for God is love. And God remains forever.
