The More Excellent Way I Corinthians 13
Matthew 22:36-40 “Master, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commands hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
The Practical Love to God: “our great duty is to love God with our whole heart, and not such a contemplative love as the philosophers (and romantics) have, but a practical love, whereby we are willing, that God should be absolute Lord and governor of us and all the world, to dispose of us and all others according to His Will, as to our temporal and everlasting condition, and that He should be the Only Portion and Happiness of all those that are happy; a love whereby we like everything in Him as He is our Lord: His Justice as well as any other attribute, without wishing or desiring that He were different than He Is; and whereby we desire that His Will may be done upon us, and all others, whether prosperity or adversity, life or death; and whereby we can heartily praise Him for all things, and delight in our obedience to Him, in doing His Will, though we suffer that which is ever so grievous to us, even present death.” Walter Marshall 1628-1680
John 13:34-5 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love one another.” John 17:20-23; I John 2:2-11, 3:1, 4:7-21; Rom 5:5; Eph 3:14-21
The gifts are first and foremost, LOVE GIFTS!!! They are “the manifestation of the Spirit given to each one for the profit (edification) of all.” I Cor 12:7 And the Holy Spirit is first and foremost the Love of God. His primary engagement is the “shedding abroad the Love of God in our hearts”!!! Rom 5:5, Gal 5:22
I Cor 12:31 More Excellent= #5236 (hooperbolay’) A throwing beyond others, preeminent, beyond all measure.
Note: Paul is now moving a fleshly people beyond their fleshly questions and thinking to the Divinely ordained manner of the Kingdom of God (Very similar to our Lord’s approach in Matthew 6:33). We are a fleshly people. “All that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father, but is of the world.” I John 2:16 This is where God finds us—but it is not the Mind of Christ!!! (Phil 2:1-11) Our first and foremost earthly thinking is not the manner of the Kingdom of God. It manifests our lifelong attachment to the things of this world.
But we have been translated into the Kingdom of the Son of His Love!!! (Col 1:13) Kingdom thinking starts in the Kings’ Heart, Mind, and Will!!! With our King, all human behavior must flow out of His greatest commandment. The second is inseparably united to the first!!! And it is to this context that Paul has subtly brought the Corinthians (and us).
I Corinthians 13:1-3 The state of nothingness!!! The production of wood, hay and stubble fit only for the burning! I Cor 3:11-14
Note: It doesn’t matter what it looks like on the outside, to other humans, for God looks upon the heart!!! (I Samuel 16:7) This annihilates any “good works” mentality!!! So much for “he’s a good person” comments on the news. To mix flesh with the gifts is to create wood, hay, and stubble!!! It will all go up in smoke!
I Corinthians 13:4-8a The description of Spirit born fruitfulness!!! THIS IS WHAT THE BODY OF CHRIST SHOULD LOOK LIKE!!! This is “as I have Loved you” love. Such a description can only be true if it is “the manifestation of the Spirit given to each one for the profit of all.”
I Corinthians 13:8b-13 This Love is eternal!!! The kind of Love that Paul is here describing anticipates “heaven”, and in its outworking brings a bit of heaven to earth!!!
The operation of this kind of love in God’s people is “Spiritaneous”. It only works out of a renewed mind that is one with the Lord in His Will and Purpose. Romans 12:1-2 is the soil out of which it grows. It is never an “individual operation”. The opperant word is “abide”, vs 13.
John 15:4-5 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me, you can do nothing.”
THIS IS THE BIBLICAL DESCRIPTION OF OUR INSEPARABLE UNION WITH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, THE “HOW” OF IT ALL.
I must admit that this is a bit frustrating. I see it plainly as the unifying context of all of scripture, the very Will and Purpose of the Father, to manifest that He Is Love. Why do I not see it, or at least more of it in myself, and in the church historically? In my despair I remember, Scripture trumps experience and calls us to obey what it declares. Scripture doesn’t need experience to verify it.
So what are we to do? This is the Will and Work of God in the Body of His Son. He must do the work. Again I ask, what are we to do? My suggestion—make Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians (Eph 3:14-21) your constant companion. May it become your very breath!!! May the very Breath of the Spirit of Love search out our hearts, may He exterminate the cockroaches of selfishness, bitterness, and strife that abide in the nooks and crannies of our being. May He teach us to “know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that we may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Right behavior only grows out of the Right Relationship!!!
Matthew 22:36-40 “Master, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commands hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
The Practical Love to God: “our great duty is to love God with our whole heart, and not such a contemplative love as the philosophers (and romantics) have, but a practical love, whereby we are willing, that God should be absolute Lord and governor of us and all the world, to dispose of us and all others according to His Will, as to our temporal and everlasting condition, and that He should be the Only Portion and Happiness of all those that are happy; a love whereby we like everything in Him as He is our Lord: His Justice as well as any other attribute, without wishing or desiring that He were different than He Is; and whereby we desire that His Will may be done upon us, and all others, whether prosperity or adversity, life or death; and whereby we can heartily praise Him for all things, and delight in our obedience to Him, in doing His Will, though we suffer that which is ever so grievous to us, even present death.” Walter Marshall 1628-1680
John 13:34-5 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love one another.” John 17:20-23; I John 2:2-11, 3:1, 4:7-21; Rom 5:5; Eph 3:14-21
The gifts are first and foremost, LOVE GIFTS!!! They are “the manifestation of the Spirit given to each one for the profit (edification) of all.” I Cor 12:7 And the Holy Spirit is first and foremost the Love of God. His primary engagement is the “shedding abroad the Love of God in our hearts”!!! Rom 5:5, Gal 5:22
I Cor 12:31 More Excellent= #5236 (hooperbolay’) A throwing beyond others, preeminent, beyond all measure.
Note: Paul is now moving a fleshly people beyond their fleshly questions and thinking to the Divinely ordained manner of the Kingdom of God (Very similar to our Lord’s approach in Matthew 6:33). We are a fleshly people. “All that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father, but is of the world.” I John 2:16 This is where God finds us—but it is not the Mind of Christ!!! (Phil 2:1-11) Our first and foremost earthly thinking is not the manner of the Kingdom of God. It manifests our lifelong attachment to the things of this world.
But we have been translated into the Kingdom of the Son of His Love!!! (Col 1:13) Kingdom thinking starts in the Kings’ Heart, Mind, and Will!!! With our King, all human behavior must flow out of His greatest commandment. The second is inseparably united to the first!!! And it is to this context that Paul has subtly brought the Corinthians (and us).
I Corinthians 13:1-3 The state of nothingness!!! The production of wood, hay and stubble fit only for the burning! I Cor 3:11-14
Note: It doesn’t matter what it looks like on the outside, to other humans, for God looks upon the heart!!! (I Samuel 16:7) This annihilates any “good works” mentality!!! So much for “he’s a good person” comments on the news. To mix flesh with the gifts is to create wood, hay, and stubble!!! It will all go up in smoke!
I Corinthians 13:4-8a The description of Spirit born fruitfulness!!! THIS IS WHAT THE BODY OF CHRIST SHOULD LOOK LIKE!!! This is “as I have Loved you” love. Such a description can only be true if it is “the manifestation of the Spirit given to each one for the profit of all.”
I Corinthians 13:8b-13 This Love is eternal!!! The kind of Love that Paul is here describing anticipates “heaven”, and in its outworking brings a bit of heaven to earth!!!
The operation of this kind of love in God’s people is “Spiritaneous”. It only works out of a renewed mind that is one with the Lord in His Will and Purpose. Romans 12:1-2 is the soil out of which it grows. It is never an “individual operation”. The opperant word is “abide”, vs 13.
John 15:4-5 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me, you can do nothing.”
THIS IS THE BIBLICAL DESCRIPTION OF OUR INSEPARABLE UNION WITH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, THE “HOW” OF IT ALL.
I must admit that this is a bit frustrating. I see it plainly as the unifying context of all of scripture, the very Will and Purpose of the Father, to manifest that He Is Love. Why do I not see it, or at least more of it in myself, and in the church historically? In my despair I remember, Scripture trumps experience and calls us to obey what it declares. Scripture doesn’t need experience to verify it.
So what are we to do? This is the Will and Work of God in the Body of His Son. He must do the work. Again I ask, what are we to do? My suggestion—make Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians (Eph 3:14-21) your constant companion. May it become your very breath!!! May the very Breath of the Spirit of Love search out our hearts, may He exterminate the cockroaches of selfishness, bitterness, and strife that abide in the nooks and crannies of our being. May He teach us to “know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that we may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Right behavior only grows out of the Right Relationship!!!