1 Cor. 13
I feel greatly pressed to bring this subject before the prayerful consideration of my readers; the importance of it none, I suppose, will dispute; the urgency of it, few perhaps will enter into. May the ever blessed Spirit, God the Holy Ghost the Comforter, suggest and control my thoughts, as well as guide me in the current of the scriptures of truth, while I write.
First as to the word “love,” translated in the authorized version “charity.”
It is not necessary to point out that the popular application of the word to the distribution of money, or the giving of alms, is an entire mistake; the chapter itself will prove this, for the Apostle says it were possible to bestow all his goods to feed the poor and not to have charity.
It has been very beautifully pointed out that our word “love” combines two notions which are expressed in Greek by two different words •(VB0 (agape) and §DTH (eros). Now this latter word for love denotes “the love of desire,”
which seeks its satisfaction in being loved. But the Greek language knows another love, the love of complacency, which is much more disinterested, which contemplates, approves and yields itself; this is •(VB0, (agape), a word, it is said, certainly related to the verb •(V:"4 (agamai) to admire.
Now to this term, it is thought, the word charity better corresponds; and it does seem reasonable and true as so presented. So much for the terms charity and love. But let us now see what our God says to us in His word as to charity. Even this, that we might speak with the tongues of men or of angels, have the gift of prophecy, understand all mysteries and all knowledge, have all faith so as to remove mountains, and yet not have charity! How solemn, how searching!
But it may be said, is it not merely a supposed case which is here presented? Let not such a thought for a moment rest in the mind of my reader. Alas! experience, both ancient and modern, only too clearly establishes the absolute truth of what is here set forth, and that the shrinking from self-surrender will accompany progress in this kind of endowment, leading to spiritual pride and self-sufficiency. It is very solemn to dwell upon what the Apostle compares this state with, namely—“Sounding brass and tinkling cymbal.” These terms denote, the one a piece of unwrought metal struck to produce sound, the other the concave plate, used in the East as a musical instrument; and they describe in a most marked and arresting manner “the inflation of an exalted imagination, and an overexcited sensibility,” and of these it is well said that “Religious language is then no longer the natural over-flowing of a heart filled with love—it resembles the resonant sound of a dead and hollow instrument.” Further, it is said that the expression is very nearly allied to one which was a proverbial name for those who speak much and do nothing.
What a solemn message all this has for professing Christians at the present day; for who is so barefaced and bold as to deny that just now the children of God, at least professedly, are the standing reproach of an unbelieving, agnostic age. If I must needs supply proof for what I conceive is only too self-evident, I appeal to the hatred, variance, strife, party spirit, venom, spite, and bitterness which characterize a certain class of religious controversy at the present moment. I grieve to say I see it on all sides. It is a solemn sin which lies at the door of professing Christians, and, what is worse than all, it is practiced by almost all under the devil’s delusion of zeal for Christ’s glory. This is to me saddest of all, even that His blessed name who is Love, should be made a cloak wherein to wrap a mind the very opposite to Himself. How truly it is said that—“In our day, too, one may be a celebrated theologian, the instrument of powerful revivals, the author of beautiful works in the kingdom of God, a missionary with a name filling the world; if in all these things the man is self-seeking, and if it is not the divine breath of charity which animates him, in God’s eyes this is only seeming not being”
“Behold the fruit of all these magnificent gifts: all speech, all knowledge, all power, and yet nothing! Love alone is anything in the eyes of love.” It is well we should see who it is the apostle has in view here, even “a Christian carrying to this degree the appearance of love to Christ while seeking at bottom only his own fame or self merit in the eyes of God.” The trickeries of self-love are unfathomable, and to deceive the very man who is their instrument.” “Love accepts only what is inspired by love.”
But, now, dear readers, how solemn is all this for us at this moment; are we not met every day with the awful denial of it by those who call themselves Christians? Brethren, who assume the very highest position, they would tell you they alone care for the glory of the Son of God, they alone are Philadelphia, they alone are “the people,” and so forth, but in vain will you look for a manifestation of that love which is of God, in which being rooted and founded, there is full ability “to apprehend with all saints, what is the breadth and length and depth and height; and to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge.” In vain will you look for a manifestation of that love, which is developed in reference to others, who are not the motive, although they are the object. How blessedly descriptive of this love are the following words—“it has its source within; its strength is independent of the objects with which it is occupied. Thus it can act where circumstances might produce irritation or jealousy in the human heart. It acts according to its own nature in the circumstances; and by judging them according to that nature, they do not act upon the man who is full of love, except so far as they supply occasion for its activity, and direct its form. Love is its own motive. In us, participation in the divine nature is its only source. Communion with God Himself alone sustains it through all the difficulties it has to surmount in its path.”
It is the absence of this with which we are now confronted, and that in a most gross and unblushing form; faithfulness, trueness to Christ, close adherence to His word, and the danger of laxity, are no plea for the absence of that love which is of God, and a justification in some sort of that spirit which bites and devours one another. Further, the possibility of a spurious charity is fully admitted, but that does not justify on the other hand a caricature of Christian faithfulness and loyalty, which is nothing better than “a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal”; – by this system, for such it has become, the worst evils of the flesh and its works are condoned, and being dressed up in the external garb of a pretentious piety, claims the allegiance of reality. How solemn!
But let us turn for a moment to a far happier theme, and let us note well, how it is said that of faith, hope, and charity, the greatest is love; why is it the greatest? I will give two quotations which express the answer far better than I could –
Now love subsists already; there are faith and hope also. Not only shall these pass away, but even now, here below, that which is of the nature of God is more excellent than that which is connected with the capacity of human nature, even though enlightened by God, and having for its object the revealed glory of God.
We have just seen that faith and hope abide continually, but undergoing incessant transformation, the one into sight, the other into possession. It is not so with charity. Love does not see, does not acquire, it is the divine. God does not believe nor hope, but He loves. Love belongs to His essence.
The all importance of this love receives further confirmation from the exhortation, “Follow after charity”—the word follow after ‘4T6,4< (diokein) shows the indispensable nature of what is thus pursued, in contrast with the next word desire .08@L< (zeeloun), which expresses a faculty, simply desirable. May the hearts of the children of God be aroused to “follow after charity.” Assuredly it is high time to awake out of sleep as to this great reality, have we not got down among the dead as to it? How true were the words penned in 1879 by one gone to his rest, when he wrote—
Did we walk even as once we walked? Was there devoted service among the poor and needy, visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and keeping ourselves unspotted from the world . . . I have long said brethren began by practical separation from the world. Though certain great truths for the last days were there, still what the world saw was that they were not of it . . . It was not a discussion whether they were Philadelphia or not.
What a voice those solemn words of twelve years ago have now. May hearts be opened in His grace to listen to the truth they convey, may we remember that “when God is at work, it is love for the truth, grief at the condition of the church of God, and separation of heart and ways to the truth, while waiting for Christ—not thinking of ourselves as vessels of it.”