CO 13{The connection in which love is introduced in the thirteenth chapter of Corinthians, must, I suppose, have struck most who study God's word. It bears the same impress of power and of suitability which ever characterizes His word. May we, therefore, led by the Spirit, the inditer, dwell upon it for a little.
The cause of all the mischief in the Corinthian Church was a remarkable one-one which testifies surely of the great goodness of God. It was the abundant grace and goodness of God acting upon unsubdued flesh. The testimony of Christ was confirmed among them (1:6): they were in everything enriched by (or, perhaps, in, as it is in the fourth verse) Him, in all utterance and all knowledge. But though there was much gift, grace was not in the same proportion. The seed had been cast abroad richly, but the earth had not been deeply plowed up; consequently, it much mixed its own productions with the gift of God. The testimony which had been brought among them was estimated by some external characteristic, rather than as the testimony of God, as with the happy Thessalonians (1 Thess. 2:1313For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. (1 Thessalonians 2:13)). And consequently, one was for Paul, another for Apollos, and another for Christ, sheaving that in a sectarian, independent spirit we may stand even for Christ, or apparently for him.
Their moral standing too, showed that there was not much depth of earth. In chap. 4 "they were full, they were rich, they reigned as kings" without the more faithful saints; they found themselves comparatively at ease in the world, a state which rendered them an easy prey to a doctrine which, in chap. 15, assured them that there is no resurrection of the dead; a doctrine which could not so readily suit one who had to say, "I die daily." Even when terrible evil came in, it did not disturb the light complacency of the flesh. Chapter 5 "they were puffed up, and did not rather mourn, that he which had done the deed might be taken away from among them." The same lightness of work, too, made them bad judges about Christian liberty; for Christian liberty does not consider so much what we may do, as what will be for the glory of God, and the welfare of the brethren.
The same state of mind made them also but badly prepared for the use of the spiritual gifts which were so richly amongst them. Chapter 14:26 "every one of them had a psalm, had a doctrine, had a revelation," etc., a thing which he does not check, but regulates: therefore he says, "Let all things be done unto edifying." It is only in the Spirit that we can handle rightly the things of the Spirit.
It is, therefore, to meet this state of things that the Apostle introduces this digression in the midst of his discussion about gifts; for without it, gifts-I might say, even graces-would just split up the Church of God. He proposes it as the tempered mortar. "Though I speak," he says, "with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not love, I am a sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." It is that which gives fullness to the sound, like the High Priest's bells of old, the bells of the sanctuary. " And though I have prophecy, and know all mysteries, and all knowledge [a thing by the way which pretty clearly defines the gift of prophecy, so often mentioned in the New Testament], and though there be all power, too, so as to remove mountains;" yea, and even though apparent grace and devotedness comes in, so that we either crumble our property into bits (see Greek) to bestow it on the poor, or give even our body to be burned, and yet have not love, we are profited nothing. What a declaration at the hands of God, that nothing external-power devotedness, whatsoever it be-is of value before God without that love which makes it of savor to Him, and of real refreshment to others. "Love," he says, "beareth long, and is kind. Love envieth not: love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up: doth not behave itself unseemly [and this love teaches us our place, Eph. 5:2121Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. (Ephesians 5:21)]: seeketh not her own [and, therefore, of all things most of Christ, Phil. 2:2121For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's. (Philippians 2:21)]: is not easily provoked: thinketh no evil." It is remarkable that the quieter fruits of the Spirit indicate more of his power. Gal. 5, "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." Love is holy in its tastes and feelings, " It rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth," in kindredness of spirit; "beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." How fully, then, does he let us into the real and noble nature of Love. It is the highest of all; those things which we are so apt to glory in, as setting us forth, tongues and prophecy, are only arguments of our imperfection. They are only to supply our mutual need, and are in us imperfect; "we know in part, and prophesy in part," until we obtain the perfect state of things. But when all need is satisfied, all imperfection is done away: love will still find its full element, as it will forever have to do with the God of love.
I have dwelt upon this, because it may be particularly suitable to us in present circumstances. Contention against evil has been, I believe, the great thing to which God has called us latterly. This has broken through, in some measure, that false love or charity, which is, perhaps, the great sin of this professing age, and which is just a counterfeit of the true. That false charity lets anything become of God's truth, rather than speak out faithfully, and disturb the robber in his prey. But it is required of stewards that they be found faithful: a man may dispose as he will of his own property, but if he dispose, in the same ready way, of another's, we remind him, that he must be just before he is generous. And so the truth is God's property, of which we cannot dispose, save as He guides us by His spirit; and He would have us careful of the trust. We are all in this sense stewards of the mysteries of God.
Paul, we find in Gal. 2, approached his elder Jewish brethren with something of trembling, lest, through his own weakness, he, by any means, should run, or had run, in vain. But when God's truth was really in question, he gave place by subjection not for an hour, but " withstood Peter to the face, because he was to be blamed."
As I have said, thus it has been, and very, very much there is all around that will call to contend. Yet, meanwhile, let us seek to be careful, that, whilst contending against evil, We love fervently and cherish all that is, and all that are, of the truth. The Apostle John, after telling them in the fourth chapter of his first Epistle, not to believe every spirit, " but try the spirits," etc., then returns to his more pleasing, and still most incumbent, occupation; ver. 7. " Beloved, let us love one another: or love is of God." It is the "bond of perfectness," Paul tells us, in Col. 3:1414And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. (Colossians 3:14), which throws its golden charm around all. We are so apt in securing one truth, to let go another kindred one. " Him that is weak in the faith receive ye," etc., does not conflict with " Beloved, follow not that which is evil " (3 John 1111Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God. (3 John 11)).
I add no further. To see these two things combined, steady faithfulness against evil, on the one hand, and yet frank, confiding, upright, and hearty love, where it is fairly warranted, surely this were happy for us. It would lead one to say, " The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended." Our Lord himself is coming; happy indeed to be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless!
G.