Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 12:31
But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet show I unto you a more excellent way.
31. But covet earnestly ] So Tyndale. Sue, Wiclif. Sectamini, Calvin. Perhaps, desire eagerly. Literally, be envious, or Jealous of. Aemulamini, Vulg. Cf. Act 7:9; Act 17:5, and ch. 1Co 13:4. It is translated zealously affect in Gal 4:17-18. It perhaps implies an indirect rebuke of the envy felt by many Corinthians for those who possessed the best gifts. It is as though St Paul had said, “if you are envious at all, be envious for the gifts, not of those who have received them.”
the best gifts ] Some copies read the greater gifts (see note on 1Co 12:4). The best gifts were (see ch. 14.) those which were most calculated to promote the edification of the Church. But they were also precisely those (see next chapter and Gal 5:22), which so far from being peculiar to the individual, were within the reach of all Christians alike.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Ch. 1Co 12:31 Ch. 1Co 13:13. The Excellencies of Love
and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way ] Literally, and furthermore I shew you an eminently excellent way, i.e. the way of love, described in the words that follow. This was the secret which could reconcile an ardent desire for the best gifts with contentment with what one had; which could harmonize the various powers of the individual members of the Church for the general good. Calvin complains, and not without cause, of the “inepta capitis sectio” here. The words at the head of this note belong to what follows, rather than to what goes before.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
But covet earnestly – Greek Be zealous for Zeloute. This word, however, may be either in the indicative mood (ye do covet earnestly), or in the imperative, as in our translation. Doddridge contends that it should be rendered in the indicative mood, for he says it seems to be a contradiction that after the apostle had been showing that these gifts were not at their own option, and that they ought not to emulate the gifts of another, or aspire to superiority, to undo all again, and give them such contrary advice. The same view is given by Locke, and so Macknight. The Syriac renders it, Because you are zealous of the best gifts, I will show to you a more excellent way. But there is no valid objection to the common translation in the imperative, and indeed the connection seems to demand it. Grotius renders it, Pray to God that you may receive from him the best, that is, the most useful endowments.
The sense seems to be this, I have proved that all endowments in the church are produced by the Holy Spirit; and that he confers them as he pleases. I have been showing that no one should be proud or elated on account of extraordinary endowments; and that, on the other hand, no one should he depressed, or sad, or discontented, because he has a more humble rank. I have been endeavoring to repress and subdue the spirit of discontent, jealousy, and ambition; and to produce a willingness in all to occupy the station where God has placed you. But, I do not intend to deny that it is proper to desire the most useful endowments; that a man should wish to be brought under the influence of the Spirit, and qualified for eminent usefulness. I do not mean to say that it is wrong for a man to regard the higher gifts of the Spirit as valuable and desirable, if they may be obtained; nor that the spirit which seeks to excel in spiritual endowments and in usefulness, is improper.
Yet all cannot be apostles; all cannot be prophets. I would not have you, therefore, seek such offices, and manifest a spirit of ambition. I would seek to regulate the desire which I would not repress as improper; and in order to that, I would show you that, instead of aspiring to offices and extraordinary endowments which are beyond your grasp, there is a way, more truly valuable, that is open to you all, and where all may excel. Paul thus endeavors to give a practicable and feasible turn to the whole subject, and further to repress the longings of ambition and the contentions of strife, by exciting emulation to obtain that which was accessible to them all, and which, just in the proportion in which it was obtained, would repress discontent, and strife, and ambition, and produce order, and peace, and contentedness with their endowments and their lot, the main thing which he was desirous of producing in this chapter. This, therefore, is one of the happy turns in which the writings of Paul abounds. He did not denounce their zeal as wicked. He did not attempt at once to repress it. He did not say that it was wrong to desire high endowments. But he showed them an endowment which was more valuable than all the others; which was accessible to all; and which, if possessed, would make them contented, and produce the harmonious operation of all the parts of the church. That endowment was love.
A more excellent way – See the next chapter. I will show you a more excellent way of evincing your zeal than by aspiring to the place of apostles, prophets, or rulers, and that is by cultivating universal charity or love.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 31. But covet earnestly] To covet signifies to desire earnestly. This disposition towards heavenly things is highly laudable; towards earthly things, is deeply criminal. A man may possess the best of all these gifts, and yet be deficient in what is essentially necessary to his salvation, for he may be without that love or charity which the apostle here calls the more excellent way, and which he proceeds in the next chapter to describe.
Some think that this verse should be read affirmatively, Ye earnestly contend about the best gifts; but I show unto you a more excellent way; i.e. get your hearts filled with love to God and man-love, which is the principle of obedience, which works no ill to its neighbour, and which is the fulfilling of the law. This is a likely reading, for there were certainly more contentions in the Church of Corinth about the gifts than about the graces of the Spirit.
1. AFTER all that has been said on the different offices mentioned by the apostle in the preceding chapter, there are some of them which perhaps are not understood. I confess I scarcely know what to make of those which we translate helps and governments. Bishop Pearce, who could neither see Church government nor state government in these words, expresses himself thus: “These two words, after all that the commentators say about them, I do not understand; and in no other part of the New Testament is either of them, in any sense, mentioned as the gift of the Spirit; especially it is observable that in 1Co 12:29; 1Co 12:30, where the gifts of the Spirit are again enumerated, no notice is taken of any thing like them, while all the other several parts are exactly enumerated. Perhaps these words were put in the margin to explain , miracles or powers; some taking the meaning to be helps, assistances, as in 2Co 12:9; others to be , governments, as in Ro 8:38; and from being marginal explanations, they might have been at last incorporated with the text.” It must, however, be acknowledged that the omission of these words is not countenanced by any MS. or version. One thing we may fully know, that there are some men who are peculiarly qualified for governing by either providence or grace; and that there are others who can neither govern nor direct, but are good helpers. These characters I have often seen in different places in the Church of God.
2. In three several places in this chapter the apostle sums up the gifts of the Spirit. Dr. Lightfoot thinks they answer to each other in the following order, which the reader will take on his authority.
Verses 8, 9, and 10.
Is given
The word of Wisdom;
The word of Knowledge. Ver. 9. Faith;
Gifts of Healing. Ver. 10. Working of Miracles;
Prophecy;
Discerning of Spirits;
Divers kinds of Tongues;
Interpretation of Tongues.
Verse 28.
God hath set some
First, APOSTLES;
Secondly, PROPHETS;
Thirdly, TEACHERS;
After that, MIRACLES;
The GIFTS of HEALINGS;
HELPS;
GOVERNMENTS;
Divers kinds of TONGUES.
Verses 29, and 30.
Are all
Apostles;
Prophets;
Teachers;
Miracles; Ver. 30. Gifts of Healing.
Speak with Tongues;
Interpret.
If the reader think that this is the best way of explaining these different gifts and offices, he will adopt it; and he will in that case consider, 1. That the word or doctrine of wisdom comes from the apostles. 2. The doctrine of knowledge, from the prophets. 3. Faith, by means of the teachers. 4. That working of miracles includes the gifts of healing. 5. That to prophecy, signifying preaching, which it frequently does, helps is a parallel. 6. That discernment of spirits is the same with governments, which Dr. Lightfoot supposes to imply a deeply comprehensive, wise, and prudent mind. 7. As to the gift of tongues, there is no variation in either of the three places.
3. It is strange that in this enumeration only three distinct officers in the Church should be mentioned; viz. apostles, prophets, and teachers. We do not know that miracles, gifts of healing, helps, governments, and diversity of tongues, were exclusive offices; for it is probable that apostles, prophets, and teachers wrought miracles occasionally, and spoke with divers tongues. However, in all this enumeration, where the apostle gives us all the officers and gifts necessary for the constitution of a Church, we find not one word of bishops, presbyters, or deacons; much less of the various officers and offices which the Christian Church at present exhibits. Perhaps the bishops are included under the apostles, the presbyters under the prophets, and the deacons under the teachers. As to the other ecclesiastical officers with which the Romish Church teems, they may seek them who are determined to find them, any where out of the New Testament.
4. Mr. Quesnel observes on these passages that there are three sorts of gifts necessary to the forming Christ’s mystical body. 1. Gifts of power, for the working of miracles, in reference to the Father. 2. Gifts of labour and ministry, for the exercise of government and other offices, with respect to the Son. 3. Gifts of knowledge, for the instruction of the people, with relation to the Holy Ghost.
The FATHER is the principle and end of all created power; let us then ultimately refer all things to him.
The SON is the Institutor and Head of all the hierarchical ministries; let us depend upon him.
The HOLY GHOST is the fountain and fulness of all spiritual graces; let us desire and use them only in and by him.
There is nothing good, nothing profitable to salvation, unless it be done in the power of God communicated by Christ Jesus, and in that holiness of heart which is produced by his SPIRIT. Pastors are only the instruments of God, the depositaries of the authority of Christ, and the channels by whom the love and graces of the Spirit are conveyed. Let these act as receiving all from God by Christ, through the Holy Ghost; and let the Church receive them as the ambassadors of the Almighty.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
But covet earnestly the best gifts: the word may be translated indicatively: Ye do covet the best gifts; or as we translate it, imperatively: Covet ye; I would have you be covetous to excel in the best gifts, that is, those which will make you most useful and profitable to the church of God.
And yet show I unto you a more excellent way; but yet (saith he) gifts are not the best things, the habits of saving grace are much more valuable than gifts; love to God and your neighbour ought to be by you preferred before gifts. To a discourse of which the apostle thus shortly passeth.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
31. covet earnestlyGreek,“emulously desire.” Not in the spirit of discontented“coveting.” The Spirit “divides to every man severallyas He will” (1Co 12:1);but this does not prevent men earnestly seeking, by prayer andwatchfulness, and cultivation of their faculties, the greatestgifts. BEZA explains,”Hold in the highest estimation”; which accords with thedistinction in his view (1Co 14:1)between “follow after charityzealously esteemspiritual gifts”; also with (1Co 12:11;1Co 12:18) the sovereign willwith which the Spirit distributes the gifts, precluding individualsfrom desiring gifts not vouchsafed to them. But see on 1Co14:1.
the best giftsMost ofthe oldest manuscripts read, “the greatest gifts.”
and yetGreek,“and moreover.” Besides recommending yourzealous desire for the greatest gifts, I am about to show you asomething still more excellent (literally, “a way mostway-like”) to desire, “the way of love” (compare 1Co14:1). This love, or “charity,” includes both “faith”and “hope” (1Co 13:7),and bears the same fruits (1Co13:1-13) as the ordinary and permanent fruits of the Spirit (Ga5:22-24). Thus “long-suffering,” compare 1Co12:4; “faith,” 1Co12:7; “joy,” 1Co12:6; “meekness,” 1Co12:5; “goodness,” 1Co12:5; “gentleness,” 1Co12:4 (the Greek is the same for “is kind”). Itis the work of the Holy Spirit, and consists in love to God, onaccount of God’s love in Christ to us, and as a consequence, love toman, especially to the brethren in Christ (Rom 5:5;Rom 15:30). This is more to bedesired than gifts (Lu 10:20).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But covet earnestly the best gifts,…. Which may be rendered either indicatively as an assertion, “ye do covet earnestly the best gifts”: of prophesying and teaching, of doing miracles, healing diseases, speaking with, and interpreting, different tongues and languages; but I can, and do show you something that is better, and more excellent than these: or, by way of interrogation, “do ye covet earnestly the best gifts?” do you zealously affect them, fervently desire them, and emulate one another in your endeavours after them? I have something to observe to you which exceeds them all, and which you would do well to follow after, and eagerly pursue; or imperatively, as an exhortation, as it is rendered by our translators: and by the best gifts may be meant, the best of these external gifts before mentioned; and not those of the highest class, and the more extraordinary, but which are the most useful and beneficial to the church, as preaching or prophesying was: the Corinthians seemed most covetous and desirous of speaking with different tongues; but the apostle shows, in 1Co 14:1, by divers reasons, that prophesying was preferable, being more serviceable and useful to the church, and so more eligible and to be desired by them, to which he may have regard here: or else by them are meant the internal graces of the Spirit, as faith, hope, and love, which are all of them gifts of God’s grace; all useful and valuable, and better than all external extraordinary gifts whatever, which a man might have, and be nothing, be lost and damned; whereas he that believes in Christ, has a good hope through grace, and love in his soul to God, Christ, and his people, though he is destitute of the other gifts, shall certainly be saved; wherefore these are the gifts which men should be solicitous for and covet after, and be greatly concerned to know that they have them, and to be content without the other:
and yet show I unto you a more excellent way: if by the best gifts are designed the above graces of the Spirit, then by “the more excellent way”, Christ must be meant, the author and object of these graces; who is the way to the covenant, and to a participation of all the blessings of it, as justification, pardon, adoption, and eternal life; the way into a Gospel church, and to all the ordinances of the Gospel dispensation, as baptism, and the Lord’s supper; for faith in him is the prerequisite, and proper qualification for the enjoyment of each of these: Christ is the way of salvation, and the way to the Father, and to heaven and eternal happiness; and an excellent one he is, the more, yea, the most excellent; he is the only way to each of these; he is the new and living way, a plain and pleasant one; and so a safe and secure one, in which all that walk shall certainly be saved: now this way the apostle showed, declared, pointed out in the ministry of the word; it was his chief and principal business, the sum of his doctrine, to make known Christ, and him crucified, as the way, the truth, and the life; to direct souls to him, and to show them the way of salvation by him: but if by the best gifts are meant the more useful ones of those before mentioned, as prophesying, or preaching, then the more excellent way designs grace, special and internal grace; and that either grace in general, regenerating, sanctifying grace, including all sorts of grace; which is the way of a soul’s passing from the death of sin to a life of faith and holiness; and is the way to eternal glory, and which gives a meetness for it, and is inseparably connected with it. This is a more excellent way than gifts; for gifts, be they ever so great, may be lost or taken away, through disuse or misimprovement; but grace always remains, can never be lost, nor will ever be taken away, but will issue in everlasting life: men may have the greatest gifts, and yet not be saved, as Judas and others; but he that has the least degree of faith in Christ, hope in him, and love to him, shall be saved by him with an everlasting salvation: or particularly the grace of charity, or love to the saints, may be intended by the more excellent way; which is the evidence of a man’s passing from death and life; the new commandment of Christ, and the fulfilling of the law; without which, a man, though he has never such great gifts, he is nothing as a Christian, nor in the business of salvation; and is the greatest of all the graces of the Spirit; and is of such a nature, that when prophecies, tongues, knowledge, and all external gifts shall fail, and even the internal graces of faith and hope shall cease, the one being changed for vision, and the other swallowed up in enjoyment, this will continue; and the rather this grace may be thought to be meant, since the apostle immediately passes to treat it in the next chapter, and prefers it to all gifts, and even graces.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The greater gifts ( ). Paul unhesitatingly ranks some spiritual gifts above others. here has good sense, not that of envy as in Acts 7:9; 1Cor 13:4.
And a still more excellent way ( ‘ ). In order to gain the greater gifts. “I show you a way par excellence,” beyond all comparison (superlative idea in this adjunct, not comparative), like ‘ (2Co 4:17). H is old word from , to throw beyond, to surpass, to excel (2Cor 3:10; Eph 1:19). “I show you a supremely excellent way.” Chapter 1Co 13 is this way, the way of love already laid down in 8:1 concerning the question of meats offered to idols (cf. 1Jo 4:7). Poor division of chapters here. This verse belongs with chapter 1Co 13.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
The best [ ] . The correct reading is ta meizona the greater. So Rev.
Yet [] . Some construe with more excellent, rendering yet more excellent. So Rev. Others render moreover, and give the succeeding words a superlative force : “and moreover a most excellent way,” etc. See on with excellency, ch. 2 1.
Way. To attain the higher gifts. The way of love as described in ch. 13. “Love is the fairest and best in himself, and the cause of what is fairest and best in all other things” (Plato, “Symposium,” 197). ===1Co13
CHAPTER XIII
“Love is our Lord – supplying kindness and banishing unkindness; giving friendship and forgiving enmity; the joy of the good, the wonder of the wise, the amazement of the gods; desired by those who have no part in him, and precious to those who have the better part in him…. In every word, work, wish, fear – pilot (kubernhthv, compare governments, 1Co 12:28), comrade, helper, savior; glory of gods and men, leader best and brightest; in whose footsteps let every man follow, sweetly singing in his honor that sweet strain with which love charms the souls of gods and men” (Plato, “Symposium,” 197). “He interprets between gods and men, conveying to the gods the prayers and sacrifices of men, and to men the commands and replies of the gods : he is the mediator who spans the chasm which divides them, and in him all is bound together…. Through love all the intercourse and speech of God with man, whether awake or asleep, is carried on. The wisdom which understands this is spiritual” (Id., 202 – 3).
Trench cites the following Italian proverbs : “He who has love in his heart has spurs in his sides.” ” Love rules without law. “” Love rules his kingdom without a sword.” ” Love is the master of all arts. “See, also, Stanley’s essay on” The Apostolic Doctrine of Love; ” Commentary, p. 237.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “But covet earnestly the best gifts;” (zeloute de ta charismata ta meizonta) “But desire ye eagerly the greater charismatics (gifts).” Some were for internal, spiritual, intellectual help; others were for external, physical, health help, for a temporary being. The former were the better.
2) “And yet show I unto you,” (kai eti kath deiknum i humin) “And yet of my own accord I show to you all.” To the Corinth church and other congregations in close colleague or fellowship with her in various places, Paul pointed to something better ahead, awaiting the church; See 1Co 1:2.
3) “A more excellent way.” (huperbolen hodon) “A more excellent, an hyperbolic, way – a way above and beyond former comprehension.” A way or road or plan for the unity and strength of the church body was only a little away off (in time). This alluded to the completion of the Bible when dispensing of all special spiritual, charismatic gifts would cease, except faith, hope, and charity, 1Co 13:10-13; Eph 4:11-16.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
31. Seek after the more excellent gifts. It might also be rendered — Value highly; and it would not suit in with the passage, though it makes little difference as to the meaning; for Paul exhorts the Corinthians to esteem and desire those gifts especially, which are most conducive to edification. For this fault prevailed among them — that they aimed at show, rather than usefulness. Hence prophecy was neglected, while languages sounded forth among them, with great show, indeed, but with little profit. He does not, however, address individuals, as though he wished that every one should aspire at prophecy, or the office of teacher; but simply recommends to them a desire to promote edification, that they may apply themselves the more diligently to those things that are most conducive to edification.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(31) But covet oarnestly,Better, But earnestly seek the better gifts. All this argument is not meant to check ardour and to damp enthusiasm. The Spirit divideth to every man as He wills, but He wills to give to each the best gift that each desires and is capable of receiving. The receptivity which comes with earnest and practical desire is in the case of each individual the determining cause as to what gift the Spirit will give. The last sentence, And yet show I unto you a more excellent way, ought to form the opening clause of the next chapter. The more excellent way is not some gift to be desired to the exclusion of the other gifts, but a more excellent way of striving for those gifts. You are not to strive for any one gift because it is more highly esteemed, or because it is more apparently useful, or because it is more easily attained. That which will consecrate every struggle for attainment and every gift when attained is LOVE.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
31. Covet Earnestly desire and aim at.
Best gifts Namely, not tongues, but prophecy, the word of knowledge, of wisdom, and others that profited the Church. For though they be the gift of God, they are given to those who are qualified by faith, prayer, piety, and culture.
More excellent way Than the attainment of, or the aiming at, spiritual gifts. Said comparatively; for the main purpose of Paul’s vivid portraiture of love, in the next chapter, is to show the superiority of that one grace of love permanently in the Church, over the transient charisms which were but the temporary stagings while the structure was being built.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘But desire earnestly (or ‘you desire earnestly’) the greater gifts. And moreover I show to you a most excellent way.’
At first sight this seems to contradict what has been said before about the gifts being given by God in accordance with His will, but the thought is not of trying to get the greater gifts for themselves, but of obtaining for the whole church the benefit of the greater gifts, and of aiming to be the best and most useful that they can be for God. No Christian should be satisfied to be an ‘also ran’, just there to fill up the seats. He is to earnestly desire before God the greater gifts, without demanding them for himself, so as to advance God’s Kingly Rule. It is also probably to counter the desire of the Corinthians for what they saw as the more spectacular gifts such as tongues which they saw as the language of the angels. If you desire gifts, says Paul, desire the greater gifts.
The ‘greater gifts’ must be those so listed, prophecy, teaching and powerful miracles (if linguistic distinctions mean anything the others are shown as being on the same level). They are to be earnestly desired because of the benefit they are to the church. But there is an immediate caution demonstrating the spirit that must lie behind the ‘earnestly desiring’. They must be sought so that they can be used in love. This must not be a matter of personal ambition and personal aggrandisement, but of longing to obtain the very best for God’s people.
Some translate using the indicative, ‘you earnestly desire the greater gifts’ (which is possible), as a kind of rebuke, leading on to an admonition to act rather in love, but similar exhortation is found in 1Co 14:1; 1Co 14:39 of desiring to prophesy, which supports the imperative here.
‘And moreover I show to you a more excellent way.’ This qualifies the plea to seek the greater gifts. He will now describe the way in which these and all gifts should be used, in love and concern for the whole body, for without such an attitude they will be an empty noise. If love is not at the root of the request it were better not to seek them.
The Corinthians were walking in a way where ‘the spiritual’ was exalted, but sadly it was ‘the spiritual’ in false terms. It exalted special ‘knowledge’, it exalted wisdom, it exalted prophetic utterances, it exalted speaking in heavenly languages, it exalted manifestations. Even though it was causing disagreement and dissension and lack of unity, they were confident that they had found the true way. Paul therefore declares that he will show them a more excellent way, the way of love. It is love, he declares, that is the more excellent way. It is love which lies at the heart of true spirituality, not spiritual manifestations. And he will now reveal that, by showing that all spiritual manifestations are lacking if love is omitted, gain their true meaning by being used in love, and that love is over all.
It should finally be noted that the fact that we should earnestly desire the greater gifts is no guarantee that we ourselves will receive them. This is not an injunction to go on praying, and never stop, until we get what we want. It is rather an indication that, like Paul, we long for the fulfilment of God’s purposes through us, and through the church, and to submit to His will in it. It will then be up to God to allocate those gifts as He pleases, and to show us the way that he wants us to take.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Co 12:31. But covet earnestly the best gifts. But ye contend earnestly about the best gifts. “Ye contend one with another whose particular gift is best, and most preferable; but I will shew you a more excellent way; namely, mutual good-will, affection, and charity;” or, in one word, LOVE. That this is the Apostle’s meaning is plain, in that there was an emulation among them, and a strife for precedency, on account of the several gifts they had, which made them in their assemblies desire to be heard first. This was the fault which the Apostle was here correcting, and it is not likelyhe should exhort them all promiscuously to seek the principal and most eminent gifts, at the end of a discourse wherein he had been demonstrating to them, by the example of the human body, that there ought to be diversities of gifts and functions in the church; but that there ought to be no schism, emulation, or contest among them upon account of the exercises of those gifts; that they were all useful in their places, and no member was atall to be the less honoured or valued for the gift he had, though it were not one of the first rank. And in this sense the word is taken in the next chapter, 1Co 12:4 where St. Paul, pursuing the same argument, exhorts them to mutual love, good-will, affection, and charity, which he assures them is preferable to any gifts whatever. Besides, to what purpose should he exhort them to covet earnestly the best gifts, when the obtaining of this or that gift did not at all lie in their desires or endeavours, the Apostle having just before told them, 1Co 12:11 that the Spirit divides those gifts to every man severally, as he will, and those to whom he wrote had their allotment already?He might as reasonably, according to his own doctrine in this very chapter, bid the foot covet to be the hand, or the ear to be the eye. Let it be remembered, therefore, to rectify this, that St. Paul says, 1Co 12:17 of this chapter, If the whole body were the eye, where were the hearing, &c. This great writer is not used to cross his own design, or contradict his own reasoning.
Inferences.We thankfully acknowledge thy goodness, Sovereign Disposer of all Events, that we have not been led on, after the example of our Pagan ancestors, to the vain worship of dumb, of stupid idols; but have been taught from our infancy to adore the living Jehovah. May we, in the most solemn and consistent manner, say, that Jesus is the Lord; and while our actions speak our regard to him as such, may it appear that all our hearts are under the influences of the Spirit of God, by which alone men are brought to that divine temper, 1Co 12:2-3.
We should frequently reflect upon those glorious attestations, which were given to the truth of our holy religion, by that diversity of gifts and operations, with which its first teachers were furnished and adorned; thankfully receiving their testimony, and thereby setting to our seal that God is true. A view to that great design, in which all these wonderful things centre, should engage us to study more and more an union of heart with all, who in every place call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. In him Greeks and barbarians, bond and free, are united; all therefore should unanimously seek his glory; and while his name is blasphemed by the ignorant and malicious, who cannot bear the purity of that religion which he teaches, may it be so defended by us, as at the same time to be exemplified and adorned, 1Co 12:4-14.
The wisdom and goodness of God, as displayed in the formation of the human body, is a subject which well deserves our attentive reflection, and humble acknowledgment. All its several parts are useful to the whole, and the most noble cannot upbraid the meanest as an incumbrance. Each has reason to rejoice in its own situation, as well as in the addition of all the rest; and were the lowest place made higher than it is, it would become useless and burdensome. The same divine wisdom is visible, and ought to be acknowledged, in the subordination appointed in civil societies, and in the Church of Christ.
Let no man, therefore, be discouraged at the low station wherein he is fixed! but rather let all acquiesce in the wise and gracious disposal of the supreme Lord, and apply themselves to their proper functions. Let each member consider all the rest with pleasure, and rejoice with thankfulness in the health and vigour of the other parts, making the proper use of them, and communicating in return its proper services; or, if any be weak, let all strengthen it. And, upon the whole, so far as we can prevent it, let there be no schism in the body: Alas! that there should be so many breaches and contentions. While we sincerely lament them, we should each, in his place, endeavour to heal them, and unite in a sympathizing care one of another. So shall we, in the remotest consequences, best consult our own interest and honour, 1Co 12:15-25.
Blessed be God, that he hath in his church given not only Apostles and prophets, but also pastors and teachers. Adored be that bounty with which he has scattered down his gifts, whether ordinary or extraordinary, on the children of men. May we use them, not to the purposes of ostentation, but of edification; and may we be truly desirous of those whereby we may bear most of the image of Christ, and best promote the great design for which he visited our world, and was pleased to unite his church unto himself, and its several members to each other, in such dear and invaluable bonds.
REFLECTIONS.1st, The church of Corinth was greatly enriched in spiritual gifts, and these had been sadly abused, and made the occasion of much pride and contention. The Apostle therefore leads them to consider the author, nature, design, and use of the extraordinary powers which were given them.
1. He reminds them, for their humiliation, of their former state. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led, hurried on blindfold to worship these senseless stocks and stones. Wherefore I give you to understand, now that God hath brought you out of darkness into his marvellous light, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed, it being a sure proof that both the Jewish exorcists and the heathen diviners who pretend to such inspiration, blaspheme him from whom the Spirit proceeds, are lyars, and of their father the devil; and, on the other hand, no man can say that Jesus is the Christ, but by the Spirit of God: to discover his all-sufficiency for the work of redemption, and his suitableness to every necessity of our souls, we need a divine illumination: and though we may confess him to be the Christ with our lips, ye we can never experimentally know him to be our anointed Saviour, till it please God to reveal his Son in us. And all the miracles which are wrought in confirmation of this truth, are by the power of the Holy Ghost, who intends thereby to glorify Christ. Let a man pretend to what he will; if he does not know and love the Lord Jesus, he must be destitute of the Spirit; but if he does, then, however low his gifts may be, he has an assured interest in the Saviour.
2. He directs them in the proper use of the spiritual gifts which they enjoyed. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit, who bestows them in all their variety on private Christians, or ministers; and there are differences of administrations, of offices and services, some superior to others; but the same Lord appoints to each his employment, and they act under his authority. And there are diversities of operations, and miraculous powers; but it is the same Lord which worketh all in all, by whose mighty energy alone they are performed. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal; whatever gifts or powers that manifest the presence and energy of the Holy Ghost, he is endowed with, they are designed to promote the edification of the body of Christ, and to advance his glory. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, a clear understanding of the great doctrines of the Gospel, and ability to express them with judgment and eloquence; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit, an insight into the types and prophesies of the Old Testament, and a readiness to explain and apply them. To another, faith by the same Spirit, that supernatural courage which Christ promised to infuse into his disciples, Mat 10:19-20. Luk 21:15 for the purpose of enabling them to preach the Gospel, not only in the presence of kings and magistrates, but before the most enraged enemies; and also that firm persuasion of the power and veracity of God, which led many of the spiritual men, without hesitation, to attempt the working of miracles, when they felt an inward impulse to do so. See Mat 17:20. 1Co 13:2. To another the gifts of healing, by the same Spirit, all manner of bodily diseases, by a word or touch instantaneously. To another the working of miracles, in mercy or judgment, (See Act 5:10.) To another, prophesy, or the power of foretelling future events; to another, the discerning of Spirits, under what influence, divine or diabolical, men act, what are their real designs and qualifications, and who are fit to be publicly employed in the church; to another, divers kinds of tongues, so as to understand and speak fluently languages which he had never learnt; to another, the interpretation of tongues, the ability of rendering with exactness and propriety a foreign tongue, which the congregation may not understand, into their own native language. But all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally, as he will. Note; (1.) The Holy Ghost is a divine person; he acted with sovereignty in the distribution of his supernatural gifts; and in energy and operation is one with the Father and the Son. (2.) All our gifts are bestowed for service, not to advance our own honour and interest, but the glory of God and the salvation of men’s souls.
2nd, The Apostle represents the union subsisting between genuine believers, who partake of the several gifts and graces of the Spirit, under the similitude of a human body consisting of many members: it is but one, though composed of various parts, which have each their particular function for the good of the whole. So also is the mystical body of Christ: though consisting of different persons, with different gifts, and appointed to different stations, yet all who are vitally united to him compose but one spiritual body, into which all, whether Jews or Gentiles, who have been baptized with water and the Holy Ghost, are by faith incorporated, and are nourished by that one divine Spirit which resides in all his fulness in Christ, and is from him diffused through the several members, who thereby maintain communion with the exalted Head. Now in the natural body, (1.) Each member constitutes a part of the whole, and the meanest are needful: the foot and the ear, though less useful perhaps than the hand and eye, are yet equally parts of the body. The meanest believer is dear to the Saviour, and regarded by him as a member of his body. (2.) There is a beauty in the variety of the different members: if the body were all eye or all ear, it would be defective and monstrous. Thus the diversity of offices and gifts in the church displays a beautiful symmetry. (3.) As in the body natural God gives, as he pleases, to every member its proper office; so, in the body mystical, the Lord appoints to each his station, and furnishes him with gifts, which he is bound to receive with thankfulness, to use with diligence, and neither to murmur against the Giver, nor envy the superiority of others. (4.) Every member of the body contributes to the good of the whole. The eye wants the hand, the head the feet,even the feeblest members are necessary. Thus do those who are in the most exalted stations in the church need the inferior members, and must not despise them as insignificant or useless. (5.) In the body we shew peculiar regard to our uncomely parts, covering them with proper cloathing, which our comely parts do not need; and thus hath God ordered it, that we should give more abundant honour to the part which lacketh. In like manner ought the more eminent in gifts and abilities in the church to hide the infirmities of their weaker brethren; not to reproach or despise them, but treat them with kindness and regard, and desire to make them appear in the most respectable manner. (6.) In the body the suffering of one member gives pain to the whole, and all the members share in the honour conferred on any particular part: such a mutual sympathy prevents all schism in the body, and obliges the members to have the same care one for another. The like fellow-feeling should every Christian have for his brother: we should tenderly sympathize with the afflicted in body or soul; and their temporal or spiritual prosperity, far from being the occasion of our envy, should be matter of our sincerest joy. All coldness and distance is as unnatural as a schism between the members, and should be shunned as the most dangerous evil.
3rdly, The Apostle particularly applies the case in hand. Now ye are the mystical body of Christ, and members in particular, each being a part of the whole. And God, in infinite wisdom and with admirable propriety, hath set some in the church in one office, and some in another, appointing one to a higher, another to a lower station. In the first rank stand the Apostles, who received their commission immediately from Christ himself: secondly, prophets, who are endued with the gift of foretelling future events: thirdly, teachers, who labour in the word and doctrine, and are the ordinary ministers of the Gospel: after that, miracles, which some are endued with the power of working: then gifts of healing the sick: helps, such as are assistant to the superior ministers: governments, those who preside over the affairs of the church: others are endued with diversities of tongues, the ability to speak or interpret them. Are all Apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? No. Each has his appointed station and peculiar gifts; wherein the highest are not to be envied, nor the lowest to be despised. But covet earnestly the best gifts. It may be regarded as his advice; or it may be read as an assertion, ye do covet the best gifts, and blameably desire to excel in these extra-ordinary endowments; or as an interrogation, Do ye covet earnestly the best gifts? and envy each other’s superior attainments? Yet shew I unto you a more excellent way: a spirit of love, which prompts to every good word and work for the glory of God and the profit of men’s souls, is far better and more desirable than the most shining gifts. Note; (1.) Gifts, when valued because of the esteem which they procure us, more than for their use to the souls of men, prove the most fatal snares to the soul. (2.) One spark of Godlike charity, or genuine love, is infinitely preferable to all the glare of the most eminent titles or abilities.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Co 12:31 . It is not the wish of Paul, by what he has said from 1Co 12:4 up till now regarding the different gifts of the Spirit, to repress the eager striving after them. But the important question is as to the nature of the gifts and the manner of the striving . Hence: But be zealous after the better gifts of the Spirit , [2025] those which are more essential than others, and have a more absolute value for the highest welfare of the church (1Co 12:7 ). The is the autem marking the transition to a new point.
, again, does not conflict with 1Co 12:11 , because the will of the communicating Spirit is not an arbitrary one, but makes the receptive capacity and the mental tendency of the individual to be elements in its own self-determination. The zealous striving after the better gifts consists therefore negatively in this, that one makes such , as are less generally necessary and have less value for the church (as e.g. the glossolalia , the reception of which was sought after by many for the sake of show), less the aim towards which he directs his will and cultivates a susceptibility; positively, again, it consists in this, that one makes those better gifts, on the other hand, the object of his ardent desire and the aim of his self-active development, in order to reach in this way the definite degree of receptivity needful to be the organ of the agency of the in question, and thereby to become, by the free will of the Spirit, partaker of the better gifts. [2026] It is perfectly plain that in this supplicatory prayer is also included; but it is arbitrary to limit the conception to it, as does Grotius: “ agite cum Deo precibus , ut accipiatis” (comp Heydenreich, Rckert, Hofmann). Equally arbitrary, too, is every departure from the hitherto invariable sense of ; as e.g. Morus and Ewald hold faith, hope, and love to be meant; and Billroth, the fruits arising from love; Flatt, again (comp Osiander), even imports the right use of the gifts which should be striven after. Comp on the contrary, as to the difference in value of the charismata, 1Co 14:2 ff.
. . [2030] ] and furthermore , yet besides (Luk 14:26 ; Heb 11:36 ; Act 2:26 ; often thus in Greek authors), besides prescribing to you this , I show you (now, from chap. 1Co 13:1 onwards) a surpassing way , [2031] an exceedingly excellent fashion, according to which this of yours must be constituted. By this he means that the striving after the better gifts must always have love as its determining and impelling principle, without which, indeed, the gifts of the Spirit generally would be worthless (1Co 13:1 ff.), and the unattainable. Love is thus the most excellent way, which that ought to keep. Rckert (so also Estius) finds here the meaning: “I show you a far better way still, in which ye may walk, namely, the way of love, which far surpasses all possession of charismata;” and so, too, in substance, Hofmann: “even away beyond the goal of the better charismata I show you a way,” i.e. a way which brings you still further than the . . . . But Paul surely did not conceive of the striving after the better charismata as becoming unnecessary through love, but rather as necessarily to be connected with love (1Co 14:1 ; 1Co 14:39 ). Besides, he would logically have required to attach his statement not by , but by or ; but even priori it is improbable that he should have merely set down the weighty . . . . in such a naked way, and should have forthwith forsaken it again with the remark that he would now give instructions away beyond the better gifts . Grotius and Billroth connect . with the verb . The former renders: by way of superfluity (so also Ewald); the latter: “ after a fashion which, as being the best, is certain of its success .” But the meaning, by way of superfluity ( , ), corresponds neither to the N. T. use of the phrase (Rom 7:13 ; 2Co 1:8 ; 2Co 4:17 ; Gal 1:13 ; comp 4MMal 3:18 ), nor to its use elsewhere in Greek (Soph. Oed. Tyr. 1196; Polyb. iii. 92. 10, ix. 22. 8; Lucian, p. merc. cond. 13; Dem. 1411. 14). Moreover, Paul could hardly have considered the following instructions, especially in view of the circumstances of the Corinthians, as given “further by way of superfluity.” It militates against Billroth, again, that the apostle’s thought could not be to recommend the manner of his instruction regarding the way, but only the way itself , as excellent. On the other hand, to take the . together is grammatically correct, since it is a genuine Greek usage to attach adverbs of degree to substantives, and that generally by prefixing them. Bernhardy, p. 338; Buttmann, neut. Gr. p. 83 f. [E. T. 96]; comp on 2Co 11:23 ; also on 1Co 8:7 ; 1Co 7:35 ; Stallbaum, a [2034] Plat. Phoed. p. 93 B. We find this connection given in the Vulgate, by Chrysostom and Theophylact ( . ), Luther, Erasmus, Castalio, Calvin, and most interpreters. Bengel suggestively describes the superlative conception, which is attached to by , “quasi dicat: viam maxime vialem .”
[2025] Regarding , to seek eagerly to attain something , comp. Dem. 500. 2 ( ), 504. 8 ( ), 1461. 9 ( ); Polyb. vi. 25. 11 ( ); Wis 1:12 ( ).
[2026] Theophylact aptly says (comp. Chrysostom): , , . , , . Comp. Bengel: “Spiritus dat ut vult, sed fideles tamen libere aliud prae alio possunt sequi et exercere. Deus operatur suaviter, non cogit.” So also de Wette.
[2030] . . . .
[2031] Paul has not put the article to , “ suspensos nonnihil tenens Corinthios,” as Bengel says, who also observes with fine discernment upon the present , “ jam ardet Paulus et fertur in amorem.”
[2034] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 1984
GIFTS AND GRACES COMPARED
1Co 12:31. Covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.
SUCH is the weakness of human nature, that we can scarcely possess any thing that distinguishes us from others, without priding ourselves in it; as though it had sprung from some efforts of our own, or at least had been given us for our superior desert. Even miraculous powers, which could manifestly originate in nothing but Gods sovereign will and pleasure, were to the Corinthians a ground of boasting and self-complacency. We, at this time, are perfectly amazed at the indecorous way in which many in the apostolic age abused their powers, and at the manner in which they conducted their religious assemblies. St. Paul, as might well be expected, set himself to reform those abuses, and so to regulate their proceedings, that all things might be done decently and in order. With this view, he shewed them, that, whatever the number or quality of their gifts might be, whatever the differences of their administrations, and whatever the diversities of their operations, they all proceeded from the same God who wrought all in all. He acknowledged the benefit arising from the judicious exercise of their miraculous powers; hut yet told them, that there was an object far more worthy of their ambition; namely, charity, which was the sum and substance of all Christian perfection. He does not altogether blame their desire of useful gifts: on the contrary, he says, Covet earnestly the best gifts. But he would not have them satisfy themselves with any measure of such attainments, because without love or charity they were of no value whatever: and therefore he adds, Yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.
Before I come to my subject, I would just observe, that, though some of high name would alter the translation in my text, (from an idea that the Apostle, when reproving the pride and emulation which had prevailed in reference to these gifts, could never encourage the Corinthians to covet them [Note: Dr. Doddridge.],) I feel no doubt but that the translation is correct: for the very same word occurs again at the commencement of the 14th chapter, (the whole of the 13th being only parenthetical, as an explanation of my text,) and it is incapable of being understood in any other way than as it is translated in my text: Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy: where, shewing the peculiar usefulness of the gift of prophecy, which was the expounding of Scripture, he recommends that they should affect that in preference to any other. Again, in verse 12 of the same chapter, he says, Forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the Church And again, at the close of the same chapter, he says, Brethren, covet to prophesy; and forbid not to speak with tongues.
I have judged it expedient to dwell somewhat upon this point; because the Apostles inculcating a desire after the best gifts will have an important bearing on my subject; which is, to shew,
I.
The value and importance of spiritual gifts.
II.
The infinitely greater value of spiritual graces.
First, I will endeavour to mark the value and importance of spiritual gifts
The miraculous powers with which many of the primitive Christians were endowed, the Apostle calls spiritual gifts: not because in their nature they were spiritual, as emanating from the soul, and exercised about things that were altogether heavenly, but because they were spiritual in their source and tendency; inasmuch as they were wrought in men by the Holy Spirit, and were imparted to the Church for the purpose of spreading and establishing Christianity in the world. There was a great diversity of them, all proceeding from the same origin, and all conducing to the same end. Hence the Apostle says, There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man, to profit withal. For to one is given, by the Spirit, the word of wisdom; to another, the word of knowledge, by the same Spirit; to another, faith, by the same Spirit; to another, the gifts of healing, by the same Spirit; to another, the working of miracles; to another, prophecy; to another, discerning of spirits; to another, divers kinds of tongues; to another, the interpretation of tongues; and all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will [Note: 1Co 12:4; 1Co 12:7-11.].
These gifts, at the first establishment of Christianity, were necessary: for, unless God had imparted to the Apostles a spirit of wisdom and of knowledge, they could never have known those mysteries which were hid in God from the foundation of the world [Note: Eph 3:9.]. Nor, if they had not been endued with the gift of tongues, could they have declared to foreigners the blessed truths which they had received. Nor could they have given sufficient evidence of their divine commission to preach those truths, if they had not been enabled to work miracles in confirmation of their word. To have argued with heathens, or even with Jews, would have been a slow process, if they had to bear down their adversaries with the mere force of reason; and to convince them would have been a difficult undertaking: but the performing of miracles superseded, if not entirely, yet in great measure, these laborious efforts, and carried conviction at once to the minds of hundreds and of thousands, who would not have had leisure or ability to enter into long and deep discussions. Thus it was that Christianity was established: and those to whom these divine powers were committed, were highly honoured of God, in being made his instruments for the conversion and salvation of their fellow-men.
But these gifts are now no longer necessary: they have accomplished the work for which they were bestowed. The record of them remains; and to that we can appeal. That was written whilst multitudes were alive, and able to testify of what their eyes had seen and their ears had heard. To have had those miracles continued would have answered no good end: for they must have been wrought in every age and every place, where the doctrine needed to be confirmed: and then the commonness of them would have destroyed their efficacy upon the mind. Even when they were wrought, they did not carry conviction to the minds of all: and how much less would they have done so at this time, if they had been continued to the present day! We may well say, that, if men believe not the records of the Old and New Testaments, neither would they be persuaded though they saw one rise from the dead.
These supernatural gifts being withdrawn, we are now left to the use of those means which are placed within our reach. I do not intend to say, that any efforts of ours can convince those who will shut their eyes against the light: for the resurrection of Lazarus, and of our Lord himself, did not effect that: but we have within our reach means, which will, as far as is necessary, subserve the interests of religion in the way that miracles once did. Learning is now the substitute for those gifts: and by learning must we labour to attain the ends for which those spiritual gifts were formerly bestowed; namely, to acquire the knowledge of religion; to attain a facility of diffusing it; and to maintain it against all its adversaries.
By learning we must attain the knowledge of religion. Of course, I must not be understood to say, that the fundamental doctrines of Christianity cannot be understood without learning: for then I should condemn to hopeless misery all the unlearned of the earth. No: God has not so constituted his Gospel, that it should be hidden from the poor: for it is a characteristic feature of the Gospel, that it was to be preached to the poor and illiterate, and that it would commend itself to them, whilst it was hid from the wise and prudent. The fundamental truths of our holy religion are few and simple. The man who feels himself an undone sinner, and who looks simply to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, is truly instructed in the Gospel, though he be not able to read one word in it. And the Scriptures are so written, that even the poorest man who can read them, and who has a spiritual discernment given him from above, can comprehend all that is contained in them, so far as it is necessary for the edification and comfort of his own soul: and to keep the Bible out of the hands of the poor, from an idea that they will only receive injury from the perusal of it, is a Popish delusion, an unchristian cruelty, an impious reflection upon God himself. But still I must say, that, to a full and complete understanding of the sacred volume, a very considerable degree of learning is requisite. In truth, that volume itself contains mines of learning, which many years of investigation are scarcely sufficient to explore. Numberless things at this very day are but matters of conjecture, even to the most learned men upon earth, because of the very partial information which is transmitted to us of the customs to which they refer, and the circumstances with which they were connected. And it may well be doubted, whether the inspired volume will ever be fully understood, unless a Spirit of inspiration be again vouchsafed to unfold it to us.
Nor is learning at all less necessary for the diffusion of sacred knowledge. We admire and revere the memory of one favoured servant of God [Note: The Rev. Henry Martyn, a Member of this University.], who, possessed as he was of most transcendent talents, and with incredible zeal and industry devoted to the Lord, translated the New Testament into the Persian and Hindoostanee languages. What, then, must be necessary for the translating of the whole Scriptures into all the languages of the world! Let all the learning of our highly-respected University be embodied in one man, and how little would it enable him to effect in three quarters of the globe! In truth, were it not that Gods ancient people are scattered over the whole face of the earth, everywhere possessing, in part at least, their own inspired writings, on which ours are founded; and were it not that we had reason to believe that they are ordained of God to be his instruments for the conversion of the world; we should be ready still to regard the Millennial age as far distant as ever; so impossible would it seem, that persons in the present state of the Christian Church, should ever be found for the evangelizing of the world.
And must I not add, that learning is alike necessary for the maintaining of Christianity against its adversaries? We cannot contend even with sceptics and infidels, amongst ourselves, without learning: and how much less can we refute all the objections of Jewish Rabbies, and all the errors of the different religionists upon the face of the globe? They will not bow to the authority of our Scriptures: nor can we work miracles to convince them. We must search out all their refuges of lies, and expose all their sophistry, and establish our own religion upon the ruins of theirs. But can this be done without learning? I think, then, we may say, that learning must supply the place of miracles, unless God should be pleased to restore to his Church those powers which for so many centuries have been withdrawn.
Nevertheless, whilst, as becomes me, I exalt amongst you the importance of learning, it is proper that I proceed to point out, in
The second place, The infinitely greater value of spiritual graces. Covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.
That which is here proposed to them as more excellent than any gifts, is the grace of Charity; the character and offices of which are fully described in the chapter which follows. Now, in looking into that chapter, we see that the direct tendency of this grace is to mortify all those evil dispositions which had been exercised in the Corinthian Church, and to call forth into action all those holy tempers which had been trodden under foot. The Apostle, therefore, may be considered as saying to the Corinthian Church, You, instead of improving your gifts aright, have made them an occasion of pride, and envy, and jealousy: and I recommend you rather to set your hearts on the attainment of that heavenly principle, which will rectify your disorders, and unite all your souls in love.
Still, however, we must observe, that the Apostle did not confine himself to this idea; but launched forth into a general view of the excellencies of Charity, in order that he might the more powerfully excite them to the cultivation of it. And, therefore, I will so far follow him, as to shew you the superiority of this grace to all gifts whatever; first, for our own personal benefit; next, for the benefit of the world at large; and lastly, for the honour of our God.
Charity, then, is more excellent than learning; first, for our own personal benefit. I would by no means be thought to undervalue learning: it is, beyond all doubt, of immense importance: it expands the mind, and enlarges the heart; and contributes, more than can be well conceived, to raise man above his fellows; insomuch, that all are ready to bow down to him who stands high in repute for the attainment of it. But, then, it does nothing towards the sanctifying of the heart, or the improvement of the soul in heavenly dispositions: on the contrary, it is too often found to operate precisely as the spiritual gifts did at Corinth, to the engendering of pride and envy, of conceit and jealousy, of hatred and malignity, in the very circle where it most abounds.
But Charity elevates the mind, and purifies it from all these hateful dispositions. It raises the soul to God, and calls forth all our energies in behalf of man. It even transforms us into the very image of God himself, whose name and nature is love. It also greatly tranquillizes the mind, and cuts off all occasion for those painful feelings which agitate the bosoms of the generality, and kindle animosities between man and man. I may go further, and say, as the Apostle does, that, whatever we may possess of such attainments, they will soon vanish away, and leave us as little benefited as if we had never possessed them. But Charity constitutes our meetness for the heavenly inheritance, and is indeed the commencement of heaven in the soul: and it will exist within us, in full activity, when all other things shall have ceased for ever.
Charity, too, is more excellent than learning, for the benefit of the world at large. Learning, as I have said, confers extensive good upon mankind: but it is also frequently a vehicle of incalculable evil. To a vast extent has it been employed in the service of infidelity and profaneness; insomuch, that, even in Christian lands, some of the most distinguished historians, poets, and philosophers, have put forth all their energies for the subversion, rather than the establishment, of our holy religion. But Charity is never employed but for the good of mankind. Gladly would it drive from the world every noxious sentiment and feeling, and contribute, as far as possible, to the happiness of all. To benefit the souls of men, is its highest aim: and not so much as one would it suffer to perish, if by any means it could induce him to embrace the proffered salvation. We need only see the difference between the learned Saul and the pious Paul, and we shall behold this matter in its true light.
I may here add, that learning, how beneficial soever it may be to some, has but few objects, comparatively, with whom it can come in contact. The learned only can appreciate its worth, or make a due improvement of its stores. But love extends to every child of man; and is capable of its fullest exercise, in every place, and under every circumstance that can occur. It is like the sun, which shines alike upon the evil and upon the good; or the rain, which descends alike on the just and on the unjust.
Yet further I must add, that love is more excellent than learning, as contributing more to the honour of our God. Though learning is indeed to be traced to God as its true source, yet his agency in it is almost always overlooked; and the honour of it is ascribed to its possessor, who employs it only for his own glory. Even when it is used in support of religion, still, unless under the influence of love, it aims only at the advancement of its possessor in wealth or honour. But love bears upon it the very stamp of heaven; and shews to all, that it proceeds from God. It is an epistle of Christ, known and read of all men. And in all it does, it seeks to honour God. It would be ashamed to arrogate any thing to itself. It gives to God the glory of its every motion and its every act: and, if only God be honoured, it regards not what portion is assigned to its possessor. I will only add, that learning will sit at ease, and please itself, without any concern for God; whilst love will travel to the ends of the earth, and encounter all imaginable perils, if only man may be benefited, and God be glorified.
Suffer me now, then, to address you in the words of my text; and, in conformity with the Apostles direction to the Corinthians, to say, in the first place
Covet earnestly the best gifts.It will be remembered, that I have stated this to be the just translation of the word; and that, instead of being a reproof, saying, Ye do covet (and covet improperly) the best gifts, it is a concession. Covet earnestly the best gifts; for that is an ambition, which, if duly exercised, I cordially approve. I observed, that this view of the word had an important bearing on my subject: and that bearing I shall now point out. There are religious persons who undervalue learning; and therefore undervalue it, because they want either the talent or the industry to attain it. But I must bear my decided testimony against all such persons; and must declare, that their notions are erroneous, their conduct evil, their example pernicious. It is an error to suppose that religion discountenances attainments of any kind: and they who are sent hither (to this university, I mean) for instruction, and neglect to improve their talents according to the plan of study here prescribed, are highly criminal before God and man: nor can they conceive how great a stumbling-block they lay in the way of others, or what injury they do to religion, which is condemned for their sakes. I therefore would say to all, Covet earnestly the best gifts; and not only covet them earnestly, but pursue them diligently. And, if I may be permitted to address myself more particularly to those with whom, as a partaker of the same benefits with them in our early education and our present means of prosecuting our studies, I am more immediately connected, I would say, Inasmuch as your advantages have been greater than perhaps those of any other persons, your proficiency ought to be pro-portionably great: and, inasmuch as the lines in which you have an opportunity to distinguish yourselves are, through accidental circumstances, more contracted than those of others, you are doubly bound to excel in those lines, where the scope for competition is open to you [Note: Preached before the University, in Kings College, on the Founders day, March 25, 1825.].
Yet I must go on, with the Apostle, to say, good as this way is, I have shewn you a more excellent way, and would most earnestly exhort you to walk in it. The way of charity is indeed a more excellent way; and it may well regulate you, even in the prosecution of your studies. You will remember that the Apostle says, Covet earnestly the best gifts. And he tells us plainly what the best gifts are: God has set some in the Church; first, apostles; secondly, prophets; thirdly, teachers; after that, miracles; then, gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues [Note: 1Co 12:28.]. Now, here you will notice, that his judgment was in direct opposition to that of the Corinthians in general. They put the speaking with tongues in the first place, because that was the gift which excited the most admiration, and attracted the most applause: and they accounted the prophets, that is, the expounders of Gods blessed word, as low in comparison of them. But the Apostle inverted that order altogether: he put the prophets and teachers next in order to the Apostles; and placed the diversities of tongues the very lowest of all. He estimated these gifts by a very different standard from that which obtained amongst the vain ostentatious Corinthians: he judged of gifts by their usefulness to the souls of men. And this is the judgment which I would recommend to you. Let not your time be so occupied with things curious, or entertaining, or calculated to excite the admiration of men, as to neglect, or keep upon the back-ground, those things which are of practical utility to the Church of God. Learn to estimate these things, not by the worlds standard, but by Gods: and lay out your time and strength most in those things which will most conduce to the benefit of Gods Church and people.
And this you will do, if you cultivate the grace of charity. You will act to God, and not to man. You will seek the edification of your own souls, in every thing that is amiable and praiseworthy; and you will move in the sphere appointed you, so as most to advance the welfare of men and the honour of your God. You will not consider it sufficient to attain gifts, however great and splendid, when you recollect how empty and worthless they are without charity. The Apostle says, Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge (in which we may include all that is cultivated with so much assiduity and success in this learned university); and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing [Note: 1Co 13:1-3.]. After such declarations as these, so strong, so authoritative, so decisive, I may well be excused if I urge upon you a practical attention to them, and entreat you, whilst pursuing, as you ought to do, the best attainments in learning, not to be unmindful of that more excellent way; but to add to your knowledge godliness, and to godliness brotherly-kindness, and to brotherly-kindness charity [Note: 2Pe 1:6-7.].
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
REFLECTIONS
BLESSED God the Spirit! suffer my poor soul never to be ignorant of spiritual gifts! I know, indeed, 0 Lord, through thy divine quickenings, and gracious teachings, that like those Corinthians, I was once an ignorant, blind, and senseless Gentile; carried away unto the idols, and stumbling blocks of sin, and iniquity, which a fallen nature, under the dominion of Satan, had set up in my heart, Blessed be the Lord the Spirit, which brought me out of darkness, and hath enabled me to say, that Jesus is Jehovah, and my Lord! And I do desire to bless God the Holy Ghost, for all his spiritual gifts to me, to every child of God, yea, to the whole Church, Blessed be the Lord, for the numberless, nameless gifts, with which he blesseth the people! All are his. From the first moment, in which the Lord quickens the poor sinner, through all the vast diversities of gifts he bestows upon every saint, whether Prophet, Apostle, or Teacher; until he brings home the whole Church, rich, for glory in Christ; well do I know, and with holy joy confess, that it is the same GOD, which worketh all in all. Yes! thou Almighty Minister of the Church! sure I am, that all these worketh that One and the self-self Spirit, dividing to every man severally as lie will.
And blessed be thy Name, sweet and precious Jesus! thou, and thy Church are one. Many are the members of thy mystical body; yet, whether in Heaven or earth, still but one. Our Lord Jesus, our glorious Head, hath but one body. Our faithful Husband, but our Wife. Oh! then, do thou own, and bless, and sanctify, and keep, and love, and delight in thy Spouse, the Church! Make her, Lord! what thou wouldest have her to be. And at length bring her home, as one espoused by thyself, and presented by thyself, and to thyself, a glorious Church: the body of Christ, and members in particular, to be holy, and without blemish, before thee forever.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
30 Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?
31 But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.
Ver. 31. Covet earnestly, &c. ] , ambite. This is the best ambition. Christians should strive to excel, and be the best at what they undertake. Melancthon saith that Frederick the elector of Saxony had cropped off the tops of all virtues.
A more excellent way ] What was that? Charity to God and men, 1Co 13:1 . Graces are better than gifts. A shopful of barrels enrich not, unless full of commodities. Gifts as to heaven are but the lumber of a Christian; it is grace maketh him rich toward God; and is therefore chiefly to be coveted. Care also is to be taken that we get not the spiritual rickets; grow big in the head (in gifts), decay in the vitals, i.e. in grace and the exercise of it.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
31. ] But (he has been shewing that all gifts have their value: and that all are set in the church by God: some however are more valuable than others ) do ye aim at the greater gifts ( . is explained ch. 1Co 14:5 ). This exhortation is not inconsistent with 1Co 12:11 ; but, as we look for the divine blessing on tillage and careful culture, so we may look for the aid of the Spirit on carefully cultivated powers of the understanding and speech; and we may notice that the greater gifts, those of and , consisted in the inspired exercise of the conscious faculties , in which culture and diligence would be useful accessories. “Spiritus dat, ut vult ( 1Co 12:11 ): sed fideles tamen libere aliud pr alio possunt sequi et exercere, c. xiv. 26.” Bengel. Compare also xiv. 39. There is thus no need to explain away , as Grot. (“ agite cum Deo precibus ut accipiatis ”) and others: or to depart from the known usage of , and explain it to mean faith, hope, and love , as Morus, or the fruits of love , as Billroth.
] And moreover: besides exhorting you to emulate the greatest gifts.
. .] An eminently excellent way , viz. of emulating the greatest gifts: so Theophyl.: ( ), , , , , .
.] must not be joined with the verb, ‘est adhuc via quam vobis diligentissime demonstro’ (Pagnini’s version, and some mentioned by Estius): see reff. and cf. , Arist. Poet. ii. 6, , Xen. Hell. vi. 2. 39, , sch. Agam. 262, , Plato, Legg. i. p. 639 c, and other examples in Bernhardy, Syntax, p. 338.
The explanation of Estius and Billroth, that the way which he is about to shew them is ‘multo excellentiorem iis donis de quibus hactenus egit’ (Est.), is clearly wrong: the opening verses of ch. 13 shewing, that he does not draw a comparison between love and gifts , but only shews that it is the only WAY, in which gifts can be made effectual in the highest sense. See also on ch. 1Co 14:1 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Co 12:31 a corrects the inference which an indolent nature or weak judgment might draw from 1Co 12:29 f., supposing that God’s sovereign ordination supersedes man’s effort. Our striving has a part to play, along with God’s bestowment, in spiritual acquisitions; hence the contrastive . “But (for all that) be zealous after the greater gifts.” A man must not, e.g ., be content to “speak with tongues” when he might “prophesy” (1Co 14:1 ff.), nor to work miracles when beside that he might teach in the “word of wisdom”. (see parls.) implies in its good sense an ardent , in its bad sense (1Co 13:4 ) an emulous pursuit. The greater ( ) gifts are those intrinsically greater, or more beneficial (1Co 14:5 ) conditions usually coincident.
1Co 12:31 b . . . . ( cf. , Luk 14:26 ) “And besides” adds to the exhortation just given (1Co 12:31 a ) an indication of the way to carry it out; the which aims at the must be that of . This clause introduces and properly belongs to ch. 13. (W.H [1957] ). (see parls.) is superlative, not compar.; P. is not pointing out “a more excellent way” than that of seeking and using the charisms of ch. 12. (with such a meaning he should have written : cf. Luk 24:41 , etc.), but “a super-excellent way” ( une voie souverainement excellente , Gd [1958] ) to win them ( cf. 1Co 8:1 b , 1Jn 4:7 ). is “to point out” as with the finger.
[1957] Westcott and Hort’s The New Testament in Greek: Critical Text and Notes.
[1958] F. Godet’s Commentaire sur la prem. p. aux Corinthiens (Eng. Trans.).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
1Co 12:31 to 1Co 13:3 . 42. THE WAY TO CHRISTIAN EMINENCE. Carefully and luminously Paul has set forth the manifoldness of the Holy Spirit’s gifts that contribute to common life of the Church. All are necessary, all honourable in their proper use; all are of God’s ordination. Some of the charisms are, however, more desirable than others. But if these “greater gifts” be sought in selfish emulation (as the of 1Co 12:31 a , taken by itself, might suggest), their true purpose and blessing will be missed; gifts of grace ( ) are not for men actuated by the of party spirit and ambition ( cf. 1Co 12:4 f., 1Co 3:3 ; 2Co 12:20 , Gal 5:20 ). While encouraging the Cor [1956] to seek larger spiritual powers, the Ap. must “besides point out” the “way” to this end (1Co 12:31 b ), the way to escape the perils besetting their progress (1Co 12:4 ff.) and to win the goal of the Christian life (1Co 12:8-13 ). Love is the path to power in the Church; all loveless abilities, endowments, sacrifices are, frpm the Christian point of view, simply good for nothing (1Co 12:1-3 ).
[1956] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 1Co 12:31 to 1Co 13:3
1Co 12:31 And I show you a still more excellent way. 1Co 13:1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
1Co 12:31 b “a still more excellent way” The term “excellent” is a Greek term made up of huper (i.e., over or beyond) and ball (i.e., to throw). It is metaphorical for that which goes beyond. Paul uses this metaphor often in 2 Corinthians (cf. 2Co 1:8; 2Co 3:10; 2Co 4:7; 2Co 9:14; 2Co 11:23; 2Co 12:7). See Special Topic: Paul’s Use of Huper Compounds at 1Co 2:1.
The term “way” is an OT metaphor for godly lifestyle (cf. Deu 5:32-33; Deu 31:29; Psa 27:11; Isa 35:8). OT faith, like NT faith, was not simply a correct creed (orthodoxy), but a life of obedience (orthopraxy). The title of the early church was “The Way” (cf. Act 9:2; Act 19:9; Act 19:23; Act 24:14; Act 24:22). God’s best is a life of self-giving love, modeled by Himself and His Son.
1Co 13:1 “If” This is a series of third class conditional sentences, which mean potential action, in 1Co 13:1-3 (twice).
NASB, NKJV”I speak with the tongues of men and of angels”
NRSV”I speak with the tongues of mortals and of angels”
TEV”I may be able to speak the languages of human beings and even of angels”
NJB”though I command languages both human and angelic”
This is obviously a reference to the gift of tongues mentioned in 1Co 12:10; 1Co 12:28-29, a gift which the Corinthian church magnified and Paul possessed (cf. 1Co 14:1; 1Co 14:5-6; 1Co 14:18-19).
Since I think that “tongues” in Acts were different from “tongues” in Corinth, this dual reference makes me wonder if possibly Paul also understood tongues to be human languages (i.e., Pentecost) and an ecstatic utterance (i.e., language of heaven). For sure, he affirms that a complete linguistic ability alone is inadequate unless energized by love! Christianity is more than a message; it is a person, a self-giving, loving, obedient person-Jesus.
“love” This is the Greek term agap. It was one of several words for “love” in Classical Greek, but was used infrequently (i.e., the noun form). The early church seems to have chosen this term and infused it with a new Christian connotation (i.e., God and Christ’s self-giving love, cf. 1Jn 4:10) because of its use in the Septuagint (e.g., Gen 22:2) and rabbinical Judaism. In the OT God’s covenant love and loyalty to His promises and covenants was expressed by hesed. In many ways agap expresses this concept of “covenant love” by paralleling it with “the Kingdom of God.” It becomes the NT’s term for God’s character, which He wishes His followers to emulate (cf. 1Jn 4:7-21).
Just a note about the relationship of agap to philos. In some contexts there seems to be a distinction (cf. Joh 21:15-19). However, in Koine Greek they are regularly synonymous (cf. Joh 3:35; Joh 5:20).
SPECIAL TOPIC: LOVINGKINDNESS (HESED)
NASB, NRSV”a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal”
NKJV”as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal”
TEV”no more than a noisy gong or a clanging bell”
NJB”a gong booming or a cymbal clashing”
Historically in the first century Roman world this was used by the cults of Dionysus and Cybele in worship to attract their deities. In the context of the Corinthian abuse it may mean metaphorically “a fanfare of trumpets” (cf. Mat 6:2), which brought attention to a speaker as did men covering their hair in gathered worship or women uncovering their short hair in gathered worship (cf. 1Co 11:4-5).
The city of Corinth was known in the ancient world for its bronze ware. One use of this material was for “resonance enhancers” in theaters (cf. Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, p. 172).
Paul’s parallelism shows the intensity of his feelings about spiritual activities without love.
1. “I have become a noisy gong” (perfect tense), 1Co 13:1
2. “I am nothing” (present tense), 1Co 13:2
3. “it profits me nothing” (present tense), 1Co 13:3
1Co 13:2 “gift of prophecy” In this book this term is best understood as “sharing the gospel message” (cf. 1Co 11:4-5; 1Co 14:39). The first three terms of 1Co 13:2 relate to the gifts of wisdom and knowledge (cf. 1Co 12:8). There was a problem in this area as Paul’s negative statements of 1Co 1:17; 1Co 1:19-22; 1Co 1:24; 1Co 2:1; 1Co 2:4-6; 1Co 2:13; 1Co 3:19 show. Prophecy without love, as wisdom and knowledge without love, is not pleasing to God. Spiritual gifts can be used in appropriate ways.
For the concept of “prophecy” in the OT see Special Topic at 1Co 12:10 and NT prophecy at 1Co 14:1.
“and know all mysteries and all knowledge” Paul uses this in 1Co 4:1 for gospel truths and in 1Co 15:51 for the specific truths about the resurrection body. In this context this phrase seems to refer to knowledge in its every form, which the believers at Corinth were prizing and seeking. Even perfect knowledge without love is not pleasing to God. See Special Topic: The Mystery at 1Co 2:1.
“all faith” This refers to miracle-working faith (cf. 1Co 12:9; 1Co 12:28; Mat 17:20; Mat 21:21), but notice in Mat 7:21-23 that miracle- working power without love does not please God or even know God.
For the concept of “faith” in the OT see Special Topic at 1Co 1:9 and NT at 1Co 2:4.
1Co 13:3
NASB”I give all my possessions”
NKJV”I bestow all my goods”
NRSV”I give away everything I have”
TEV”I may give away everything I have”
NJB”I should give away. . .all that I possess”
This implies the giving away of all that one has, personally, piece by piece (cf. Joh 13:26-27; Joh 13:30). This may be an allusion to Jesus’ discussion with the rich young ruler (cf. Mat 19:16-29; Mar 10:17-30; Luk 18:18-30).
NASB, NKJV “to feed the poor”
NRSV -omits phrase-
TEV -omits phrase-
NJB”to the poor”
This phrase is not in the Greek text, but is implied in the action of this verb.
NASB, NKJV,
TEV, NJB”my body to be burned”
NRSV”my body so that I may boast”
There are two manuscript options: “burned” (i.e., kauthsomai) and “glory” (i.e., kauchsmai) are both found in early Greek manuscripts and the early church fathers. The phrase, “that I may glory,” has the strongest manuscript support (i.e., MSS P46, , and B), but UBS4 is unable to make a decision between them. It is also a term used often by Paul (cf. 2Co 8:24; Php 2:16; 1Th 2:19; 2Th 1:4). Martyrdom by burning was unknown in the early church, but became more common in later persecutions (i.e., Nero and Domitian). Therefore, one can see how a later scribe might have changed “glory” to “burn.”
For a full discussion of the textual variants see Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, pp. 563-564. For the opposite opinion see The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, p. 270 footnote.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
covet earnestly. Greek. zeloo. See Act 7:9.
best. The texts read “greater”.
more excellent. Literally according to (Greek. kata. App-104.) excellence. See Rom 7:13.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
31.] But (he has been shewing that all gifts have their value: and that all are set in the church by God: some however are more valuable than others) do ye aim at the greater gifts (. is explained ch. 1Co 14:5). This exhortation is not inconsistent with 1Co 12:11; but, as we look for the divine blessing on tillage and careful culture, so we may look for the aid of the Spirit on carefully cultivated powers of the understanding and speech;-and we may notice that the greater gifts, those of and , consisted in the inspired exercise of the conscious faculties, in which culture and diligence would be useful accessories. Spiritus dat, ut vult (1Co 12:11): sed fideles tamen libere aliud pr alio possunt sequi et exercere, c. xiv. 26. Bengel. Compare also xiv. 39. There is thus no need to explain away , as Grot. (agite cum Deo precibus ut accipiatis) and others: or to depart from the known usage of , and explain it to mean faith, hope, and love, as Morus, or the fruits of love, as Billroth.
] And moreover: besides exhorting you to emulate the greatest gifts.
. .] An eminently excellent way, viz. of emulating the greatest gifts:-so Theophyl.: ( ), , , , , .
.] must not be joined with the verb,-est adhuc via quam vobis diligentissime demonstro (Pagninis version, and some mentioned by Estius): see reff. and cf. , Arist. Poet. ii. 6,- , Xen. Hell. vi. 2. 39,- , sch. Agam. 262,- , Plato, Legg. i. p. 639 c, and other examples in Bernhardy, Syntax, p. 338.
The explanation of Estius and Billroth, that the way which he is about to shew them is multo excellentiorem iis donis de quibus hactenus egit (Est.), is clearly wrong: the opening verses of ch. 13 shewing, that he does not draw a comparison between love and gifts, but only shews that it is the only WAY, in which gifts can be made effectual in the highest sense. See also on ch. 1Co 14:1.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Co 12:31. , emulously desire) The Spirit gives as He wills, 1Co 12:11 : but yet believers may freely follow out, and engage in, one thing in preference to another, ch. 1Co 14:26. Gods operations are pleasant, not compulsory.- , the better gifts) according as each gift is more favourable to love. Theology is comparative: ch. 1Co 14:5; 1Co 14:19.-) [and yet, Engl. Vers.] nay even: so , yea even also, Luk 14:26. I not only exhort, but also show the method, and the way or plan [the true mode of viewing the subject].- ) This expression attaches to the noun substantive the force of a superlative (Rom 7:13), as if he were to say, the way most way-like [viam maxim vialem].-, a way) He does not add the article, keeping the Corinthians somewhat in suspense, while he explains the way: , the way of love.-, I show) The present. Paul is now waxing warm, and is carried on to love. When he has made this showing of the way, he returns to the gifts, as the word emulously desire [] repeated indicates, here and at ch. 1Co 14:1.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
1Co 12:31
1Co 12:31
But desire earnestly the greater gifts.-If they desired the greater gifts, they must fit themselves to use them. God bestows honors and privileges as men are fitted to use them. While he admonishes them to seek the greater gifts, he tells them there is a better way than seeking or using any gifts. The gifts were temporary and would soon pass away.
And moreover a most excellent way show I unto you.-The more excellent way is doing the will of God to all out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
more excellent
Chapter 13. continues the pneumatika begun in Chapter 12. Gifts are good, but only if ministered in love. 1Co 13:1; 1Co 13:2. Benevolence is good, but not apart from love.
1Co 13:3 Love is described.
1Co 13:4-7 Love is better than our present incomplete knowledge, 1Co 13:8-12 and greater than even faith and hope 1Co 13:13.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
covet: 1Co 8:1, 1Co 14:1, 1Co 14:39, Mat 5:6, Luk 10:42
show: 1Co 13:1-13, Phi 3:8, Heb 11:4
Reciprocal: 2Ki 2:9 – Elisha said 1Co 14:12 – forasmuch 1Co 16:14 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Co 12:31. Covet earnestly is from ZELOO, which Thayer defines, “to desire earnestly, pursue.” Best is from KREITTON, and Thayer defines it, “more useful, more serviceable.” Paul has consistently taught that all of the gifts are important, and he has rebuked the brethren for their contending with each other over their respective gifts. We should conclude, therefore, that he here means their main interest should he in that which will do the church
the most good, and not which of them can exhibit the greatest power. More excellent way signifies that after all that can truly be said of the spiritual gifts, there is something that is more excellent; that will be shown in the next chapter.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1Co 12:31. But desire earnestly the greater[1] giftsreferring to those mentioned in chap. 14, which were such as tended to edify both the audience and the gifted themselves, in preference to those which merely evinced supernatural power. But ere this comes to be formally handled, an episode on something incomparably greater than even these greater gifts is here introduced, an episode of surpassing grandeurthe way of LOVE. (That chap. 13 is strictly parenthetical, is plain from the first verse of chap. 14, which links itself on, not to 13, but to 1Co 12:31, as its immediate sequel.)and a still more excellent way shew I unto you.
[1] Not the better gifts, as in the received text.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
He concludes the chapter with this advice, that they covet, and desire the best; that is, the most useful and excellent gifts, the most beneficial and edifying gifts, such as are most advantageous to the church; yet withal intimating to them, that though there be an excellency in gifts, yet there is a greater excellency in grace, particularly in the grace of love. Charity, or love to God and our neighbour, is more excelling than a load of gifts, though very extraordinary, though supernatural and miraculous.
Yet show I unto you a more excellent way: that is, a more excellent way of ministering to the welfare of the church, and of edifying your own souls, even by true Christian love one towards another.
Learn hence, That as the sanctifying graces of the Holy Spirit are more excellent than the miraculous and extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, so it is the Christian’s duty to be much more covetous and desirous of them; for when gifts vanish away, the habits of grace shall never fail, but abide for ever, particularly the grace of love, which shall not only accompany us to heaven, but in heaven; where, from a small and little spark, it shall be improved into a seraphic and never-failing flame.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Vv. 31. But covet earnestly the best gifts, and moreover I will show you a supremely excellent way.
Theodoret has taken the first proposition interrogatively. In that case it would contain a rebuke, either in the sense: Are you careful to seek the most useful gifts? No, you seek the most brilliant; or in this: Do you seek the greatest gifts (the most brilliant)? Yes, and it is your sin. But neither of these meanings harmonizes with the following proposition. It leads us to take the first clause as an exhortation resulting from the application, 1Co 12:27-30 : All gifts are useful and in their place; you are right in seeking them. But () let this search be especially after those by which you can contribute most to the edificaof the whole. The is rather adversative, as de Wette thinks, and as is proved by Edwards against Meyer. Holsten rightly remarks that the adjective ought to be detached from the substantive: Seek gifts, and the best ones. The reading of the received text , better, which is that of the Greco-Lats. and Byz., seems to me preferable to the Alex. reading: , greater. This is taken, probably, from the passages 1Co 13:13 and 1Co 14:5, which have been mistaken for parallels to this. The adjective , strictly more powerful and so more useful, is evidently taken here in this second meaning: the gifts most capable of producing the common edification. The word would have the same meaning, but less naturally.
By these better gifts, there have been understood faith, hope, and charity (1Co 13:13), but wrongly. Never, in Paul’s language, are the gifts, which are the means of Christian activity, confounded with the virtues which are the very elements of life. The sequel will show that Paul has especially in view prophecy and teaching.
It is asked how he can stir up believers to seek gifts. Does not the very term gifts imply that they are received, not acquired by labour? Must we with Reuss see here an insoluble contradiction between the two elements of Paul’s view: Divine gift and human pursuit? But first the pursuit can take place in the way of prayer, an act which agrees easily with the notion of gift. Then the gift may exist in the believer as a germ in a natural talent which it is his mission to cultivate, but which he may also leave buried. No doubt there were among the Corinthians more prophets and teachers potentially than really. Love for the Church would have developed those gifts; but they were decaying in consequence of the false direction which the new life had taken. See this idea of , covet, taken up again in the second part of 1Co 14:1. At the moment when he was about to develop it, all at once Paul stops, seized with the need of expressing a feeling which has for a long time filled his heart in view of the spiritual state of this Church. What does he mean by speaking of a supremely excellent way, which he proceeds to describe? Is it the normal way of attaining to the possession of the most desirable gifts? The way would thus be the true mode of the . Or is it the way in a more general sense, the way of holiness and salvation, in opposition to gifts which of themselves cannot sanctify and save? Commentators are divided between the two meanings. The former seems at first better to suit the context; it is adopted by Chrysostom, Meyer, Osiander, de Wette, Edwards, and yet the latter is alone really admissible, as has been clearly seen by Tertullian, Estius, Olshausen, Rckert, Hofmann, Holsten. This appears from the relation between our verse and that by which it is resumed, 1Co 14:1. There we find clearly expressed the idea of a contrast between seeking love and coveting gifts. Consequently, in the apostle’s view, love is by no means mentioned here as a means of succeeding in the pursuit of gifts, but as a virtue to be sought first of all and for itself. Meyer and Edwards object that this meaning would have required , but (Meyer), or , nevertheless (Edwards), instead of , moreover; but wrongly. The apostle rises from the encouragement to seek gifts to another recommendation, viz. to walk () in charity. The , and moreover, suits this meaning: Seek gifts, and, moreover, I will now describe a way which is still better than the exercise of gifts, even the best, that whereby alone the possession and exercise of gifts will truly become a blessing. I find in Holsten nearly the same thought thus expressed: Paul shows that above all gifts and the aspiration after them, there is a higher way open to the Christian love. The Corinthians find therein the true standard by which to appreciate the value of this aspiration and of its satisfaction. It would be possible to connect with ; but in this way we only form a pleonasm; is naturally joined with the verb: And moreover I have to show you… Comp. Act 2:26. The form , in superabundance, excellently, is somewhat frequent in Paul’s writings: sometimes it relates to the verb (2Co 1:8; Gal 1:13); sometimes it qualifies the adjective or the substantive it accompanies; so Rom 8:13 ( . ), and perhaps 2Co 4:17. Here, applying it to the verb, with Grotius and Ewald, we should be brought to the meaning: And to give superabundance of clearness or certainty, I again point out to you the true way. But first this meaning would attach to the false explanation of the word way, which we have set aside; and in any case, the indication of the way would not be in the least superfluous, for Paul gives it a whole chapter. The idea of superabundance or excellence therefore qualifies the way itself. The supremely excellent way whereby the Christian ought to seek to attain the end of life is charity. Reuss explains: A supreme rule which is to guide you in your judgment. The explanation is grammatically correct; but the way designates not the rule for judging gifts, but love itself, which should guide the use of them.
The present , I show, simply announces what Paul is about to do in the following passage (in reply to Edwards).
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
But desire earnestly the greater gifts. [Though these powers were bestowed as gifts by the Spirit, yet they were not bestowed blindly. They were apt to be conferred upon those who strove to be worthy of them.] And moreover a most excellent way show I unto you. [This may mean that I show you a most excellent way to attain unto the best gifts; or, I show you a way of love to which all may attain, and which far exceeds any gift or position. This way of love will be fully described in the next chapter.]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
31. But seek earnestly the greater gifts; E.V., covet earnestly the best gifts. This has direct reference to the catalogue of spiritual gifts above mentioned designated in the Greek, the greater contrastively with the minor gifts of the Spirit which He imparts to sinners to save them. Then, after they are saved, Jesus gives the gift of the Holy Ghost Himself in sanctification. After the Holy Ghost comes into your heart to abide, He has for you the glorious group of nine special, wonderful and extraordinary gifts, your essential equipage for the Lords war till you finish your work and go to glory. While, as above specified, every saint true to the Holy Ghost and walking in the light will receive some one of these nine gifts in an especial, an eminent manifestation; e. g., in the case of your humble servant, the gift of tongues and interpretation and teaching predominate while writing these commentaries. While some one of these gifts will come to the front and become the great, absorbing interest and availability of your life as the days go by, it does not follow that the same gift will always predominate. I preached fifteen years before I got sanctified, and, though enjoying a collegiate education, I had no light on these spiritual gifts. Since the Lord sanctified me thirty years ago, I have enjoyed all of them, different ones predominating ever and anon. The gifts of tongues and interpretation, in my case, came slowly to the front. But it seems now that they have come to stay; of this, however, I know not. There have been moments, hours, and perhaps days, in my life when each one of these gifts stood at the front. I may, of course, recognize the gift of knowledge, i. e., insight into Divine truth, as exceedingly prominent, in the mercy of God, in my present experience. Of these things I speak with the profoundest humiliation, as I am so unworthy. To the Giver be all the glory! He has the gifts. They are His and not mine. Yet He has them for me, as He does not need them. You see clearly in the above commandment that it is not only our privilege, but our duty, to seek all of these gifts, resting assured that the Giver is always faithful. Do not forget that commandment and promise are identical in the Greek Scriptures, one and the same word standing for both. This is in harmony with correct exegesis, from the simple fact that every commandment carries with it the promise of God to give us all the help we need to obey it; while it is equally true that every promise involves the full force of Gods commandment to receive appreciatively the blessing promised. Hence the commandment in this verse, Seek earnestly the greater gifts, i. e., these nine gifts of the Spirit above mentioned, not only makes it the inalienable duty of every sanctified person to seek them, but it carries with it the promise of God to bestow them. Is it not the duty of the unsanctified Christian to seek these gifts of the Spirit? It is; but it is his duty first to seek sanctification, and then these gifts which are normal to the sanctified. While this is true, yet you must remember that God is sovereign. He conferred the gift of Divine healing on my dear wife for me twenty-six years ago, and eleven years before she got sanctified. He conferred the gift of prophecy on Balaam, the wicked false prophet, who died without hope, fighting against Israel in the Moabitish war. He even conferred the gift of prophecy on the donkey which Balaam rode. He also conferred it on Caiaphas, the leader of the and-holiness people in Jerusalem, who assigned the death-warrant of our Savior. While these gifts may be conferred abnormally on unsanctified Christians, and even sinners, their normal sphere is with the sanctified. Hence it is the glorious privilege and imperative duty of all sanctified people to seek these gifts. This is the secret of so much inefficiency among the sanctified; you have actually crossed the Jordan, yet you only hold the territory on which you put your foot. If you would conquer the thirty-one giant kings, and possess the land, you must do some terrible fighting. This you can not do without the panoply, which is awaiting your appropriation in the Heavenly arsenal of these nine spiritual gifts. So go in and possess them. Because you have nothing on hand today but the big cannon, shout aloud, for it is all you need till you shell the enemy out of the citadel. Tomorrow you will be shooting with a Winchester rifle, next day you will wield the New Jerusalem sword, bathing it to the hilt in the blood of the enemy; when you need a six-shooter, you will have it, and it will monopolize all your strength and time. When your Captain gives orders to charge the devils batteries, you will have a bayonet fixed and ready to do execution. There is perfect consistency and harmony in these Scriptures throughout, so do not get blue and say you are counted out, for certainly in every case some one of these gifts, if you are true, is coming to the front, prompt and ready for the emergency every day of your life. Do not say you cannot have but one; the presumption is, you do not need but one now. Again, it is more than likely that some especial gift may be made prominent in your Christian work for years together, and perhaps through life, but at the same time do not forget that you are commanded to seek them all. God is not mocking you; He is certain to give you just what He commands you to seek, if you seek it diligently with all your heart. Yet I show unto you a more excellent way. We now have a new departure in the apostles wonderful exegesis of the spiritual gifts. It seems that he became apprehensive of at least a probability that some, carried away in their enthusiastic appreciation of the gifts, might lose sight of the graces which infinitely transcend the gifts in importance; from the simple fact that while I save others with the gifts, I myself must be saved by grace.
(Eph 2:8.) Hence he here halts in his grand elaboration of the gifts, and parenthesizes the thirteenth chapter on the graces, in which he gives them a most transcendent and hyperbolical elucidation and commendation, intensifying their importance infinitely beyond that of the gifts. This parenthesis, in point of orthodox, experimental, vital truth, involving the wonderful problem of full salvation, and sweeping away into the illimitable realities of coming glory, has charmed the heart of Gods people amid all the march of bygone centuries. John Wesley pronounced it the best chapter in the Bible, and said he wanted all the Methodists to live and die in it. Hence Paul exceedingly pertinently denominates it the more excellent way.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 31
And yet show I unto you, &c.; I will show unto you; that is, I will proceed to point out what is better than these gifts, viz., the grace of charity, as explained in the following chapter.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
I CORINTHIANS
SECTION 24 LOVE IS BETTER THAN THE BEST GIFTS CH. 12:31-13
Be emulous for the greater gifts. And, further, a surpassingly good way I show you.
If with the tongues of men I speak, and of the angels, but have not love, I am become sounding bronze or a noisy cymbal. And if I have prophecy, and know the mysteries, all of them, and all the knowledge, and if I have all the faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, nothing am I. And if I give as food all my possessions, and if I give up my body that I may be burned, but have not love, I am nothing profited.
Love is longsuffering, is kind. Love is not jealous: love does not vaunt itself, is not puffed up, is not unseemly, does not seek its own, is not moved to anger, does not reckon the evil, does not rejoice at unrighteousness but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never falls. But both if there be prophecies they will come to nought; and if tongues, they will cease; and if knowledge, it will come to nought. For, in part we know, and in part we prophesy: but, when the fully developed have come, that which is in part will come to nought. When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, I used to think as a child, I used to reckon as a child: when I became a man I made as nought the things of the child. For we see now through a mirror, in a dark saying; but then face to face. Now I know in part: but then I shall understand, according as also I have been understood. And now remain faith, hope love; these three. But the greatest of these is love.
After asserting the broad foundation truth that in the Church, as in a human body, the various members are endowed by God with various gifts, all useful and all needful for the general good, Paul now says that we must, nevertheless, make these gifts objects of desire and effort, and that some of them are greater than others and therefore more worthy of pursuit. But, instead of naming at once the greater gifts, (see 1 Corinthians 14.,) he interposes 1 Corinthians 13. to show us the best way of pursuing them. And, in so doing, he gives us a standard by which to measure their relative worth. (Similarly, in 1 Corinthians 8., before discussing his subject from the point of view of knowledge, he proves that love is better than knowledge.) He then, in 1 Corinthians 14., repeats the exhortation of 1Co 12:31 and goes on to show that prophecy is more worthy of pursuit than the gift of tongues.
1Co 12:31. Be-emulous-for: one Greek word combining the sense of zealous and jealous, both which are English forms of it. It denotes an emotion aroused in us by superior worth, whether it be earnest desire to gain for ourselves a like superiority, or a jealous care to keep for ourselves alone the object of desire, or mere idle vexation. Same word in 1Co 13:4; 1Co 14:1; 1Co 14:12; 1Co 14:39; 1Co 3:3; 2Co 7:7; 2Co 7:11; 2Co 9:2; 2Co 11:2; 2Co 12:20. The capacities for usefulness possessed by others ought to rouse us to seek the same.
Greater gifts: producing greater results. This exhortation implies that these gifts of God’s grace were to be obtained by human effort. How the extraordinary gifts were thus obtained, is not clear to us now, because of their cessation in the early dawn of church history. But we may suppose that the Spirit gave them only to those who had some natural and spiritual fitness for them as He now bestows His ordinary gifts. If so, by earnest desire to obtain and develop this fitness, men might be emulous for the greater gifts. Their effort, for both ordinary and extraordinary gifts, would include cultivation of the corresponding natural powers, prayer and faith for the Spirit’s presence and activity, and use of the spiritual power already possessed. Paul goes further than mere exhortation to pursue these gifts, and adds (in 1 Corinthians 13.) an indication of a way along which his readers may find them, a way surpassing all others.
Chap. XIII. This better way Paul begins to point out by asserting abruptly and solemnly that even a combination of the most highly prized gifts, each in its highest degree, is worthless apart from love: 1Co 13:1-3. The worth of love, he shows by describing its various manifestations in human conduct, 1Co 13:4-7; and show its superiority to spiritual gifts, by proving that they will become worthless like the toys of childhood, whereas love abides, 1Co 13:8-13.
1Co 13:1. The word rendered love is unknown, as its significance was unknown, in classic literature. In a few places, oftener of things than men, its cognate verb is found. In the LXX. the verb is frequent, the substantive very rare. This word has the unique honor of being the only substantive noting a moral attribute which is predicated, simply and without explanation or limitation, of God Himself: for God is Love. Paul here teaches that this unique attribute of God is also the one moral quality which is itself all we need to be. All this was obscured by the old rendering charity, which cannot be predicated of God and has no corresponding verb, and conveys to most Englishmen a sense quite different from that intended by Paul. Of this a bad example is found in (A.V.) Rom 14:15 which receives its force from Rom 13:9-10. Unfortunately, the word love has with us lower associations from which the Greek word is quite free. But it is our best rendering.
From the tongues of men and of angels we cannot infer anything about the nature of the gift of tongues. For these words refer, not to actual fact, but to mere supposition. Nor does the words tongues necessarily denote languages. Paul means, If I utter every kind of voice which rises from the lips of men and of angels. So Homer Iliad bk. ii. 489: Not even if I had ten tongues and ten mouths.
Of the angels: separated for emphasis from of men, and making the summit of possibility in this gift.
Love: to our fellow-men, as proved by 1Co 13:4-7. So usually when not otherwise defined: 1Co 8:1; 1Co 16:14; Rom 12:9; Rom 14:15.
Bronze: a word denoting always in the Bible copper, either pure or containing as usual a small proportion of other metal generally tin. Just so, with us gold denotes both the pure metal and the alloy used for jewelry and coinage. Copper was wrought (Gen 4:22) in very early times, probably (Hesiod, Works and Days 1. 151) earlier than iron; and for hardness and fusibility was alloyed with tin. Brass, i.e. an alloy of copper and zinc, has not, I believe, been found among the many metallic relics of the past.
Sounding bronze: pieces of metal, manufactured or crude, giving forth any kind of sound.
Cymbal: an instrument consisting of two half gloves, mostly of bronze which the performer struck together. Same word, (LXX.,) 1Ch 13:8; 1Ch 15:16; 2Ch 5:12, etc.
Noisy: giving forth any loud unmeaning sound. Since those who spoke with a tongue merely gave forth, under impulse of the Spirit, a sound which in some cases (1Co 14:14 ff) neither they nor any one else understood, they were, unless love gave them moral worth, only like pieces of bronze, or at best instruments of music, struck by a player.
1Co 13:2. Prophecy: the gift most like that of tongues, but (see 25) superior to it.
All the mysteries: see note, 1Co 3:4 : all the truths revealed by God to man through the secret teaching of the Holy Spirit.
All the knowledge: evidently different from, and not implied in, the mysteries; but not necessarily, or probably, superior. Probably the mysteries and the knowledge here correspond with wisdom (see 1Co 2:7) and knowledge in 1Co 12:8. If so, all the knowledge denotes whatever the mind of man has acquired by ordinary methods of study, these not excluding (1Co 12:8) the special assistance of the Spirit. Such knowledge would neither include, nor be included in, all the mysteries. Paul’s supposition is that all the secrets of the divine purpose and all the knowledge possessed by man were known to one person. That the conspicuous word if (5 times in 1Co 13:1-3) is not put before know, suggests that mysteries and knowledge were closely related to prophecy; but does not prove that they were necessarily included in it. The prophet’s words always conveyed knowledge; and, since he spoke under impulse of the Spirit, his words frequently announced (1Co 2:10) the deep things of God. But prophecy was a voice caused apparently by an occasional impulse of the spirit: mysteries and knowledge were abiding intellectual possessions.
The faith: an assurance that through the believer’s agency God is about to work a miracle. Such faith arose in the Spirit (1Co 12:9) and was a condition (Mar 11:22) of the exercise of miraculous power. The close coincidence of faith so as to remove mountains confirms the testimony of Mat 17:20; Mat 21:21; Mar 11:22, that similar words fell from the lips of Christ. Notice that effective faith is a belief, not of anything, but of that which God has promised. It presupposes, and cannot extend beyond the word of God. Consequently, Mar 11:23 f is limited, by the gospel use of the word believe, to benefits actually promised by God. And it has no other limit.
Nothing am I: (differently used, 2Co 12:11 🙂 my character has no real worth. This suggests, (the hypothetical form of the sentence forbids us to say that it proves,) and the cases of Balaam and Samson prove, that a man may have superhuman gifts and yet be destitute of spiritual life. A solemn warning to the Corinthians, who (1Co 1:7) fell short in no gift.
1Co 13:3. Give away as food: an action highly esteemed (Mat 6:2) by the Jews.
Give up my body: same words in Josephus, Wars bk. vii. 8. 7; where, by the example of the Indians who, having given up their body to fire that most pure they may separate the soul from the body, die singing hymns, Eleazar urges his companions besieged at Masada to a similar self-sacrifice. Dr. Lightfoot suggests (Colossians p. 394) that this highest possible grade of self-sacrifice and of supposed merit was suggested to Paul by a boastful inscription on a tomb at Athens (see Strabo, bk. xv. 1. 73) which he may have seen, in memory of a fanatic who in the time of Augustus publicly devoted himself to death there by leaping with a smile on the funeral pyre: Here lies Zarmanochegas an Indian from Bargose, who according to the paternal customs of Indians immortalized himself. Such cases enable us to conceive not only gifts to the poor but self-immolation without love, and with real excellence.
Nothing profited: no reward from God, Mat 6:1. By these extreme cases Paul makes us feel that actions have no intrinsic value, that their worth, both as manifestations of character and as spiritual gain to the actor, depends entirely upon their motive, and that the one motive essential to reward is love. On the variation that I may glory, see Appendix B.
Notice in 1Co 13:2-3 an appropriate change of expression. Without love, they who have prophecy and miracle-working faith are nothing: for these gifts do not of themselves enter into, and ennoble, the inner man. And, without love, they who give up not only their goods but their bodies are no gainers: for spiritual wealth cannot be purchased even at this price. (Cp. Gal 5:6.) The supposed combination of various merits in one man is made conspicuous by the recurring words and if; but is ruined by the melancholy refrain in each verse but have not love.
In 1Co 13:1-3 love stands apart from all other virtues as an essential element of all human excellence. For Paul’s words imply that without it, not only knowledge and almsgiving, but righteousness and truth are valueless, or cannot exist. With this unique dignity of love in man corresponds its unique position ( 1Jn 4:8; 1Jn 4:16) among the moral attributes of God. In other words, human excellence is not, as many think it is, composite; but, like all great principles and like the moral nature of God, absolutely simple. This Paul makes us feel by portraying a man in whom are accumulated all sorts of supposed excellences except love, and by placing beside him (in 1Co 13:4-7) a man whose whole being is an impersonation of love. The one portrait we recognize at once as the most perfect we have seen. From the other we turn in disgust as utterly worthless.
The assertion of 1Co 13:1-3 receive, if not complete proof, yet considerable support from the delineations of character therein contained. For absence of love implies selfishness; it may be an intelligent and respectable, or even spiritual, selfishness. But a selfish man, even though used by the Spirit as a medium of wonderful utterances, is morally no better than a trumpet giving forth an inarticulate sound. Nor does his knowledge or his liberality ever command real respect. For the one is used to advance, and the other is prompted by, unworthy purposes.
The above teaching guards from abuse, and is guarded by, the teaching of Rom 1:16; Rom 3:22. We venture to believe that we are now forgiven, even though we be nothing and have no merit, simply because in the Gospel God proclaims righteousness through faith for all that believe. And, since love is the one measure of Christian stature, we venture to believe that God will work in us even this gift by revealing to us through the Spirit His own love to us and to all men. According to our faith it is done to us. And the love to our fellows which we find in our hearts confirms the faith with which, when conscious of nothing but sin, we dared first to believe the promise of God. But the ultimate ground of our confidence is our consciousness, not of our own love, but of God’s love to us revealed on the cross, and in the words, of Jesus.
1Co 13:4-7. The excellence of love, asserted negatively in 1Co 13:1-3, will now be made apparent by a description of its various manifestations in human conduct: positive description, 1Co 13:4 a; negative description, concluding with a positive contract 1Co 13:4-6; final positive description 1Co 13:7. That these verses say nothing about spiritual gifts, and retain their full force even though gifts be absent, proves that, whereas gifts without love are worthless, love even without gifts retains its value undiminished. No stronger proof of the value of love can be given. Thus the contrast of 1Co 13:1-3 increases the force of 1Co 13:4-7.
1Co 13:4 a. Love is longsuffering: i.e. continues in spite of conduct likely to quench it. This continuance often, but not always, shows itself in restraining anger. Hence, in the Bible, the word is often (Rom 2:4; Rom 9:22 etc.) used in this connection.
Kind: gentle in conduct, so that a man is pleasant to deal with. In both these qualities the man of love is like God, (cp. Rom 2:5,) who is an impersonation of infinite love.
1Co 13:4-6. Jealous: evidently an idle vexation at the superiority of others. See under 1Co 12:31. We are never vexed at the excellence or success of those whom we love. Nor do we vaunt ourselves: i.e. parade before them any supposed superiority of our own. For boasted superiority separates; whereas love unites.
Puffed-up: as in 1Co 8:1. In view of those we love, we never indulge inflated opinions about ourselves. And we are thus saved, in reference to them, from unseemly conduct.
Does not seek her own: exemplified in Paul himself, 1Co 10:33. Contrast Php 2:20 f.
Anger: not here a simple purpose to punish, as in Eph 4:26, but the vindictiveness which so often accompanies it. To this, love never prompts; though it often compels us to punish.
Does not reckon etc.: 2Co 5:19; Rom 4:8; Phm 1:18 : does not calculate injury as a debt to be paid off.
Does not rejoice in unrighteousness; reveals the moral worth of love. We are not pleased at the wrong-doing of those whom we intelligently love.
For we feel instinctively that by wrong-doing they injure themselves. E.g., many a bad father is sorry to see his children walking in his steps.
Rejoices with the truth: similar to Rom 7:22, I am pleased together with the Law. The truth, (Rom 1:18,) here impersonated, rejoices when it realizes itself in human conduct, i.e. when men do that which corresponds with the eternal reality, viz. the nature of God. Now love is the essence of God: and truth is love manifested. Therefore, whatever conduct gratifies, i.e. agrees with, the one, gratifies also the other.
1Co 13:7. Bears all things: is not shaken by any sort of ingratitude. And we are ever ready to believe all things from those we love; and to cherish all sorts of expectations of good about them.
Endures: see Rom 2:7. Love prompts us to continue doing good to those we love in spite of difficulties and perils. Paul’s own example: 2Ti 2:10. The word bear refers probably to ungrateful conduct in the person loved, and is thus parallel to longsuffering in 1Co 13:4; endures refers to any hardship involved in helping those we love.
1Co 13:4-7 define clearly Paul’s use in 1 Corinthians 13. of the word love. It is a principle of action prompting us to use our powers and opportunities for the good of others, and to draw them to us that we may share, and thus remove, their sorrow, and that they may share our good. This principle appears, more or less perfect and intelligent, in all true human love. It is the mainspring of the entire activity of God. And so far as it rules our conduct are we like God. Of this principle, these verses are the strongest commendation. For the man in whom these traits of character meet commands, even though he have no special gifts, our highest respect. And all these traits of character are a natural outworking of the one principle of love. For a lack of any one of them proves that love is deficient. This practical picture of love also makes us feel by contrast the worthlessness of the character described in 1Co 13:1-3.
For shorter, but similar, personifications of love, see 1Co 8:1; Rom 13:10. In Clement’s Epistle, ch. 49, (see appendix A,) is an evident copy of these verses. Compare also the praise of wisdom in Pro 8:9.
1Co 13:8-13. After portraying in 1Co 13:1-3 a man with various gifts in the highest conceivable degree but without love, and pronouncing him worthless, and portraying in 1Co 13:4-7
the excellent practical outworking of love, even apart from gifts, Paul now shows that love surpasses gifts in that while they will pass away love abides.
Falls: as in Luk 16:17 : loses its position of dignity, by ceasing to be an active principle ever working out fresh results. For this is implied in the contrast of 1Co 13:8-12. The gifts so highly prized will all pass away.
1Co 13:8-12. Will-come-to-nought: become inoperative, cease to produce results. Same word in 1Co 1:28 : see also Rom 3:3.
Knowledge: i.e. the special gift of knowledge, 1Co 13:2; 1Co 12:8. Notice that the gift of tongues will cease absolutely, when the tongue is silent in death; the gifts of prophecy and knowledge will cease practically. Of this last assertion 1Co 13:9-10 are a proof. That tongues will cease, needs no proof.
In part: in contrast to the fully developed. Our knowledge now embraces only fragments. This is true universally; but refers here to the special gift of knowledge.
In part we prophesy: we announce under the special influence of the Spirit only a part of the truth.
The fully-developed: the complete or full-grown, in contrast to the fragmentary. See note, 1Co 2:6. 1Co 13:10 states a universal principle; but refers specially to 1Co 13:9. It proves will-come-to-nought in 1Co 13:8. Knowledge and prophecy are but torches giving amid general darkness a partial light. Therefore, when dawns the eternal Day they will become useless. They who now know most and speak most fluently will then have no advantage over others.
1Co 13:11. Illustrates and confirms 1Co 13:8-10.
I thought: formed conceptions.
I reckoned: drew inferences. The child first speaks, then gives evidence of observation, and then of reasoning.
When I became: or now that I-am-become, have-set-aside. [The Greek perfects assert the permanence of the change from childhood to manhood, and the permanent dismissal of childish things.]
I-made-as-nought: as in 1Co 13:8; 1Co 13:10 : laid aside as useless the toys or schoolbooks which once I prized and used. This comparison, suggested probably by the word full-grown, (cp. Eph 4:13,) is an argument from the greater to the less. For the things of eternity are much more completely above and beyond our present thought than are the things of manhood to a child. Yet the mature knowledge of manhood makes schoolbooks etc. quite useless.
1Co 13:12. Proof that the comparison of childhood applies to the matter of 1Co 13:8; and thus parallel to 1Co 13:9.
Mirror: Jas 1:23; 2Co 3:18 : known in the earliest times, Exo 38:8; Wis 7:26; Sir 12:11. They were usually circular plates of metal, with a handle. Their imperfect reflection suggested this metaphor. The Gospel is a mirror (2Co 3:18) showing us as in a camera obscura, but imperfectly, the things of eternity.
Dark-saying: the Greek original of our word enigma. It explains the foregoing metaphor. Our knowledge of eternity comes through the Gospel, which is, compared with the full light of eternity, a riddle difficult to solve: in other words, we see now through a mirror.
Face to face: Gen 32:30; cp. Num 12:8. We shall stand before God, and look upon His face; (Mat 5:8; Heb 12:14;) and, seeing Him, we shall see all things.
Now I know etc.; continues the contrast, which is individualized and thus intensified by the change, as in 1Co 13:11, from we to I. The change was prompted by Paul’s intense and personal conception of his own thought.
Understood: an intelligent comprehension which looks down upon and through a matter. Same word in 1Co 14:37; 1Co 16:18; 2Co 1:13 f; 2Co 6:9; 2Co 13:5; Rom 1:28; Rom 1:32; Rom 3:20; Rom 10:2.
I-have-been-understood: a silent reference to Him by whom all things are fully known. Cp. 1Co 8:3.
According as etc.: corresponding with God’s perfect knowledge of him. In other words, the light of eternity, which is the outshining of the mind of God, will reveal fully and accurately to each man his own inner self.
Those who now know most, and, moved by the Spirit, proclaim most fully the things of God, know and speak only a fragment of what will in that Day be known universally. Consequently, their gifts, so valuable now, will then be of no worth. For, compared with that time, our present life is but childhood; and the gifts we prize now will then be thrown aside as useless, like the toys we have already thrown aside. If so, knowledge and prophecy have only a passing value. And the gift of tongues will evidently cease soon in the silence of death.
From 1Co 13:12 it is quite clear that the light which will supersede the gifts of knowledge and prophecy is that of eternity. Consequently, 1Co 13:8 refers, not to the cessation of extraordinary gifts in the later ages of the Church, but to the end of the present life, either at death or at the coming of Christ. But it would be unfair to infer from this that Paul expected these gifts to continue till Christ comes. For, about this he says nothing; but declares only that sooner or later, to the individual and to the race, these gifts will pass away.
1Co 13:13. But now etc.: as contrast to 1Co 13:8-12, as in 1Co 12:18. While prophecy etc. will pass away, faith, hope, love, remain. This is evidently equivalent to never falls, in 1Co 13:8; and therefore denotes continuance in the life to come. For it is a clear contrast to will be set aside in 1Co 13:8; which declares, as we have seen, that the partial knowledge of time will be displaced by the perfect knowledge of eternity.
Faith: assurance that God’s word will come true, as a general principle. This will remain, although the special application of it in 1Co 13:2 will pass away.
Hope: that which looks forward to, and grasps before hand, things to come. Paul leaves us to test for ourselves the assertion of 1Co 13:13 a. But the contrast of knowledge and prophecy enables us to do so. For it is evident that the change which will make these valueless will not set aside faith, hope, love. That our happy state will continue for ever, we shall know simply because God has promised it, i.e. by a faith similar to our present belief of the Gospel. And we shall have the joy of looking forward to a further and ceaseless and infinite development of happiness and glory. Thus, amid glory already seen and possessed there will still be further glories not yet seen, (Rom 8:24,) and matter of continued faith and hope. And mutual love, animating and binding together the many members of that glorified family, will shine through every face and breathe in a thousand ever recurring words and acts of heavenly kindness.
These three; seems to imply that these are in some sense a complete description of our abiding state. Among these three continuing gifts love stands out as greater than the others. This is implied in but have not love, 1Co 13:1-3; and is proved by 1Co 13:4-7 which surpass anything that can be said of faith or hope. The passing mention of these strengthens the contrast between love and spiritual gifts. For these last, as passing away, are evidently inferior to faith and hope; which nevertheless are inferior to love.
The argument of 1Co 13:8-13 involves the important truth that the continuity of human character is not broken either by death or judgment, any more than it is now broken by change of circumstances. For we are told explicitly that when human knowledge fades in the light of eternity even then love will abide. Now knowledge refers, not to the abstract principle, which will never pass away, but to the superiority of knowledge possessed now by an individual. And, to give force to Paul’s argument, love must refer to the degree of Christian love attained here by each individual. Only thus can the permanence of love be a motive for the pursuit of it. Moreover, what is true of knowledge and prophecy is true of all other capacities for usefulness, wealth, rank, learning, eloquence, mental power. We learn, therefore that although before the gates of death we shall lay down for ever the various weapons with which God has armed us to fight for Him, we shall carry through those gates the moral character which the conflict of life has developed within us. And this gives to moral excellence an infinite superiority over the most brilliant powers for usefulness.
With love, which in 1Co 13:1-3 had a place absolutely unique, are now associated, though in a subordinate place, faith and hope. Yet, though subordinate, they are here mentioned before love. Notice a similar association in Rom 5:1-5. All this suggests that faith, the entrance (Rom 5:1) into the Christian life, and hope, the immediate result (Rom 5:2) of faith, are designed to lead to love; and that the degree in which they do this is the measure of their abiding and practical worth.
That Paul says nothing about the eternal results of a right use of knowledge and prophecy, results which seem at first sight to place these gifts on a par with love, suggests that these results will be of eternal worth to us only so far as they have been an outcome of Christian love. And if so they do not in the least degree lessen the superiority of love.
Fuente: Beet’s Commentary on Selected Books of the New Testament
12:31 {14} But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.
(14) He teaches those who are ambitious and envious, a certain holy ambition and envy. That is, if they give themselves to the best gifts, and such as are most profitable to the church, and so if they contend to excel one another in love, which far surpasses all other gifts.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Paul advised the Corinthians to seek some gifts more than others because some are more significant in the functioning of the body than others. While the bestowal of gifts is the sovereign prerogative of the Spirit (1Co 12:8-11; 1Co 12:18), human desire plays a part in His bestowal (cf. Jas 4:2). This seems to indicate that the Spirit does not give all His gifts to us at the moment of our salvation. I see nothing in Scripture that prohibits our viewing the abilities God gives us at birth as part of His spiritual gifts. Likewise a believer can receive a gift or an opportunity for service or the Spirit’s blessing on his ministry years after his conversion. Everything we have or ever will have is a gift from God. [Note: See Barclay, The Letters . . ., p. 120.]
God did not give the gift of apostleship, in the technical sense, to any other than those whom Christ Himself selected who had seen the risen Lord. It went to a small group in the first generation of the church’s history. Apostleship in the general sense of one sent out with a message continues today. Normally we refer to these gifted people as missionaries to distinguish them from Paul and the 12 apostles.
Likewise we use the term prophet in a technical and in a general sense today. Usually we think of prophets as people who gave new revelation from God or predicted the future. As I mentioned previously, prophets also spoke forth a word from the Lord by exhorting or encouraging the church, and some of them led the church in worship. The Greek word prophetes means "one who speaks forth." In the first, technical sense prophets have ceased in the church. In the second, general sense they are still with us. [Note: See John E. Johnson, "The Old Testament Offices as Paradigm for Pastoral Identity," Bibliotheca Sacra 152:606 (April-June 1995):182-200.] We usually refer to the exhorters and encouragers as preachers to distinguish them from first century prophets who gave new revelation and predicted the future.
Today some people who desire to sharpen their ability to preach and teach the Scriptures enroll in Bible college or seminary to do so. This is one example of zealously desiring the greater gifts.
However, Paul said there is an even more important discipline that a believer should cultivate to reach the goal of being maximally effective. That way involves valuing and cultivating love (ch. 13). The apostle did not mean, of course, that one should disregard the most important gifts but seek love. We should give attention to cultivating love and cultivating abilities that are strategically important in Christ’s body. Nevertheless as important as sharpening abilities is, it is even more important that we excel in loving.
"’The most excellent way’ which Paul will now show his friends at Corinth is not one more gift among many, but ’a way beyond all this.’ That extraordinary way is, of course, the way of agape, that fruit of the Spirit which is of primary importance to every believer and to the body of Christ." [Note: Thomas A. Jackson, "Concerning Spiritual Gifts: A Study of 1 Corinthians 12," Faith and Mission 7:1 (Fall 1989):68.]
"What Paul is about to embark on is a description of what he calls ’a way that is beyond comparison.’ The way they are going is basically destructive to the church as a community; the way they are being called to is one that seeks the good of others before oneself. It is the way of edifying the church (1Co 14:1-5), of seeking the common good (1Co 12:7). In that context one will still earnestly desire the things of the Spirit (1Co 14:1), but precisely so that others will be edified. Thus it is not ’love versus gifts’ that Paul has in mind, but ’love as the only context for gifts’; for without the former, the latter have no usefulness at all-but then neither does much of anything else in the Christian life." [Note: Fee, The First . . ., p. 625.]
Chapter 12 is a chapter that stresses balance (cf. Galatians 5). On the one hand each Christian is only a part of a larger organism, but each is an indispensable part. In one sense we are equally important because we all serve an essential function, but in another sense some are more crucial than others. God determines our gifts, ministries, and individual differences, yet our desire and initiative do have something to do with our service as well. Ability, ministry opportunity, and individuality are very important, but love is even more important. A good measure of our personal maturity as Christians will be how well we can keep these paradoxes in balance in our personal lives and ministries. The Corinthians needed help in this area.
"The Church is neither a dead mass of similar particles, like a heap of sand, nor a living swarm of antagonistic individuals, like a cage of wild beasts: it has the unity of a living organism, in which no two parts are exactly alike, but all discharge different functions for the good of the whole. All men are not equal, and no individual can be independent of the rest: everywhere there is subordination and dependence. Some have special gifts, some have none; some have several gifts, some only one; some have higher gifts, some have lower: but every individual has some function to discharge, and all must work together for the common good. This is the all-important point-unity in loving service." [Note: Robertson and Plummer, pp. 269-70.]
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Unity |
Diversity |
Maturity |
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1 Corinthians |
1Co 12:1-13 |
1Co 12:14-31 |
1Co 13:1-13 |
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Romans |
Rom 12:1-5 |
Rom 12:6-8 |
Rom 12:9-21 |
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Ephesians |
Eph 4:1-6 |
Eph 4:7-12 |
Eph 4:13-16 [Note: Wiersbe, 1:607.] |