Christian Love. Vs. 1–13
LOVE is superior to all extraordinary gifts. It is better then the gift of tongues, v. 1; than the gifts of prophecy and knowledge, v. 2; and than the gift of miracles, v. 2. All outward works of charity without it are worthless, v. 3. Love has this superiority, first, because of its inherent excellence; and secondly, because of its perpetuity. As to its superior excellence, it implies or secures all other excellence. 1. It includes all the forms of kindness. 2. It is humble and modest. 3. It is unselfish. 4. It sympathizes with all good, vs. 4–7. It is perpetual—all the extraordinary gifts mentioned in the preceding chapter were designed for the present state of existence, or were temporary. Love is never to cease, v. 8. Knowledge, as a special gift, and perhaps also in the form in which it exists in this world, is to pass away. It is now the apprehension of truth as through a mirror—hereafter it will be lost in immediate vision, vs. 9–12. The permanent graces are faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is Love, v. 13.
This chapter, although devoted to a single Christian grace, and therefore not to be compared with the eighth chapter of Romans, or with some chapters in the epistle to the Ephesians, as an unfolding of the mysteries of redemption, still has ever been considered as one of the jewels of Scripture. For moral elevation, for richness and comprehensiveness, for beauty and felicity of expression, it has been the admiration of the church in all ages.—With regard to the word charity, as the translation of the Greek ἀγάπη, it has already been remarked in the comment on 8:1 that it is peculiarly unhappy. Neither in its primary signification, nor in the sense which usage has attached to it, does it properly answer to the Greek term. The latter occurs about one hundred and sixteen times in the New Testament, and is translated love in all places except twenty-three; and in those the departure from the common usage is altogether arbitrary. The word charity is just as inappropriate in this chapter as it would be in such phrases as, “the Son of his charity,” or, “the charity of God is shed abroad in our hearts,” or, “the charity of Christ.” The Greek word ἀγάπη is not of heathen origin. The heathen had no conception of the grace which in the Scriptures is expressed by that term; neither ἔρως nor φιλία answers to the Scriptural sense of ἀγάπη; nor do the Latin words amor or caritas. It was the unsuitableness of the former that induced Jerome to adopt the latter as the more elevated of the two. The one properly expresses love founded on sympathy; the latter came to mean love founded on respect. Its English derivative (charity) retains more of the original force of the Latin word. Caritas (from carus, a carendo, dear, i. e. costly) is properly dearness or costliness; and then it came to express the feeling arising from the sight of want and suffering. And this is the common meaning still attached to the English word, which readers it unsuitable as the substitute of the comprehensive word love. Many have been led to think that almsgiving covers a multitude of sins, because charity is said to have that effect; and that kindness to the poor and the sick is the sum of all religion, because Paul exalts charity above faith and hope. It not of charity, but of love, of which the Bible thus speaks.
Superiority of Love to all other gifts
1. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become (as) sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
The gift of tongues, on which the Corinthians so much valued themselves, is mentioned first, because it was the prominent subject in this whole discussion. The tongues of men are the languages which men speak. As this is the obvious meaning of the expression, it serves to prove that the gift of tongues was the gift of speaking foreign languages. The tongues of angels are the languages which angels use. A mode of expression equivalent to ‘all languages human or divine.’ Paul means to say, that the gift of tongues in its highest conceivable extent without love is nothing. Without love I am become, i. e. the mere want of love has reduced me, notwithstanding the gift in question, to a level with sounding brass; not a musical instrument made of brass, which has some dignity about it, but to a piece of clattering brass which makes a senseless noise; or, at least, to a tinkling cymbal, the lowest and least expressive of all musical instruments. Tinkling (ἀλαλάζον), properly clanging, expressive of the loud shrill noise made by the cymbal. These instruments were of two kinds, one small, worn on the thumb and middle finger, answering, it is thought, to the modern castanets; the other large, broad plates, like our common cymbals. Joseph. Ant. 7.12.3. Both kinds are perhaps referred to in Ps. 150:5, where the Septuagint distinguishes them as the sweet-toned and the loud. The latter is the kind here specified. The illustration was probably adopted from the shrill, discordant noise made by the speakers with their tongues, each endeavouring to drown the voice of all the others, as seems from what follows to have been the case with the Corinthians. Paul says, 14:23, the meetings for worship in Corinth, if all spoke with tongues, would be so confused as to make strangers think they were mad.