James Nisbet Commentary - 1 Corinthians 13:13 - 13:13

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James Nisbet Commentary - 1 Corinthians 13:13 - 13:13


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

THE SUPREMACY OF LOVE

‘And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.’

1Co_13:13

The message to which we listen in this chapter is this: that, in religion, love is supreme. That lesson would, if it stood alone, have a commanding importance. But it does not stand alone, though it stands out in undisputed supremacy. The great transfiguration of the Christian character which passes before our eyes is the third in the series of scenes that have displayed to us the increasing purpose of the great scheme of God. Established in Faith, and cheered by Hope, we come under the spell of a yet greater grace, and a yet more exalted principle. We come, as on this day, to listen to the highest lesson the Bible teaches; we come to its crowning doctrine; we come to the moral glory, within whose light all other glories hide themselves. We are caught up into Paradise and strengthened to see, through the eyes of St. Paul, to what heights in the power of the Holy Spirit our nature may rise. Caught up out of ambition and strife, out of the region of wrangle and jar, out of the atmosphere of malice and envy, out of the reach of proud self-vaunting.

I. In such a revealing moment a man sees, in the light of Divine Love, that the highest gifts may be put to basest uses, and convicted of utter worthlessness in the moment of their most triumphant display. Large doles may be given, without the consecrating principle that lifts almsgiving to charity; self-worship may wear the garb of self-sacrifice; yea, the case is conceivable where life itself may be unprofitably surrendered without love. Thus doubly taught: taught by the failure of lovelessness, however highly endowed; taught by the blessedness of victories which Love wins in and for Him in Whom Love dwells, the Spirit of God leads us back into the world again. But we have seen things that we cannot forget. We have learned lessons we ought never to learn in vain.

II. The world is more than ever God’s world to us.—He made it, and He hates putting it away. That is our faith, and it is unmovable. It is, too, more and more a place of hopeful effort; a place in which good can be done, in which we can serve one another with certain hope of blessing. God loved the world, and gave His only begotten Son to redeem it; to the eye of God it was lovable, though to His eye alone was all its evil naked and open. In His Love and pity He redeemed it, and sent His Son to reveal the fulness of that Love. And when the Lord came, though He said little of His own love to men—for He came to reveal the Father’s—yet once at least He spoke of it in words which will never be forgotten: ‘This is My commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you.’ As truly then as Christ is with us, love abides. It takes its place among the things which cannot be removed. It takes the most exalted place, for it has more of the Divine nature. ‘Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.’

The loving temper is the believing temper, the temper of patient courage; faith and hope abide in it. It helped St. Paul, and it will help us, alike in the struggles and perplexities of life; so will love work in us, and we shall live and love and labour in faith, in hope, in charity, till our task is done.

Rev. Chancellor Edmonds.

(SECOND OUTLINE)

SPIRITUAL ASSETS

‘Faith, hope, charity.’ There is our investment, there is our capital; can we not spend it to greater advantage than we have been doing?

I. Faith.—There is that wonderful and splendid asset which we have in faith. I want you to think of your faith in God and what it means. Recall, as you look into your account, what faith has done in the past in your life. ‘Remember the days of thy youth.’ What a real part faith played in making you say your prayers, read your Bible, and go to church. Recall your confirmation, when you asserted yourself in your faith and took up your individual position. You also recall as you think of faith those days of sorrow which you have had, and you see what a wonderful thing faith was. Or you recall the time of your marriage, when in faith you took the woman you loved and dedicated yourself and her you loved to God. Or you recall some fervent Holy Communion at which you were present and realised what faith could do for you. You have called upon faith again and again in your life, and it has never failed you. Increase your faith, your works of faith, your life of faith; increase it, not by simple memories, but by using it, by putting it out, by getting better interest for it.

II. Hope.—Another asset which we have, and for which we have a splendid security, is hope. Hope is natural to all of us. It is ours by nature. The future is full of it. We cannot face the future without hope. ‘While there is life,’ we say, ‘there is hope.’ We live in hope and die in hope. It is indeed the gift of God. It is the saving grace in many people’s lives, it is the mother of thoroughness and perseverance, and it is essential if we are to have a high aim and a holy end before us as we enter the great spiritual season. There is abundant hope in your capital account. Aim at high things, hope great things, and the season will be to your advantage and the advantage of all others about you.

III. Charity.—Charity is the greatest asset that men can have or handle. Because it is the bond of perfectness, or as our Collect so beautifully puts it, ‘the very bond … of all virtues, without which whosever liveth is counted dead before Thee.’ Charity must be called upon if our spiritual concerns are to prosper, that charity which is spoken of and drawn out so magnificently in this Epistle, that charity which is the motive power of God’s actions towards us, that charity which should give a motive to us and be behind us in all our actions, that charity which binds us to God, that charity which spends itself and wants to spend itself on man. Therefore let charity and love regulate, direct, and influence all our acts of self-discipline, all our spiritual exercises, all our resolutions to benefit our neighbours. The more you call upon it the better your investment will prove.

—
Rev. Prebendary de Salis.

Illustrations

(1) ‘It has been said that with the single exception of Shakespeare, Cowper is the English poet who has given the greatest happiness to the greatest number. Then he was, together with John Newton, the author of those wonderful Olney Hymns, which have been sung all over the world. Faber mentions that even Roman Catholics are said to be sometimes poring with a devout and unsuspecting delight over the verses of those hymns, while for himself he confesses that they came back from time to time unbidden into his mind. Why do I say all this? For these reasons. Cowper was a hopeless invalid, and it was a saintly lady named Mary Unwin who became a ministering angel to him; it was Mary Unwin who sweetened his life; it was Mary Unwin who suggested the first volume of his poems; it was Mary Unwin who nursed him for nearly twenty years; it is to Mary Unwin that the Church owes a debt of gratitude which never can be forgotten. If you want to read something, I will not say pathetic, but pathos itself—and outside the Bible I think there is no pathos so touching—read Cowper’s lines addressed “To Mary.” What constrained Mary Unwin to do all she did? She was not the most distant relative. Why did she sacrifice her own life to brighten Cowper’s? There is only this answer. It was love.’

(2) ‘ “One of our most brilliant … of modern story-tellers writes the story of that Frenchwoman who gave up every hope in life, sacrificed her youth, her beauty, her prospects, and immured herself in a lonely cottage in Cornwall, that she might alleviate, by a lifelong ministry, the sorrows of her sister, who was a leper …” Why? “Her sacrifice was love’s necessity.” ’