I Corinthians 13 is a scriptural gem. It shines forth as a radiant tribute to the power of Agape love. The phrases reverberate in the mind long after reading, "Though I speak with tongues of men and angels and have not love, I am become as a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal." Such powerful phrases put into perspective even the spiritual gifts that we as Pentecostals hold, justifiably, in such high esteem.
Yet, God says, through the apostle Paul, that there is a "more excellent way." There is something that outshines all the gifts of power, language,
knowledge, miracles, administration, teaching and preaching. The great sign of God's power in the world will not be found in these spiritual aids to the church. The great sign of God's power will be found in the Love of His people for each other and for the world.
Jesus gave just one commandment, "Love one another as I have loved you." Yet, Twentieth Century Americans struggle with this command as did First Century Corinthians. What does it mean to Love with the Love of God? I'm afraid in our time it is doubly hard, because the language itself gives us little clue to what this type of love is all about. In our culture love means everything and nothing. People love their family, and they love pizza. They love their spouses, and they love a good book. They love mankind, and they love chocolate. We use the word so freely that it has lost much of it's meaning. So, when a person hears about spiritual love a blank look appears behind glazed over eyes as the individual tries to reconcile it with all the other types of human love that there are.
Fortunately, God didn't leave us without a definition of love. In these verses , He gives us a definition of love. In this series we will be focusing on these verses to really learn what it means to love as God loves.
I remember my ninth grade science class. We had an old balance scale that made extremely accurate weight measurements up to 6 decimal points. The way it did this was by placing weights in the left pan of the scale and the thing to be weighed in the right pan. When the weights in the left pan balanced what was in the right pan, we had a measurement. The weights were the standards against which the substance was weighed. Think about I Corinthians 13 as the standard against which our actions can be weighed. When I Corinthians 13 describes our relationship with another human being, then we are moving in the realm of God's love.
I admit that as I read this chapter, I'm a bit light in the scale. But maybe together, we can come closer to balance with what God says is our highest calling, to love one another.