I Will Show You an Even Better Way – 1 Corinthians 12:31-14:1a
Paul has just described how God has given gifts to the church through the Spirit, emphasizing that no one gift is inherently more important than another. Using the analogy of the human body, he illustrated how all parts are necessary, even those that seem less honorable or respectable deserve greater honor and respect. It’s clear that we don’t all have the same role, and we should not be competing or jockeying for perceived spiritual superiority. Paul tells them there is a better way.
But desire the greater gifts. And I will show you an even better way.
I love this, if you really want the greater gifts, let me show you a better way. What a great introduction to 1 Corinthians 13 – Love. Love is the greater way. Paul goes on to use powerful hyperbole to underscore his message.
If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Without love it is all nothing. All our striving, gifts, knowledge, and sacrifice – nothing without love.
What then is the better way?
Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Better than sign gifts, or apostleship, even better than being a teacher or a prophet, and something all of us can do and strive for. We can all love by being patient, kind, not envying, not boasting, not being rude, not being self-seeking, or irritable. Not holding peoples past sins against them, not delighting in evil, but rejoicing in the truth. You see love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Love never fails.
Paul tells us in a nice way – “Grow Up”
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put aside childish things.
It is childish to clamor over whose gifts are more important than the others, and wanting what the other person has. All these things will pass away. And right now we can only see dimly what God is doing, but one day we will see Him face to face and we will know and be fully known.
Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love—but the greatest of these is love.
Let’s become mature, let’s focus on the better way of love. Let’s grow in our love for one another and our love for Christ and may we be known for our love one for another. Let’s desire to love more knowing that this is what will remain and this is so much greater than even faith and hope. Let’s make a conscious effort to embody this more excellent way in all our interactions.
