THE SUPERIORITY OF LOVE

There are many texts in the Bible that speak of love, but 1 Corinthians 13 is like the “sumacunlaude” of all. It is the maximum that has been written on this subject. This chapter has been called "The Hymn of Love" which honors its content.

 Speaking in a language without knowing it In chapter 12 and 14 of this letter, Paul continues to speak of spiritual gifts. And while it is true that the gift of language he refers to places him as the least important, when he speaks of the supremacy of love over this emotional experience, concentrated in the enclosure of emotions, it is still of great importance. .

Speaking it without love Apparently the Corinthians were in love with spiritual gifts. But the novelty of speaking in other languages ​​was leading them to the sin of presumption and arrogance. When Paul introduced this conditional clause he was revealing to us that it is here where everything is glorious and sublime, or where everything means nothing. Because in the end the greatest eloquence, even the one that produces the heavenly experience on the human without love, means absolutely nothing.

Throughout this text the conditional “without love” tests my attitude towards the use I give to spiritual gifts.

Make noise and nothing else. This first verse is very revealing by the way Paul presents the facts and compares the use of these spectacular gifts without love with something empty, hollow and worthless.

The figure of the metal that resonates and the cymbal that I withdraw is a direct reference to those instruments that were used in pagan temples. According to the background of these practices, the touch of these artifacts was intended to attract the attention of God or on the other hand to drive away demons.

It is believed that such instruments were used to intensify emotions in idolatrous worshipers. Therefore, Paul's idea is to make the Corinthians see that what seemed to them the most sublime experience, with which they are supposed to be worshiping God, doing so without the virtue of love would be like playing in the most vulgar of the pagan cults. This is serious and hard. Any service that we render to the Lord in the church through spiritual gifts, if not accompanied by genuine love, will be that, "metal that resonates that makes noise and nothing else." Let's not let the lack of love make us numb.

1. Do good deeds without love Now Paul tells us about a gift that many people do not have, that of generosity. Notice that the two things that characterize this gift: Distribute my goods and feed the poor. This would be like having the greatest detachment that is known. In Paul's time there were men who had this gift. One of the most notorious cases was that of Barnabas, the so-called "son of consolation." He had this gift that Paul tells us about. He sold his property and brought it to the feet of the apostles so that they could give food to the poor. However, the one who did not have that gift was the rich young man, because when he was unbelieved by the Lord to sell what he had and give it to the poor, the text tells us that he left sad because he had many riches (Mt. 19:22) . The fact of including this gift as a personal sacrifice, where the person is left with nothing in the bank and in the pocket for others, if not accompanied by love, is of no use. There are many people who today reach these extremes of philanthropy, but in the end their purposes could be more to achieve a salvation by work, than a work really for love.

There are two distinctive phrases in this chapter that reveal to us why love has supremacy over other virtues. One of them tells us: "Love never to be." Indeed, how do we see this. Think, for example, that the money runs out and in the end it does not give you happiness. That fame ends and in the end it does not give you satisfaction either. Think how many end their lives even the top of their "greatness." If love is not what dominates all my actions, I am nothing. The other phrase that makes the love of this passage great is when it ends by saying that, while it is true that faith and hope are important, "the greatest of them is love."

Erwin