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READING IN 1 CORINTHIANS 13 AND 14

The subject of gifts, or spiritual manifestations is dealt with in chapters 12, 13, and 14. Chapter 13 is to set things in their right relation. The subject is introduced in the beginning of chapter 12. “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant”. The end in view is the building up of the assembly. The value of the gift is seen in this ^[p. 61] work of building up. Hence the importance of love introduced in chapter 13. Aside from the possession of love, the gift is valueless. So, having brought in at the end of chapter 12 how God had set certain gifts in the assembly, and giving the list of the gifts, he says: “But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet show I unto you a more excellent way”! LOVE is the “more excellent way”, and it is the normal possession of every Christian. Chapter 13 places in its own position of importance as compared with gifts. It is inconceivable that these gifts should exist aside from love, but they are treated as by themselves in their relative value.

If the assembly remained as it was at the beginning, the gifts of the Spirit would be unhindered; they would be developed in each local assembly undoubtedly. But the gifts enumerated in the closing verses of chapter 12 appeared in the assembly as a whole. “God has set certain in the assembly”. That was not the local assembly at Corinth, but the assembly in its entirety as set up on earth. Love is distinguished here as the greatest thing, because it is what God is, and so it is that which abides. Love is what I am; gift is what I have.. If I have not love, I am nothing. A man’s stature is not his gift but his love. In the house of God a man is to be measured by his love, not by the good address he may give to the saints, nor the good gospel he may preach, nor what he may possibly give away. We need to expand our idea of love. We sometimes think it is merely the expression of affection to one another; but viewed as we get it here it is something greater than that. Of course, it includes affection for one another; but it may even take the form of severe judgment, for everything that God does is the outcome of love. So it is love by itself that is treated here. It is not brotherly love exactly, but love by itself in the various ways in which it works out in Christians, as John’s epistle teaches. Love had not really been known before the death of Christ. “Hereby we have known love, because he has laid down his life for us”. There were individual expressions of love before; but love, as it is in God, was not really known until Christ died, and it is that love which is treated of here. The traits of it as described here came out perfectly in the Lord Himself when here on earth.

Everything that God does is in some way an expression of His love. All must be traced back to that, for that is the one thing He is said to be. Of course He is said to be light, but that is relative; He is essentially love and never anything else, so all that He does must necessarily be the result of that, hence, love, in the assembly as it is treated here, works out in the same way. All that is done in the assembly should be the outcome of that, even though it may be discipline. It covers righteousness and holiness if we contemplate it in its full meaning. So in the working of discipline righteousness and holiness are essential to the proper showing of love; only righteousness and holiness are to be regarded as attributes. Love is not so regarded, for it is essentially what God is.

It may be said that the lake of fire is the result of righteousness and not of love, but it is the outcome of love in God. The limitation of evil is entirely according to the love of God; that evil should he circumscribed and rendered ineffectual is surely a great mercy. In Revelation we have Satan cast into the bottomless pit, and shut up, and a seal put upon him for a thousand years. But after the thousand years, having been loosed out of his prison, he is cast into the lake of fire, where the beast and the false prophet are: and he has no power there, for he is not only circumscribed, but in an area in which the judgment of God is complete and final.

^[p. 63] Any one who knows what sin is is thankful for that. That helps us to have a better knowledge of what the death of Christ really was. Evil seems to be taken lightly, because we are not sufficiently acquainted with the nature of God as seen in the death of Christ. Evil is intolerable to divine love and must be disposed of in such wise that it is rendered ineffectual. It says: “The devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and false prophet are”, and subsequent to that: “Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire”. That is wholly compatible with what God is - love; for God hates evil, and love in the believer hates evil also, because evil is destructive and demoralising. The more one comes in contact with sin the more relieved one is to know that God has such a means of disposing of it eventually.

The Spirit would carry us back to the death of Christ where it is all judged. The Holy Spirit appearing in Acts 2 in cloven tongues like as of fire brought in what God is against sin. There is always in the believer the means of judging and disallowing what is of the flesh. Here in 1 Corinthians 13 we have the qualities of love. “Love has long patience, is kind; love is not emulous of others; love is not insolent and rash, is not puffed up, does not behave in an unseemly manner, does not seek what is its own, is not quickly provoked, does not impute evil, does not rejoice at iniquity, but rejoices with the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails”. All these traits were to be seen in the life of Christ. It is love as seen in Christ or the saints that is in view here, it is not as it is expressed in God Himself exactly.

“The more excellent way” is love. If one is greater than his gift it saves him from being proud of his gift. Reciprocation of affection is greater than any satisfaction one may get in the exercise of one’s gift. There is real joy in the exercise of one’s gift in the power of the Spirit, but it is not equal to the joy we have together as brethren. Gift in the assembly would seem to be the means by which the avenues are opened, the food is suggested and brought in. The climax of all gift would be “the increase of the body to its self-building up in love”. Ephesians 4: 16. The gifts according to that chapter are for the edifying of the body of Christ; the body builds itself up in love. The gifts greatly add to it, but the organism is such that there is power for its self-building up; but if we despise the gifts from Christ we suffer loss. Christendom has lost sight of the organism, all there is made to depend on man to keep things going. The thought in this chapter is that love abides. Gifts, on the other hand, come to an end; that shows their relative value.

Chapter 14 treats of the gifts in exercise; the machinery, so to speak, is working. Chapter 13 is like the oil that enables it to go smoothly, so the greater part of the chapter is taken up with pointing out that the use of a sign gift may become a positive hindrance in a meeting, because it is not used intelligently. Paul speaks of the gift of tongues, as an illustration, to point out the danger of occupation with something which distinguishes you instead of your being concerned about what edifies. It would not apply to us today literally; but it would apply to any of us using what ability he may have for the sake of using it, without seeing that whatever one does in the assembly should be done with one end in view, and that is edification. What we are warned against here is precisely the thing which has brought in the outward ruin, that is, the prominence given to the individual. I am speaking broadly as to what has come to pass in the history of the assembly.

The Lord has helped in these days in raising up “helps” through the whole assembly instead of one in a given centre. The Lord seems to be working so that the whole assembly is benefited. It is not that it is different from the Lord’s original way, but it is more emphasised. I think the original way in Christianity is expressed in Proverbs: “The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands”. That is the public position, they have no king; they have One really, but He is not visible.

The principle of a meeting arranged for two or three to speak is supposed in this chapter, as stated in verses 26 to 33. What is to be noticed is, that you should have something. What caused the trouble in Corinth was not that they had something, but they were not regulated in the use of what they had. We are supposed to have material, for it says: “When ye come together, each of you has a psalm”, etc.. We may not have all these things, but there is the principle of having something for the saints, and the point here is to be regulated, so that all should get the benefit of what each one has. It would not be right to prepare anything for the meeting for the Lord’s supper; but it is quite right to have things for other meetings. I certainly would urge that each brother should cultivate having a well-filled storehouse. But then, “the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets”. If one has something he can wait for a suitable opportunity to give it out, only let us be sure that what we have is from the Lord. The Lord’s supper is to make everything of Christ among us so that as a result He is there as Head. It would, therefore, be out of place to have something prepared with the intention of delivering it.

Clearly what is before us is that by which we should be regulated, namely, intelligence or understanding. It is not simply that the Holy Spirit suggests to you and to me what each should do; I should be regulated by my spiritual understanding ^[p. 66] in what I do or say. So even though I have the thing, and have it clearly, yet I use my understanding as to whether that is the thing now. The apostle says: “I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray also with the understanding; I will sing with the spirit, but I will sing also with the understanding”. He does not say the Holy Spirit for it is his own spirit, that he thought of. You often hear one say, ‘The Holy Spirit prompted me and I had to do it’. But that is not how matters stand in the assembly. The point in this chapter is the intelligence in which things are done there. So the speaker’s own spirit is really under control; he is not subject to a powerful impulse which he cannot avoid. “The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets”.

We have following on this a general principle: “Let it be two, or at the most three”. It seems to me, that it is a merciful provision of God when the saints come together, that there is this general limitation to public ministry. Meetings should not be prolonged so as to become wearisome. This chapter has in view, not exactly what is pleasing to God though, of course, He is always in view, but the effects things have on the hearers. It says: “If therefore the whole assembly come together in one place, and all speak with tongues, and simple persons enter in, or unbelievers, will they not say ye are mad?” Then, “Tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe, but to unbelievers; but prophecy, not to unbelievers, but to those who believe”. So in the assembly you are occupied with what is for believers. We have to get the principle of the things. We have not the gift of tongues now for it is hardly needed; but the point is that what we say in the assembly is for believers, for their edification. Even the giving of thanks to God may indirectly be for instruction. It has not that in view specially, but indirectly it has that effect. It is very edifying ^[p. 67] to hear a brother give thanks in power. It is a great thing to have liberty in addressing God if it be but in five words.

Paul says: “Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge”. We are never supposed to be apart from exercise; we are either speaking or judging. Judging here is not criticising. The hearers should examine or prove what is ministered. This is the opposite to an indifferent or restless spirit, which, alas, is often seen. Judging is that you are interested in what is going on and forming an estimate of it. You are not ready to receive anything which is not of God. So the speaker is in that way in a position where he has to be careful and he is helped on that account. We have three things: edification, encouragement, and consolation.

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