DUKE DIVINITY SCHOOL

WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?

AN EXPOSITION OF HOW 1 CORINTHIANS 13 CHALLENGES THE CHURCH AND

MARRIAGES

AN EXEGESIS PAPER SUBMITTED TO DR. BRITTANY E. WILSON

NT 754: INTRODUCTION TO NEW TESTAMENT INTERPRETATION

BY

NOAH BAUER

APRIL 26, 2021

Picture this: today is your wedding day and absolutely everything is going perfectly. The

COVID pandemic is over, so you can have a wedding safely without worrying about all of your

friends and family getting a deadly virus. That rustic barn you have always imagined from your

childhood is perfectly decorated according to your specifications. When it comes time for the

wedding ceremony, your pastor begins by reading out of 1 Corinthians 13 and proceeds to give a

short sermon about how love is the only quality in life that lasts forever. You have always loved

this passage. However, since you attended Duke Divinity School, questions about literary

context start circling around in your head and you begin wondering why Paul needed to write

about love to the Corinthian church in the first place. Before you have time to open the Logos

app on your phone and read a few commentaries, it is time to exchange your vows and you get

caught up in the rest of your festivities.

Now this imaginative exercise is highly satirical for several reasons, but it does bring up a

good question surrounding why Paul explains the qualities of love in so much detail in his first

letter to the Corinthians. To answer this question, one must read this chapter within its literary

context to discover why the Church at Corinth needed such explicit instruction surrounding the

topic of love. In this essay I will argue that Paul needed to describe the qualities of love in such

explicit terms because the Corinthian church did not know the first thing about loving one

another. As a result, Christians today may need to reexamine what love looks like within our

communities, since we too may be off in our assessment of how well we love one another.

Exposition

1 Corinthians is an unattested Pauline epistle written to the Church at Corinth in around

54 CE1. Internal evidence shows that 1 Corinthians was a reaction to a letter that Corinth had

1
Victor Paul Furnish, “First Corinthians,” The HarperCollins Study Bible: NRSV, rev. ed. (San Francisco:
HarperCollins, 2006), 1932.
2

first sent to Paul. The observant reader must keep this in mind since Paul is responding to the

concerns that the community had previously voiced. Although the letter that the Corinthian

church sent Paul is lost, Paul reiterates some of their concerns in his own letter. Based on the

material that Paul provides, one can observe that some of the issues involved quarrels within the

community (1:11), disputes regarding sexuality (5:1; 7:1) and divisions that took place at their

worship gatherings (11:18). Paul’s last discourse regarding worship gatherings is most applicable

for the topic of this paper and forms a literary unit of 11:12-14:40.

During these worship gatherings, there existed two main issues that Paul sought to

address. First, Paul sought to address the way the community received communion together. The

Corinthian community had turned communion into an activity where each person would partake

during their normal meal. This would cause some people to be full, while others would not have

enough to eat (12:20-21). The second main issue that Paul addresses surrounds the proper

mindset an individual must have when it comes to the usage of Spiritual Gifs. Paul makes clear

to the Corinthian Church that the Spirit gives out a variety of gifts to the Church body as the

Spirit chooses (12:11). Paul then uses the body metaphor to demonstrate that though there exist

many members with various gifts, all these parts are intended to come together not for their own

glory but with the singular goal of serving Christ (12:12). Within this body, every part is

required, and the body could not function with any singular part (12:19-21), and the weaker parts

of the body require extra protection (12:22). There exists a tendency for an individual to look for

how they can possess greater gifts within the body. Paul asserts that there is a more excellent

way (12:31). The more excellent way leads straight into chapter 13 with Paul’s discussion on

love.
3

Through a series of conditional statements, Paul begins the first section of the passage

(13:1-3) by naming the futility of one’s actions if devoid of love. Since all New Testament

epistles are occasional in nature, one can only assume that these actions that Paul criticizes are

the very actions that they wrote about in their first letter. Paul is well versed in crafting letters,

and knows that his argument would not be compelling if he started with actions that were

completely foreign to the community.2 The first one of these conditional statements begins with

the influence of one’s speech by referring to “speaking in tongues of mortals and of angels”

(13:1).3 According to Collins, the idea of angelic speech is similar to that found in the Testament

of Job where the ecstatic speech of Job’s daughters is described as the language of angels,

archons, and cherubim.4 Therefore, in referring to the tongues of angels, it appears that Paul is

describing some type of heavenly speech. This heavenly speech is then contrasted to the sound

made from a noisy gong or clanging symbol. In the Greco-Roman world, cymbals were fine

musical instruments and often used as a liturgical device, while the “sounding brass is merely an

echoing device” that would be used for making noise.5 In this first conditional statement, Paul is

establishing a point that even if a member of the Corinthian church speaks in a sacred manner, if

it is done without love, such speech is drowned out by the business of the world.

As Paul goes, into vv 2-3 of his discourse, he moves into how one’s speech has the

capacity to manipulate the natural elements of the world. The theme of one’s verbal abilities

from v 1 continues with the conditional assertion of a capacity to “understand all mysteries and

all knowledge” (13:2), but then shifts to how these verbal and mental capacities interact with the

physical world. The first way one interacts with the material world is through “faith as to remove

2
Shira L. Lander, “1 Corinthians,” in The Jewish Annotated New Testament: New Revised Standard Version Bible
Translation, ed. Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 345
3
All direct quotations of Scripture are from the NRSV unless otherwise noted.
4
Raymond F. Collins, First Corinthians, Sacra Pagina. (Liturgical Press, 1999), 473
5
Collins, First Corinthians, 475
4

mountains” (13:2). The metaphor of faith that moves mountains could be an allusion to Mark

11:22-236, where Jesus teaches his disciples that if they have faith in God, they will be able to

command the mountains to move and it will come to pass. With this teaching of Jesus in mind,

Paul is making the point that even if members of the Corinthian church have faith to do

miraculous acts of God, these works mean nothing if it is not also coupled with love.

The second way that one interacts with the material world is by the release of one’s

possessions, along with one’s physical body (13:3). The reason the NRSV provides for why one

would give away their possessions is so that “one would boast,” but provides a footnote

informing the reader that other ancient authorities read “body to be burned.” Collins notes that in

many of the Coptic versions, the reason for handing over one’s body is “so that I may boast”

while the reason given in most medieval manuscripts is “so that I may be burned.” These

variations were most likely the result of a scribal error as the Greek of both phrases is very

similar.7 The word “boast” conveys a communal standing that one would possess while alive,

while being burned would result in the individual’s martyrdom. Although “to be burned” is a

later variation based on the manuscripts, there is sufficient evidence behind each variation, and it

functions as a better grammatical complement to the “handing over.” Typically, dying by public

execution would bring an individual shame. However, in Christian communities, being executed

for the sake of the Gospel, which was an instrument of execution by the state, would bring a

person honor since Jesus died on the cross. Even though “so that I may boast” is rougher

grammatically, at least in English, Collins observes that it is a common phrase used 45 times

6
Victor Paul Furnish, “First Corinthians,” The HarperCollins Study Bible: NRSV, rev. ed. (San Francisco:
HarperCollins, 2006), 1950
7
Collins, First Corinthians, 476
5

throughout the Pauline corpus. The phrase “so that I may boast” also fits in nicely with the

following verse where Paul uses the word “boast” to describe a quality that love is not (13:4)8

Once Paul has established that without love all other actions carried out by the

Corinthians are devoid of meaning, he proceeds in vv 4-7 to define the positive and negative

aspects of love. English only has a singular word for love but the Greek language uses four

district words for love: erōs, philia, agape, and strogē. Erōs was the type of love that was used to

express desire and the search for truth, but notably this type of love never appears in the New

Testament. Strogē was used to express a love for children and like erōs, it does not make an

appearance in the New Testament. Philia was the type of love used to denote friendship, and

only appears in James 4:4 in the context of friendship with the world. Agape was a rare form of

love in extra-biblical material, but in 1 Cor 13 is the only form of love used. This is also the case

in the New Testament, where it expresses a type of love that human beings have toward God or

one that God has towards human beings9

In the second section of the passage (13:4-7), Paul uses the rhetorical device of sygkrisis

(comparison). In this form, Paul uses positive and negative attributes to portray what love is and

what love is not. 10 Paul begins v 4 with the two positive qualities of love, asserting that love is

“patient” and “kind.” These positive qualities of love are then contrasted with a string of eight

qualities describing what love is not when Paul asserts love is not 1) “envious,” 2) “boastful,” 3)

“arrogant,” 4) “rude,” 5) “insisting on its own way,” 6) “irritable,” 6) “resentful” or 7) “rejoice in

wrongdoing.” Paul appears to be so explicit in describing what it is not because these are the

various qualities that defined the way the Corinthian was loving one another. This list of negative

qualities is then contrasted with the quality of one who “rejoices in the truth” (13:7). When the
8
Ibid.
9
Fitzmyer, First Corinthians, 489
10
Collins, First Corinthians, 479
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Corinthian church rejoices with the truth, they are cultivating an atmosphere where the negative

qualities of love do not have an opportunity to manifest. Paul then finishes describing the

positive aspects of love with the assertion that love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all

things, endures all things” (13:6). This final list of four qualities seeks to establish the supremacy

of love over all other aspects of life.

Unlike all of the actions in the first section of the passage that will eventually come to an

end, in the last section of the passage (13:8-13) the distinguishing factor of love is that it will

never come to an end (13:8). One could “speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels” (13:1)

but such prophecies will eventually cease. Likewise, one may “understand all mysteries and all

knowledge” (13:2), but these intellectual elements will also come to an end. Though these

previous actions that the Corinthian church engaged in are futile, they can only understand their

futility through the eternal quality of love. This is not to assume that the former qualities do not

have any value, for these former qualities enable the Corinthian church to “know in part” and

“prophecy in part” (13:9). These partial qualities are still valuable in that they point to the

enduring quality of love, but when the complete comes, these partial qualities will come to an

end (13:10). Therefore, Paul’s argument is not that qualities other than love are worthless in

essence, but that they are worthless if they do not point to anything greater than themselves.

To illustrate the partial nature of qualities other than love, Paul utilizes the metaphor of a

child growing into adulthood, and the metaphor of a reflection in a mirror. In the child metaphor,

Paul places himself in the position of a child, explaining that when he was a child, he spoke,

thought, and reasoned like a child, but as he grew into adulthood, he “put an end to childish

ways” (13:11). Paul contrasts term “child” contrasts with “adult,” however the term for child can

also refer to someone lacking in maturity. Fitzmyer postulates that Paul appears to be bringing up
7

this childhood motif in terms of maturity.11 Collins also notes that in classical and Hellenistic

Greek, the imagery of a child “was often used metaphorically to describe someone who was

childish, silly or foolish”12, but such a motif does not entirely capture Paul’s use of the metaphor

within this passage. Rather, the Corinthian Church inaccurately assesses itself as fully mature

(2:6) when it is really made up of children in the faith when compared to Paul.13

As indicated with the conjunction “for,” Paul proceeds to further explain the child

metaphor with the metaphor of a mirror. In this second metaphor, Paul asserts that “we see in a

mirror dimly, but then we will see face to face” (13:3). Paul uses the collective pronoun “we” in

v 13 to indicate that not even he is in the position to see face to face. Even though Paul asserted

in the previous verse that he assumed the maturity that comes with adulthood, this does not mean

that he also has clarity of vision. From his point of view, all are standing in front of the mirror

and cannot see a clear picture. This metaphor of seeing in a mirror dimly may have a vague

connection to Moses’s interactions with the LORD on Mount Sinai. Over the course of his

interactions with the LORD, Moses requests to see the glory of the LORD (Exod 33:8). In

response to this request, the LORD tells Moses that he cannot see his face and live (Exod 33:20),

but Moses is permitted to see the backside of the LORD. In the context of 1 Cor 13, Paul asserts

that the Christian community can only see in a mirror dimly, but a day will come where they will

be able to see face to face (13:12).

Paul wraps up his argument with the assertion that “faith, hope, and love” remain but “the

greatest of these is love” (13:13). In the Greco-Roman context, many philosophers asserted that

love is the supreme virtue, and Paul is simply putting a Christian spin on an already accepted

11
Joseph A. Fitzmyer, First Corintians: New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. Anchor Yale Bible
32. (Yale University Press, 2008), 498
12
Collins, First Corinthians, 486
13
Ibid.
8

virtue.14 Early Church father John Chrysostom asserts that “love is the greatest because while

faith is preached and hope pertains to a future life, love remains.”15 Chrysostom’s interpretation

incorporates some of the qualities that Paul has already discussed in the passage as all three of

these virtues appear at least once in the chapter. Faith occurs in the context of moving mountains,

but at the same time if faith is not coupled with love, it means nothing. Hope is depicted in a bit

better light in v 7, but even here it is described an aspect of love, rather than a quality that should

be sought after on its own. By naming faith and hope alongside of love, Paul is showing the

supremacy of love and how love overflows into every other aspect of human existence.

Conclusion

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul finds it necessary to spell out both the positive and negative

qualities of love in an explicit manner. Since New Testament epistles are occasional in nature,

Paul was acutely aware that although the Corinthian Church participated in various forms of

Christian speech and acts, this was not done in a loving manner. Therefore, in the first section of

the chapter, Paul asserts that all of these actions that the church is actively engaged in mean

nothing if not carried out with love (13:1-3). The second section of the chapter seeks to name the

positive and negative qualities of love (13:4-7). Since the Corinthian Church does not know the

first thing when it comes to love, Paul uses this second section to explicitly explain what love is

and what love is not. In the final section (13:18-13), Paul asserts the supremacy of love, showing

that all other aspects of life will pass away, but love remains. This is extremely good news for

someone living in a marginalized community since “love looks forward to the ultimate triumph

of truth and shows a steadfast endurance, the active counterpart of the more passive patience.”16

14
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. (Downers Grove: IVP Academic,
2014), 486.
15
Chrysostom ctd. in Gerald L. Bray, ed. 1-2 Corinthians (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006), 284.
16
Tokumboh Adeymo, Africa Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 2010).
9

However, this is terrifying for anyone who believes that their false sense of piety will bring them

any merit.

Now we come full circle to the question posed at the beginning of the paper: is it

appropriate to read this passage during a wedding ceremony? A wedding ceremony is very

celebratory in nature, so reading a passage originally written for a community that did not know

the first thing about loving one another is quite depressing in nature. Yet, reading such a passage

during a wedding ceremony bears witness to the reality that even when people have the best

intentions to love one another, they will always fall short. Therefore, when reading 1 Corinthians

13 during a wedding, the two people getting married serve as a microcosm for the broader

Christian community. Just as a married couple continue to strive in their love for one another, the

Church must as well. Although 1 Corinthians 13 has undertones of a community that does not

know how to love each other well, this passage fits in perfectly to a wedding ceremony, since it

bears witness to the reality that despite all the things the couple does for one another, love must

be the defining factor.

Bibliography

Adeyemo, Tokumboh, ed. Africa Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 2010).

Bray, Gerald L., ed. 1-2 Corinthians (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006).

Collins, Raymond F. First Corinthians. Sacra Pagina (Collegeville: Liturgical Press) 1999.

Fitzmyer, Joseph A. First Corinthians: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary.

Anchor Yale Bible 32 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2008).

Furnish ,Victor Paul Harold. “1 Corinthians.” W. Attridge, ed., The HarperCollins Study Bible:

NRSV, rev. ed. (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2006).

Keener, Craig S. The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. (Downers Grove:

IVP Academic, 2014).

Lander, Shira L. “1 Corinthians,” in The Jewish Annotated New Testament: New Revised

Standard Version Bible Translation, ed. Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler (Grand

Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008).