I Corinthians 13 · The Lantern

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I have become as sounding bronze, or a clanging cymbal.

"Love joins us to God, does all things in concord. In love, all the chosen of God were perfected. Apart from love, nothing is well pleasing to God." "Of its perfection there is no unfolding," it is said.

The tongues of angels refer to the different languages spoken on earth since the destruction of the tower of Babel. As Moses says in Deuteronomy [32:8]: "God has set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of angels." It is therefore the task of each angel to defend the distinction of nations.

Having assigned the differences among charismatic graces and the ministries in which the members of the Church are distinguished, the Apostle now deals with charity, which is inseparably connected with sanctifying grace. And because he had promised to show them a more excellent way, he shows how charity outranks the others, i.e., the charismatic graces.

And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.

And Paul in like manner declares, "Love is the fulfilling of the law:" and [he declares] that when all other things have been destroyed, there shall remain "faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of all is love;" and that apart from the love of God, neither knowledge avails anything, nor the understanding of mysteries, nor faith, nor prophecy, but that without love all are hol…

Every one that teaches anything beyond what is commanded, though he be [deemed] worthy of credit, though he be in the habit of fasting, though he live in continence, though he work miracles, though he have the gift of prophecy, let him be in thy sight as a wolf in sheep's clothing, labouring for the destruction of the sheep.

Then when he says, and if I have prophecy, he shows the same about things pertaining to knowledge. But it should be noted that above he proposed four charismatic graces pertaining to knowledge, namely, wisdom, knowledge, faith and prophecy.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profits me nothing.

And do you imagine that I am thinking of a supper that is to be done away with? "For if "it is said, "I bestow all my goods, and have not love, I am nothing.". But it is not from the same cause, or with the same object; not were they to give their whole body. "For they have not love "according to the apostle.

The one who loves fulfills the law. The one who fulfills the law is well respected. The one who is well respected receives a spiritual gift.

Then when he says: And if I give away, he shows the same in matters pertaining to works which consists in man's doing good works, as it says in Gal (6:9): "Let us not grow weary in well-doing," and in his enduring evils patiently: "For justice will return to the righteous and all the upright in heart will follow it" (Ps 94:15).

Love is patient, and is kind; love envies not; love does not boast, is not arrogant,

Let him who has love in Christ keep the commandments of Christ. Who can describe the [blessed] bond of the love of God? What man is able to tell the excellence of its beauty, as it ought to be told? The height to which love exalts is unspeakable. Love unites us to God. Love covers a multitude of sins. Love bears all things, is long-suffering in all things.

Thus, whereas he had showed, that both faith and knowledge and prophecy and tongues and gifts and healing and a perfect life and martyrdom, if love be absent, are no great advantage; of necessity he next makes an outline of its matchless beauty, adorning its image with the parts of virtue as with a sort of colors, and putting together all its members with exactness.

After showing that charity is so necessary that without it no spiritual gifts are sufficient for salvation, the Apostle now shows that it is so useful and of such efficacious strength that through it all virtuous works are completed. First, he makes two quasi-general statements; secondly, he mentions in particular the virtuous works which are completed by charity (v. 4b).

Does not behave improperly, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil;

Rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;

Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

But love is in truth celestial food, the banquet of reason. "It beareth all things, endureth all things, hopeth all things. Love never faileth." "Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God." But the hardest of all cases is for charity, which faileth not, to be cast from heaven above to the ground into the midst of sauces.

Wherefore he saith, "beareth all things." From her long-suffering, from her goodness; whether they be burdensome, or grievous, or insults, or stripes, or death, or whatsoever else. And this again one may perceive from the case of blessed David.

In the fact that a person endures the evils of his neighbor to the extent that it is fitting, he says: love bears all things, i.e., without disquiet it tolerates all the shortcomings of the neighbor or any adversity whatever: "We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak" (Rom 15:1); "Carry one another's burdens and so you will fulfill the law of Christ," namel…

Love never fails: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

But if any lover of strife contradict what I have said, and also what the apostle affirms, that "we know in part, and prophesy in part," and imagine that he has acquired not a partial, but a universal, knowledge of all that exists,-being such an one as Valentinus, or Ptolemaeus, or Basilides, or any other of those who maintain that they have searched out the deep things of God,…

For we know in part and prophesy in part; but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away; for we shall then know perfectly, as we ought to know, when we have all risen from the dead perfect.

Then when he says: for our knowledge is imperfect, he proves what he had said: first, he presents a proof; secondly, he clarifies things contained in the proof (v. 11). To prove the proposition he presents this proof: When the perfect comes, the imperfect ceases; but gifts other than charity have imperfection. Therefore, they will cease, when the perfection of glory triumphs.

But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

And the expression, "When I was a child, I thought as a child, I spoke as a child," points out his mode of life according to the law, according to which, thinking childish things, he persecuted, and speaking childish things he blasphemed the Word, not as having yet attained to the simplicity of childhood, but as being in its folly.

In this life we are children, compared with what we shall become in the next life. For everything in this life is imperfect, including knowledge.

Then when he says: When I was a child, he clarifies what he had said above: first, he clarifies the major, namely, with the coming of the perfect the imperfect ceases; secondly, he clarifies the minor, namely, that knowledge and prophecy are imperfect (v. 12). He shows the first by a likeness of the perfect and imperfect found in bodily age.

For now we see in a mirror, dimly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

Spiritually, therefore, the apostle writes respecting the knowledge of God, "For now we see as through a glass, but then face to face." For the vision of the truth is given but to few. Accordingly, Plato says in the Epinomis, "I do not say that it is possible for all to be blessed and happy; only a few. Whilst we live, I pronounce this to be the case.

This means that the things which we now hear on the authority of the Scriptures we believe to be so. After the resurrection we shall see them with our eyes and know them in reality, when partial knowledge has ceased, for the knowledge which depends on hearing is part of the knowledge of an eyewitness and of experience.

Here he speaks of the vision, which is knowledge of God. Hence, all the preceding gifts must be understood as destined to be eliminated inasmuch as they are directed to knowledge of God. In regard to this he does two things: first, he proves what he proposes in general; secondly, in detail about himself (v. 12b).

And now remains faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

If, therefore, even with respect to creation, there are some things [the knowledge of] which belongs only to God, and others which come within the range of our own knowledge, what ground is there for complaint, if, in regard to those things which we investigate in the Scriptures (which are throughout spiritual), we are able by the grace of God to explain some of them, while we…

Love is the greatest because it is the fulfilling of the law.

Then he infers the principal conclusion, when he says: Now there abide. But the cause why he does not mention all the gifts but only three is that the three join to God; the others do not join to God, except through the mediation of those three; also the other gifts dispose for the birth of those three in the hearts of men.

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