Love, the More Excellent Way¶

The text. "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing." (1 Corinthians 13:1-2, ESV)

"So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." (13:13)

The more excellent way¶

Paul does not introduce chapter 13 as a correction of chapter 12. He introduces it as a way: "I will show you a still more excellent way" (12:31). The gifts are not the problem; the way they were being used was. And the next thing he writes is "Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts" (14:1).

So love is not a replacement for the gifts. It is the mode in which they are used. A church that pursues love without desiring the gifts obeys half of 14:1; a church that desires the gifts without love is a noise.

What love is¶

Verses 4-7 are usually read at weddings, which is a pity, because they were written to a church arguing about who had the better gift. "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." (13:4-7)

Read that list against a prayer meeting. Love does not insist on its own way — which is what a man does when he has a "word" and must deliver it now. Love is not irritable — which is what a team becomes when the meeting runs long. Love rejoices with the truth — which is why love and discernment are not enemies.

This is not a description of a feeling. It is a portrait of God, who is love (1 John 4:8).

The cross as the measure¶

The New Testament does not define love by intensity or sincerity but by the cross: "walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us" (Ephesians 5:2). "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13).

That gives the gifted person a specific question. Not "was I used?" but "was the other person served?" The measure of a gift is not how it makes the one who exercises it feel; it is what it does for the person in front of them.

Fruit and gifts¶

Paul lists the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (5:22-23). It is fruit, singular — one character, not a set of achievements — and the list contains no gifts.

Gifts are capacities; fruit is character. A gift can operate through a bad man: many will say "did we not prophesy in your name...?" and hear "I never knew you" (Matthew 7:22-23). No one can counterfeit patient, self-controlled love for very long. That is why fruit, not power, is the evidence of belonging.

The practical test¶

So here is the test to carry into the meeting: does this gift serve the person in front of me?

Paul gives the same test in chapter 14. Prophecy is for "upbuilding and encouragement and consolation" (14:3); tongues without interpretation do not build up, so the remedy is interpretation, not abstinence (14:12-13); "let all things be done for building up" (14:26). Love is not a warm feeling about the congregation; it is the choice to make the meeting intelligible and useful for the people actually in the room.

And because love "rejoices with the truth" (13:6), testing a word is an act of love, not suspicion. A church that never tests does not love the prophet enough to correct him, or the congregation enough to protect it.

Gift-centred identity¶

There is a subtler danger than fraud, and it is common among sincere people: making a gift the centre of your identity.

It happens slowly. You are used; people are helped; then the gift becomes the thing you are, and criticism of it feels like a rejection of you. Then it must be protected rather than spent, and the church becomes an audience rather than a body. Paul has answered this: "to each is given... as he wills" (1 Corinthians 12:11); the eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you" (12:21); "if I have all faith... but have not love, I am nothing" (13:2).

The cure is not to think less of the gift but to locate your identity elsewhere. You are a member of a body, not a solo act — a steward, not an owner. The gift is yours to spend, not yours to become.

What this does and does not prove¶

It proves: that love is the mode of the gifts, not their replacement; that love's character is defined by the cross; and that fruit, not power, is the evidence of the Spirit's work in a life.

It does not prove: that gifts are unimportant, that feeling is wrong, or that a church with order and love needs no power. It proves that the gifts are for the person in front of you, and that the one who uses them is not the point.