One thing Paul never had to say to the church at Corinth was that they were free from the Law. This was probably the one teaching they understood best. Unfortunately, it became the excuse for an awful lot of extreme behavior. In the chapters leading up to this, he had been hammering them for taking their liberties too far. He wanted them to learn self-constraint for the sake of our witness. Thus, he gives them a motive they cannot ignore: sacrificial compassion. In this context, that’s the meaning of the Greek word agape.
It should be obvious that the Corinthians got hung up on speaking in tongues, much as Charismatics do today. Thus, Paul starts off mentioning that gift, and notes that without sacrificial compassion, it’s just noise. Also similar to our day, they made much of prophecy and words of wisdom and knowledge, and he even throws in miracles. Those gifts without compassion make you useless to the Kingdom of Heaven. Even people who really do understand that our lives in this world are not worth much can miss the point. Suffering and sacrifice itself is not a virtue; it has to come from compassion.
How do we recognize love? It puts up with a lot of crap, tries to be useful, and does not covet what God gives others. Love doesn’t talk about itself or inflate its social reputation. It is not rude or defensive, and is not easily offended or resentful. It does not snicker at the misfortune of others but celebrates when someone finally figures things out. Compassion will do what it takes, covers the costs, trusts God to work through circumstances, and never quits.
Compassion outlasts human life. All those gifts of the Spirit will end with this world. The best we can hope for in this life is always lagging behind the potential. We will always struggle and come up short, but somewhere out there is a fully developed spiritual condition that we shoot for. It’s as if we are children; there’s only so much we can even understand, much less do. When the day of redemption comes, the Lord will make us spiritual adults. Or maybe it’s like seeing God only through a mirror, looking around a corner. Someday, we will see Him face to face.
This life cannot measure up, nor can we. The whole point is to know the Lord as clearly as He surely knows us. In this life we have been granted faith, confidence and compassion to carry us through to The End. The most powerful gift is that loving self-sacrifice that nailed Christ to the Cross.
