Agapé and Spiritual Development

In the blog page that follows this I returned to study First Corinthians 13. So now I want to reflect on what that means for the full spiritual development of the human race. 

That means I don’t think of St. Paul as confined to merely the little groups (that we today call ‘churches’) who responded to his message and gathered together. I think he meant for his message to be universal, extending far beyond those gathering groups. For as St. Paul started the very next chapter by advising: “Put agapé first.” (New English Bible translation, with ‘agapé’ left in its original Greek) Both chapters are mainly about agapé.

As he explained in the middle section of Chapter 13, agapé can help all people move beyond any ego-centric behavior. He seems to be saying that agapé is our very witness that true spiritual power is on the side of patience, kindness, justice and truth -- and that it is against envy, conceit, self-righteousness, and judgmental attitude and action — in other words against all other results of ego-centric behavior. 

Then he concluded that we need agapé to become fully mature in our spiritual development; otherwise, we remain childishly stunted in our growth in faith. And finally, even though we know that faith, hope, and agapé abide to sustain us spiritually -- “the greatest of these is agapé.” (vs. 13) Greater than faith and hope?!

St. Paul was telling his generation, and all generations since then, to expect that when we open ourselves to the power of agapé flowing from deep within us, we will find it to be patient, kind, non-judgmental, and not ego-boosting. I take that to mean that God will not force us to open to the flow of agapé, so each of has to be completely willing to open up then use what comes from our spiritual-heart-center -- but also that agapé will eternally be there for us. Even though agapé is the most important power that God has for us, we have to freely accept the gift or else it will mean nothing to us -- and the deep purpose of our lives will not fully develop for us until we are willing to work with that all-important spiritual power.

Later on, near the end of that epistle, St. Paul said, “Stay awake, stand firm in your faith, be brave, be strong. Everything should be done in agapé.” (16:13-14 Common English Bible) That’s how he thought of the total influence of agapé -- that we should use it to do everything that brings ultimate meaning to Life.

It is that spiritual power that brings from the center of our being the peace that is the spiritual basis of patience itself; the spiritual strength of kindness; the wise rejoicing in the truth; and the basis of such a profound compassion that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”