During the 10 years that I’ve been keeping this blog, I’ve posted before about the NT book’s chapter First Corinthians 13. The original Greek is central to understanding why agapé was so important to the first Christians. St. Paul used those verses to explain to his Greek readers why he started using the word ‘agapé’ and why he thought it pointed to something so powerful for everyone. (So of course, we must remember he was writing about agapé.)
Now, in summarizing my study of 1 Cor. 13, I’m keeping in mind the important point he eventually made in his letter to the Romans. There he talked about the spiritual power of divine agapé having been poured into human hearts by the Holy Spirit. So I was able to interpret St. Paul’s description of agapé in terms of its spiritual power.
When St. Paul started showing the power of agapé, his first readers would have been surprised. Over the years, my work with agapé power has led me to even deeper insights into the radical message that he gave there. I’ve come to understand more profoundly why he warned his readers that what he was going to show them was unusual by saying, “Now I shall show you a still more excellent way.” So what was this innovation that he brought to the early development of Christianity?
What we call the 13th chapter began by continuing his list of spiritual gifts that he started talking about in chapter 12. He did that to show that he considered agapé to be the greatest of all spiritual gifts. In Galatians, Paul called it the fruit of the Spirit. He was pointing out how that deep spiritual sense allows us to accept other people in a life-affirming way that we become neither agitated with them nor attach any degree of importance to anything they may to do us.
For example, agapé was so important to deep spiritual awareness that any attempt to gain divine inspiration without using the power of agapé would amount to nothing. When he got into what we today mean by charity, he said that if we give away all our possessions and even are willing to sacrifice our own bodies for the cause -- but don’t do it through the power of agapé -- we gain nothing. At that point he had his readers’ attention in a shocking way with that list of comparisons between agapé and all the other spiritual gifts that most people would find wonderful to have. So he was ready to lay out the details showing what agapé power could do.
His readers would have understood that whatever that strange spiritual power is, patience and kindness are of the very essence of what it is. He seems to be saying this: the way that spiritual power works in a person and between persons in a faith community, agapé is patient and kind. What does that mean?
He summarized that meaning by saying that agapé “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” What an amazing spiritual power! He was pointing out that agapé power helps us not be envious or boastful or arrogant or rude or insist on our own way, and not be irritable or resentful. Then he hit the self-righteous religious people right between the eyes when he said that agapé will help them not rejoice in the wrongdoing of those they like to judge as less religiously worthy. Because everyone knows how difficult it is to live that way, we are able to see how extremely important it is for agapé power to bring about an inner transformation.
So we need agapé to become fully mature in our spiritual development; otherwise, we remain childish in our understanding of the spiritual dimension of Life. And finally, even though we know that faith, hope, and agapé abide to sustain us spiritually -- “the greatest of these is agapé.”
When we know it is agapé that is used in that chapter, then we know we are dealing with the basis for a new spiritual discipline that motivates us to look for a spiritual training that will help us live fully through the power of God.
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