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.”

A New Look at 1 Corinthians 13

About a year ago (1/22, 23, and 28) I posted a study of 1 Corinthians 13. Since then my work with agape power has led me to even deeper insights into the radical message that Paul gave there. After all, the purpose of that chapter is Paul’s explanation of the strange new spiritual gift he called “agape.” (The chapter could not be about what is commonly meant as love, because he did not use any of the Greek common words for “love.” And anyway, he had no reason to explain love.)

We remember that Paul had just finished, in chapter 12, a list of spiritual gifts. So then he warned his readers that what he was going to show them next was unusual -- by saying, “Now I shall show you a still more excellent way.” (1 Corinthians 12:31 The Anchor Yale Bible, p. 474, 2008 Vol. 32) So what was this unusual religious innovation that he thought was so important he described it as a “more excellent way”?

Whenever approaching the shocking 13th chapt., I keep in mind Paul’s view of agape expressed in Rom. 5:5 -- “The agape of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” That helps us understand why he began the 13th chapt. by showing that he considered “agape” to be the greatest of all spiritual gifts that anyone can receive. He was using a spiritual explanation in those unusual verses. (Because I quoted extensively in the Jan., 2010, postings, I won’t repeat those Biblical quotes. And I don’t need to repeat my carefully explained evidence for leaving “agape” untranslated.)

First, he explained that other spiritual gifts were nothing without agape. He even explained that charity is most effective when done through the power of agape. After those comparisons, that would have upset the Corinthians, Paul was ready to lay out the details showing what agape power could do. But in an even more unusual method, he didn’t start by talking about what the transforming power of agape can do to us. Instead, he talked directly about what agape itself is.

He started that description by pointing out that agape is patient and kind. WHAT? So 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 agape's spiritual power works in a person and between persons in a faith community, it is patient and kind. What does that mean?

The King James Version uses the expression “suffereth long” instead of “patient.” That adds a new depth of meaning for all those people who wrongly want religion to guard them against suffering. So agape is the spiritual power found in suffering. That’s why Paul said that agape “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (vss. 4-7) What an amazing spiritual power!

So we have to look to what spiritually is the foundation of patience and kindness. In Galatians, when Paul concluded, “If we live by the Spirit, let’s follow the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25 Common English Bible) -- he was referring to what followers of Jesus Christ must do to 'crucify' the influence of any ego-identity.

Several verses later he said, “be guided by the Spirit and you won’t carry out your selfish desires." That’s when he gave the list: "The fruit of the Spirit is agape, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Gal. 16-23) Those “spiritual fruits” all go together. Of course, agape comes first, because its spiritual power opens us up to both God and to other people in such a way that what comes into our being is a profound sense of joyous well-being.

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. That's how we're able to live in a forgiving, merciful way. Even though we might think that is not humanly possible, with agape, all is possible.

Paul then explained more about agape when he then said that it helps us move beyond any ego-centric behavior. He seems to be saying that agape 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, judgementalness, self-righteousness, and all other results of ego-identity behavior.

Then he concluded that all the other spiritual gifts will eventually fail in their effectiveness, but agape will never fail. (vs. 8 Common English Bible) So, he then said he understood that we need agape in order 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 agape abide to sustain us spiritually -- “the greatest of these is agape.” (vs. 13) Greater that faith and hope?!

Those statements would have bothered Greeks when they were read in the First Century. Those words show a new way for Christians to develop spiritually. (So, again, we lose that shocking, new, powerful quality if we just translate “agape” with our English word “love.” But by leaving the word as Paul wanted it, we are better able to see what he was showing us.)

When we hear the way Paul explained agape in that chapter, then we know we are dealing with the basis for a new faith discipline that motivates us to look for a spiritual training that will help us live fully through the power of God. Paul was telling his generation, and all generations since then, to expect that when we open ourselves to the power of agape, we will find it to be patient, kind, non-judgmental, and not ego-inflating.

That seems to mean to me that God will not force agape on us, so each of has to be completely willing to open our heart -- but also that agape will eternally be there for us. Even though agape is the most important power that God has for us, we have to freely accept the gift and use it or else it will mean nothing to us -- and our lives will amount to nothing until we are willing to work with that all-important spiritual power.

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

It is that spiritual power of agape that brings to the center of our being the peace that is the spiritual power 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.”

1 Corinthians 13

When St. Paul finally launched into showing the power of agape, his first readers would have been surprised. They would have found very strange his detailed illustration of the supreme importance of agape. He was warning them about how unusual it was going to be, when he said, “Now I shall show you a still more excellent way.” (1 Corinthians 12:31 The Anchor Yale Bible, p. 474, 2008 Vol. 32) So what was this innovation that he brought to the early development of Christianity?

He began the 13th chapter of his First Letter to the Corinthians, by continuing his list of spiritual gifts that he started talking about in chapter 12. He did that to show that he considered “agape” to be the greatest of all spiritual gifts. For example, without agape, “speaking in tongues” was just like a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. Then he said that we are nothing without agape even though we “have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and … have all faith, so as to remove mountains.” (vs. 2 The New Revised Standard Version)

Then he got into what we today mean by charity, when 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 agape -- we gain nothing. At that point he had his readers’ attention in a shocking way! They would not have liked that list of comparisons between agape 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 agape power could do.

So then he pointed out that agape is what we need to be patient and kind. Agape 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 agape will help them not rejoice in the wrongdoing of those they like to judge as less religiously worthy. So of course, agape helps us “rejoice in the truth.” Agape power even gives us the internal strength to “bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, endure all things.” (vss. 4-7) Because everyone knows how difficult it is to live that way, we are able to see how extremely important such an inner transformation is.

Then he concluded that the effectiveness all the other spiritual gifts will eventually end, but agape will never end. So we need agape in order 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 agape abide to sustain us spiritually -- “the greatest of these is agape.” (vs. 13)

Those statements would have shaken up Christians of the First Century. Those words show a new way for Christians to develop spiritually. We lose that shocking, new, powerful quality if we just translate “agape” with our English word “love.” But by leaving the word as St. Paul wanted it, we are better able to see what he was showing us.

When we hear agape 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.