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Nevertheless there was something more excellent than all gifts. They were
the manifestations of the power of God and of the mysteries of His wisdom;
love, that of His nature itself.
They might speak with all tongues; they might have prophecy, the knowledge
of mysteries, the faith which can remove mountains; they might give all
their possessions to feed the poor, and their bodies to be tortured: if
they had not love, it was nothing. Love was conformity to the nature of
God, the living expression of what He was, the manifestation of having been
made partakers of His nature: it was the acting and feeling according to
His likeness. This love is developed in reference to others; but others are
not the motive, although they are the object. It has its source within; its
strength is independent of the objects with which it is occupied. Thus it
can act where circumstances might produce irritation or jealousy in the
human heart. It acts according to its own nature in the circumstances; and
by judging them according to that nature, they do not act upon the man who
is full of love, except so far as they supply occasion for its activity,
and direct its form. Love is its own motive. In us participation in the
divine nature is its only source. Communion with God Himself alone sustains
it through all the difficulties it has to surmount in its path. This love
is the opposite of selfishness and of self-seeking, and shuts it out,
seeking the good of others, even (as to its principle) as God has sought us
in grace (see Eph. 4:32; 5:1, 2). What a power to avoid evil in oneself,
to forget all in order to do good!
It is worthy of note that the qualities of divine love are almost entirely
of a passive character.
The first eight qualities pointed out by the Spirit are the expression of
this renunciation of self. The three that follow, mark that joy in good
which sets the heart free also from that readiness to suppose evil, which
is so natural to human nature, on account of its own depth of evil, and
that which it also experiences in the world. The last four shew its
positive energy, which-the source of every kind thought-by the powerful
spring of its divine nature, presumes good when it does not see it, and
bears with evil when it sees it, covering it by longsuffering and patience;
not bringing it to light, but burying it in its own depth-a depth which is
unfathomable, because love never changes. One finds nothing but love where
it is real; for circumstances are but an occasion for it to act and shew
itself. Love is always itself, and it is love which is exercised and
displayed. It is that which fills the mind: everything else is but a means
of awakening the soul that dwells in love to its exercise. This is the
divine character. No doubt the time of judgment will come; but our
relationships with God are in grace. Love is His nature. It is now the time
of its exercise. We represent Him on earth in testimony.
In that which is said of love in this chapter we find the reproduction of
the divine nature, except that what is said is but the negative of the
selfishness of the flesh in us. Now the divine nature changes not and never
ceases; love therefore abides ever. Communications from God; the means by
which they are made; knowledge, as attained here below, according to which
we apprehend the truth in part only, although the whole truth is revealed
to us (for we apprehend it in detail, so that we have never the whole at
once, the character of our knowledge being to lay hold of different truths
singly); all that is characterised by being in part-passes away. Love will
not pass away. A child learns; he rejoices too in things that amuse him;
when he becomes a man, he requires things in accordance with his
intelligence as a man. It was thus with tongues and the edification of the
assembly. The time however was coming when they should know even as they
were known, not by communications of truths to a capacity that apprehended
the truth in its different parts, but they should understand it as a whole
in its unity.
Now love subsists already; there are faith and hope also. Not only shall
these pass away, but even now, here below, that which is of the nature of
God is more excellent than that which is connected with the capacity of
human nature, even though enlightened by God, and having for its object the
revealed glory of God.
Believers therefore were to follow after and seek for love, while desiring
gifts, especially that they might prophesy, because thus they would edify
the assembly, and that was the thing to aim at; it was that which love
desired and sought, it was that which intelligence required, the two marks
of a man in Christ, of one to whom Christ is all.
