Loony to Lofty
Magnificence in the midst of dreck
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things… Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. (I Corinthians 13:7; 15:51-52)
I don’t have a guess at how many times I’ve read The Apostle Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, or led groups in study of it, or preached from it. But God keeps bringing out new insight, even after decades of reading and pondering.
What leapt out at me this week is that two of Paul’s most inspiring and uplifting writings show up in a letter wading through church at its worst.
In writing to the Church in Corinth, Paul has to address
quarreling and division (Chapter 1)
cults of personality/”My apostle is better than your apostle” (Ch. 3)
arrogance and disdain for spiritual leaders (Ch. 4)
immorality not only tolerated but celebrated (Ch. 5)
members suing one another, plus more immorality (Ch. 6)
more arrogance and lack of concern for recent converts (Ch. 8)
stinginess (Ch. 9)
mixing and matching Christianity with pagan idolatry (Ch. 10)
economic class distinctions played out during Holy Communion (Ch. 11)
“My spiritual gift makes me better than you” (Chs. 12, 14)
denial of key Christian belief (Ch. 15:12)
I’m exhausted just cataloging these. I probably missed a few. But through them all slogs Paul, teaching with patience and occasional passion, expressing love for the Corinthians even while trying to (verbally) knock some sense into them.
But he also seeks to elevate them, to replace loony with lofty. And we are the beneficiaries of the magnificent words God breathed through Paul’s reed pen.
First Corninthians 13 is best known as a lesson at weddings. And what couple couldn’t benefit from
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Except Paul wasn’t writing about romantic love. He writes at some length about love and marriage in Chapter 7, which is kinda realistic and not very lovey-dovey.
Chapter 13, the great exposition of love, sits between Chapter 12, which is encouraging the Corinthians to think about themselves as parts of one body, all valuable no matter how different, and Chapter 14, an exhortation to exercise spiritual gifts for the good of all rather than personal gratification.
In context, First Corinthians 13 is God’s empowerment of Christian unity through love, the only eternal virtue,
Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away… So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
The other breathtaking chapter is 15, in which we find some of the Bible’s most direct address of afterlife. The New Testament promises eternity with God, but is not very detailed about it. No pandering about “72 virgins” or stuff like that… instead, there’s the mystery of a promise for which our words and experiences fall short. As St. John wrote, Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)
Through Paul’s writing in First Corinthians 15, God asserts that the Christ lives, and that the reality and value of faith is in his resurrection,
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve… And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
The chapter ends with the giddy, triumphant revelation of eternal life, first written down to bolster the seemingly hapless Corinthians but, in God’s providence, recorded for all time to lift all of us,
Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
First Corinthians shows that God brings his best to our worst. The church in all of its human foibles is blessed with the love of God raising his people to eternal life. As Paul signs off to Corinth in the last lines of Chapter 16, he extends God’s favor to all of us,
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.