Some Applications of 1 Corinthians 13 – Part 1 – Seen in the Life of Christ

1 Cor. 13:4-8, "Love is patient, love is kind; love does not envy; love does not boast, is not puffed up; does not behave disgracefully, does not seek its own, is not provoked to anger, thinks no evil; does not rejoice over unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails…"

 

In this post I would like to look at the attributes of love as seen in the life of Christ on earth.

 

1. Love is patient
   

Christ manifested the patience of love on this earth especially towards His disciples. There were numerous times when He spoke and they did not understand what He meant. He spoke multiple times of His coming death and they were still totally blindsided when it happened. The sign of an excellent teacher is in how well He is able to be patient with the slow learners and see them through to understanding. Christ proves His superiority by His patience. He is still waiting even now for that which He intended for mankind from the beginning to be fulfilled. He is also still waiting for the Father's time for His full vindication in the eyes of the world for all of the calumny He has and still receives. It may seem that it should be easier for an eternally existent Being to be patient, because what is 2 or even 6 thousand years to eternity, but though we humans do not have an eternal past, yet we have an eternal future and that realization should produce patience in us.

 

1. Love is kind
   

Jesus' multitudinous miracles testified not only to His power, but also to His kindness. There are enough times in the gospels where it states that Jesus worked because He was moved by compassion to form a whole study in itself. Faith works by love, and the kindness and compassion of love should be the motive in our praying for sick and needy people. When we can pray for their needs with as much fervor as if they were our needs, because we feel with them, then we will also begin to see far greater results than we do now.

 

1. Love does not envy
   

Not only was Christ not envious of others or what they had, but He relinquished what was His own by right. He also lived not for His own glory but for the glory of the Father. He never begrudged the Father the smallest part of the glory which was gained through Him, nor was He envious of the temporal power exercised by the men He was subjected to, but committed all to His Father.

 

1. Love does not boast
   

Christ's favorite title was His most lowly – the Son of Man. He was the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, and many other things, but the title He most used was the one of His common humanity with us. He refused to work miracles which would have been solely evidences of His Deity. All His miracles were worked on behalf of others, with perhaps only the exception of temple tax. That miracle showed His humiliation in allowing Himself to be so poor that He was unable without the aid of the Father to pay the temple tax from which really He should have been exempt as a Son. Even most of His avowals of His Messiahship were low-key and extorted from Him by His enemies.

 

1. Love is not puffed up
   

It was with a full knowledge of who He was and all His rights and privileges as God, that Jesus took the towel and performed the part of the lowliest servant in washing His disciple's feet. It would have been beneath the dignity of any ordinary teacher to do that for his followers, but Jesus did it in full knowledge of His divine origin and destination as John realized when he reflected on it in writing his gospel.

 

1. Love does not behave disgracefully
   

Christ manifested the most self-control possible to be seen in a man. He never was undignified even when He was arraigned before the travesties of Justice that constituted His trial. He never rendered railing for railing. Even the Apostle Paul didn't fully attain to this mark when in his trial he called the unjust officiating high priest a whitened wall, but when he was informed of his error he responded meekly.

 

1. Love does not seek its own
   

Christ showed this especially when He silenced the weeping women who were bewailing His death and told them to weep for their own sons and daughters. He did not come in His own name, and on more than one occasion refused to be crowned as a king.

 

1. Love is not provoked to anger
   

Whereas King David had to be dissuaded by Abigail from avenging his ill treatment by Nabal, and James and John were only too willing to call down fire and incinerate a village for rejecting Jesus. Jesus refused to be angry at the ill conduct of people towards Him. The times when He manifested anger were not for His own losses and rejection, but when His Father's house was profaned, and towards hypocrites who were injuring others.

 

1. Love thinks no evil
   

Rather than focusing on the magnitude of the offense which was committed against Him at the cross He cried out to God and pleaded for His murderers on the grounds of their ignorance.

 

1. Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness but rejoices in truth
   

Christ was anointed with the oil of gladness because He loved righteousness and hated evil. He showed mercy to many sinners, but it was in saying, "go and sin no more." His death was a logical consequence of His removing the blindfolds of self-congratulation and showing men just where they really stood before God.

 

1. Love bears all things
   

It was likely Christ's humble demeanor and attitude toward the mockers that lead the one thief who had also mocked Him earlier to repentance and thus eternal life.

 

1. Love believes all things
   

Christ knew what was truly in man, He saw Peter's and all the disciples weaknesses and that they would deny Him or flee at the crucial hour. Yet He also believed their genuine expressions of love for Him. It was with love that He foretold Peter's failure and denial so that he would know that restoration would be possible. Cynicism towards the professions of people is a sure sign of a lack of love towards them.

 

1. Love hopes all things
   

Shortly before His death at the most trying time of His life, Christ pours out His hope. He tells His disciples of the Comforter to come, the mansions He is preparing and gives little glimpses of all the wonderful things in store for us that would be purchased by His death and resurrection. His hope kept Him buoyant in spite of the abysmal reception He endured from most of Israel.

 

1. Love endures all things
   

It is difficult to fathom all that Christ endured for us. The physical torture alone shows us how much more of a Man He was than we are. The whipping He received was enough to drive some to insanity, yet He maintained His wits, and was so composed that He was able in the act of dying to utter His seven sayings on the cross and thus fulfill ancient prophecies. We cannot comprehend well the endurance required in His soul to endure all the mockery, and have not even the slightest idea of His anguish at being abandoned by the Father whom He had delighted and was delighted in from eternity past.

 

1. Love never fails
   

This will ring out through all eternity as we see the trophies won by the Saviour's love. Truly He will see the travail of His soul and be satisfied. Finally after all the years that mankind has disappointed Him, because of His sacrifice we will be able to please Him as we were created to do because of His sacrificial love. Glory be to Him!