1 Corinthians 13:8
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

As part of Paul’s discourse on love, he offers this succinct verse about love’s unfailing nature. Love outlasts “prophecies,” “tongues,” and “knowledge”–quite a few things that we human tend to value. Why would these things vanish, and love stay around?

Because the type of love Paul is speaking of is not romantic love, not passionate love or even companionate love. It is God’s love–unconditional, eternal. In fact, according to 1 John 4:8, God IS love. With that, the meaning of this verse becomes clearer: God and His love are boundless and eternal, but all our human trappings (including prophecy, speech, and knowledge) are limited and not eternal.

For this reason, we can trust in God when we can trust in nothing else–because everything else will eventually fail us. Though it may seem as if God is very far away, or that He doesn’t care about us anymore, He is still here for us, still loving, still capable and willing to help when nothing and no one else can. His love never fails.

1st Corinthians 1:22-24

22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

The apostle Paul preached about Jesus all over the known ancient world, and Corinth was no exception. Corinth was also no exception in that it had its share of false teachers and people who were being led astray by such teachings. With these two verses, Paul sets the record straight.

The Jews in the crowd wanted a Messiah, but they wanted one who would actually lead their nation politically. The Greeks (and presumably, many other folk) wanted a Messiah, too, but they wanted one who would fix all the world’s problems with His wisdom. Jesus did neither of these things–instead, He was crucified for the sins of man, to bring us back into a relationship with God. He was not the Messiah that some expected, and thus many were easily pulled into false doctrines.

Are We Falling Into the Same Theological Traps?

Today, two millennia later, many humans are still confused. Many still seek “signs” that Jesus is coming back, “signs” that God exists, etc.. And many still wait for God to solve their problems, believing that if they are only just Christian, then their lives will be perfect.

There is a significant problem with these two viewpoints. If we need “signs and wonders” to believe in Jesus, then we’re not ever going to see Him. And, even if we do witness Him working, we won’t have the capacity to believe in Him, just as the people Paul was preaching to had difficulty believing in Jesus (a convicted criminal) as Savior.

Jesus did not die to solve the world’s problems, nor did He come to unite a human political nation (or a political world, for that matter); He came, lived a sinless life, and died bearing all our sins, that we might each personally accept His sacrifice for us and be saved from that sin. We need to want the eternal power and endless wisdom of God (Christ) in our lives, rather than spectacular signs and human-sized wonders.

1 Corinthians 15:3-6
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.

Paul is retelling the gospel message in a nutshell here: Jesus’ actions on Earth, which proved His identity and His purpose while here with us. And Jesus’ identity, purpose, and actions are all in perfect accord with centuries and centuries of prophetic Scriptures and religious writings (much of which are contained in the Old Testament). When Paul says “Scriptures,” he’s making reference to both Isaiah 53 and to the many notations earlier in the Old Testament concerning sin offerings, of which Jesus was the final and most spectacular.

The Gospel Message, Doubted

Jesus’ death on that Friday afternoon, subsequent burial, and then resurrection on that Sunday morning have been widely disputed, down to the measurement of “days”–how is less than 72 hours equal to 3 days? (But this was how the Jews of the day told time; parts of days, according to my NIV translation notes, were usually thought of as “days” anyway.) And moreover, how does a human survive a crucifixion and disappear from his burial site days later? These were fantastic and outlandish claims.

And yet, these claims were substantiated not just by the Twelve (the original apostles, though they were minus Judas at this point), but the Roman officials who physically observed Jesus’ death, and the hundreds of “brothers in Christ” who witnessed Him visit after the crucifixion and resurrection. So many people substantiated it at so many various times that it couldn’t be put off as a case of mass hysteria or hallucination. And no one could have faked moving the huge tombstone, nor could anyone have been allowed in to do it, with guards standing by the tomb at all times. Last of all, Jesus having been so publicly crucified and buried, yet reappearing in flesh several days later to various groups of people, was well-documented. If Jesus was not the Son of God, then he was uncannily capable of doing some strange things, like, oh, surviving horrific torture and death, resurrecting the dead, and ascending into the sky.

Nonetheless, many people doubt the truth of what Paul retells in 1 Corinthians, just as they doubt the truth of the rest of the Bible. How can we prove something that happened so long ago? How can we prove anything about accounts that could have been tampered with for thousands of years?

The Corinthians doubted, too, and that’s why Paul felt compelled to tell them again. He is not telling them anything that they haven’t heard already, but perhaps the retelling will help it sink in. There was a significant amount of eyewitness testimony from hundreds of different sources–in different places!–that all told of the same experience. Jesus continued to change lives even after the Roman government considered Him dispensed with; His life, death and resurrection proved His identity and His purpose on earth.

Our Society: Modern-Day Corinth All Over Again

In many ways, we modern humans are simply modern-day Corinthians, needing to hear the “facts” and the “truth”, having been surrounded with many people’s variations on what “truth” even means. This gospel message, of salvation through Jesus Christ, has been brushed aside as untruth, as lies and manipulation, and as even part of the banner of political candidates.

Corinth, like today’s global society, was a hotbed of trade and political activity as well as religion, and so many religions changed hands within Corinth’s walls that it was no wonder the people were thoroughly confused. This is why Paul writes to them to reaffirm the truth of what Christianity is about. In much the same way, today’s Christians must reaffirm what Christianity is about in a society that believes it no longer needs Jesus.

The Truth of Jesus: the Difference in Our Lives

Jesus does continue to change lives even today. I have seen it happen to others, and I have felt it happen within me. There is nothing like the particular glow that descends on the face of a person who has experienced that unconditional love firsthand; there is nothing like the feeling of peace in your own heart, when you know for certain something wonderfully Other than yourself, Someone Who loves without conditions and Who has loved you before you existed, has welcomed you back home.

Life is much, MUCH better, much more stable and much more fulfilling, when you have a relationship with Jesus, when you know He’ll always have your back. I’ve lived the alternative, the dim, faded life with an okay level of accomplishment and acceptance, always with a feeling of “I’m missing SOMETHING, but I don’t know what it is.” I wouldn’t go back to that doubting, searching life for a moment.

1 Corinthians 10:31-33
“31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for God’s glory. 32 Give no offense to the Jews or the Greeks or the church of God, 33 just as I also try to please all people in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.”

Glorifying God, according to Paul in 1 Corinthians, is the point of our lives–we should act and speak in ways that help the light of Christ shine out from us to other people. Not “giving offense,” or causing others to falter in their faith, is part of raising other Christians up and bringing salvation to those who are not Christians yet. Working for the common good, being unselfish and caring about others’ well-being above our own, is another way we glorify God. (Note: “pleasing all people” in verse 33 does not mean making others temporarily happy with gifts or false words, but giving them permanent joy by serving them because God loves them, too.)

The part of verse 33 about “not seeking my own profit” is especially salient in our society today. So much of what we do is based upon what recompense we get, and glorifying God through our works and lives is not usually high on the list of lucrative things to do. (Sometimes we can even get caught up in that same worldly attitude when we work for the church–a danger in itself!) But what better profit could we as Christians have than to know that we have touched someone else’s life and given them the knowledge of Jesus?