ACC ~ 1 Corinthians 13 v8 - 13

OVERVIEW:

In this life we are children, compared with what we shall become in the next life (AMBROSIASTER, CHRYSOSTOM). Our knowledge now is imperfect (BASIL), but it is proximately reliable within its limits (AUGUSTINE). If now we see as if in a mirror only dimly (CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA, ORIGEN, PELAGIUS), after the resurrection we shall understand fully (DIDYMUS THE BLIND). We shall know as we are known (GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS), as if face to face (CHRYSOSTOM, AUGUSTINE). We shall know everything we know now, but much more as well (CHRYSOSTOM). Tongues cease as in this sentence (ORIGEN), but love never fails by falling irremediably into sin (SEVERIAN OF GABALA). Final judgment occurs by making the imperfect perfect. Faith embraces, hope envisions, love reigns (AMBROSIASTER). Love, which will never cease (CYPRIAN, MACRINA, CHRYSOSTOM), is the greatest of these (THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA, SEVERIAN, THEODORET OF CYR).

13:8a | Love Never Ends

LOVE ALONE PERSEVERES. MACRINA (THE SISTER OF GREGORY OF NYSSA): Love is first among all the activities connected with virtue and all the commandments of the law. If, therefore, the soul ever attains this love, it will need none of the others, having reached the fullness of its being. It seems that love alone preserves in itself the character of the divine blessedness. And knowledge becomes love because what is known is by nature beautiful. [THE TEACHING OF MACRINA] ON THE SOUL AND THE RESURRECTION.

LOVE NEVER FAILS. SEVERIAN OF GABALA: Love never fails, which means that it never falls into sin. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

UNCHANGING LOVE. THEODORET OF CYR: Love always remains firm and stable, unchanged and unchanging. COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 254.

13:8b | Tongues and Knowledge Will End

TONGUES WILL CEASE. ORIGEN: “Tongues will cease” when I express what I want to say with my mind. COMMENTARY ON 1 CORINTHIANS 4.52.

KNOWLEDGE WILL PASS AWAY. CHRYSOSTOM: What about our enemies and the heathen? Should we not hate them? No, we do not hate them but their teaching; not the person but the wicked conduct and the corrupt mind. It is no surprise to discover that prophecies and tongues will pass away, but what about knowledge? Paul goes on to explain why he includes that as well. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 35.2.

USE KNOWLEDGE TO BUILD UP LOVE. AUGUSTINE: Use your knowledge as a sort of tool to build the edifice of charity, which remains forever, even when “knowledge passes away.” For knowledge which is used to promote love is useful, but in itself and separated from love it turns out to be not only useless but even harmful. LETTER 55.

13:9 | Knowledge and Prophecy Imperfect

OUR KNOWLEDGE IS IMPERFECT. AUGUSTINE: Our knowledge in this life remains imperfect, but it is reliable within its limits. Believers trust the witness of their senses, which are subservient to their intelligence. They may occasionally be deceived, but even so they are still better off than those who maintain that the senses can never be trusted. CITY OF GOD 19.18.

13:10 | The Imperfect Will Pass Away

THE PARTIAL AND THE COMPLETE. BASIL: Even though more knowledge is always being acquired by everyone, it will ever fall short in all things of its rightful completeness until the time when that which is perfect being comes, that which is in part will be done away. CONCERNING FAITH.

WHEN THE PERFECT COMES. AMBROSIASTER: Everything which is imperfect will be destroyed. But destruction occurs by making the imperfect perfect, not by removing it altogether. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

IMPERFECTION SEEN AS LIMITED. CHRYSOSTOM: What is implied from this is not that our knowledge will disappear altogether, but that its imperfections will be seen as very limited. We shall know everything we know now imperfectly, but so much more as well. For example, we know now that God is everywhere, but we do not know how this is possible. We know that he made the creation out of nothing, but we have no idea how. We know that Christ was born of a virgin, but we do not know how. And so on. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 36.2.

THEN WE SHALL KNOW. AMBROSE: For now we know in part and understand in part. But then we shall be able to comprehend what is perfect, when not the shadow but the reality of the majesty and eternity of God shall begin to shine and to reveal itself unveiled before our eyes. ON HIS BROTHER SATYRUS 2.32.

FAITH AND SIGHT. AUGUSTINE: But, as this faith, which works by love, begins to penetrate the soul, it tends, through the vital power of goodness, to change into sight, so that the holy and perfect in heart catch glimpses of that ineffable beauty whose full vision is our highest happiness. … We begin in faith, we are perfected in sight. ENCHIRIDION 1.5.

13:11a | Like a Child

WHEN I WAS A CHILD. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: This is a figure of speech for the way Paul lived under the law, when he persecuted the Word and was still senseless and childish, blaspheming God. CHRIST THE EDUCATOR 1.6.33.

13:11b | Giving Up Childish Ways

CHILDISH WAYS. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: He is not referring to the growing stature that comes with age, nor to any definite period of time, nor even to any secret teaching reserved only for mature adults, when he claims that he left and put away all childishness. Rather he means to say that those who live by the law are childish in the sense that they are subject to fear, like children afraid of ghosts, while those who are obedient to the Word and are completely free are in his opinion mature. CHRIST THE EDUCATOR 1.6.33.

FROM CHILD TO ADULT. BASIL: “When I was a child”—that is, fresh from committing to memory the first elements of the divine Word—“I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But now that I have become a man”—that is, and am hastening to attain the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ—“I have put away the things of a child.” CONCERNING FAITH.

THIS LIFE AND THE NEXT. AMBROSIASTER: In this life we are children, compared with what we shall become in the next life. For everything in this life is imperfect, including knowledge. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

WHAT WE SHALL KNOW. CHRYSOSTOM: Here Paul points out just how great the difference is between what we know now and what we shall know in the future. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 34.2.

13:12a | Seeing in a Mirror

SELF-KNOWLEDGE BY REFLECTION. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: We know ourselves by reflection, as in a mirror. We contemplate, as far as we may, the creative cause on the basis of the divine element in us. STROMATEIS 1.94.

IN A MIRROR DIMLY. ORIGEN: If the knowledge manifested to those worthy of it comes through a mirror and is an enigma in the present age and will be fully revealed only “then,” it is foolish to suppose that it will not be the same for the other virtues as well. ON PRAYER 11.2.

THEN FACE TO FACE. CHRYSOSTOM: God does not have a face, of course. Paul uses this image to denote greater clarity and perspicuity. Someone sitting in the darkness at night will not run after the light of the sun as long as he cannot see it. But when the dawn comes and the sun’s brightness begins to shine on him, he will eventually follow after its light. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 34.2.

AS THE ANGELS SEE GOD. AUGUSTINE: Face to face—this is how the holy angels, who are called our angels, already see. They are our angels in the sense that once we have been delivered from the power of darkness, have received the pledge of the spirit and have been translated to the kingdom of Christ, we shall have begun to belong to the angels. CITY OF GOD 22.29.

AS TYPES AND SHADOWS. PELAGIUS: The dim mirror is the law of Moses, which contains everything in types and shadows. COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 13.

13:12b | Understanding Fully

THEN I SHALL UNDERSTAND FULLY. DIDYMUS THE BLIND: This means that the things which we now hear on the authority of the Scriptures we believe to be so. After the resurrection we shall see them with our eyes and know them in reality, when partial knowledge has ceased, for the knowledge which depends on hearing is part of the knowledge of an eyewitness and of experience. MONTANIST ORACLES, ON THE TRINITY 103.2.

WE SHALL KNOW AS WE ARE KNOWN. GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS: No one has yet discovered or shall ever discover what God is in his nature and essence. As for a discovery some time in the future, let those who have a mind for it research and speculate. The discovery will take place, so my reason tells me, when this Godlike, divine thing, I mean our mind and reason, mingles with its kin, when the copy returns to the pattern it now longs after. This seems to me to be the meaning of the great dictum that we shall, in time to come, know even as we are known. THEOLOGICAL ORATION 28.17.

SEEING WITHOUT SPATIAL LIMITATIONS. AUGUSTINE: But when we begin to have a spiritual body as we are promised in the resurrection, let us see it even in the body, either by an intellectual vision or in some miraculous manner, since the grace of the spiritual body is indescribable. We shall then see it according to our capacity, without limitations of space, not larger in one part and smaller in another, since it is not a body, and it is wholly present everywhere. LETTER 120, TO CONSENTIUS.

13:13a | Faith, Hope, Love Abide

LOVE ABIDES. CYPRIAN: There will always be love in the kingdom, it will abide forever in the unity of a harmonious brotherhood. Discord cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. One who has violated the love of Christ by faithless dissension cannot attain to the reward of Christ. UNITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 14.

LOVE REIGNS. AMBROSIASTER: Love is the greatest because while faith is preached and hope pertains to the future life, love reigns. As 1 John [3:16] says: “By this we know his love, that he laid down his life for us.” Love is therefore the greatest of the three, because by it the human race has been renewed. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

LOVE WILL NEVER CEASE. CHRYSOSTOM: Faith and hope will cease when the things believed in and hoped for appear. But love then becomes even greater and more ardent. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 34.5.

13:13b | The Greatest of These Is Love

LOVE ABIDES ETERNALLY. CYPRIAN: Charity is the bond of brotherhood, the foundation of peace, the steadfastness and firmness of unity. It is greater than both hope and faith. It excels both good works and suffering of the faith. As an eternal virtue, it will abide with us forever in the kingdom of heaven. THE GOOD OF PATIENCE 15.

OVERCOMING STRIFE. THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: Paul tells the Corinthians that love is the greatest of all because there was jealousy and strife among them, and the church was in danger of being divided. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

FULFILLING THE LAW. SEVERIAN OF GABALA: Love is the greatest because it is the fulfilling of the law. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

LOVE IS THE GREATEST. THEODORET OF CYR: If faith is the substance of things hoped for, as Hebrews [11:1] tells us, it will be superfluous once these things have arrived. Similarly with hope. But love is greater than these, because when our troubles are over and our bodies have been changed in the resurrection, our minds will be steadied by it, so that they will no longer desire now one thing, now another. COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 255-56.

PROPHECY VERSUS TONGUES 1 CORINTHIANS 14:1-12

OVERVIEW: All languages are intended to convey meaning (SEVERIAN OF GABALA, PELAGIUS). Paul did not forbid speaking in tongues but regarded prophecy as more useful (AMBROSIASTER). Even if Paul himself spoke in tongues, this would be useless if not interpreted. The apostles received the gift of tongues first as a sign that they were to go to all the world preaching the gospel. Gifts are greater when given for the benefit of many, not one. Prophecy is a greater gift than tongues because it is used for the benefit of the whole church (CHRYSOSTOM) to bring edification, encouragement and consolation. Prophecy interprets Scripture usefully (AMBROSIASTER) for the common good (CHRYSOSTOM). By prophecy the whole church learns God’s plan (AMBROSIASTER). Like distinct notes in music, speech requires precision (CHRYSOSTOM). Do not let your words have an indistinct sound, lest like a bugle in combat they might confuse (ORIGEN, PELAGIUS).