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1 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 13
OBSERVATIONS
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(1 Cor 12:27 NASB) Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it.
[Paul announces to the individuals in Corinth who became believers,
"Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it," announcing
the results of that moment of faith alone in Christ alone of having
become part of Christ's body and individually members of it - both a
corporate and individual reality and more importantly, established to
become a growing spiritual unity from congregation to congregation and
throughout the world. Note that 1 Cor 12:27 has in view the entire body
of Christ, not just one congregation as some contend. Note the word
"apostles" in the next verse which corroborates the entire body of
Christ throughout the age - all congregations all over the world are in
view.
(1 Cor 12:28 NASB) And God has appointed in the church, first apostles,
second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings,
helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.
[As author Paul writes about the spiritual unity of the body of Christ
which God has set up for believers to follow, Paul declares that each
Christian has his function as a part of that body. He illustrates this
by a selective list of church offices and spiritual gifts (cf. Rom
12:3-8; Eph 4:11). So Paul stipulates a number of positions in the
church [not all of them]; beginning first and foremost with apostles.
The entire body of Christ throughout the world and throughout the age
of the church is evidently in view, for the plural "apostles"
corroborates this. Note the preeminate position of apostles as
designated by the word "first" in the phrase "first apostles." Also
note that the position of apostle was only for the beginning of the
church - a first century position - a temporary position largely
appointed to establish the church in the world to a point where the
other positions would continue in history 
. Thereafter there were
no apostles appointed. Second came prophets, which position was
likewise to serve at the beginning until the so called "New Testament"
- the Greek text / bible - was written in Greek and translated into the
languages of the world . Thereafter, Paul listed a number of the
other gifts God gave to individual members of the church - the
worldwide group of believers in Christ in this age: "third teachers,
then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various
kinds of tongues." Note that the sign and wonder gifts were given to
authenticate the individual believer as providing new revelation from
God to others which later in the first century became available when
the 27 books of the Greek Bible, the so-called New Testament, was
written and copied and passed around the world beginning at that time.
Thereafter these miraculous gifts ceased because the believers in the
first century only provided an incomplete / partial message by virtue of their
limited personal accounts [Compare 1 Cor 13:8-13 ] which
completed message would now be fully contained in the Greek Bible
[often called the New Testament] when it was completed, translated into the world's languages and passed out
amongst the population and which needed no authentication or additional
messages to provide God's completed revelation to mankind until Christ
comes again in His Second Coming to provide more new revelation as
described in Joel 2 .]
(1 Cor 12:29 NASB) All are not apostles, are they? All are not
prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers
of miracles, are they?
(1 Cor 12:30 NASB) All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do
not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they?
[Whereupon Paul continues to write on the same matter in 1 Cor 12:29, "All are not apostles, are they? and "All are not prophets, are they?" and "All are not teachers, are they?" And even more on the same theme, Paul wrote, "All are not teachers, are they?" Then in 1 Cor 12:30, Paul writes "All do not have gifts of healings, do they?" (Notice that there is more than one gift of healing); and "All do not speak with tongues, do they?" and "All do not interpret, do they?" Notice that Paul is saying that each individual receives the particular set of spiritual gifts from God that He has designated for them and each individual does not always if ever receive the same set of spiritual gifts as others receive. And each spiritual gift that the individual receives as designated by God is to be used in accordance with the particular leading of God the Holy Spirit - unique to him. So each believer is unique to the body of Christ in this respect. And no believer is above or below other believers in this respect. The order in which the gifts are listed is in accordance with their importance, yet no believer is above or below other believers in their role within the body of Christ. So the more important the spiritual gift is, the more the believer who possesses that spiritual gift is to serve others with it.]
(1 Cor 12:31 NASB) But earnestly desire the greater gifts. And I show you a still more excellent way.
[Gifted apostles, prophets, and teachers characteristically ministered to a whole church, and so would engender unity and mutual edification. The gift of tongues, on the other hand involved self-expression and the pursuit of personal freedom. Paul evidently is specifically addressing the issue of the Corinthian believers who were obsessed with speaking in tongues and acting like they were superior to others who did it less or not at all - especially to those who were members / believers in their congregation. For Paul immediately begins addressing this subject in the next chapter, (1 Cor 13) - that of speaking in tongues which they were not only abusing but fabricating it and breaking the rules which governed it, (cf 1 Cor 14). So in 1 Cor 12:31 Paul encourages believers to "earnestly desire the greater gifts," for the whole local congregation. And I [will] show you a still more excellent way" - the way of using them with agape love for one another. For tongues was evidently one of the lesser of the gifts in his list - especially in terms of its value to everyone in the congregation. It was not one of the greater gifts. It did not serve the entire body of believers as well as the other gifts listed:
(1 Cor 12:28 NASB) "And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.
[(1 Cor 12:28-31) Expositor's Bible Commentary]:
(1 Cor 12:28 NASB) "And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.
(1 Cor 12:29 NASB) All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they?
(1 Cor 12:30 NASB) All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they?
(1 Cor 12:31 NASB) But earnestly desire the greater gifts. And I show you a still more excellent way."
"28 Paul is saying that it is the sovereign God who dispenses (etheto;
cf. Acts 20:28; 1Tim 1:12; 2:7; 2Tim 1:11) offices and gifts to his
church. The order of the gifts is instructive. The first
three—apostles, prophets, and teachers—are in the same order as in
Ephesians 4:11 (cf. Rom 12:6, 7) and, as placed first, are to be
considered of greatest importance. The next gifts are set off from the
first three by epeita ("then") and range in order from miracles to the
ability to speak in different kinds of tongues, which, being mentioned
last, seem to be of least importance. The office of apostle was
all-encompassing, including the gifts of prophecy, teaching, miracles,
and the rest. But the prophetic gift (cf. Acts 11:24; 13:1; 15:32;
21:10) did not include apostolicity, though it did include teaching.
The teacher class did not compare, per se, with that of apostles or
prophets. Paul speaks of the first three—apostles, prophets, and
teachers—as classes of persons ruling in the church. The rest of the
list includes gifts given various members of the church—gifts that,
while of lesser significance, are yet of importance.
Those having the gift of antilempsis ("those able to help others," NIV)
are persons gifted in helping the church officers deal with the poor
and sick. Those with kybernesis ("administration") have ability to
govern and manage affairs in the church.
29, 30 By these rhetorical questions, all of which imply "no" for an
answer, Paul stresses the principle of divine selectivity. He is saying
that not all believers function in each of the ways listed. God selects
individuals and gives them their specific gifts (v. 28).
[Not the other way around]
Paul ends v. 30 with the gift of interpretation of tongues, because he
is to comment on this in chapter 14. As in v. 28, so in v. 30,
"tongues" comes last in his list.
31 Having mentioned tongues and their interpretation, Paul urges
Christians to seek the better gifts—not that of speaking in tongues,
which the Corinthians apparently wanted to have more fully. The
possession of specific gifts, says Paul, is not so important as the way
in which the gifts are exercised. Verse 31b serves to introduce chapter
13."
(1 Cor 13:1 NASB) "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal,"
This
verse emphasizes the greatest thing of all for the believer to express:
agape - self-sacrificial godly love. Note that here Paul is writing of
actual known languages - intelligent languages of men and angels -
extraordinary, supernatural; yet if not spoken in godly love "become a
noisy gong or a clanging cymbal" - a major problem in the congregation
at Corinth who were utilizing the pagan gibberish instead of the real
gift from God.
Whereupon Paul continues to emphasize the importance of expressing godly, self-sacrificial love with 1 Cor 13:2-3 which read,
(1 Cor 13:2 NASB) "If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all
knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do
not have love, I am nothing.
(1 Cor 13:3 NIV) If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my
body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain
nothing."
Paul
goes on to write that even the gift of prophecy which Paul indicated as
a super remarkable gift for members of the church at Corinth to
possess, (cf
1 Cor 14:1), or
the gifts of wisdom, knowledge - even all wisdom and knowledge, or a
great faith which can move
mountains; or if one gives all he possesses to the poor, even gives
over his body to hardship so he may boast: These are nothing compared
to expressing godly love. This
is not to denegrate these awesome gifts from God, but to appreciate the
expresson of godly, self-sacrificial love to be incomparable.
Review of notes on the manuscript evidence on 1 Cor 13:3:
"The Greek words which are rendered, "if I give my body that I may boast" or "be burned" are one letter off.
Either word could have been mistaken for the other. WH NU have superior
testimony and based on internal evidence is more likely. Martyrdom was
not that familiar to Paul yet in his times. In context Paul was speaking
about religious acts which seem to display faith in God but are actually
done in ostentation. The first act mentioned in this verse is that of
giving away one's possessions; the second is that of giving over one's
body. This would not have necessarily meant martyrdom. More likely, the
act of giving over one's body would be displayed in selling ones self as
a slave to obtain food for others or exchanging places with a prisoner
of those who delievered themselves to bondage in order to ransom
others. It is very likely that Paul was speaking about giving ones
body for the sake of others. However, if this act was done so that the
giver could boast about it, the giver did not act out of love. Indeed
the rebuke against boasting was pertinent for the Corinthians, who had
a real problem with boasting about things that had no spiritual value
(see 1:29, 31; 3:21; 4:7; 5:6) They needed to be reminded that acts of
self-sacrifice should not be the cause for boasting but a demonstration
of [godly = agape] love."
C) [Commentary on 1 Cor 13:4-7]:
(1 Cor 13:4 NASB) Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,
(1 Cor 13:5 NASB) does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,
(1 Cor 13:6 NASB) does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
(1 Cor 13:7 NASB) bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."
So Paul focuses upon the most important, even critical thing for the believer to work on in his christian life: the expression of agape = godly, self-sacrificial love toward others. In verse 4, love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; does not brag and is not arrogant. Furthermore, (v. 5) it does not act unbecomingly, nor seeks its own [in the sense of advantage or benefit], nor is provoked, nor takes into account a wrong suffered; (v. 6) does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; (v. 7) bears all things, believes all things, endures all things. So agape / self-sacrificial, godly love is the most excellent way for a Christian to use his spiritual gifts as well as in the conducting of all things in his life."
Continue with 1 Cor 13