Apostle Paul is explaining the most excellent way to the Corinthian congregation (12:31). By “way,” he means the way to live in Christ and to interact with others, especially other believers. The way is love. (Galatians 5:22) “Love” is “agape,” in Greek, equivalent to Jesus’ love manifested on the cross. (John 13:34-35; 1 John 3:16)
Paul, using hyperbole, opens with three comparative illustrations – comparing super-spiritual gifts without love against the same gifts with the virtue of love. The super-spiritual gifts are speaking in all tongues, prophecy, Solomon-like wisdom, immense faith, and profound philanthropy. He even includes suffering martydom through burning at the stake, as many early Christians experienced.
Paul states that if I have super-spiritual gifts and become a martyr without love, I gain nothing (3b). Does this mean that if I use the spiritual gifts God gives me in love, then I will gain something? Yes. Some of Jesus’ parables teach this truth. Consider the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard, where the workers received a denarius (Matthew 20:1-16), and the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30), where Jesus concluded with, “For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.”
Doing is not enough. Doing it with the right motives is what is required. The Pharisees and other religious leaders did many things. However, Jesus the Messiah rebuked them because they did not do them in love. I do not want to be nothing in Jesus’ eyes. I do not want to gain nothing and be humiliated at the BEMA seat. Lord forgive my hard heart.
