Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.
Ephesians 4:15 NIVUK
Now eagerly desire the greater gifts. And yet I will show you the most excellent way.
1 Corinthians 12:31 NIVUK
For some years now I have worked to improve various business processes for my employers. It’s absolutely true that perfection is impossible, but better is always within reach.
From my experiences, ‘better’ is not something churches usually think about. Keeping things exactly as they are seems to be a higher priority. Anyone who challenges the norm and aims for ‘better’ is regarded as ‘a dangerous person’ – as someone once dubbed me – because they are absolutely willing to challenge things that some people believe are sacred, when, in fact, they are not.
Paul is doing exactly that here.
He is challenging the Corinthian church to be better.
He has challenged their thinking on who is and who is not a Christian.
He has challenged their thinking on who is and is not part of the church.
And now he is challenging their thinking on what it is that makes the church work.
You see, there are three levels of participation in church: ‘good’, ‘better’ and ‘best’.
It is ‘good’ to gather and to be together, as the writer to the Hebrews states:
And let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Hebrews 10:24-25 NIVUK
It’s also good to sing the praises of the Lord:
It is good to praise the Lord and make music to your name, O Most High, proclaiming your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night, to the music of the ten-stringed lyre and the melody of the harp.
Psalms 92:1-3 NIVUK
Paul has just explained that it is ‘better' to play our part in the Body of Christ: to recognise that each part of the Body has a function and a role to play.
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
1 Corinthians 12:27 NIVUK
It is ‘good’ to be in church. It is ‘better’ to contribute to church.
Too many Christians don’t realise this. They come to church to be entertained, as if they were going to a cinema or a theatre.
Or worse, they come to measure the standard of other people’s contribution, as if they were judges on a TV talent show. They sometimes seem like they have come to church with a checklist, and if items on that checklist are not checked off, then it’s a case of ‘It’s a no from me’ at the door.
That is not the type of contribution the church needs or wants.
Paul has written to a bitterly divided Corinthian church and told them to use their energies in contributing to the growth, strength and maturity of the church, rather than getting their own way. And we would do well to listen to this. Many a church has disappeared into the black hole of inward self-obsession due to a few plotters who want the headlines for themselves.
But Paul goes well beyond the ‘good’ and the ‘better’. He is about to talk about the ‘best’.
And by that we don’t mean ‘best in breed’ or ‘best in region’ or ‘best in country’. This is ‘the absolute best’.
In sporting terms, this isn’t the winner of a local amateur five-a-side league; this is the Champions League and World Club Cup winner.
This isn’t the winner of a local little league baseball tournament; this is the winner of the World Series.
This isn’t the winner of an inter-village basketball championship; this is the winner of the NBA.
In fact, so superlative is the comparison here that Paul even uses the word ‘hyperbole’.
Students of English grammar will be familiar with this term: it's when exaggeration is used to make a point. The literal meaning of the Greek word is ‘to throw beyond’, like a stone or an arrow exceeding it’s target. It came to mean ‘excellence’ – over-achieving, if you like.
So Paul is saying that what follows is the most excellent, the most over-achieving way of working in the church. In other words, achieving the ‘better way’ of working together as a functioning body might get us an ‘A’, or a ‘summa cum laude’, but if we follow the way he is about to outline, this is an ‘A*’, or a ‘magna cum laude’.
And what is this superlatively, brilliantly high achieving way?
Love.
Nothing more.
Nothing less.
Does this surprise you?
It shouldn’t.
Jesus explained it differently.
Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ Jesus replied: ‘ “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’
Matthew 22:34-40 NIVUK
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, ‘Of all the commandments, which is the most important?’ ‘The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” The second is this: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no commandment greater than these.’ ‘Well said, teacher,’ the man replied. ‘You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.’ When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ And from then on no-one dared ask him any more questions.
Mark 12:28-34 NIVUK
The teachers of the law had been questioning Jesus to trap Him. This particular teacher of the law is a bit of an outlier because he comes to Jesus with what seems, on the surface, to be an innocent question: which is the greatest commandment. Jesus’ answer is as elegant as it is direct: the commandment to love. That is, the threefold love of God and others as much as yourself.
Jesus presents this differently to Paul. As far as Jesus is concerned, it’s a pass-fail, black and white situation: love and you fulfil the law; fail to love and you disobey it.
But we have to realise that Jesus and Paul are speaking to two very different audiences.
Jesus is speaking to a people who'd had the law for thousands of years, and yet had turned it from something that kept them safe into a heartless and loveless tool of oppression. Jesus opposed this vehemently (Matthew 23). The call to love here makes the level of their disobedience starkly clear.
Paul, on the other hand, is addressing an audience from a mixed background, but mostly Greek-Macedonian pagan. He cannot appeal to them on the basis of a law they know nothing about and have never followed. That is why we see him using persuasion for them to seek out the most excellent way for themselves and the church.
But in the end, both Jesus and Paul point in the same direction. Love is an absolute necessity in the church. Without it we are disobedient to God. Without it the church cannot work as it should.
Love is like lubricant in a petrol or diesel engine. The parts of the church may work without it, but sooner or later they will run against each other and cause friction.
Love is an absolute necessity.
But what kind of love?
The call to love can be misinterpreted in two very striking ways.
Firstly, we might think this is a call to be romantic with each other. We might think this is wide open for some lothario to come up to us and say, ‘Hey, you Christians are called to love. So come here and gimme some lovin’!’
That would be completely wrong. These verses are not a call for romance. In fact, they are quite the antithesis of romance. The Greek word used for ‘love’ here is not eros (romantic love) nor storge (parental love) nor philia (friendship love) but apape.
Agape is the toughest and most resistant of all loves. It is self-sacrificial love. It’s ultimate expression is in Philippians 2:6-11 – Christ's sacrifice on the cross.
That is the type of love we are being commanded to demonstrate.
So this is not a call to romance. Neither is it a call to tolerance.
Many outside of us will quote those two verses where John told us that God is love (1 John 4:8 and 16), and believe this means that He is unable to judge them for their wrongdoing, or that He has to tolerate what they are doing.
Neither of these are true.
The Bible is wonderfully open about the fierce side of love – and there is one. Even in the most romantic book in the Bible – Song of Solomon – it is there and it is clearly stated (Song of Solomon 8:6).
To understand this properly, we should imagine how certain wild animals behave when they have young. They might be docile and mild, but if you even so much as approach their offspring, they will turn on you.
This is a reflection of what I mean by the fierce side of love. It is a love that is utterly unconditional for the objects of its affection, but woe betide any who seek their harm.
This is the kind of love Jesus talks about in these verses:
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied round their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.
Luke 17:1-2 NIVUK
Love must have a fierce side to it that seeks to nurture and protect the objects of its affection by dealing effectively with threats. Love cannot be weak, sappy or easy to overcome.
Otherwise it isn’t love.
So love must judge and punish sin, as sin is the ultimate threat we all face.
Otherwise it isn’t love.
And this is the most excellent way. It is a way driven by deep, unconditional, sacrificial love for God and His people, but a passionate hatred for anything that threatens them or makes them fall. By that I don’t mean people. By that I mean the sin that causes them to stumble.
Because love is also jealous. Paul is also plain about that:
I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.
2 Corinthians 11:2 NIVUK
This jealousy is a burning desire not for the objects of its affection to be ‘owned’ exclusively by the lover. No, this jealousy is for the best for the loved one – it is a burning desire for the best things possible to happen to them. And what could be better than being united with Christ forever?
This is love:
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
1 John 4:10 NIVUK
Christ showed us how to love. Not in friendship or family or a romantic meal for two in a nice restaurant. No, in the burning desire to save us that led Him to the blood-curdling violence of the cross.
Tolerance must have its limits. There had to be a line when tolerance turns to intolerance. Tolerance without intolerance is a logical and philosophical impossibility. Think about it: if tolerance had no limits, then it would have to tolerate intolerance – its own contradiction. Tolerance without intolerance is like a man who will take any pill to cure his headache, whether it's aspirin, paracetamol or cyanide.
No-one can be completely tolerant. It’s a logical and philosophical impossibility.
The big decision is where you draw the line. That’s what makes the difference.
When this is unclear, honest, good-living people find themselves incorrectly labelled as intolerant because they will not tolerate things that other people do. And that is wrong.
Love, however, is completely different. Pure agape love will willingly sacrifice itself for the subject of its affection, but will be highly intolerant of anything that could harm it.
This love is the heartbeat of the church. Still it and the church dies. This love is also the warm welcome and deep, open friendship that causes seekers to come to church and to stay.
It’s this love that is clearly exhibited when the Holy Spirit radiated through the Early Church:
All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Acts 2:44-47 NIVUK
But the burning question we have to answer is this:
Is this the love I have for the church and the people in it?
Questions
Why do you think Paul calls love ‘the most excellent way’?
‘Love must have a fierce side [and be] intolerant’. Of what should love be intolerant and why? Do you show this intolerance?
How can you show this kind of love for the church and the people in it?
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