Love’s List in 1 Cor 13

Typos Update 3/13/18

Updated 3/12/18

The Corinthian Love List

Below are the words translated by the NASB of the 1 Cor 13 “Love List.”  (The NASB is usually considered to be the most carefully literal of the modern translations and so was chosen for this purpose).

Also shown are the Strongs Numbers.  As discussed elsewhere these numbers were originally used, more than 100 years ago, by a James Strong to identify by a unique number each Greek word, and Hebrew word, in the Bible.  When the number is preceded by the letter “G” that designates it to be a Greek, NT word; when an “H” is used that is a Hebrew word as used in the OT.

What is particularly useful in this day is that one can go a www search, using Google or some other search tool such as Bing, by typing in the search window “Strongs G26” and you will find at the top, or near the top, of the results sites that define and expound on the Gr word agape, which is the word for “love” in 1 Cor 13, because in the Strongs numbering system “26” is the designation for agape.  This also works if you just type in “greek G26” or “bible G26.”  (However for G26, if you type only that, you get a handgun, though sometimes you can just type in the G with its number; in any case, it is easy to get to free online resources).

The webpage resources you can use that show up on your Strongs number ‘hits’ include:

  • www.blueletterbible.org
  • www.studybible.info
  • www.bibletools.org

For the “Love List,” given below are the NASB translated words together with the corresponding Strongs number that you can use to:  (1) read a carefully written definition of the word based upon its Gr meaning and more importantly its use in the NT, and (2) find every other place in the NT where the same word is used in the Gr mss, regardless of how the word was translated, allowing you to compare Scripture with Scripture.

  1. 4 Love is patient [G3114],
  2. love is kind [G5541]
  3. and is not jealous [G2206];
  4. love does not brag G4068]
  5. and is not arrogant [G5448],
  6. 5 does not act unbecomingly [G807];
  7. it does not seek [G2212] its own,
  8. is not provoked [G3947],
  9. does not take into account [G3049] a wrong [G2556] suffered,
  10. 6 does not rejoice [G5463] in unrighteousness [G93],
  11. but rejoices [G4796] with the truth [G225];
  12. 7 bears [G4722] all [G3956, and below] things,
  13. believes [G4100] all things,
  14. hopes [G1679] all things,
  15. endures [G5278] all things.

How Does The Love List of 1 Cor 13 Fit With 1 Cor 12?

The above list is more than humbling; it’s overwhelming.  And, so it should be.

The context of 1 Cor 13 coming immediately after Ch 12 and before Ch 14 on gifts is intended to make clear to us that the activity of the Holy Spirit is not only the cause / source of the gifts themselves but also of the proper expression of those gifts in the body of the the church.  The Love List is not what an enumeration of what we ourselves do or how we behave as though we are in our human natures capable of such in the context of ministering to others, often in less than happy circumstances (think of the Apostle Paul himself, in the very context of his work with the Corinthians).

Attached is a chart that is intended to show this relationship between the Holy Spirit as the Giver of gifts and the Performer of them.  The chart is here:  Chart of 1 Cor 12 and 13:

An excellent summary of the issue of the “self” in the context of exercising any of the spiritual gifts has been written by John Calvin.  An excerpted summary of the most relevant sections of his chapter on “On the Christian Life:  A Summary of the Christian Life of Self Denial,” is given here:  On the Christian Life, Self-Denial, Calvin

The matter of humility underlying all Christian endeavors was not unique to Calvin.  It has been a refrain throughout the teachings of solid, fundamental Christian scholars, both theological and pastoral.  It is part of major Confessions of the church.

Westminster Confession

Chapter 16: Of Good Works

3: Their ability to do good works is not at all of themselves, but wholly from the Spirit of Christ. And that they may be enabled thereunto, beside the graces they have already received, there is required an actual influence of the same Holy Spirit, to work in them to will, and to do, of His good pleasure: yet are they not hereupon to grow negligent, as if they were not bound to perform any duty unless upon a special motion of the Spirit; but they ought to be diligent in stirring up the grace of God that is in them.

And the cited Scriptures from the above text are:

John 15:4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. 5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Belgic Confession

Article 24:  Sanctification of Sinners

So then, we do good works,
but not for merit—

for what would we merit?

Rather, we are indebted to God for the good works we do,

and not God to us,

since God “is at work in [us], enabling [us] both

to will and to work for his good pleasure” —

thus keeping in mind what is written:

“When you have done all that you were ordered to do,
say, ‘We are worthless slaves;
we have done only what we ought to have done.’“

And the cited Scripture is:

Phil. 2:13  for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

 

Example Use of Strongs Number.

Let’s consider the 2nd item on the list, “Love is kind,” where “kind” has a Strongs number of G5541.  Typing “Strongs G5541” into a search window gets me to here and the word:  chrēsteuomai.

This looks like a dead end because this Gr word translated “kind“–chrēsteuomai–occurs only here in 1 Cor 13 in the NT.  However, note that G5541 derives from another Gr word, G5543.  On the Blue Letter Bible website, you can click on that G5543 highlighted word and it takes you here which gets you to G5543–chrēstos—and this word occurs 7x in the NT.  This is very useful because chrēstos and chrēsteuomai are related in that the first word is the noun (i.e., the name of a “thing,” here an attribute / attitude) and the second word is a verb (i.e., that noun, that attitude, in action, doing something).

Further, this G5543 derives from yet another Gr word, G5530–chraomai—which you can get to by clicking on the link, and which brings you here:  And G5530 occurs 11x in the NT.  This word (chraomai) is also a verb, but it has a broader meaning / usage than our primary verb (chrēsteuomai)

The most valuable time spent is on the first level of ‘hits,’ here chrēsteuomai for G5541.  But it is usually helpful to look a level lower at a closely related word, and usually word from which the sought word derives, here chrēstos G5543.  After that, the searching can be interesting but usually less relevant to the issue at hand.

Digging Deeper

There are many wonderful study tools available today.  One of the best, likely the best, is software known as Logos.  It’s expensive and pretty complicated to grasp all of its capabilities.  One of its simpler tools is a “word ring.”  What such “ring” shows is a given translated word, here we’ll use our word “kind,” is all the original Gr words that have been so translated.  The ring is shown just below:

In the center of the ring is the word under study (“kind”).  The four grayed boxes represent the use of the word “kind” for another purpose, as a “kind” (type / category) of people, or thing, not directly relevant to our study.  The three purple boxed words designate the word  we have been studying above.  The four other words, not boxed, are all forms of the Gr word (phonetically) phileho, meaning love of a friend (Philadelphia is literally [supposed to be] the city of brother love).  In the Logos software, one can click on any place on the ring and it will show the Scripture corresponding to such translated word.  Pasted into the above graphic are the three such verse-groups for the three “kindness” words being studied here.

Another example of digging deeper is the use of the Septuagint (aka LXX).  This is the Gr translation of the Heb OT that was done sometime before the time of Christ, and was the version of the OT in common use as few ‘regular’ people spoke Heb.  Doing a Strongs word search gets one to various websites that will provide links to the OT LXX usage of the same NT Gr word being studied.  This can greatly expanded one’s grasp of how the Holy Spirit has used words to convey meaning covering the entire period of the Biblical writings, some 1500+ years.

And a final example of digging deeper is to look at Heb words that were translated from the Heb OT into the Gr LXX for the word under study.  In several of the websites one finds by doing the Strongs search the site will show one or more Heb corresponding words.  For our word “kind,” we find that there are three related Heb words, as quoted below from the website studybible.info:

  • H2896 tobe From H2895; good (as an adjective) in the widest sense; used likewise as a noun, both in the masculine and the feminine, the singular and the plural (good, a good or good thing, a good man or woman; the good, goods or goodthings, good men or women), also as an adverb (well)
  • H3368 yâqâr  yaw-kawr’  From H3365; valuable (objectively or subjectively)
  • H3477 yâshâr  yaw-shawr’ From H3474; straight (literally or figuratively)

Note that Heb words are designated by the Strongs prefix “H” instead of “G.”  So one can now do a new web search for “Strongs H2896,” and find many other valuable resources.  In particular, for the first word, H2896, Heb. “tobe,” it occurs 517x in the OT.  That high frequency of occurrence is notable itself:  one tends to think of the OT has doom and gloom and death.  But God has created a “good” Creation out of His “kindness,” both words related to our study word of Gr “kindness.”  The mess we often find around (and in) us tells us something about the consequences of sin, in absolute contrast to the blessed holiness and goodness of God.  In particular, in the very opening text of the Bible, in Gen. 1:4, when God began Creation by moving on the darkness of the (probably judged) waters He created light and the light was “tobe” (H2896), namely “good,” and that goodness divided the light from the darkness, and so it has been ever since.

Step Out (in Life)

How do I carry this with me?  Since the full Gr word, chrēstos or chrēsteuomai, is not an everyday word, it helps to carry some easy-to-recall daily reminder.  So what might one choose?   Well, our root Gr word begins with the English letters C-H-R.  What might I use as a memory reminding word?

  • Chrome (Gr word for “color”) so I might want to think about ‘coloring’ my interactions in a way consistent with “kindness,” creating a special ambiance / mood
  • Chronology (Gr word root for time) so I can think about affording time and attention as acts of “kindness.”
  • Chronicle (a writing about time, as some newspapers have been named) so i might think about my communications, my very words, as expressions of “kindness.”

If I can keep in my daily head, and meditations, the above ‘kindness trinity’ of mood (color), time, and words as how “kindness” gets out of one’s head into the world around me, then the world around me will have a different experience of “me.”

But this is not, and cannot, be human psycho-effort.  (None of such effort lasts).  This has to be, in the end, the expression of that great Kindness shown and given to me by God Himself.  And it helps, in this case, that the word “Christ” itself, which means the Anointed One Sent by God, the Messiah, begins with these same three letters:  C-H-R.