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The Acts of the Apostles
and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove
mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow
all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,
and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.”
No matter how high the profession, he whose heart is not filled
with love for God and his fellow men is not a true disciple of Christ.
Though he should possess great faith and have power even to work
miracles, yet without love his faith would be worthless. He might
display great liberality; but should he, from some other motive than
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genuine love, bestow all his goods to feed the poor, the act would not
commend him to the favor of God. In his zeal he might even meet a
martyr’s death, yet if not actuated by love, he would be regarded by
God as a deluded enthusiast or an ambitious hypocrite.
“Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity
vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up.” The purest joy springs from the
deepest humiliation. The strongest and noblest characters are built on
the foundation of patience, love, and submission to God’s will.
Charity “doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is
not easily provoked, thinketh no evil.” Christ-like love places the most
favorable construction on the motives and acts of others. It does not
needlessly expose their faults; it does not listen eagerly to unfavorable
reports, but seeks rather to bring to mind the good qualities of others.
Love “rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth
all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.”
This love “never faileth.” It can never lose its value; it is a heavenly
attribute. As a precious treasure, it will be carried by its possessor
through the portals of the city of God.
“And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest
of these is charity.”
In the lowering of the moral standard among the Corinthian be-
lievers, there were those who had given up some of the fundamental
features of their faith. Some had gone so far as to deny the doctrine
of the resurrection. Paul met this heresy with a very plain testimony
regarding the unmistakable evidence of the resurrection of Christ. He
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declared that Christ, after His death, “rose again the third day accord-
ing to the Scriptures,” after which “He was seen of Cephas, then of
the Twelve: after that, He was seen of above five hundred brethren at
once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are