Exegesis Chapter 12

This chapter, also known as the love chapter of the bible is very familiar to me. Matter of fact, Mary and I used part of this text in our wedding ceremony over 30 years ago. However, over the years, this passage has grown to become much more to me. While the application of agape love and the special relationship of this passage with my wife and our wedding, it’s meaning has grown deeper in my understanding of this passage and the overall context of Paul’s letter to the Corinthian Church. What I have learned and what has been emphasized in the Hayes commentary is this is less about agape love and more about love within the church community. Furthermore, when evaluating the last verse of chapter 12, Paul is introducing this topic in the context of the spiritual gifts as how members of the Corinthian church should exercise concern, consideration, and care for each other in this statement, “And yet I show you a more
In other words, any and all spiritual activity or exercise of the gifts is truly meaningless without love. Next he develops love not as a feeling, but that of evidence of deep Christian character. To further emphasize this character, he once again uses an example of pride and the term, “is not puffed up.” As he dives deeper into the text, Paul once again uses knowledge, a familiar theme of the letter and a ongoing backdrop and challenge of the Corinthian church to emphasize that all or our knowledge is partial. The analogy of a looking glass or mirror is an interesting metaphor when introducing the concept of partial knowledge we have as Christian’s from an eschatological standpoint. In the commentary, Hayes provides some historical context that the production of mirrors was in fact a key element of early Corinthian industry. As such, this analogy must have really resonated or clarified the image Paul was trying to illustrate (sorry about the pun, but I really couldn’t