"VIRTUE-LOVE
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clashing cymbal. (
1 Corinthians 13:1)
The Corinthians had become infatuated with speaking in tongues, a gift which is no longer extant. Paul wrote them the blazing epistle of 1 Corinthians to excoriate them for their Holy Roller activities. This first verse of
1 Corinthians 13 is a ringing, bombastic oratory equivalent to a blast of trumpets, kettle drums, and cymbals at triple fortissimo as only Beethoven and the Apostle Paul could deliver. He is taking the gloves off and standing up against their brazen arrogance. This is cauterizing sarcasm aimed at the tongues crowd. He says, "If I speak with the tongues of men and angels," which means if he spoke like an angelic herald. The Corinthians have been intrigued with speaking in tongues; so Paul is using debaters technique to present the premise that even if he spoke as an angelic herald, which would obviously exceed the most gifted of the tongues crowd. If this were true, but he did not have love, is the premise. This is the virtue-love from the Integrity Envelope. It is Greek, ajgavph (agape), the word for divine love, or virtue-love, from God and poured into the cup in the Integrity Envelope.
Even if he were an angelic herald but did not have virtue-love, then, he concludes, "I have become a noisy gong or a clashing cymbal." The word for "gong" is the Greek calkov" (chalkos), which means a piece of brass such as a pot or kettle used by peddlers to call attention to their wares. As the peddlers made their rounds selling vegetables, they would beat on a pot or pan to attract attention. This was before doorbells. This was noisy and quite a contrast from the soprano of the angelic herald. It is the contrast between beautiful music (which comes from the right lobe of the soul) and the noise of a brass object for percussion, a gong with noisy echo. But Paul doesn't stop here. No percussion is ever hit just once; so he throws a combination punch and hits them again. "Or a clashing cymbal": The term for cymbal is the Greek kuvmbalon (kumbalon), which was a cymbal, a metal basin struck against another to produce a clashing, ringing sound used by professional mourners to get attention. Everyone knew professional mourners were full of hypocrisy. Now the Greeks of Corinth who prided themselves in their oratory understood this. Paul had just taken them up to the fifth floor balcony and pushed them off. This is Round One.
Note that Round One was addressed to the orators, the dynamic speakers with titillating tongues, the professional mourners full of hypocrisy, the prissy braggarts full of emotional claptrap. There are other words to describe these types in the Bible. They are the politicians from Political Babylon who are symbolized by frogs (
Revelation 16:13). The politicians are forever posturing and croaking like frogs.
And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. (
1 Corinthians 13:2, NAS).
This verse does to the intellectual crowd what the first verse did to the politicians...
http://www.biblenews1.com/marriage/marriagh.htm
but really, I'd ignore where you might disagree,
and look for where you might agree.
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