Aristotle’s Virtues and Vices from Nicomachean Ethics
http://pages.interlog.com/~girbe/virtuesvices.html
In life
anything without love is nothing.
Love by itself is everything.
Love is the very nature of God. Love is
more than a character of God.
Three
sections:
13:1-3 –
The Necessity of Love
13:4-7 –
The Character of Love
13:8-13 –
The
The Gifts mentioned here:
·
tongues
·
prophecy
·
fathom all mysteries (word of wisdom?)
·
knowledge (word of knowledge?)
·
faith (gift of miracles??)
·
giving (gift of helps?)
·
martyrdom (gift of faith??)
The gifts mentioned here basically fill four
areas:
1.
Ecstatic speech (tongues)
2.
Teaching (prophecy, fathom mysteries, knowledge)
3.
Miracles (faith)
4.
Service (giving money or giving life)
What
follows with the word “if” are three conditional sentences.
13:1
Tongues
of men speak of natural languages.
Tongues
of angels might refer to ecstatic utterances.
Paul is not just being creative with his words here. Some say “tongues of angels” refers to
eloquent speech. This is true in some
cases but not in the context of ch. 12-14 here.
Tongues are in the chapter before and is the topic of the following
chapter. In addition, if “tongues of
angels” means eloquent speech then “tongues of men” must refer at least to
speech that is less than eloquent. In
the worst case “tongues of men” would refer to barbaric, incoherent speech. In context, tongues of angels are the tongues
of chapter 12 and 14.
“gong” is from “chalkos” and means copper, brass, bronze.
“resounding” is “echon” the present active of “echew” and means “to sound, to
ring, to echo, to roar. These two words
combined refer to a hollow echoing groaning noise
“cymbal” is “kumbalon”. Cymbals
were used by Jews in their worship services but were even more popular in
heathen ceremonies.
“clanging” is “alaladzon” and refers to
a loud sounding, a clashing. It is used to identify a war cry or a
triumphal shouting.
13:2
q Prophecy,
q Fathom mysteries,
q Knowledge,
q Faith
These
gifts focus on the area of communicating information or instruction.
In other
words, if you have full understanding of God’s word or revelation but do not
have love it is worthless.
Mountain
moving faith:
Isaiah
54:10; Mark 11:22; Matt. 17:20; 21:21
13:3
These are
administrative or service gifts.
Both are
giving:
1.
Possessions
to others.
2.
Life
for cause of Christ
One of
the focuses in this verse is the extreme level of service:
1.
“I
give all I possess” – all of your possessions
2.
“I
surrender my body to the flames” – all of your life
Extreme
acts do not prove love.
So, love
could be demonstrated without “all” or extreme being involved.
Notice:
|
Verse
13:1 |
“I produce nothing” |
|
Verse
13:2 |
“I am nothing |
|
Verse
13:3 |
“I gain nothing” |
|
Ver.
13:1-3 |
The
gifts themselves are
still valuable |
The point
is not to force a choice between gifts or love.
Love is
in a completely different category than the gifts.
The gifts should be used but the motivation for seeking the manifestation of
the gifts is love.
Jewish writing shows that they believed angels to have their own language and through the Spirit a Jew could speak these languages.
In the
Jewish book “Testament of Job” the daughters of Job spoke “ecstatically in the
angelic dialect.”
13:4
1.
“Patient”
–
2.
“Kind”
–
3.
“Does
not Envy” –
4.
“Does
not Boast” –
5.
“Is
not Proud” –
6.
“Is
not Rude” –
7.
“Is
not Self-seeking” –
8.
“Not
easily Angered” –
9.
“Keeps
no record of wrongs” –
10 “Does not delight in evil but rejoices with the Truth” –
11 “Always Protects” –
12 “Always trusts” –
13 “Always Hopes” –
14 “Always Perseveres” –
The list
has:
1.
Two
positive (one pair)
2.
Eight
negative (four pair)
3.
Four
positive (two pair)
“Patient” (“macrothumia”) is long-suffering, long-tempered”. It is patient of pain and injury without
paying back. This is a passive response
to people. It is God’s attitude toward
mankind in Romans 2:4 along with God’s kindnesss. This word is saying that it takes a long time
before breaking out into action which is understood to be passion.
“Kindness” (“chresteuetai”) is the active side of patience. It means to be useful, to be kind and
gracious, to show well-disposed service to others. This is active goodness
“Envy” means “fervent, to boil with envy, to be jealous.
“Boast” means to brag, to boast, one who talks a lot and acts
presumptuously. Main idea is
ostentatious or flamboyant. It is self-center behavior.
“Proud” means to puff up, to
expand yourself like a pair of bellows.
This is a result of the one before, boasting.
13:5
“Rude” means “unbecoming”. It is
to behave indecently or in a shameful manner.
Tact is lacking and people are embarrassed.
“Angered” means to be irritated, promoted to anger, to be touchy. This is a result of the one before, self-seeking.
“Record of wrongs” is literally “does not reckon the evil”. “Record” is a word that means to credit
someone’s account. Love is not keeping
score. It means “does not think about
it” or “does not take notice.”
13:6
“Does not delight in evil” and “Rejoices
with the truth”
Here the
rejoicing is in the truth not in evil.
Evil and
Truth are two sides of the same reality.
13:7
“Always”
or “in everything”
“Protects” means to cover as does a roof.
It has the idea of protecting like a roof and also enduring (holding up)
like a roof.
“Trusts” or “believes”. This means love never looses faith. This does not mean love believes everything
nor does love trust everyone.
“Hopes” projects love into the future.
“Perseveres” is “hupomenei” which means to endure and to bear patiently not in
passive defeat but in blazing hope.