When you boil it all down all churches have sin problems. And God has always provided answers to those problems, even from the beginning. The promise was that the wounded Savior would crush the devil's head. The damning effects of sin were to be erased by the loving God of us all.
The Samaritan woman of John 4 surely realized this. She told the people after her encounter with Jesus "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?"(Jn. 4:29) What a message of loving hope she had heard in this encounter with the Master! And what a perfect answer to her sin problems. "...whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to everlasting life."(Jn. 4:14) Who would give any hope to a woman like this? She was in trouble. She was sinful. She was dirty. She was about as errant as one could be.
Jesus told her "Go, call your husband and come back."(Jn. 4:16) She said "I have no husband..."(Jn. 4:17) Jesus said "You are right when you say you have no husband." "The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband."(Jn. 4:17-18) Yet Jesus said to her "...a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem."(Jn. 4:21) Then He said "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth..."(Jn. 4:23)
When one turns to I Cor. 13 and understands Biblical history one knows that Paul was speaking to the true worshippers of God who worshipped in spirit and in truth. Yet they, like that Samaritan woman, continued to need a solution to the problems of sin that remained in their lives and in the lives of their neighbors. And the solution, the theme, the answer "...the excellent way..." continued to be love....It was the theme that ran throughout and continues to run throughout God's dealings with men. It is the reaction of God to our imperfections. He loves us...all of us, even in our sinfulness and wrongness. But wait...what does he expect of us? He expects us to love him in return and love one another.
Paul could not help but give that advise to the Corinthians. He was only reiterating the sentiments of Jesus. Paul was a man filled with the Holy Spirit of God, preaching his heart out to the people of God. Jesus had already told the other apostles and this apostle come lately what was going to happen. "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what he hears..."(Jn. 16:13) "He will bring glory to Me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you."(Jn. 16:14)
The theme then was an everlasting, eternal, heavenly theme. It was the theme of God's relationship with his people and their expected relationships with one another. It was "the excellent way" the theme of love. If Paul had said any other thing than this then the conclusion would have had to be that the Holy Spirit of God was not with him.
Jesus did not look down his nose at people's weaknesses. He loved them and sought to help them. And that is what he expects of us.
Paul was taught by inspiration the lessons Jesus taught during His ministry. "A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."(Jn. 13:34) "All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another."(Jn. 13:35) "This is my command: Love each other."(Jn. 15:17) "...honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself."(Mt. 19:19) "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'" "But I tell you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."(Mt. 5:43-44) "If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?"(Mt. 5:46) "I have revealed You to them, and will continue to make You known in order that the love You have for Me may be theirs and that I myself may be in them."(Jn. 17:26) "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you." "No one has greater love than the one who lays down his life for his friends."(Jn. 15:12-13)
When Paul checked into the library of the Holy Spirit he found all the material needed to write about our loving one another. And this was true of all Spirit-filled men of inspiration. John would write "We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers..."(I Jn. 3:14) "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers."(I Jn. 3:16) "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God."(I Jn. 4:7) Peter would say "Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, with all your hearts.'(I Pet. 1:22) "Show proper respect for everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king."(I Pet. 2:17) "Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble." (I Pet. 3:8)
I have been guilty in the past, perhaps hundreds of times, of using the account at Jacob's well to prove one thing. I was right and everybody else was wrong because I worshipped in "...spirit and truth..." That is I had everything in my life and worship perfectly figured out and my worship was the only correct worship around. I missed the whole point of the context of John 4...There was a poor sinner there who needed and encounter with the Savior. And you know he was so magnanimous in spirit that he did not even leave out that poor sinner of a woman. And there was a time when I would not have accepted her into my "worship" and fellowship. Perhaps I should have read I Cor. 13. rather than looking for a prooftext for my perfection.
The First Corinthian letter reveals a group of people who had many, many faults. Yet Paul said there was a solution, "...the excellent way..."
The punch line is to come. Not only does he talk about it, he describes and defines what love is, and that is where he gets down to the brass tacks of how we must treat one another if we are to follow in the steps of a loving Savior.
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