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All the Boring Virtues -- 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (4th Sunday of Epiphany)

Writer's picture: Scott ClarkScott Clark

Photo credit: Vonecia Carswell, used with permission via Unsplash





It feels like lately, the lectionary – the suggested readings for each Sunday – lately, the lectionary has been offering up a kind of “greatest hits of the Bible” for us. We are reading some really beloved passages of Scripture. A couple of weeks ago the reading reminded us that “we are the body of Christ and each of us a full and important member of that body.” Last week, there was that foundational text where Jesus stands up in the synagogue and says, “The Spirit of God is upon me to bring good news to the poor, sight to those who cannot see, release for the captive, freedom for all who are oppressed, and the year of God’s jubilee – the year when every debt is forgiven.”

        

And today, there is this gorgeous, moving riff on love. [How many of you have heard this one before? Where have you heard it?] It’s a favorite at weddings. It’s a tender, lovely expression of love in community. “Love is patient; love is kind. Love is not easily angered; it does not envy or boast... Love always protects,  always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”


This is a Scripture to learn and know by heart.

        

But funny thing – if you look at that list carefully – the things listed in this sumptuous scripture... well... they are fairly ordinary – one might even say boring. What we have is this lush and gorgeous expression of love – embodied in this list of – what we might call – all the boring virtues.


Now hear me out: You’re not likely to get the world’s attention and acclaim through a life lived out patiently. They probably aren’t going to name a building after you for “bearing all things” or for sitting around and “keeping no record of wrongs.” In our fast-paced, attention-grabbing, loud and noisy culture, the awards aren’t going to be pouring in for not being self-seeking, for not delighting in evil, for not boasting, for not being easily angered.

 

In fact, consider for a moment our current culture...

This is quite the counter-cultural list.


Let’s remember where we are in this letter to the Corinthian community.[1] Remember the Corinthians are this new community in Christ – nurtured into this world by the Apostle Paul – and fired up with the Spirit. But Paul has moved on to the next city, and, in his absence, the community has fallen into disarray and contention. And the community and the Apostle write back and forth to each other in a series of letters. In First Corinthians, the Apostle is responding to a letter where the community has listed all their disagreements. “He did this.” And then, “She did that.” And then, “They did that. One disagreement after another. And Paul writes back, and goes through the list, issue by issue.


And then, in chapter 12, the Apostle starts to tie it all together (think back a couple weeks), the Apostle Paul starts to ground them in what really matters. Remember: You are the body of Christ. Each of you a member of it. The Spirit has given you – each and all – this diverse and amazing array of gifts, and all those gifts are meant to come to life in you, all for the common good – for the good of the world – the Spirit alive in you. Every one of you is gifted; every one of you is needed. You really are like a body. The eye can’t say, “I don’t need the hand.” And the hand can’t say, “I don’t need the ear.” Even the parts of the body that we don’t privilege – they are vital too. If one part suffers, all suffer. You are one body – the body of Christ.


And then, then, in this morning’s Scripture, Paul brings it all home. He takes a deep breath, and he grounds it all... in love. If I speak with the tongues of angels, but have not love, I’m just a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I prophesy and have bold faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have to the poor, in a dramatic display of faithfulness, if I have not love, I gain nothing.


He names the noisier virtues – the dramatic ones – the ones that get you noticed – and while they may do some good in the world – Paul is clear – even the clanging cymbal eventually goes quiet. All the loud proclaiming, ultimately fades to a hush. And in that hush – what you will find is that ... what matters most... is love.


And not just any love. When we say “love” in English, we can mean all manner of things. English doesn’t have a lot of nuance around that word. But Paul is writing about a very specific type of love – in the Greek it’s agape. There’s romantic love. There’s friendship love. There’s that visceral love of a parent. But this agape love – it’s a choice – it’s love we choose that puts the well-being of others at the center of our lives.[2] We don’t find this word for love – this agape – in a lot of other writings of Paul’s time. Maybe even then it was counter-cultural. But that word shows up in the New Testament more than 300 times. It is a Christian distinctive.


It’s the love we see in Jesus Christ – “the kind of love that longs for the well-being of the beloved.”[3] It’s a love that never forgets the vulnerable. It’s a love that seeks the common good. It’s “the way love works in community that brings about the edification and upbuilding of others, [of everyone, of all of us together].”[4] When all the rest fades away, this love abides with us – and in us – it always protects, it always trusts, it always hopes, it always perseveres. This love never fails. This love never dies.


This love – this love is patient; it is kind. It doesn’t envy, or boast. It is not proud. It doesn’t go around dishonoring others, cutting others down. It’s not self-seeking, it seeks the good of others – of everyone. It is not easily angered; it keeps no record of wrongs. It rejoices in the truth. This love ... it’s the love we see in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is  the love we see alive in the body of Christ.


These letters that Paul wrote to the Corinthians – when they received them, we think that they would all gather around and listen as the letter was read out loud in community. Imagine for a moment these lively, noisy Corinthians – gathering in a room full to overflowing – with all their arguments and disagreements – jockeying for position and for power – ready to be proved right. And the reader unrolls the scroll, and says this:


If I speak with the tongues of angels and of humans, but have not love, I am but a clanging gong or a clashing cymbal...

4 Love is patient, love is kind.

It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, 

it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 

6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 

7 Love always protects, always trusts,

always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.


Imagine them reading that out loud.


Imagine the hush that falls in the room.


You see, this list of all the boring virtues... turns out to be what matters most... the way of Jesus... the way to life in Christ.

        

We know this scripture from weddings. It startled me the first time that a family here asked to have it read at a memorial service – when what the family wanted most to remember was this quiet, powerful, saving way of Jesus – as they’d experienced it in this one they had loved and their life together – in our life together.

        

I think back just a couple weeks to the memorial service for Jimmy Carter – all the living presidents gathered together in a rare non-partisan moment – to remember and to celebrate a life. To be sure, there was mention of his leadership as President. We remembered the peace he had brokered. But even more, we remembered the houses he had built with Habitat for Humanity – the nails he had hammered into walls, so that a family might have a place of shelter and a home. Gerald Ford’s son remembered Carter’s honesty and truth-telling. He remembered how Presidents Ford and Carter found a way to look beyond their differences to find a moral grounding that they shared, and the friendship that grew and nourished them and the world in shared public service, for the good of others. Carter’s grandson spoke of the love Jimmy and Roslyn Carter shared – of their humble, welcoming home – of the fridge covered with their grandkids’ art – of the clothesline over the sink where they hung plastic Ziplocs that had been rinsed out to use again. President Biden said that Carter’s strength of character was “more than title or power – but the strength to understand that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect.”

        

I think of that memorial service, and of the memorial services here – how we have remembered Sandy Truex’s faithful deacon service, the ways she accompanied those living with breast cancer; how we have remembered Georgia Landers’ warm welcome of so many into this community; how we have remembered Jo Gross, and how she taught communities to feed the hungry – and to do it with dignity – to bring out the cloth table cloths and some flowers – and to sit down and eat together.

        

Maybe all those boring virtues – maybe they aren’t so boring after all. Maybe they are what matters most.

        

These two scriptures that we have savored last week and this week – Jesus saying: The Spirit is upon me to proclaim good news to the poor – the Apostle Paul writing: Love is patient; love is kind. If we hold them together, they give us a grounding and a road map of what it is to live the way of Jesus – to live the way of Christ – a way that blesses the world with tender mercy and justice, even as it travels toward the cross, and through the cross into the broad expanse of resurrection life – lived out right here, right now – and on into forever. These two scriptures ground us in a love that seeks the well-being of others, and they give us our working papers – to bring good news to the poor, food for the hungry, shelter for those on the road, healing for every hurt, release to the captive, freedom to the oppressed, and the forgiveness of every debt.

        

This is the way of Jesus. It is so important to be clear on this.

        

We don’t see that in our dominant culture today and in the systems of domination that grind away in our world. That has been true longer than I think any of us cares to admit, but is so painfully clear today. The Apostle Paul goes on, and tells us that life and love give us a mirror – a mirror to see the way, albeit dimly.

        

So I want us to do a little exercise. I want to use this mirror and take a long loving look. Let’s look in the mirror at ourselves, at our nation these past two weeks, and see who we are and where we are headed. We see the firings of law enforcement officers who had investigated the president, prosecutors fired; we see an entire civil service – public servants intimidated and fearing for their jobs. We see an attempt to eliminate from the Constitution the right of persons born in the US to be citizens; a closure of offices committed to equal protection of law, to racial equity – to any equity. We see the scapegoating of minority groups – as a national tragedy occurs, and before any evidence is known, the president blames diversity, equity, and inclusion – and the military personnel involved: “Something bad has happened; it must be the black people, or the gay people, or those who are differently abled.” And you know the rest.

        

Let us look plainly at the dominant culture. Hold all that, and let’s look at that in the mirror these Scriptures give us – how does it compare? What we have seen these past two weeks. And this:

4 Love is patient, love is kind.

It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, 

it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 

6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 

Jesus said: The Spirit is upon me. I come to bring good news to the poor; healing for every harm; freedom for the oppressed; the forgiveness of every debt.


These two foundational Scriptures give us a mirror for an honest look; they offer a roadmap to the way of Jesus; and they suggest our working papers. Remember what Howard Thurman said about our working papers – how we make what we value and believe real in our one, particular life:


For every one of us there is a necessity to establish as securely as possible the lines along which we proposes to live our life. In developing our life’s working paper we must take into account many factors.. As a human being we did not merely happen. We were born; we have a name; we have forebears; we are the product of a particular culture; we have a mother tongue; we belong to a nation; we are [or find our way... The life working paper of the individual is made up of a creative synthesis of what we are is in all our parts and how we intend to live into the world.[5]

 

For those who would follow Jesus – who claim our identity in the Body of Christ – our working papers begin and end in love. And not just any love – agape love – Jesus love – a love we choose that puts the well-being of others at the center of our lives – a love that never forgets the vulnerable – a love that works for the common good. It is the love we see in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is the love we see alive in the body of Christ. It is counter-cultural, but—In the tumult of every age – in the Apostle’s day and in our own – this love, this love – always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.


This love never fails. It never dies. It is what matters most.


© 2025 Scott Clark


[1] For background on this text and First Corinthians, see J. Paul Sampley, “The First Letter to Corinthians,” New Interpreters’ Bible Commentary, vol. x (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2002), pp.940-49; Shannon Craigo-Snell, Commentary in Connections, Year C, vol. 1 (Louisville, KY; Westminster John Knox Press, 2018), pp.215-17; Cynthia A. Jarvis, Commentary in Connections, Year C, vol. 1 (Louisville, KY; Westminster John Knox Press, 2018), pp.217-18; Mitzi Smith and Yung Suk Kim, “First Corinthians,” Toward Decentering the New Testament: A Reintroduction (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2018). For thorough consideration of the life- and world-context of Paul, his letters, and the communities he served, see Udo Schnelle, Apostle Paul: His Life and Theology (trans. M.E. Boring) (New York: Baker Publishing Group, 2005).

[2] See Crago-Snell, pp.215-16.

[3] Id.

[4] See Sampley, p.950.

[5] Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1949 (2022 ed.)), p.100.

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