I was pondering on this verse which exhorts charity above spiritual gifts, and would be also sharing some characteristics of charity.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

1 Cor 13:1, KJV

The Greek word for charity is “agape”, and it means brotherly affection. There is a notion of closeness here, as Paul writes 1 Cor addressed to the people in Corinthian church.

And this word is derived from the more general form of love, whose Greek is “agapao”.

We are called to love (agapao) our enemies (Matt 5:44).

And also we see “God so loved (agapao) the world that he gave his only begotten son” (John 3:16).

The agapao love means, to love in a social or moral sense. Here there may not be closeness.

In the setting of the church however, there is the notion of closeness, where usually people are close to each other. And thus, the agape love is being used.

When there is closeness, this brings the relationship to another level, and hence the increased level of affection one can have for each other.

Firstly, we see God does not require us to be close to everyone, even in our circles: family, friends, church, colleagues.

But we must love (agapao) everyone including our enemies, just as Jesus our example did declare His love for the world (please refer to above).

And from the greatest commandments Jesus said to agapao God with all our heart and also our neighbours (Matt 22:36-40).

Notice next, that God didn’t require us to be close to Him too.

Although He desires and longs that we be close to Him, as a bridegroom longs to have intimacy with his bride.

Please refer to Psa 73 article, and John 1:1 article, for how God desires intimacy as a Father with his children / bridegroom with bride, and as a friend too, respectively.

And the goal of Christianity is not about being successful / impactful in ministries and all, although that is desirable too, but secondary.

But the goal of Christianity is: intimacy with God.

Please refer to Psa 73 article, Key Truths to Unlocking the Five-Fold Ministries article, and Joel 2:25 article.

And we have to first draw close to Him, before He will draw close to us (James 4:8).

Finally, we also note our agapao love towards everyone, includes forgiveness too.

We forgive love our enemies, despite of the things they have done against us.

And forgiveness is so important that even Jesus would not hear us and our prayers, if we harbour any unforgiveness in our hearts.

Please refer to the Lord’s Prayer article, especially the part on debts / trespass.

Now we come to agape love, where from the start of 1 Cor, Paul exhorts the church to not to have divisions (1 Cor 1:10-16).

This means they should also iron out their relationship, if there is any misunderstanding.

So that there would be a harmonious and united body of Christ.

And 1 Cor 13, goes on to elaborate various characteristics of the agape love.

It starts out warning us that without this agape love, we are like empty sounding cymbals.

This represents how we could be serving in ministries and exercising those nine spiritual gifts (1 Cor 12:4-10), but won’t be productive to do God’s will, calling, and purposes.

Please refer to Psa 73 article, Ezek 3:4 article, A Fresh Encounter with God article, and Key Truths to Unlocking the Five-Fold Ministries article.

And Jesus also said how there can be Christians who profess Lordship but refused on the final judgement day by Him, even though they have performed great miracles in His name (Matt 7:21-23).

Because they do it for themselves: for their own benefits, not to according to His will and calling for them.

Some of them probably never had a real relationship with God. And thus they were unable to hear from God about His will for their lives, or a particular season of their lives.

Or they heard, but were unwilling as they wanted to lift themselves high, or other self benefits (please refer to Dan 3 article).

1 Cor 13 thus reiterates that heroism with the intention to lift ourselves high, is useless as we don’t have agape love (v3).

And even if we have faith / hope in God,

and able to move mountains, and able to perform great miracles, we are nothing in the eyes of God if we don’t have agape love (v2).

Now let us look at some characteristics of agape love (or charity).

Most of the them would make sense. Because our love for our brothers and sisters in our family, are the same kind of love we show to our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Firstly, as we have clearly seen above, charity is “not puffed up” (v4).

Hence, if we say we have brotherly love and affection (charity) for people within the church whom we are ministering to, we should not be proud, or have intention of lifting ourselves high.

Secondly, as seen above too, brotherly love is not self-seeking (v5). We serve our brothers and sisters in the church, to help them, and not for our own benefits.

Third, we see that charity is long suffering and enduring, despite challenges to love (v4, 5, 7, 8).

As mentioned above, we try to resolve conflicts / disagreements in our church, and iron out our relationships.

But if there be issues in the relationship that are difficult to resolve, first there should be agapao love towards the person / group of people in church. As Jesus commanded us to love everyone, including our enemies.

And similar to love in a family, we should always press on to love the person despite the season and even though it’s difficult to love, maybe because of certain hurdles in the relationship.

Even in areas that are usually missed out by friends, which requires more effort / going the extra distance such as: companionship, caregiving, and finances.

Fourth, charity does not result in strive against each other (v4).

We help our brothers and sisters, with no spirit of envy that they may overtake us in any way if we do. But with a pure and kind heart, we serve them.

Finally and summarily, charity stems out of God’s truths, and does not comprise of any disobedience / displeasing towards God.