Commentary on 1 Corinthians
Lecture 2. Qualities of charity
13:4 Charity is patient, is kind: [n. 771] charity envies not, deals not perversely, is not puffed up, [n. 774]
13:5 Is not ambitious, seeks not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinks no evil: [n. 778]
13:6 Rejoices not in iniquity, [n. 782] but rejoices with the truth: [n. 783]
13:7 Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. [n. 785]
771. After showing that charity is so necessary that without it no spiritual gifts are sufficient for salvation, the Apostle now shows that it is so useful and of such efficacious strength that through it all virtuous works are completed.
First, he makes two quasi-general statements;
second, he mentions in particular the virtuous works which are completed by charity, at charity envies not.
772. In regard to the first he does two things. For every virtue consists in this, that in acting, one is well disposed for enduring evil things, or in accomplishing good things.
Therefore, in regard to enduring evil he says, charity is patient, i.e., makes one endure evils patiently. For when a man loves someone on account of the beloved’s love, he endures all difficulties with ease; similarly, a person who loves God patiently endures any adversity for love of him. Hence it is said: many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it (Song 8:7); patience has a perfect work (Jas 1:4).
773. But as to performing good works, he adds: is kind; benignity is described as ‘a good fire,’ so that just as fire by melting metal makes it flow, so charity inclines a person not to keep the good things he has, but makes them flow to others: let your springs be scattered abroad, and streams of water in the streets (Prov 5:16), and this is what charity does: hence, it is said: if anyone has the world’s goods and sees a brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide him? (1 John 3:17). Hence, it is also said: be kind and merciful to one another (Eph 4:32); wisdom is kindly spirit (Wis 1:6).
774. Then when he says, charity envies not, he mentions in particular the virtuous works which charity produces, and because two things pertain to a virtue, namely, to refrain from evil and to do good: depart from evil and do good (Ps 34:14); cease to do evil, learn to do good (Isa 1:16).
First, he shows how charity avoids all evil; second, how it accomplishes the good, at but rejoices with the truth.
But man cannot do evil effectively to God, but only to himself and to his neighbor: if you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him? (Job 35:6); your wickedness concerns a man like yourself (Job 35:8). First, therefore, he shows how charity avoids evils against one’s neighbor; second, how evils are avoided by which someone is disarranged in himself, at is not puffed up.
775. Evil against one’s neighbor can exist in the will or emotions and externally. It exists in the former, especially when a person through envy grieves over his neighbor’s good. This is directly contrary to charity which inclines a person to love his neighbor as himself (Lev 19:18). Hence it pertains to charity that just as a person rejoices in his own goods, so he should rejoice in the goods of his neighbor. It follows from this that charity excludes envy. And this is what he says: charity envies not. Hence it is said: do not be envious of wrongdoers (Ps 37:1); do not let your heart envy sinners (Prov 23:17).
As to the outward effect he adds: deals not perversely, i.e., perversely, against anyone. For no one deals unjustly against one he loves: cease to do evil (Isa 1:16).
776. Then when he says, is not puffed up, he shows that charity makes one avoid evils by which one is disarranged in himself.
First, as to passions;
second, as to choice, at thinks no evil.
777. Therefore, he first shows that charity drives away inordinate passions in regard to three things.
First, indeed, as to pride, which is a disarranged desire for one’s own excellence. One seeks his own excellence in a disarranged manner, when it does not satisfy him to be contained in that station which has been established for him by God. Therefore it is said: the beginning of man’s pride is to depart from the Lord (Sir 10:12). This happens when a man does not wish to be contained under the rule of God’s arrangement. And this is opposed to charity, by which one loves God above all things: puffed up without reason by this sensuous mind and not holding fast to the head (Col 2:18).
It is right to compare pride to arrogance. For that which is puffed up does not have solidity but its appearance; so the proud seem to themselves to be great, while they really lack true greatness, which cannot exist without the divine order: he will dash them speechless to the ground (Wis 4:19).
778. The chief daughter of pride is ambition, through which one seeks to be foremost; which charity also excludes, seeking rather to serve: through love be servants of one another (Gal 5:13). Therefore, he adds: is not ambitious, i.e., makes a man avoid ambition: do not seek from the Lord the highest office nor the seat of honor from the king (Sir 7:4).
779. Second, he shows how charity excludes the disorder of cupidity, when he says: seeks not her own. This is understood precisely, i.e., it does not neglect the good of others. For one who loves others as himself seeks the good of others just as his own. Hence the Apostle said above: not seeking my own advantage, but that of many (1 Cor 10:33). Against which it is said of some: they all look after their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ (Phil 2:21).
It is possible to understand in another way that charity seeks not her own, i.e., it does not seek the return of what has been taken from it, namely, in a court case with scandal; because he loves the salvation of his neighbor more than money: not that I seek the gift; but I seek the fruit which increases to your credit (Phil 4:17).
780. Third, he shows how charity excludes the disorder of anger, saying: it is not provoked to anger, i.e., is not provoked to anger.
For anger is an inordinate desire for revenge. But it pertains to charity rather to forgive offenses than to seek revenge beyond measure: forbearing one another, if one has a complaint against another (Col 3:13); the anger of man does not work the righteousness of God (Jas 1:20).
781. Then when he says, thinks no evil, he shows how by charity disordered choosing is excluded.
Now choice is, as it says in Ethics 3, the desire for what has already been thought about and weighed. Therefore, a man sins from choice and not from passion, when by a plan of his reason his affections are bestirred to evil.
Charity, therefore, first of all, excludes perverse counsel. Therefore, he says: charity thinks no evil, i.e., does not permit devising how to complete something evil: woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil upon their beds (Mic 2:1); remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes (Isa 1:16).
Or charity thinks no evil, because it does not permit one to think evil about his neighbor by various suspicions and rash judgments: why do you think evil in your hearts? (Matt 9:4).
782. Second, charity excludes an inordinate love for evil; hence he says: rejoices not in iniquity. For one who sins from passion commits sin with some remorse and sorrow, but one who sins from choice rejoices in the fact that he commits sin: you rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perseverance of evil (Prov 2:14). But charity prevents this, inasmuch as it is the love of the supreme good, to whom all sin is obnoxious.
Or he says that charity rejoices not in iniquity, namely, committed by a neighbor: in fact it laments over it, inasmuch as it is opposed to our neighbor’s salvation, which it desires: I fear that when I come again my God will humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned before (2 Cor 12:21).
783. Then when he says, but rejoices, he shows how charity makes one do the good: first, as to one’s neighbor; second, as to God, at believes all things.
784. In regard to his neighbor man does the good in two ways: first, by rejoicing in his good. In regard to this he says: but rejoices with the truth, namely, of the neighbor or of life or doctrine or justice, inasmuch as he loves his neighbor as himself: I was exceedingly glad when the brethren came and gave testimony to the truth in you, even as you walk in the truth (3 John 3).
Second, in the fact that a person endures the evils of his neighbor to the extent that it is fitting. In regard to this he says: bears all things, i.e., without disquiet it tolerates all the shortcomings of the neighbor of any adversity whatever: we who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak (Rom 15:1); carry one another’s burdens and so you will fulfill the law of Christ (Gal 6:2), namely, charity.
785. Then when he says: believes all things, he shows how charity makes one do the good in relation to God. This is done especially through the theological virtues which have God for their object. In addition to charity the other two, as will be said below, are faith and hope.
Therefore, in regard to faith he says: believes all things, namely, which are divinely revealed. Abraham believed God and it was reputed to him as righteousness (Gen 15:6). But to believe all things said by men is lightmindedness: one who trusts others too quickly is light-minded (Sir 19:4).
In regard to hope he says: hopes all things, namely, which are promised by God: you who fear the Lord hope for good things (Sir 2:9).
And in order that hope not be discouraged by the delay, he adds: endures all things, i.e., patiently awaits what God has promised in spite of delay: if it seem slow, wait for it (Heb 2:3); let your heart take courage and wait for the Lord (Ps 27:14).