1 Corinthians 16:13Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

One word is directed against deceivers: "Watch, stand fast." Another is against offenders: "Be courageous." A third is against those who stir up discord and strife: "Let all that you do be done with love." This love is the bond of perfection, the root and source of blessings.

What then does "let all that you do be done with love" mean? Whether one reproves, rules, obeys, learns, or teaches, all must be done with love. All the evils mentioned came from neglecting it.

If love had not been neglected, they would not have become proud and said, "I am of Paul," and, "I am of Apollos" (1 Cor 1:12). If it had been among them, they would not have gone to law before outsiders, that is, before pagans. Better still, they would not have gone to law at all.

If it had been among them, the fornicator would not have lived with his father's wife. They would not have despised weak brethren, nor had divisions, nor vaunted themselves over spiritual gifts. Therefore he also says: "Let all that you do be done with love. I beseech you, brethren, you know the household of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints" (1 Cor 16:14-15).

At the beginning of the epistle he already mentioned this, when he said: "I also baptized the household of Stephanas" (1 Cor 1:16). Now he calls it the firstfruits not of Corinth only, but of all Greece. It is no small honor to be the first to come to Christ.

Therefore, in the Epistle to the Romans, when praising certain persons for this, he said: "who were in Christ before me" (Rom 16:7). Here he did not say, "they were the first to believe," but, "they are the firstfruits." He shows that together with faith they displayed an excellent life as its fruit, and proved worthy in every respect.

Indeed, the firstfruits must be better than the rest of which they are the firstfruits. Paul testified this concerning them by that very expression. As I said, they not only believed sincerely, but also showed great piety in deed, lofty virtue, and zeal in works of mercy.

He proves their reverence not only by this, but also by saying that the whole household was filled with piety. Their zeal for good works he shows in the words that follow: "they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints." Do you hear what praise he gives to hospitality? He did not say, "they serve," but, "they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints." They chose such a life for themselves forever, and this is their care.

This is the Apostle’s command: 1 Cor 16:13. Brethren, watch. Do not sleep or slumber. Guard yourselves. Around you are many thieves and robbers, and hired false teachers climbing in another way. Carefully guard the sanctuary of your heart.

Stand in the faith. Be faithful to that teaching of Christ which you heard from the Apostles of Christ, and which is preserved in holiness in the Orthodox Church through her faithful pastors.

Stand in the faith. Is it possible to stop in faith? Is it possible for the whole world to stand upon those truths of faith that were bequeathed to us eighteen centuries ago?

Time, they say, gives its own teachings. With the years there are new discoveries, investigations, and sometimes new thoughts, or whole trends of new thought, supposedly unexpected and unforeseen before.

For example, today they say that the world has existed not for the eighth millennium, but for tens of millions of years, so many that there are scarcely numbers to pronounce them.

Why do they think so? On the basis of the strata in the earth. Certain scholars have concluded that one layer of earth could not have formed except over, let us suppose, a thousand years.

Another layer requires tens of thousands of years, and another only hundreds of years. On this opinion a whole series of chronologies is built. Some scholars say the world has stood for billions of years. Others, more modest, define it by millions or tens of millennia.

The scholars themselves have not yet come into harmony about how many millennia should be assigned. All this confusion comes from wanting to see only the action of nature itself in the formation of the earth’s layers, according to its partly observed laws.

They keep silent about the very Author who gave these laws. From where did the powers of nature come into it? Visible nature did not give itself its powers.

In the world we see nothing that receives being by itself, without a cause, by spontaneous generation, as some foolish talkers briefly supposed.

For the Creator of nature, for the Almighty, to give the strata one density or another, and a beautiful arrangement, cost only one word and one moment. He spoke, and it came to be. He commanded, and all was beautifully created (Ps 148:5).

A wise man once rightly said, when looking upon God’s wondrous world: “There are many things, friend Horatio, in nature that our sages never dreamed of.”

It is difficult, and even impossible, to measure the whole majesty of creation by our human powers and means.

On the other hand, how much gain is there for the question of the soul’s salvation if it learns that the visible world has existed longer than the eighth millennium?

To such extra-biblical questions and teachings belong common opinions about unconditional freedom, liberalism and anarchism; about equality of the sexes, emancipation; about married life; about common ownership of property, communism; and about man’s lot beyond the grave, supposedly not as it is written in the word of God, spiritism.

There are as many such thoughts and teachings in the world as there are creeping things in the sea. They are without number (Ps 103:25).

Yet in all this, the best position for man is to stand on the faith of Christ as on a quiet harbor, on a rock by the shore. In the Gospel teaching, explained by the Apostles, there truly is everything necessary for salvation.

In it are spoken all the words of eternal life. It is wholly sufficient for our soul to believe what Christ teaches through the Apostles and the holy Orthodox Church.

Therefore, Orthodox Christians, stand in the Orthodox faith. Do not be carried away by different modern teachings and demands. One cannot keep pace with these modern thoughts, any more than with fashions.

It is no calamity if they call you backward, unmodern, or not fully but only one-sidedly educated. As though there were people educated on every side, who have swallowed all earthly wisdom.

It is no calamity if we do not manage to inspect everything surrounding us in the realm of arts and entertainments, such as theaters and tricks. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, or by looking at everything entertaining in the world.

One thing is needful, and may it always be needful: the faith of Christ. It is so beautifully adorned with rites in our Church, and so many-sidedly clarified by the Apostles and holy Fathers through the centuries.

A man with true faith, despite the surrounding temptations or worldly and historical upheavals, stands unharmed and firm. He is like a rock amid raging waves, or like a helmsman secured by an anchor.

Not without reason is the anchor considered a defense amid storms, and a symbol of hope and faith.

Continue, then, to stand in the faith, you who are obedient to the Orthodox Church. Stand firm in the faith, you who waver. Be courageous in it, you fainthearted, who yield before the opinions of others, especially of those who possess authority or the force of seeming knowledge.

If you are fainthearted, strengthen yourselves by the examples of people firm in the faith and teaching of Jesus Christ, and by the Apostolic exhortations.

Do not waste words in vain with seducers and freethinkers. Withdraw from them. Strive to know your own faith more clearly and better. When you know it, you will be bolder, and it will be less frightening to see temptation and hear loose speech.

There were many freethinkers in Corinth. There were also many parties of different characters among the Corinthian Christians.

They were not guided by the Spirit of Christ, nor by the spirit of love, peace, and mutual condescension. They arose from self-love and were supported by pride and high self-opinion. The Apostle had already written to the Corinthians about this.

Since without love, sympathy for the good, and condescension to weaknesses, society is unstable, the holy Apostle at the end of the epistle reminds them of Christ’s love. He reminds them of true love for neighbors as the foundation and strength of all virtues, the fulfillment of the law (Rom 13:8-10), and the bond of perfection (Col 3:14).

Opposed to fortitude is fear, of which the Psalmist said: "There they feared with fear, where there was no fear" (Ps 13:5). Our Lord Jesus Christ forbids us to have such fear, saying: "Do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do" (Lk 12:4).

Against temptation, the most necessary thing is love. If you truly love your neighbor, you will do nothing that causes him to stumble. For this reason Paul then commanded the faithful these three rules.

First, he said, "Watch," so as not to be led astray by deceivers. Second: "Stand fast in the faith, be courageous, be strong," so as not to be overcome by the violence of persecutors. Third: "Let all that you do be done with love," so as not to cause your brethren to stumble.

These three rules are also weapons against the devil. For he is the inventor of deception, the counselor of violence, and the accomplice of temptation. Since even now there are deceivers who teach soul-destroying impiety, and persecutors appear who violently draw the faithful away from the right dogmas of the faith, and there are many tempters who cause stumbling in every way, Paul's injunction is still necessary for every soul.

Moreover, "the devil, like a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Pet 5:8). Therefore the apostolic charge remains necessary now: "Watch, stand fast in the faith, be courageous, be strong. Let all that you do be done with love." See how, after repeating in these brief words all that he had said about faith and love throughout the epistle, he then shows the very work of love by pleading for service to the brethren.

"One word is directed against deceivers, namely: 'Watch, stand fast.' Another is against offenders, namely: 'Be courageous.' A third is against those who stir up disagreements and strife, namely: 'Let all that you do be done with love.' This love is the bond of perfection, the root and source of blessings.

"If love had not been neglected, they would not have become proud. They would not have gone to law. They would not have vaunted themselves over spiritual gifts."

In our common sympathy I recognize the blessed action of blessed love for the Anointed of God. Foreign peoples marvel at this love in Russians, and by their wonder they bear witness to its excellence. Therefore from you I receive consolation, seeing in you one of the important branches of Christian love already sprouting and bearing fruit. At the same time, from you I take occasion to offer several thoughts for our common edification. They concern Christian love, which is not content to show its strength in certain branches, but seeks to fill the whole field of life and action. The holy Apostle Paul enclosed the broad and all-embracing law of love in a few words: “Let all that you do be done in love.” Whatever you do, you must do “in love,” as by a universal power and a universal instrument. You must do everything from love, for the sake of love, or at least with the help and participation of love. The Apostle did not state whether he meant love for God, love for neighbor, or both together. Yet immediately before this, he had spoken of relations to God in another saying: “Stand fast in the faith.” Therefore one must conclude that he was thinking of relations to neighbors. And probably of love for neighbors, when he said, “Let all that you do be done in love.” This must also have been the meaning of his saying because of the circumstances in which he wrote this to the Corinthians. He found divisions among them. Therefore he needed to teach them to order all mutual relations on the foundation of mutual love. Love for neighbor appears here in its nearest action. Yet love for God is not excluded, because love for God is the soul of true love for neighbor. “Let all that you do be done in love.” What a boundless domain the Apostle presents for the action of love. This thought is worthy of deep attention. There is a correspondence between the height of authority and the breadth of the realm over which it extends its influence. So there is also a correspondence between the height of love and the breadth of the realm in which it acts. If someone came to me with the questions, “Must one love anyone? Must one do anything with love?” I would not answer. I would hasten to step away from the questioner, because such questions can be asked only by one standing on the threshold of Hades. Only where “the murderer from the beginning” reigns (Jn 8:44) do people think decisively that one can be wholly without love. There they think that love is weakness and hatred is strength. Therefore the question whether it is possible to be without love is the threshold of Hades. On this side of the door of Hades, the question cannot concern the total denial of love. It can concern only love’s objects, forms, degrees, and breadth, or the constriction of its domain. Let us imagine love enclosed within a more or less narrow circle of kinship, acquaintance, and reciprocity. Let us see what its dignity is. Does a father or mother need an ascetic struggle in order to love their child? Does an infant need to learn to love his father and mother? If nature does everything in this love, without struggle and almost without the person’s awareness, where is the dignity of virtue? This is simply a natural feeling, which we also observe in irrational creatures. Not loving parents or children is a deeply base vice. Yet love for parents and children is not yet a lofty virtue, except in special cases when it is elevated by self-denial and self-sacrifice joined to it. There is no need to investigate the dignity of reciprocal love, by which people love those who love them. The infallible and impartial Judge has already pronounced judgment on it. “If you love those who love you, what grace is there for you? For sinners also love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what grace is there for you? For sinners do the same” (Lk 6:32-33). “And if you greet your friends only, what more are you doing? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?” (Mt 5:47). These reflections place us between two opposites. There is no separate middle between them, and we must inevitably fall into one of them. If we limit our love to relatives, acquaintances, and those who love us, then we are not in heavenly grace, but in earthly and imperfect nature. Our dignity hardly rises above the measure of sinners and Gentiles. Perhaps it is not far above likeness to irrational creatures. But if we recognize the insufficiency of nature and thirst for grace, then we must not limit our love to relatives, acquaintances, and those who love us. If we consider it low, disastrous, and ruinous to remain on the level of sinners, then we must extend our love beyond these limits. If we feel our calling to a higher virtue than the Gentiles attained, then we must stretch love from relatives to strangers, from the known to the unknown, from those who love us to those who do not. In a word, we must extend it to all. One whose heart has not yet been enlarged to universal love may be perplexed. How can the love of one person extend over so boundless a domain? The Apostle of love, Saint John the Theologian, will help us resolve this perplexity. He says, “Everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him” (1 Jn 5:1). To this one may add: everyone who loves the Creator also loves the creation of the loving Creator. Therefore love the one God, and you will love all the children of God. Love the Creator, and it will not be hard for you to love the creatures whom He lovingly made and preserves. As for works of love, there is an order indicated by another Apostle: “Let us do good to all, especially to those of the household of faith” (Gal 6:10). Do good chiefly to those near to you by faith, kinship, and fatherland. Yet do not set here a boundary for your love. As far as you meet an occasion, and as far as you have the means, help the poverty of a stranger. Have compassion on the misfortune of a foreigner. “Reject a heretical man” (Tit 3:10), that is, reject his false and harmful teaching. Yet spare and show mercy to the human being even in one of another confession. Assist his good, especially his spiritual good. The law of universal love, striving to embrace all mankind, must necessarily give a person so much work that no place remains for leisure from the exercise of love. Therefore the Apostle proclaims the universality of love, embracing all works, and subjects everything to it. “Let all that you do be done in love.” There are works in which love participates of itself, so that no teaching or exhortation is needed. Thus a father caresses his child with love, and a mother nourishes her child with love. With love a son answers the call of father and mother, serves them, and helps them. But there are other works to which love is not so close, and during which not everyone remembers it. Over these especially we must test the beneficent power of the Apostolic teaching about love that acts in all things, or cooperates with all things. “What does this mean: ‘Let all that you do be done in love’?” asks Saint Chrysostom. He answers, “If one reproves, he says, if one rules, or is ruled, if one learns, if one teaches, let all be done with love.” What did the Lord seek in Peter as essentially necessary when He wished to set him in the ministry of teaching and priestly leadership? He sought love. Three times He asked, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” Only after being assured of love did He speak the command: “Feed My sheep. Feed My lambs” (Jn 21:15-17). It is true that the question, “Do you love Me more than these?” clearly pointed to Peter’s earlier self-confident assurance: “Even if all fall away because of You, I will never fall away” (Mt 26:33). By the threefold assurance of love for Christ, the threefold denial of Christ was effaced. This was a meek epitimia for the repentant and absolved Peter. Yet it related no less to the ministry entrusted to him. The Lord knew that one who loves Him will also love His sheep. He knew that, for shepherd and sheep, pastoral love is more reliable than a rod and sweeter than a pipe. This is a unique event, and at the same time an example for all. A teacher who acts by knowledge alone, without love, offers hard, or even stone-like, bread to the hungry and weak. Teaching that is not received by a loving heart is seed sown in snow. Knowledge without love is a winter sun, which neither gives life nor causes growth. Therefore, if one learns or teaches, let him do this with love. If one in authority or one who rules thinks to do everything by the power of authority alone, without using the power of love, then he must necessarily strain one power excessively in place of the other. In this way he will make heavier the burden of subordination, which he could have lightened. He will disturb the bond that he desires to strengthen. For “the bond of perfection,” the most perfect bond among people, is “love” (Col 3:14). If one under authority does not join free love to necessary obedience, then he hardens the yoke for himself, which love would have softened. By not striving to be a son in the heart of the one who rules, visibly or invisibly he hinders the ruler from being a father to him. Therefore, if one rules, let him rule with love. If one is ruled, let him obey with love. Must one also “reprove,” as Saint Chrysostom expressed it, that is, rebuke and punish with love? Certainly with love, if the reproof is to be Christian and saving. Why do people rebuke? Why do they punish? Surely not in order to rage in anger, take revenge, and exact punishment. What reason would approve this? What heart, in moments free from passion, would not turn away from it? Why, then, may one rebuke, or why must one rebuke? It is in order to explain to the guilty person his fault and its gravity. Why punish? It is in order to cut off or forestall evil, and to move the sinner to correction. It is not hard to notice that none other than love appoints this purpose for punishment. And who can fulfill this purpose better than love? Love can also guard against reproof passing into anger. It can prevent unrestrained anger from hardening the guilty person instead of correcting him. It can keep severity from extending into cruelty. It pours life-giving balm upon the wound that punishment inflicts. Therefore, if one reproves and punishes, let him do this also with love. Brethren, I wish to remind you, though you once knew this (Jude 5), what new, last, and single commandment our Lord left us as the distinguishing sign of His disciples. “A new commandment,” He says, “I give you, that you love one another” (Jn 13:34). Are there too few commandments? Are there too few virtues? Why did He mention none except love? Without doubt, because He foreknew that if there is love, all virtues will also be present, and all commandments will be fulfilled. Therefore, according to the Lord’s commandment and according to the Apostolic teaching, “Let all that you do be done in love.” Amen.

“On the surface he offers an exhortation, yet at the same time he reproaches them for carelessness. Therefore he says to them, ‘Watch,’ as to those asleep. ‘Stand fast,’ as to those wavering.

‘Be courageous, be strong,’ as to the fainthearted. ‘Let all that you do be done in love,’ as to those lacking mutual concord.

One thing is directed against deceivers, namely, ‘Watch, stand fast.’ Another is directed against offenders, namely, ‘Be courageous.’ The third is directed against those who stir up disagreements and quarrels, namely, ‘Let all that you do be done in love.’

Love is the bond of perfection, the root and source of good things.”