1 Corinthians 16:14Meaning & 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.

Yet there is little of Christian love in us. Look closely at our private life. How much patience do we have in dealing with our relatives around us? Do we not often make remarks and demand immediate fulfillment of our wishes, with no regard for the condition of those under us?

Are not today's courts filled with cases over insulted honor and offense inflicted not by deed, but only by word? As though in daily life, with frequent clashes and with an impetuous character or hurried work, one could guard every word at every second. As though an offense by word could not be excused.

What, then, is the Christian calling in us, and what is the name Christian? A sound without spirit? A flower without fruit? Ah, brethren, brethren, let all that we do, at least from now on, be done with love.

Must I remind you of the past destinies of Christianity? Was not Christian blood shed in the struggle of Christian peoples among themselves because of offended self-love? Yes, even now little is seen of the spirit of universal forgiveness, of tolerance, and of love reaching self-sacrifice.

Why, and over what, do disputes, quarrels, divisions, then schisms and struggles arise? Do they lead to anything good? Is it not better to order one's life in peace, both family and public life?

Blessed is the people that enjoys peace. Peace assists the development of Christianity and of other social powers: education, industry, invention, and the general well-being of the people. And with this, in outward sufficiency, a people is naturally more willing and sympathetic toward its neighbor than when it suffers its own want.

Therefore, if love for Christ, the Source of good, embraces a person's heart, then he himself strives to seek occasions for good, or to use a circumstance that presents itself for virtue. For this reason the holy Apostle, disposing the Corinthians toward love, also points to persons especially worthy of such love, sympathy, and respect.

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."

I see an assembly of sons of the Fatherland standing in joyful, grateful, and benevolent prayer for the Father of the Fatherland. They remember the day on which Providence gave to the earth a life destined to be beneficent and protective for millions of lives. By our common sympathy, I recognize in this a 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.

Thus I receive comfort from you, seeing in you one important branch of Christian love already sprouting and bearing fruit. At the same time, from you I take occasion to offer, for our common edification, a few thoughts about Christian love. It is not content to show its strength in certain branches, but strives to fill the whole field of life and activity.

The holy Apostle Paul enclosed the broad and all-embracing law of love in a few words: "Let all that you do be done with love." Whatever you do, you must do "with love," as with a universal power and universal instrument. You must do all things from love, for the sake of love, or at least with love's help and participation.

The Apostle did not state whether he meant love for God, love for neighbor, or both together. Yet immediately before this, speaking of our relation to God, he said in another phrase, "Stand fast in the faith." Therefore we must conclude that, when he said, "Let all that you do be done with love," he was thinking of relations with our neighbors, and probably of love for them. Such must also have been the meaning of his saying because of the circumstances in which he wrote this to the Corinthians. He found quarrels among them. Therefore he needed to teach them to order all mutual relations on the foundation of mutual love. Still, love for neighbor is presented here in its immediate action, but love for God is not excluded. Love for God is the soul of true love for neighbor.

"Let all that you do be done with love." What a boundless realm the Apostle opens to the action of love. This thought deserves deep attention. There is a correspondence between the height of authority and the breadth of the realm over which it extends its influence. So also there is 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, but would hasten away from the questioner. 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 decisively think that one may be entirely without love, that love is weakness, and that hatred is strength. Therefore the question whether one may be without love is the threshold of Hades. On this side of the gate of Hades, the question cannot concern the complete denial of love. It can only concern its objects, forms, degrees, and scope, or the narrowing of its realm.

Let us imagine love enclosed within a more or less narrow circle of kinship, acquaintance, and reciprocity. Then let us consider its worth. Does a father or mother need an ascetic feat in order to love a child? Does an infant need to learn to love father and mother? If nature does everything in this love, without struggle and almost without a person's awareness, then where is the worth of virtue? This is simply a natural feeling, which we also observe in irrational creatures. Not to love parents or children is a profoundly base vice. Yet love for parents and children is not yet a high virtue, except in special cases when it is exalted by self-denial and self-sacrifice joined to it. As for the worth of reciprocal love, by which people love those who love them, there is no need to investigate after the judgment pronounced upon it by the infallible and impartial Judge: "If you love those who love you, what grace is that to you? For sinners also love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what grace is that to you? For sinners also 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, between which there is no separate middle. 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 worth hardly rises above the measure of sinners and Gentiles. Perhaps it does not rise 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, and if we feel our calling to a higher virtue than that reached by the Gentiles, then we must extend love beyond those limits. We must extend it from relatives to strangers, from acquaintances to the unknown, from those who love us to those who do not love us. In a word, we must extend it to all.

One whose heart has not yet been enlarged to universal love may wonder how the love of one person can extend to so boundless a realm. The Apostle of love, Saint John the Theologian, will help 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 difficult for you to love the creatures whom He created and preserves in love. As for works of love, another Apostle has indicated their order: "Let us do good to all, and especially to those who are of the household of faith" (Gal 6:10). Do good chiefly to those close to you in faith, kinship, and fatherland. But do not set the boundary of your love there. As you meet the occasion, and as you have the means, help the poverty of the stranger. Have compassion on the distress of the foreigner. "Reject a heretical man" (Tit 3:10), that is, his false and harmful teaching. Yet in one of another faith, spare the person, have mercy on him, and help his good, especially his spiritual good.

The law of universal love, which strives to embrace all people, must necessarily give a person so much work that no room remains for leisure from the exercise of love. Therefore the Apostle proclaims the universality of love, embracing all deeds and subordinating all to it. "Let all that you do be done with love."

There are deeds 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 deeds to which love is not so close, and in which not everyone remembers it. Over these especially one must test the beneficial power of the apostolic teaching on love that acts in all things or cooperates with all things.

"What does this mean, 'Let all that you do be done with love'?" asks Saint Chrysostom. He answers: "If one rebukes, he says, if one rules or is ruled, if one learns or teaches, let him do all with love."

What did the Lord seek in Peter as something essentially necessary, when He wished to appoint him to teaching and hierarchic service? He sought love. Three times He asked, "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?" Only after being assured of love did He pronounce 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 are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble" (Mt 26:33). By the threefold assurance of love for Christ, the threefold denial of Christ was effaced. This was a meek penance for Peter, who had repented and was being absolved. Yet it related no less to the ministry entrusted to him. The Lord knew that one who loved Him would also love His sheep. For both shepherd and sheep, pastoral love is more reliable than a rod and sweeter than a pipe. This is a unique case, and at the same time an example for all.

The teacher who acts by knowledge alone, without love, offers dry or even stony 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 growth. Therefore, if one learns or teaches, let him do so with love.

If one who governs or 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. Thus he will make heavy the burden of subordination which he could have lightened. He will disturb the bond which he wishes 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 makes hard for himself the yoke which love would have softened. By not striving to be a son in the heart of the one who rules, he visibly or invisibly hinders the ruler from being a father to him. Therefore, if anyone rules, let him rule with love. If anyone is ruled, let him obey with love.

Must one also "rebuke," as Saint Chrysostom expressed it, that is, scold and punish with love? Certainly with love, if the rebuke is to be Christian and saving. Why do people scold? Why do they punish? Is it in order to rage in anger, avenge, and chastise? What reason will approve this? What heart, in moments free from passion, will not turn away from it? Why then may one, or why must one, scold? It is to explain to the guilty person his guilt and its gravity. Why punish? It is to cut off or prevent evil, and to move the sinner toward correction. It is not hard to notice that love itself assigns this purpose to punishment. And who can fulfill this purpose better than love? Love can also guard against reproof passing into anger. It can guard against unrestrained anger hardening the guilty person instead of correcting him. It can guard against strictness being extended into cruelty. Love pours life-giving balm upon the wound that punishment inflicts. Therefore, if anyone rebukes and punishes, let him do this also with love.

Brethren, "I want to remind you, though you once knew this" (Jude 1:5): what new, last, and single commandment did our Lord leave us as the distinctive sign of His disciples? "A new commandment," He says, "I give to you, that you love one another" (Jn 13:34). Are there few other commandments? Are there few virtues? Why did He mention none except love? No doubt because He foreknew that if there is love, then all virtues will also be present, and all commandments will be fulfilled. Therefore, both according to the Lord's commandment and according to the apostolic teaching, "Let all that you do be done with love." Amen.

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 the Apostle says to them: "Let all that you do be done with love" (St. Chrysostom).