It never fails
Recently I was reminded of a familiar phrase: “Love never fails.” It comes from scripture, as you probably recognize. (Where I saw it was in a non-scriptural context. It’s not real unusual to find scriptural snippets that have entered the language, often used without knowing where they come from.)
This phrase comes from 1 Corinthians 13:8, part of Paul’s famous essay on love. Here’s the whole verse:
Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. (NKJV)
In English, there are two main meanings for the word “fail”. It can mean to run out, such as, “In the drought the water supply failed.” Or it can mean to be unsuccessful, such as, “He failed to reach the summit” or “He failed History.”
I’ve always considered that “Love never fails” came from the first meaning, that is, “Love never runs out, the supply is never exhausted.” A number of Bible translations take it this way: “Love never ends” (ESV, HCSB, NET and a dozen others), “Love will last forever!” (NLT).
But when we dig in with dictionaries of New Testament Greek, that’s not what the word Paul used actually means. The word very definitely has the second meaning. Literally it means to physically fall down. It’s used this way in Mark 13:29, Acts 12:7, James 1:11 and elsewhere. It’s also used for falling down spiritually, in Galatians 5:4, Revelation 2:5 and elsewhere.
In most English translations of the verse in 1 Corinthians, the word “fail” appears multiple times. “Love never fails” is contrasted with “prophecies will fail”—but actually two different words are used by Paul. Then, he uses the same word for what will happen to prophecies, tongues, and knowledge. Most English translations throw away Paul’s repetition, and use multiple words or phrases—“cease” or “vanish away” or “brought to an end” or “stop” or “be set aside” or “be destroyed” or other similar words and phrases.
The dictionaries tell us that the word Paul uses 3 times means to be done away with, abolished, rendered idle. So each of those renderings seems to be okay in itself, but all of the translations seem to miss the repetition Paul employed, and many of them repeat the word “fail” when translating two different words. All of which seems to me to muddy things.
I feel awkward criticizing the translations, since I’m not a linguist and I don’t know New Testament Greek. I have to rely on the dictionaries, which are compiled by people who are linguists and Greek experts. From them, it appears to me that Paul’s intent was to say something like this (bearing in mind that the context is about the gifts of the Spirit):
Love never falls down, is never unsuccessful. In contrast, the gift of prophecy will be abolished, the gift of languages will be abolished, inspired knowledge will be abolished.
Backing up to the beginning of the chapter, Paul starts this line of thinking this way:
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. (verses 1-2, ESV)
The apostle is trying to get his readers to understand that their focus shouldn’t be on the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, which were going to end. He tells them what their focus ought to be:
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (verse 13)
Loving God and loving our neighbor are the two great commandments. These loves aren’t ever going to be unsuccessful. It’s easy to see how the Corinthians would want the visible, tangible gifts of the Spirit. Paul, in chapters 12-14 of his letter, shows them what is far better. Love, of the kind he describes in his chapter 13 essay, will always succeed, even though it’s not as tangible.
Whatever gifts and talents we’ve been given (these days non-miraculous ones), those gifts will eventually end—at our death, if not before. But not love. Even death is just a pause button in our love, and it will continue into the resurrection.
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— these things God has revealed to us. (1 Corinthians 2:9-10)
Love never fails. It will succeed. Bringing us nearer to our God (who is love), bringing us nearer to our neighbor, doing all the things Paul describes in verses 4-7 of his essay. Braided together with faith and hope, it abides.
Love, Paul