In his response to these various challenges Paul creates a masterpiece. The many subjects he covers are bracketed by his testimony of the physical resurrection of Christ. If Christ's resurrection was literal and corporeal, then it matters what we do with our bodies, for they are eternal. Paul leaves no room for doubt about this, and his challenge to those who would dismiss the resurrection as some kind of mysterious, spiritual transformation is timeless. Without the resurrection, Jesus is just a great teacher.
As he writes, Paul is building a Christian code of ethical behavior. Which of the Jewish laws will remain in force for Christian converts? Paul uses the Lord's supper to introduce the concept of spiritual gifts, and ends by describing Christ's love as the greatest of those gifts. The transcendent thirteenth chapter reminds us that the kind of love Christ offers is the kind that heals and lifts, and that we can receive it as we ask Jesus to help us see our loved ones, not "through a glass darkly," but clearly, as He sees. It is this love that matters, and it is a gift of grace. And where do we learn that love? At home. Byron Katie reminds us of a simple truth:
"The people we most need are the people we are living with now. Again and again, they will show us the truth we don't want to see, until we see it. Our parents, our children, our spouses, and our friends will continue to press every button we have, until we realize what it is that we don't want to know about ourselves, yet. They will point us to our freedom every time.” (Byron Katie, Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life)
