The High Mountain Pass of Love.

Paul’s “More Excellent Way.”

A new study and reflection series from Timothy Willard — exploring love as the architecture of the soul.

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What if love isn’t sentimental—but structural? In this episode, I explore Paul’s “more excellent way” in 1 Corinthians 13 as a high mountain pass—the narrow, risky, breathtaking road of transformation. Love, it turns out, isn’t comfort; it’s ascent. It’s the way that changes the air you breathe.

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1 Corinthians 12.‏

1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. 3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.

4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body— Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But earnestly desire the higher gifts.

And I will show you a still more excellent way.

Word Study: Hyperbolē Hodos — The Surpassing Way

Paul’s phrase in 1 Corinthians 12:31, “a more excellent way,” comes from two Greek words:

ὑπερβολή (hyperbolē) — literally “a throwing beyond.”
Later used for what is surpassingly great, beyond measure, even a mountain pass.

ὁδός (hodos) — a road, journey, or way of life.
In the New Testament, it becomes a name for the Christian life itself (Acts 9:2; 19:9). Also, Jesus refers to himself as “the way.” And the writer of Hebrews writes about a “new and living way.” The repetition invites us to look deeper.

Together, hyperbolē and hodos give us a breathtaking picture:

Love is not a static virtue; it’s the high mountain pass of the soul.
It’s the surpassing way—demanding, ascending, yet leading toward light.

This is the geometry of love: Alignment with the Good that reorders the self.
Love is not a shortcut to ease and affirmation but the formation of our days—our way of being with God and one another that transforms everything it touches.

C.S. Lewis.

Click the play button to hear C.S. Lewis read a portion of The Four Loves.

Tolkien & Eucatastrophe.

J.R.R. Tolkien coined a new word related to his storytelling and all storytelling in the fairy tale genre: eucatastrophe. Quite simply, it means the opposite of catastrophe. Instead of a downward turn in the story, it is an upward turn—the happy ending. Tolkien modeled this idea after the Good News message found in the New Testament; the joyous upturn in human history when Jesus is sent by the Father to bring restoration to the relationship between God and man.

Tolkien writes, “The Birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of man’s history. The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation. The story begins and ends with joy.”10 Joy possesses a strong forgetfulness. It flourishes more greatly without the weight of expectation. This is why, when you and I walk the park, or the wood, or the seashore with eyes wide open, we often find ourselves mesmerized by what we find. We stand spellbound, caught in a moment of eucatastrophe.

*Excerpt from my book, The Beauty Chasers: Recapturing the Wonder of the Divine

Order The Beauty Chasers

1 Corinthians 13.

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 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. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.