Kierkegaard - Works of Love Part 2 Chapter 1

Love Builds Up

Spiritual language including scripture is transferred or metaphorical language.  Thus, saying love builds up (Corinthians 13) is a metaphor.

P212 
To build up means to presuppose love;  to be loving means to presuppose love; only love builds up. For to build up means to draw forth something from the ground up, but spiritually love is the ground of everything. No man can bestow the ground of love in another man's heart; nevertheless, love is the ground and one can only build up by presuposing love. Take love away - then there is no one who builds up andno one who is built up.