Sunday Morning Service

I Corinthians 13 (No audio available)

“Love” • 12.30.12 • Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service

Intro.

- Paul spent the last chapter writing about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. He will specifically address prophecy and tongues in the next chapter. Sandwiched in between is the love chapter!

- The Greeks had 4 predominant words for love. Phileo is brotherly love, Eros, erotic love and storge refers to family love. None of those words are in use in the section before us.

-  The word "agape" is used and translated "love" each of the 9 times. Agape is a self sacrificing commitment to it's object's best, it's goal is to see them to that desired end.

- It is the word that is used of God's love toward us and it's presence in our lives is the proof of an authentic Christian existence.

- The problem is that the Corinthians were decidedly unloving, choosing instead to exalt their gifting above the desire to express their God's love!

- This chapter before us then is both a corrective one for them and a searching one for us! Are we a loving people? If we were to have only this chapter to gauge our life by, how would it look?

- Consider these parts of what Paul writes for us.

I. The Priority Of Love (v.1-3)

II. The Principles Of Love (v.4-7)

III. The Permanence Of Love (v.8-13)

Text

I. The Priority Of Love (v.1-3)

• I Corinthians 13:1-3 : "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing." : The Corinthians' top four: Tongues, prophecy, faith and charity.

- Tongues of men and of angels refers to the gift of being able to communicate beyond human expression. Paul writes this is in the present tense, meaning that this was a regular activity.

- "Tongues of men" might refer to eloquent speech. The "tongues of angels" may refer to the heavenly language that God allows certain humans to speak before God.

- What a marvelous gift that the Lord gives and yet, performed without love, Paul or anyone exercising this gift, would simply be making noise, akin to a gong or a cymbal.

- Such a sound would be harsh and abrasive. So is the one who exercises such gifts without a love for God or a love for people! They are simply making noise that everyone wishes would be quiet!

- The same was true of prophecy. Listen to the NLT's take on this verse: "If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God's secret plans and possessed all knowledge."

- He further remarks about the gift of faith, which would effectively move proverbial mountains, meaning that the person is unhindered by any difficulty. They believe God through any obstacle.

- These gifts exercised apart from love makes the person offering it nothing.

- What does Paul mean? These are wonderful gifts. How could someone be nothing who exercises them?

- According to God's purpose in giving the gifts, the person is a non-entity. He or she is a non-factor, accomplishing nothing.

- What about charity? Give everything away and sacrifice your own being, volunteer to be put to death, but what have you gained if you offer it without love? Nothing!

- You may have gained the world's attention, perhaps a tax deduction and a person's appreciation. But God will not have credited it to your account!

- Love is the motivation that God honors. It's possible to possess a gift, but exercise it in a way that renders it worthless.

- What person wants to receive something from someone who is not lovingly offering it? Would God receive something with less of an intention?

- Love is the key that turns the expression of God's Spirit, into an action that communicates the heart of God through the human instrument!

- Why is that the case? It's only when we do these things in love that it becomes connected to God, for that is His motivation in giving the gift and prompting it's use.

- Paul takes a moment and rattles off a series of words that helps us to quantify what the love of God is meant to look like as He expresses it through us.

II. The Principles Of Love (v.4-7)

• I Corinthians 13:4 : "Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;" : Love suffers long. Love is patient. To express the kind of love that God possesses is not natural because it begins with this characteristic.

- This is a present indicative rendering, meaning that this patience is not an anomaly. It's not something that occurs on occasion. It's a consistent response to others.

- Listen to the phrases used to define this word "makrothumea:" "to be of a long spirit, not to lose heart, to persevere patiently and bravely in enduring misfortunes and troubles."

- "To be patient in bearing the offenses and injuries of others, to be mild and slow in avenging, to be longsuffering, slow to anger, slow to punish."

- We could spend the rest of our time contemplating just this virtue! How patient has God been with you? How glad are you for this virtue found in Him toward you?

- It follows then that our love toward others would take on this primary principle!

- Understand that this love is a choice. If love is patient in this manner, it's because a commitment has been made. "I will love this person!"

- When a person makes a commitment to love, that person has to be able to withstand the abrasive nature that it might encounter. It will take this first before anything else can be accomplished.

- Love is patient and is kind. It's no use being patient if kindness does not follow! This shows us that patience is not simply enduring another person, waiting them out until they become like us!

- While we love them in Christ, we are also kind, mild. Our disposition toward them reflects our true attitude. We're not hostile toward them. Love responds with ever increasing gentleness.

- Love is patient. Love is kind. These are positive definitive statements. Paul follows it up with three negative definitive statements. Love does not envy.

- This word envy is one of the most sour words I have come up against. This word is used of a person who sees what you have and does not want it themselves, nor do they want you to have it!

- Love does not envy and it does not parade itself. A person who loves doesn't spend a lot of time speaking of or promoting themselves. True love seeks to act as anonymously as possible.

- The person who loves another with God's love has the goal in mind, not the attention of others. It follows then, that Love is not "puffed up."

- One commentator translated this phrase: "Love is not inflated with it's own importance!"

- A person who looks at themselves as indispensable to another is not practicing love. They are arrogant and filled with pride. That is not love.

• I Corinthians 13:5,6 : "does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;" : I love William Barclay's take on verse 5: "Love does not behave gracelessly!"

˚ "There is a graciousness in Christian love which never forgets that courtesy and tact and politeness are lovely things!"     William Barclay

- The concept behind behaving rudely comes from a word that speaks of being deformed.

- A person who behaves rudely, inappropriately, unseemly, toward another person is not displaying love.

- Additionally, a loving action does not seek it's own. There is not an agenda that is served by acting lovingly toward another. True love does not seek to manipulate another person.

- Love is not provoked, the AV adds the phrase "easily" though that word is not there in the original. The original says that love is not irritable when the object is annoying.

- Love doesn't think evil, which does not mean that it never notices evil or fails to expose evil as it arises. The concept here is twofold.

- Primarily, the word "thinks" comes from the accounting world. This refers to an active tabulation held against a person. It's keeping score.

- Consequently it's suspicious or seeking to discover evil. But this is not love!

- An evil motivation in the person that they love is the last thing on their mind! In fact, there will have to be some serious facts presented to the contrary that would break that belief!

- Love doesn't rejoice in iniquity. There is no celebration when a person falls into sin or "gets what they deserve!" That is what love does! It's overjoyed when a person acts in truth.

- Love is overjoyed when the truth is seen by how one acts, and that that truth is the Lord Jesus being displayed through that life!

- There is nothing better than when a person sacrifices what they want for what God wants, acting in a way that shows that they value what God values. That's what love looks for and desires!

• I Corinthians 13:7,8a : "bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never fails." : Love protects. It stands solid and preserves that which it has set in it's sights. The word is related to a deck or a thatch, that stands between something.

- It exists to preserve the other. It trusts all things. There is faith in the person. Perhaps it's better said that there is faith in the activity of God within and through the person!

- Love hopes, particular here is the expectation that God will do His best for a person.

- How long? It endures. It hangs back, giving more attention to what is coming for the other person rather than moving on ahead!

- Love takes the next train. Love sits out the next wave of emotions. Love sits back and waits out a brooding stare.

•  I Corinthians 13:7 (NEB) : "There is nothing that love cannot face, there is no limit to it's faith, it's hope and it's endurance."

- Paul tells the Corinthians that this love that God wishes to bring through His people toward others never fails!

- Love never falls away powerless. It is never ineffective, though when one has to wait and endure, it may seem as though it had. Love never fails.This is the better way. Why?

III. The Permanence Of Love (v.8-13)

• I Corinthians 13:8b-10 : "But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away." : Prophecies are not like love. Love never fails, but prophecies will fail.

- What does this mean? The human instrument that brings a prophecy might be wrong.

- Additionally, there will be a time when nobody will need to prophecy any longer, especially when we live in the very presence of God!

- The same is true with tongues and knowledge. The gifts are useful for our church and in this life, but then, they will be irrelevant.

- Incidently, there is a group of Christians who use this passage as a proof text for cessationism, especially regarding the gift of tongues.

- It's interesting because the same terminology is used of knowledge, but nobody seems to argue that knowledge has ceased!

- The problem is that tongues have been an embarrassing dividing point among Evangelicals, so the more conservative one is, the less that supernatural things are believed.

- Prophecies, tongues and knowledge will all one day cease in their operation.

- Paul is letting the Corinthians know that what they valued was something that had a momentary significance. What they did not value was that which never failed!

- They should strive for love, not gifts! That transforms everything and makes everything have the significance that it deserves!

- Whatever we have, whether its prophecy or knowledge, we have in part or degree. But, when something complete comes in, the part vanishes in the whole!

- This is the other part of the Cessasionist argument. They argue that the "perfect" here refers to the finalized canon of scripture. But the New Testament does not give us the fullest picture.

- It's the best picture that we can ask for and all that we need for a life of godliness, but there are still questions. No, the "perfect" is when we stand in the presence of our Lord, in His Kingdom!

• I Corinthians 13:11 : "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things." : There are things that are only appropriate for children. They speak in a certain manner and perceive the world through a limited lens.

- When maturity becomes a reality, there is a divorce from one's childhood. You can never return to it in reality, though some attempt to do so through activity.

- A mature man however, puts away childish fascinations, literally that which an infant is attached to! What a thought!

- Paul is comparing their fascination with the gifts, with an adults desire for a teething ring!

  - The gifts are just a taste of heaven! They are comparatively childish things compared to the fullness of experience that will be gained in eternity! He provides another illustration in the next verse.

• I Corinthians 13:12 : "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known." : Right now, we perceive everything as one looking into the reflection of a piece of steel.

- The mirrors of the first century were essentially finely polished brass that cast something resembling a reflection. Paul's illustration is of a person noting another person in a mirror.

- There is shape and a vague idea of what was observed, but it's reality, the totality of the object is obscured. That is the way that it is right now.

- We have a clear picture of what heaven is like, but only a partial experience. When things are complete, we'll be looking face to face with complete clarity.

- Today, we know a part of things, but then, we'll know just as we are known! Listen, we will know God then as He know us now! Intimate and full knowledge!

• I Corinthians 13:13 : "And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love." : Today, faith, trust in the Lord, hope, confidence in the Lord and love of the Lord, are the virtues that we hold onto.

- But the greatest of these, the one that we carry on into eternity with us, is love!

- Faith depends on the unseen, but one day, we will see Him, so faith will be complete. Hope depends on a world unseen that we know is a reality. One day, we'll live there!

- Ah, but love! We love the one that we have not seen now! How much more will we love Him then, when we seen Him as He is!

Conclusion
- Let's pray!