What's this about Gifts- The More Excellent Way/The Way of Love- Part 3
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I’d like to begin this morning by rereading 1 Corinthians chapter 13.
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. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 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. 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.
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
If you recall, we have been studying the topic of love the past few weeks leading to last weeks sermon on lament. Is love an essential thing. Absolutely is! But how did we come to this topic. Better question is how did Paul come write on love in 1 Corinthians. Remembering with me, what was Paul discussing prior to talking about love...
spiritual gifts… and before that… unity...
Spiritual gifts are important. How important are they, what is there intended purpose? They are divine enablements from God that allow us to reflect Christ himself and they are used for the growth of the church. Looking at Ephesians 4, we can see that God used and still uses these gifts to start, equip, and grow the whole church up. Furthermore, we are told to be good stewards of our spiritual gifts. 1 Peter 4:10
As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:
Everyone has a gift perhaps more, and we are required to use them. It’s not optional. It’s a mandate. That’s why no one person possesses all the gifts. It requires to lean on one another for a perfect unity, fit, and growth.
But as important for function in the church as spiritual gifts are, they should not be viewed as the pinnacle of spiritual life and maturity. That is why Paul stops in the midst of thought on spiritual gifts to explain to them the more excellent way which he himself describes as the way or better put, the life style of love.
And so far we have looked at some of the aspects of this way of love...
We’ve looked at....
I. The Priority of Love (v.1-3)
I. The Priority of Love (v.1-3)
Paul literally says you could literally be the greatest speaker of all, the smartest, brightest, even best teacher, and you could have incredible faith, as well as great charitable acts even martydom and it would be absolutely worthless TO YOU if you have no love in it. He says you would be like a noisy gong, you would gain nothing, and you would be nothing. Your actions may still profit others. I recall what Paul said of other teachers in Philippians 1:15-18
Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.
Yes, and I will rejoice,
Were those preaching Christ out of envy rewarded. Likely not, there deeds were done in sin. People listened. God used their spiritual gifts and Paul even rejoiced in it. Though they were wrong in their heart, God’s Word went forth, but they themselves showed no love and for that, they themselves gain nothing and are nothing.
Love is essential in everything we do. We don’t simply do the right thing because it is the right thing to do. We must do it out of love. If we are struggling because we don’t have the right heart but feel we should do it anyways, right there and right then, ask God to change and soften our hearts. Give us a heart of love. That’s right and proper.
Prioritize love.... like putting things together in the right order. Cart before the horse… cart is useful but ya got to have the horse for it to be truly profitable.
II. The Particulars of Love (v.4-7)
II. The Particulars of Love (v.4-7)
Furthermore, we looked at the particulars of love. The love that Paul wrote on was vastly different than the love that most in that culture knew. They knew the eros love, the greek word for love suggesting physical sexual desire. They also were familiar with the philos love suggesting an affection and esteem in causal friendship. But no one really understood the agape love that Paul would talk about because that Greek word was rarely used. This agape love is based on a deliberate choice by the one who loves not on the worthiness of the one being loved. This kind of love is a selfless, expect nothing in return kind of love. It goes against every human inclination. Even though Paul’s list here is rather short on what love is, it is full of power.
And now we come to verse 8.... Which states “Love never ends.” Some versions might read love never fails, but the Greek would clearly indicates that it will never “fall down or die.”
III. The Permanence of Love (v.8-12)
III. The Permanence of Love (v.8-12)
Love is permanent. Why is love permanent?
III(A). Love Outlasts Wrongs
III(A). Love Outlasts Wrongs
Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.
Love covers a multitude of sins… that’s a phase often repeated in scripture (Prov. 10:12, James 5:20)
Love if it is truly genuine and real love (Biblical love) will forgive over and over and over… that is what is means to cover… it means to forgive.
It’s like that hand game kids like to play. One put their hand down, then the other person puts their hand on top of the other persons and they go back and forth trying to cover the other persons hand until finally someone gives up. Typically I usually win that one with the kids. But love always wins. It always comes out on top. It always prevails. Because Biblical love as we talked about a few weeks ago… bears all things, than it believes all things, that it hopes for the best in all things, and even if that all fails, it endures all things. That military term that says I will hold the line no matter what and I will not move. Biblical love is persistent.
That’s the kind of love Christ shows to us. He is persistent. No matter how many times we fail, no matter how many times we mess up, Christ continues to love. WE CANNOT OUT SIN THE LOVE OF GOD. Isn’t that worthy of an Amen. Isn’t that worthy of saying Alleluia, cause let me tell you if your salvation was based upon my love, some of you wouldn’t last too long. But thankfully God’s love is different than the love I often show.
We are to love like Christ though.
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
And just to be clear as amazing as the fact that we cannot out sin the love of God, that doesn’t give us a license to sin. Romans 6 is very clear on that. Romans 6:1-2
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
Regardless, Biblical love outlasts Wrongs.
Not only does Biblical love outlast wrongs but it also outlasts
(III)B. Love Outlasts Gifts
(III)B. Love Outlasts Gifts
Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
Now we at our church don’t believe in sign gifts such as miracles, prophecy, and tongues. But the question I have for you is why? Why don’t we believe in those? How many of you think you are prepared right now to defend that statement?
We need to be ready to give an answer. I have in the last 4-5 years been asked why we don’t partner with churches who believe in such. It’s not that we don’t believe we are fellow brethren in Christ, in fact, I’ve had and I have good friends that come from charismatic churches. They are not our enemies. But when it comes down to ministry to people from the Word of God. There are major differences. Maybe you don’t know. Maybe your not clear. Maybe you’ve never studied it. Well today, we get some answers. Know this so you can teach others also.
This passage claims that love does not end, but prophecy, tongues, and knowledge will. Now the scripture is made clear that these will end, but the questions when and how are questions we need to answer. One of the arguments given to understanding this, is the argument from the wording of this verse.
First note, both prophecies and knowledge are said to pass away whereas tongues are said to cease. In the greek the same word katargeo is used for how prophecies and knowledge end. It means to be done away with literally. The word for done away katargeo is used in a passive voice. In other words, that tense indicates that something or someone will cause them to stop. Verse 10 will tell us what that something is.
For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
What is the “perfect” or a good understanding of this word the completion. What is that referring to. Some well-meaning cessionists (those that believe the sign gifts have ceased) have claimed that that which is perfect or complete is the completed canon of Scriptures. When the scripture was finished being written and compiled together, then these gifts ended.
Now there are two ways in which we can see “that which is perfect” is not the completed Scripture.
1. Continuation of the Gifts
1. Continuation of the Gifts
these two gifts of knowledge and prophecy have continued to be used today and are said to continue in the coming age.
1 Corinthians: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary The Perfect Is Not the Completion of Scripture
If the perfect refers to the completion of Scripture, then prophecy and knowledge have already been stopped, and all believers since that time would have been without benefit of two of the most important gifts for proclaiming, interpreting, and understanding Scripture. The gift of prophecy was only partly used for revelation. In most cases it was used for proclaiming and interpreting what already had been revealed. The church would be in dire straits if the gifts of knowledge and prophecy had ceased with the completion of the New Testament.
Furthermore, they will be active in the Kingdom Age.
The Lord will say...
“And it shall come to pass afterward,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams,
and your young men shall see visions.
We also see that during the 7 year tribulation that God will raise up two great prophetic witnesses.
And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”
2. The Context of the Verses
2. The Context of the Verses
The context of these verses indicate what this perfect thing to come is. This completion. It’s not the completion of Scripture but “the Perfect” refers to the Eternal State after the 1,000 year reign, the millennial reign of Christ. Because at that point, Paul says we will see him face to face!!!! At that time, we will not need these spiritual gifts.
Look at verse 9-12 again,
He says, right now, I can understand and know God’s will through his word because of these gifts that God has given. But they are only in part, “Now I know in part”- and “we prophesy” in part… He says that even with God’s Word and the Illumination of the Holy Spirit which he had at that time, “we (including himself) see in a mirror dimly). In our present state, we are not capable of seeing more. He even illustrates this with an example.
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.
These Corinthians were like children playing with toys that they would one day get rid off. In this illustration, Paul is not saying grow up like we often use for verses on maturity. If it meant that, Paul would be implying that they needed to move beyond the gifts of knowledge and prophecy. How do you move on beyond that?
He’s saying it’s like a bar mitzvah in a sense. One day you’re a boy, the next day you are a man. So when do you become a man. The verses answer that for us as well
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.
but when I see him face to face… God will grant us perfect knowledge in heaven as we receive our new bodies.
We need these gifts and these gifts will be used even during the Tribulation and during the millennial reign, but it is in the eternal state of glory that these gifts as well as all other gifts will be done away with. “But then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully know.”
So what about tongues. When did they cease? If these cease by the perfect coming and that is perfect is still yet ahead of us, does that mean the gifts of tongue are still here today?
I want to go back quickly to word usage again. Remember how the word katargeo was used in the passive voice. Greek scholars have noticed not just a different word used, which is the greek word pauo but also a different voice.
1 Corinthians: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Gifts Are Temporary
Unlike katargeō, this verb is here used in the Greek middle voice, which, when used of persons, indicates intentional, voluntary action upon oneself. Used of inanimate objects it indicates reflexive, self-causing action. The cause comes from within; it is built in. God gave the gift of tongues a built-in stopping place. “That gift will stop by itself,” Paul says. Like a battery, it had a limited energy supply and a limited lifespan. When its limits were reached, its activity automatically ended. Prophecy and knowledge will be stopped by something outside themselves, but the gift of tongues will stop by itself. This distinction in terms is unarguable.
Now this is a helpful argument in why we believe gifts are not going to end until “we see face to face.” There are other reasons we believed it ceased on it’s own far before this time.
That comes down to the purpose behind why the gift of tongues was given. We will not exhaust this question today, but will save it for my next opportunity to preach in February as chapter 14 fully dives into the gift of speaking in tongues, what is was for, and the regulations for the use of the gift. During that time, I will fully spell out for you why I believe we can know that the gift of tongues is not in operation today. But know this, we cannot use this passage in 1 Corinthians 13:8 and say that it ceased because of the completion of scripture.
Ultimately, as we look back on this section of scripture that point that Paul wants to communicate is that love cannot end because it share’s God’s nature and God’s eternity. In heaven we not only will have no more need for faith and hope, but no more need for the gifts of teaching, preaching, helps, prophecy, discernment, knowledge, wisdom, tongues, miracles, healings, mercy, or leadership. None of those gifts will have a purpose or place in eternity. Yet love is, and forever will be, the very air of heaven.
So what’s an appropriate application?
Paul really is challenging his readers to think about eternity. To think with an eternal perspective. This means they would realize that these gifts that they so coveted were sought after with the wrong attitude, the wrong purpose, and the wrong future. These gifts would not last, some sooner than others like the gift of tongues, which we will discuss later. But love will last. As they think about that reality, how much different should they view their present thoughts and their present focuses.
Paul says look heavenward and by looking heavenward, it shapes our present view and acts.
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,
This is why love is so central. Because it is eternal. But one final thought about love. Not only is it a priority, and we should know the particulars, not only is it permanent, but it is also preeminent.
IV. The Preeminence of Love (v.13)
IV. The Preeminence of Love (v.13)
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
The capstone of Paul’s argument to why the way of love is greater than the gifts, is because love is preeminent (which means surpassing all others). In fact, amongst the greatest christian virtues including faith and hope, love is even greater than these. But why is love greater than faith and hope. 3 quick reasons.
1. Eternal
1. Eternal
Just like the gifts, faith and hope will have no purpose in heaven where everything true will be known, no need for faith. And everything good will be possessed, no need for hope.
2. Encompasses the other two
2. Encompasses the other two
Love energizes faith. How does it do that. When we love someone, it helps them learn to trust and gives them faith. But it also energizes hope by helping them anticipate new joys.
That’s why loving people who are hurting is so helpful. It rejuvenates their faith and hope.
3. Echos God Himself
3. Echos God Himself
Love is already the greatest, not only because it will outlast the other virtues, and not only because it makes the other virtues shine brighter, but also because it is the most God-like. God does not have faith or hope like we as men do because He can never have uncertainty, but God Himself is love.
1 Corinthians: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Love Is Eternal
Gifts, ministries, faith, hope, patience, all one day will cease to exist because they will cease to have purpose or meaning. But in that perfect day, when we see our Lord “face to face,” love will for us be just beginning. But our showing love, practicing love, living love now are of utmost importance, more important than having any of the other virtues or gifts, because love is the link God gives us with His eternal Self.
Conclusion:
So how are you loving? Are you sacrificially loving as you ought? Are you basing you maturity on how you love others or are you basing it upon how you are using your gifts (in other words, doing your tasks). Love is the greater way because it reflects the very heart of Christ. Merely living good and doing good will never equate with real spiritual fruit in your life. It’s about the heart.
Love is tough, love is unrelenting, love is never-ending, love chooses others over self everytime. To love like Christ, we must continue to day by day soak in the Word of God, pray, and seek God’s face and in that way, He will change our lives. If you fail to love like this, it’s because you have hardened your heart to Christ’s love and have walked in the flesh and not in the Spirit because the fruit of the Spirit starts with love. When we are filled with Christ, out of our hearts come love.
Be that kind of love, today. Show Christ to others in how you love. Love like Him and truly see in your life that love is the more excellent way.