GIFT-OLOGY - LOVE

GIFT-OLOGY - Experiencing the Manifestation of the Spirit

1 Corinthians 13:1–2 ESV

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.

1 Corinthians 13:3–6 ESV

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.

1 Corinthians 13:7–8 ESV

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.

1 Corinthians 13:9–11 ESV

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.

1 Corinthians 13:12–13 ESV

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.

“THE COUNTER NATURE GIFT OF LOVE”

HOW DOES GOD DEFINE LOVE?

Genuine and authentic love is the sacrifice of a Christian for the eternal good of another human being for the purpose of their knowledge of and growth in Christ for the glory of God.

· How it is imitation of Jesus

o Poured out (romans 5:??)

BUT I DO NOT WANT YOU TO THINK OF LOVE AS SIMPLY AN ACTION.

I WANT YOU TO SEE LOVE AS PRIMARILY A REFLECTION

I. LOVE IS THE ETERNAL LANGUAGE OF GOD THAT CAN ONLY BE REFLECTED IN AND THROUGH THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN TRANSFORMED BY THE SPIRIT

EXPLAIN THIS: WE LIVE BETWEEN TIMES

1 Corinthians 13:8–10 ESV

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.

EVERY GIFT CEASES BUT THE GIFT OF LOVE

1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV

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

SO NOW… WHILE WE WAIT - THESE THREE REMAIN

FAITH: THE ONGOING BELIEF IN CHRIST THAT GOVERNS MY LIFE

HOPE: TOTAL TRUST THAT CHRIST IS WORTH MY SACRIFICE AND THAT HE WILL REWARD ME IN THE END BECAUSE I AM IN CHRIST AND HAVE PROVEN CHRIST IN MY LIFE

IT IS THE HOPE LAID OUT IN THE PRODIGAL SON – THAT OUR HEAVENLY FATHER WILL ALWAYS KEEP HIS WORD TO BE ABBA FATHER, EVEN AS WE CIRCUMNAVIGATE THIS WORLD, WALKING AS IT WERE FROM OUR BATHING, IN AND OUT OF THE WORLD GETTING OUR FEET DUSTY BY THE CONTAMINATIONS OF THIS LIFE

LOVE: MY POURED OUT LIFE FOR OTHERS AS EVIDENCE THAT MY FAITH AND HOPE ARE AUTHENTIC

THIS IS WHY LOVE IS HIGHEST:

1. It is the reflection of God in us: Proving to the world that He is real

1 John 4:7–8 ESV

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 4:9 ESV

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.

2. Love is intentionally reflecting God in us to others: Proving to the lost His love to them

John 3:16 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

EXPLAIN THIS: WE LIVE BETWEEN TIMES

THE HEART OF A CHRISTIAN IS ONE WHO IS COMPELLED BY THE ETERNAL ENJOYMENT OF GOD

NOTHING MAKES SENSE IN THE BIBLE IF JESUS IS NOT MY PASSION.

NO SPIRITUAL GROWTH HAPPENS IF LIFE WITH JESUS IN ETERNITY IS NOT MORE COMPELLING, DESIRED AND PURSUED MORE THAN LIFE ON THIS EARTH

WE ARE MUDDLING OUR WAY IN THIS LIFE LOOKING TO BE LIKE GOD, WHEN, TO PAUL, WE WHO ARE CHRISTIANS, ARE LIKE HIM BECAUSE HE HAS COME TO US AND TRANSFORMED US BY THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT –

· THE GIFTS ARE EXPRESSIONS OF NOT ONLY THE SPIRIT IN YOU – YES, THAT

· BUT THE GIFTS ARE ALSO PROOF THAT THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS PRESENT: AMONG US IN GREAT POWER – CAUSING US TO REFLECT IT ON OUR LIVING IN THIS WORLD

Love is the way of existence in the heavenlies. As this breaks into the present in Christ, his people, filled with the Spirit of Christ, are to take on this way of existence and develop a life where love guides their approach to all things.

II. LOVE IS THE MARK OF ETERNITY IN A MATURING SAINT

ALL THE GIFTS WERE GIVEN FOR THE EXPRESS PURPOSE OF MATURING THE PEOPLE OF GOD

1 Corinthians 12:7 ESV

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

Ephesians 4:11–12 ESV

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

Ephesians 4:13–14 ESV

until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

Colossians 1:28 ESV

Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

LOVE IS THE LANGUAGE OF HEAVEN AS IT WERE….

LIFE IN THE CHURCH IS THE SCHOOL IN WHICH WE ARE LEARNING TO FLESH OUT THIS NEW LANGUAGE: THE MORE WERE LEARN AND GROW, THE BETTER WE BECOME AT IT

1 Corinthians 13:11–12 ESV

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.

He compares the two periods of his life and then draws the conclusion that the things that interested him as a child had no attraction for him when he became a man. He does not belittle the talking, thinking, and acting of a child—these are characteristic of childhood. But when the child enters adulthood, everything takes on proper dimensions.[1]

BEING A CHILD IS NOT NOT SIMPLY ACTIONS BUT ATTITUDES:

1. I spoke like a child

2. I thought like a child

3. I reasoned like a child

A TRUTH TO REMEMBER

“YOU CAN BE OLD AND STILL CHILDISH”

WHAT DOES CHILDISHNESS LOOK LIKE?

o Wanting Gifts without God

o Wanting Life without the Lord

o Wanting Success without the Savior

PAUL SAID THE MATURE PUT THESE THINGS AWAY

How Do We Put Childish Things Away?

1. BY knowING what needs to be put away

2. BY consciously and consistently workING to put them away

3. BY replacING the childish things with spiritual maturity

KEY: UNTIL WE PUT AWAY CHILDISHNESS WE WILL ALWAYS LIVE SUPERFICIALLY AND NOT WITH SPIRITUAL MATURITY

CONCLUSION

BECAUSE OF THIS ESCHATALOGICAL ASPECT OF LOVE – IT IS BY NATURE AND EXPRESSION COUNTER CULTURAL…THIS MEANS IT IS

- COUNTER - HUMAN SPEAKING,

- COUNTER - THINKING

- COUNTER - REASONING

VV8-10

o ETHIC OF KINGDOM

[1]Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953–2001). Exposition of the First Epistle to the Corinthians (Vol. 18, p. 468). Baker Book House.