What is Love?
Notes
Transcript
(Baby don’t hurt me…)
1 Corinthians 13
1 Corinthians 13
Defined (Dictionary)
Love is the profound tender, passionate affection for another. A physical (sexual) passion or desire.
QUOTE from Lin Manuel Miranda upon receiving the Tony Award for Hamilton in 2016
https://www.google.com/search?q=love+is+love+miranda&client=safari&rls=en&sxsrf=APwXEdf7ClYxgVjT1F9XvJEMBk5vhYLA3A%3A1682529308756&ei=HFxJZKPZLdGp1QGny6f4Dw&ved=0ahUKEwij15aOhsj-AhXRVDUKHaflCf8Q4dUDCA8&uact=5&oq=love+is+love+miranda&gs_lcp=Cgxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAQAzIGCAAQFhAeMgYIABAWEB4yBggAEBYQHjIGCAAQFhAeMgYIABAWEB4yCAgAEIoFEIYDMggIABCKBRCGAzIICAAQigUQhgM6BAgAEEc6CAgAEIoFEJECOggILhCKBRCRAjoFCAAQgAQ6BQguEIAEOgsILhCABBDHARCvAToKCAAQgAQQFBCHAjoQCC4QgAQQ3AQQ3gQQ4AQYAUoECEEYAFC5AljaDGDNDmgAcAF4AIABgAKIAeMKkgEFMC42LjKYAQCgAQHIAQjAAQHaAQYIARABGBQ&sclient=gws-wiz-serp#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:a314cbcb,vid:oF6BxSf9z1A
The World
Love is Love.
Love is expressed by an individual/couple. Is valid regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity of their partner
According to the belief of the world, love would therefore define itself. Love would then not be able to be questioned or put to the test.
As a Christian, I only know of one thing that is self defining and beyond question, and it is not love.
Should believers accept this definition of LOVE?
20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
What is LOVE?
16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.
GOD is LOVE.
LOVE is perfected through an abiding relationship with GOD.
So....When we read scripture like we read this week, how should we interpret it?
Fun fact about 1 Corinthians 13, it is one of the most well known chapters of the Bible. It is also one of the must misinterpreted chapters of the Bible. The chapter must be read and understood in light of context. The contents of the chapter were written to a church in the pagan city of Corinth. The chapter speaks to the issues within the church and community. It addresses needs and redirects wrong behavior all while providing keys to unlock the power of God within the church and community.
In this chapter, Paul offers the church the character of love (and through love, the behavior of the believer) and why it matters.
Love’s Character
Love Enriches
Love Edifies
Love Endures
LOVE ENRICHES
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.
All these gifts…they are nothing without love. Love adds value to them.
LOVE EDIFIES
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.
Love builds up the church. (It’s not about ME)
Notice the distinctions in these four verses. We have two different lists…what love IS and what love IS NOT. If you isolate these into two lists, you will determine something incredible.
First of all, the NOT list. Envy, boasting, arrogant, rude, insist on its own way, irritable, resentful, rejoices with wrongdoing…These are character traits found within the Corinthian church.
Second, the IS list. Patient, kind, rejoices with the truth, bears all, believes all, hopes all, endures all…if we were to align these with another letter of Paul’s, we would discover that he is making reference to some fruit.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
What is really going on here? Hang with me for a minute…First, let’s finish what we started the third character element
LOVE ENDURES
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.
What Paul is trying to communicate to the church is that when LOVE IS PRACTICED (notice that its an action here, not a feeling), the POWER OF THE SPIRIT is unleashed! When we practice the fruit of the Spirit in our lives and in our church and stop pursuing the cravings of the flesh (remember the warning in chapter 10 about “evil desire,” setting our hearts on that which is morally reprehensible or harmful), real lasting POWER is unleashed in our lives.
What’s the point? Paul isn’t trying to define love. Love can only be defined and perfected through a relationship with the Creator. Paul is trying to reorient the church to the reality that Power, Strength, Unity, is only found through the practice of love in their lives. By resisting the cravings of the flesh and resting in the nature of God. All of this happens through a growth pattern (reference to children) and eventually, things will be crystal clear.
That is why love is such an important issue in our world. That is why it is important for us to define and understand it.
We must not allow the world to strip love of its meaning and value. We must champion the ultimate display of love in all of history...
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
So...
Love is NOT love
GOD is LOVE
You want to experience real, lasting love? Experience God.
You want unlock the power of the Spirit of God in your life and our church? Practice love with one another.