The Motivation for the Church

a. We are nothing without love (13:1-3)

b. Love does not seek to build oneself (13:4-6)

c. Love seeks to build others (13:7)

1 Corinthians 13:1-7

1. INTRODUCTION

a. Do you have someone in your life that you love? So if you love someone, then how would you define what it means to love someone? I think we all have an idea of what love is, but it’s important that we understand what the Bible has to say about love.

b. In this passage Paul lays out a reality of who we are and then defines what love is and what it does. There is no perfect church because nobody can love perfectly.

2. BODY

a. We are nothing without love (13:1-3)

i. The context goes back to 11:22 which speaks of people in the church of Corinth shaming others because of the things they did not have. We see from this passage that people in the church were looking down on others who didn’t have much.

ii. Remember the context is on the topic of Spiritual gifts. People were shaming others because they were spiritual and there were others in the church who were not spiritual and people felt left out because of that. People were playing favorites in the church and only hanging out with those they liked because they had common gifts whereas, those who did not have gifts, they ostracized and separated themselves from them.

iii. It reminds me of James 2:2-4 where James talks about a man who comes dressed to the assembly and immediately, people line up to sit next to him and come to his attention. Then another man who is poor enters along with the rich man and immediately, the poor man is told to go stand over there, get away from us or sit by my foot. James asks in verse 4, have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives? Have we not judged a person based upon their exterior and judged them with evil motives?

1. How did we judge them with evil motives? Because we judged them thinking I have nothing to gain from this person whereas the rich person, I have lots to gain so I will give my attention to the rich man and ignore the poor man.

iv. So going back to our text, this was what was going on in the church at Corinth which is why Paul goes to talk about the church in Chapter 12 where he explains that every part of the body, no matter how rich or poor, everyone in the body of Christ is important because God has placed each and everyone in this body for a purpose.

v. Paul speaks about the fact that if one member suffers, all the members suffer with them and if one member is honored, then we all rejoice with them (12:26). Paul’s emphasis here is that if we say we are the body of Christ, then we all need each other. This is why Paul starts Chapter 13 on the topic of love.

vi. Paul opens in verse 13 that even if you have every spiritual gift, but do not have love, I am nothing more than a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. It’s important to notice that Paul starts by stating that if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels. This phrase is important because Paul is trying to help the church at Corinth understand a major issue within the church. Much of the spirituality within the church from reading 1 Corinthians is that the church was a gifted church. We could tell from Paul’s discourse and teaching regarding the fits within Chapter 12. There were many people there due to the location of the city, because it was a major port city, that there were diverse backgrounds within the church.

vii. This led to a lot of confusion within the church. Some people were teaching certain things and others were teaching other things. What we can say is that, the church at Corinth was a very spiritual church. Despite its spiritual nature, the church had forgotten about the supremacy of love. They speak in tongues, to be sure, which Paul will not question as a legitimate activity of the Spirit. But at the same time they tolerate, or endorse, illicit sexuality, greed, and idolatry. They spout “wisdom” and “knowledge”; but in the former they stand boldly against Paul and his gospel of a crucified Messiah. This was Paul’s discourse in Chapter 2. In short, they have a spirituality that has religious trappings (asceticism, knowledge, tongues) but has abandoned rather totally genuinely Christian ethics, with its supremacy of love.

viii. This is why Paul makes his argument that even if I had every spiritual gift and I was the most spiritually gifted person in the world, if I don’t have love I am useless. This is his argument in verse 2. But verse 3 is important. Paul doesn’t just stop at what gift we possess, Paul links it to our actions. Paul says that if I give everything and I surrender my body, but I don’t have love, I am useless. Paul’s point is that such an action by one who is not otherwise characterized by love is useless. This leads us to ask the question then, what is the love in which Paul speaks of? We see in verse 3 that if we give all our possessions away and surrender my body, although it is sacrifice, if it isn’t done in love, it is useless.

b. Love does not seek to build oneself (13:4-6)

i. Paul defines love by telling us we must have love. We must love. If you don’t love, if you are without love, then you are simply not behaving like Christians. This is why Paul defines what love is. Paul is outlining what Christian behavior should look like. The better we know what love is, the better we can love others.

ii. Paul describes what love is in verse 4. Paul opens by stating love is patient, and love is kind. These statements represent respectively love’s necessary passive and active responses toward others. When we think about patience, we understand patience as when someone does something wrong to us, we withhold our anger from them. We don’t unleash our fury on them, but rather, we are kind to them. We give them mercy in the words of Paul. We are kind to them.

iii. Thus Paul’s description of love begins with this twofold description of God. We see this in the Gospel, where God withholds His wrath upon us even when we rebelled against Him. God on the other hand, instead of pouring His wrath upon us, gives us His son, He gives us mercy and kindness to know Him and to be known by Him.

iv. The two positive expressions are followed by seven verbs that indicate how love does notbehave. This goes back to 1 Corinthians 13:1-3. Paul stated that it’s not a matter of what we have. If love is not there, it is useless. It’s the same with God. What would be the point of God’s existence, if we never had a chance to know Him? Even if God existed, if He never revealed Himself to us, what would it matter? This is why the Gospel matters. It’s not simply that God exists. But it is the truth that God acted upon His love. He didn’t just tell us that He loves us. No, He showed us how He loved us. This was Paul’s point. This is why when He described love, He understood that love works. Love isn’t complacent. Love is not satisfied with knowledge. True love acts upon knowledge. I am not satisfied with my knowledge of me knowing that I love my wife. True love for my wife is acted upon to show my wife that I love her and that she can feel my love for her.

v. Love does not envy (is not jealous). Paul defines jealousy as that which causes strife among people, or rivalry. Love doesn’t try to cause division among people so we can gain favor from people.

vi. Love does not brag. It does not bring close attention to oneself. Love cannot exalt in oneself. This is what caused division in the church at Corinth in the first place. This is why Paul couples this idea of boasting to arrogance. The idea here is puffed up where we stand as ones who are superior over another.

vii. Next, Love does not act unbecomingly. (Love doesn’t behave unmannerly). This could be understood as rude or dishonoring of others. One definition I liked was love is tactful. Love does the right thing at the right time. Love knows what is needed and fills the gap.

viii. This is the fifth consecutive item that Paul describes love. It does not seek its own; it does not believe that “finding oneself” is the highest good; it is not enamored with self-gain, self-justification, self-worth. To the contrary, it seeks the good of one’s neighbor—or enemy (cf. Phil. 2:4.

ix. The next item is love is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love, in other words, is not easily annoyed or provoked to anger. It is ‘quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry’ (Jas 1:19). Love remembers its own offences and sins and the great forgiveness received, and therefore does not constantly pick at others. Lack of love manifests itself when a count is taken of wrongdoing and brought up again. Just as we don’t like it when people bring up our own failures, love doesn’t remember what wrongs others have done to us.

x. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. Truth here is not meant by Gospel, but rather general goodness. Love sympathizes with all that is really good in others. Just as we don’t hold other people’s sins against us, we don’t celebrate sin and condone sin. Rather, when people acknowledge they have sinned, we receive them. This is not to say that all people are good, but when we have strife with others, people we love, we don’t delight in their evil actions or thoughts, but when they ask for forgiveness, we rejoice, love them and receive them.

c. Love seeks to build others (13:7)

i. Paul summarizes love with 4 statements. Most likely they form a chiasm, the first and fourth dealing with present circumstances, the second and third looking to the future. These four things are a summary statement of love but are understood by how God loves us. Paul writes that love bears all things. Literally, there is nothing love cannot face. Love puts up with everything. Love bears, endures and puts up with much; it does not forsake people when life is arduous and one’s energy is taxed. Colossians 3:13 expresses Paul’s intention: ‘Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

ii. But on top of this, it has a meaning to protect. This is why the NIV translation is good. Due to bears all things and endures all things to have some overlap, it seems appropriate to understand bears all things with protect. It’s not simply to bear, but to protect. Love covers over and does not bring to the light the sins of others. How are we to do this? We look to what God has done for us in Christ. This is exactly what God does in the Gospel. He covers our sin and does not remember these things. He covers and bears all our sins through the death of His son. That once and fore all payment for sin covered the sins of mankind. This is the motivation for us to bear and protect others.

iii. The middle two statements, believes all things and hopes all things are important. The verbs cannot be read to support naïveté, as if love believes the most improbable or ridiculous things. On the other hand, love does not give way to cynicism and despair, for it believes in the God who gives life to the dead. The key word in both of these phrase is trust. Love trusts God in behalf of the one loved, hopes to the end that God will show mercy in that person’s behalf.

iv. As we have seen through this passage, love is not simply that we know certain truths. Of course love always goes back to the person of God, but it also commands us that we should act upon our thoughts. Simply telling people that we love them, and not acting upon our love for others are not acceptable. This is not how God displayed His love for us. We must be motivated to love others in the manner in which God loved us. It is to tell others that we love them, to act upon our statements so others can know and feel our love for them.

3. CONCLUSION