It is the Greatest
I Love You • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
We have come to the last verse of this glorious passage of love in 1 Corinthians 13. We have seen over throughout this study that without love, everything is meaningless. We also have seen that there are incredible characteristics of love like being patient and kind. It is not envious or boastful and it keeps no record of wrong doings. We have seen that it rejoices with truth as it always protects, trusts, hopes and perseveres. We have seen that love never fails. We will have gifts that will go away, but love is enduring. Now we come to the final verse that summarizes this chapter so beautifully.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
All the other things pass away. Yet, faith, hope and love remain. It is no coincidence that these three areas are the three keys of the Christian faith. The Greek word is meno. In the NIV84 Translation, it is shown as remain. In other translations, it is shown as ABIDE. I think it is good to put both of these words together to remain and abide. It also means it will not depart. All the other gifts mentioned in these other 12 verses come to an end, but faith, hope and love remain. If you study scripture, you will see why these three remain! They are mentioned together multiple times in scripture, and there is a list on your outline. Let’s look at the foundation of faith.
The Foundation of Faith
The Foundation of Faith
Faith is one of the Apostle Paul’s most dominant themes. Galatians 2:20
20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Faith was central to his living and it was central to his teaching. It makes sense because Paul was a devout Jew that encountered the resurrected Christ on the Damascus Road. I see three different types of faith throughout scripture. Each one of these has a fancy theological name but to keep it simple, I am calling these types of faith, covenant faith, connecting faith and confident faith.
Covenant Faith
Covenant Faith
Covenant faith is that faith initiated by God. It began with the creation of the world and creation of mankind. We see it throughout the history books of the Old Testament. God would make a covenant with mankind and mankind would make their covenant with God. There are many examples we could cite, but we see one such instance in the Book of Joshua. God had given the people of Israel a period of success and prosperity. He wanted to establish fellowship with HIs people and give them a future. The people wanted this Godly future as well.
24 And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God and obey him.”
In light of God’s previous promises and covenant with Abraham, these would point to Jesus Christ.
25 And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.’
By establishing this covenant faith, we would also see a connecting faith.
Connecting Faith
Connecting Faith
The connecting faith is that faith which would give believers a path to live by faith and not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7
7 We live by faith, not by sight.
This connecting faith gives Christians’ capacity for a kind of spiritual perception that allows them to interpret the world in a godly way. God’s people are able to see and perceive His work in the world, while the rest of the world ignores or rejects it.
Jesus spoke about this. John 20:29
29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Confident Faith
Confident Faith
The third type of faith I see in Scripture is a confident faith. This faith helps us to be confident that God will reveal Himself to us and continue to be faithful in spite of not being seen.
20 Looking at his disciples, he said:
“Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 Blessed are you who hunger now,
for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
22 Blessed are you when men hate you,
when they exclude you and insult you
and reject your name as evil,
because of the Son of Man.
23 “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets.
With confident faith, we continue to live in obedience knowing that if we do the commands of God, He will reward us.
All of these make up the foundation of our faith. Martin Luther argued that Christians understood their salvation as sola fide which means “By faith alone.” Romans 3:28
28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.
I would also say that faith comes with the help of hope.
Help of Hope
Help of Hope
Hope is “the confidence that, by integrating God’s redemptive acts in the past with trusting human responses in the present, the faithful will experience the fullness of God’s goodness both in the present and in the future.”
5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord his God,
Blessings from the Past, Present & Future
Blessings from the Past, Present & Future
Hope that is described in the Bible is seen in hope from the past. present and future. The work of God can be seen in His work in the past. It doesn’t take long to see what God is doing around us. I am reminded of the work of Dr. Henry Blackaby, a great man of faith that wrote the study, Experiencing God.
“Right now, God is working all around you.”
― Henry T. Blackaby, Experiencing God
Dr. Blackaby died a few weeks ago. We can be assured that the work of this great man will go on for many years to come. I love this quote, because that gives me the hope that God has been at work, He is at work all around us now, and He will be working in my future. Titus 2:11-13
11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,
The blessings of hope in our past, present and future helps me declare boldly about the hope I have in Jesus.
Boldness in Proclamation
Boldness in Proclamation
Do you have boldness in your proclamation? Because of what Jesus has done for us, we can boldly proclaim what Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1:3-5
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
We have a living hope in Jesus Christ! That is a hope we can proclaim and a hope on which we can build.
Building on Promises
Building on Promises
What are you building your life upon? The hope we have in Jesus is built on the promises of God’s Word. 2 Peter 1:4
4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
Even the promise of hope gives us hope!
116 Sustain me according to your promise, and I will live;
do not let my hopes be dashed.
Faith builds our foundation and hope is our help. And both of these are possible because of the length of love.
Length of Love
Length of Love
We have said multiple times in this study, love endures forever. How long is forever? How can such a love exist?
First and foremost, it is selfless.
It is Selfless
It is Selfless
7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Before we were born, we were on the mind of Christ. Before we sinned, we were on the mind of Christ. God’s plan for us knowing we would be born sinners, was to provide a way. God demonstrated His own love for us…
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
It is selfless. It is also sacrificial.
It is Sacrificial
It is Sacrificial
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
The great work of Christ was that He sacrificed Himself to atone for my sins and for your sins. It wasn’t just to get an “atta boy.” It was to allow us to have a relationship with His Father!
The length of this love is also saving.
It is Saving
It is Saving
11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.
Everyone has a chance to get it.
12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
Budda’s name won’t work. Mohammed’s name won’t work. Your favorite politician’s name won’t work. Your best friend’s name won’t work, unless His Name is Jesus.
The length of love has no end .
It is Searching
It is Searching
The length of love is still searching.
27 The lamp of the Lord searches the spirit of a man;
it searches out his inmost being.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
God’s Greatest Gift
God’s Greatest Gift
God’s greatest gift for us is love. Love gives us the foundation of faith. Love gives us the help of hope. Love goes to great lengths to make us right with God. So, what does this mean for us? It means that we live a life of love.
Walk in Love
Walk in Love
We must walk in love. 1 John 4:7
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.
We can have all the characteristics this great chapter gives us if we walk in love.
Wait in Love
Wait in Love
We also must wait in love.
21 Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
I promise it will be worth the wait.
Win in Love
Win in Love
Finally, we will win in love.
6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
If this is the only thing that counts, the we can be counted as winners if we walk, wait and win in love!