Untitled Sermon (2)

Treasures from First Corinthians, Volume 2 (I. The Essentialness of Love 13:1–3)

Agape love means “unconquerable benevolence and good will.” Agape love does not mean a feeling of the heart, which we cannot help, and which comes unbidden and unsought. It means that no matter what a person may do to us by way of insult, injury, or humiliation, we will never seek anything else but highest good of that person. It is therefore a feeling or determination of the mind as much as of the heart. It concerns the will of the person as much as the emotions. It describes the deliberate effort, which we can make only with the help of God, never to seek anything but the best even for those

Treasures from First Corinthians, Volume 2 I. The Essentialness of Love 13:1–3

In New Testament times, rites honoring the pagan, false deities Cybele, Bacchus, and Dionysus included wild music, wine, and speaking in disorderly, ecstatic noises that were accompanied by smashing gongs, clanging cymbals, and blaring trumpets. The Corinthians understood very well what he was talking about because these pagan gods were worshiped in Corinth.

Paul was trying to make it clear that speaking in foreign languages or tongues, without love, has no more value than the ceremonies that honor pagan gods. Those worship services to those deities were empty, and speaking the Word in foreign tongues without love is empty, too. Without love, we become as hollow as the sound of a gong or cymbal. Apart from love, even one who speaks the truth with supernatural eloquence, becomes a bunch of noise. The