Love: The Most Excellent Way (September 29, 2024)-1 Cor. 12:31-14:1

Intro:

Wedding text but actually for the church

Sandwiched between 1 Cor 12 and 14, Paul shows love is foundational to everything we do.

Love must be the foundation for all we do. This is critical for us as we move forward in this season. There will be opportunities to bring disunity through this and it will happen if love is not our foundation

Text: 1 Corinthians 12:31-14:1

31 Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.

And yet I will show you the most excellent way.

13 If I speak in the tongues nof men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, ubut do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

14 Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy

Purposely snuck in vs 12:31 and 14:1 to show Paul is not ANTI GIFTS. He wants us to desire them, but most important is that our pursuit of them is rooted in love

The gifts are not an end to themselves BUT a vehicle for God’s people to be built up.

quote:

They had demonstrated "a zealous concern, even a striving, for the gifts of the Spirit that were deemed to be greatest in the sense of their supposedly constituting a mark of a high social and/or spiritual status." But Paul redefines the terms since he completely rejects the Corinthians' approach to deciding what counts as high spiritual status and the way gifts relate to such a status. Ironically, he urges them, "do not stop being zealously concerned about the 'greatest' gifts, provided that you follow me in transposing and subverting your understanding of what counts as 'the greatest.'" Of course, Paul will lead them to understand that the greatest gifts "are not those that minister to status or to self, but those which serve the good of others and build the community.

Ciampa, Rosner, Pillar NTCS, accessed via Olive Tree Bible Software.

The theocentric nature of love in this chapter is reflected in that much of what Paul says about love in this chapter was previously affirmed of God in the Old Testament and/or early Judaism, and is said about God by Paul himself elsewhere (see below on vv. 4-7).

Ciampa, Rosner, Pillar NTCS, accessed via Olive Tree Bible Software.

here are a variety of scenarios that could be imagined: selling oneself into slavery to provide funds for the poor, metaphorically making oneself a slave for the benefit of others (cf. 9:19), perhaps by taking on extra work to earn funds to help the poor, or doing projects requiring physical labor for their benefit, etc. Paul may have in mind a willingness to sacrifice everything, including the totality of one's life, for the benefit of others, without focusing specifically on helping the poor. Of course, the gospel is about Christ giving over his body for our salvation and the glory he gained for himself and for us in the process (cf. Phil. 2:5-11).

Ciampa, Rosner, Pillar NTCS, accessed via Olive Tree Bible Software.

Interestingly, Paul spends more time on what love does not do than he does on what it does. As most commentators have noted, this is in large part due to the fact that Paul's comments about love here are not based on some abstract, context-free meditation on the subject, but on providing a stinging contrast to the behavior of some Corinthian Christians

Ciampa, Rosner, Pillar NTCS, accessed via Olive Tree Bible Software.

GREATER GIFTS-GREATER because they BUILD up the body not because the others are less than

Not a shot at gifts but an ELEVATION of love

What is the most excellent way? Love:

Outline (3) aspects of this excellent way

1. Love is primary

Like a Ferrari without oil, so are all our good works apart from love

Most gifted spiritually, pastors, leaders, you name it, without love, are nothing

Heart first (Isaiah 1:13-17-bringing sacrifices while doing evil)

Implications for us: our pursuit and practice of these gifts MUST be grounded and flowing out of love

2. God is Love

This grand picture of love painted exposes our need doesn’t it? This is a HOLY SPIRIT fueled love. Can never love like this apart from the Holy Spirit.

This is Christian love.

Love that prefers others, love that is humble and not self glorying,

Love that is enamoured with Christ and His Will/Ways.

Love that produces action

John 13: known by love for one another, washing feet

John 15: love that lays down itself for others

Romans 12: love as we walk with one another

Clarification-this love is not a doormat love. This love confronts when needed, it has hard talks when needed, it exposes sin when needed (Paul confronting Peter, church confronting incestuous relationship in Corinth)

Love bears, endures and puts up with much; it does not forsake people when life is arduous and one’s energy is taxed. 1 Corinthians 13:7

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 (Rom. 4:17). Love believes and hopes for the best, since it looks to God who can forgive sins and grant a new beginning to those dead in trespasses and sins (cf. Eph. 2:1–7). Belief and hope do not exist in a vacuum; they are anchored to the God of the promise. 1 Corinthians 13:7

Schreiner, Pillar NTCS-1 Corinthians, accessed via Olive Tree Bible Software.

3. Love never ends

Furthermore, the gift of prophecy provides us with a limited (although still inspired and remarkable) understanding of and ability to communicate God's will for a given community, while we will all have a complete understanding of that will and perfect communication and communion when we are in his presence.

Ciampa, Rosner, Pillar NTCS, accessed via Olive Tree Bible Software.

With the aid of spiritual gifts believers really and truly see, but their sight is incomplete and partial. The situation will be dramatically different in the coming age when they will see face to face. 1 Corinthians 13:12

Schreiner, Pillar NTCS-1 Corinthians, accessed via Olive Tree Bible Software.

Thus, when all the complete versions of the partial realities we experience through spiritual gifts in this life arrive, those partial realities will be laid aside and will disappear.

Ciampa, Rosner, Pillar NTCS, accessed via Olive Tree Bible Software.

Gifts temporary as we wait for new heavens and earth. Given to equip the Church to do its work.

Eph 4: 11-13, 14-16

One day, gifts wont be needed but love will remain!

This should affect how we live now. This should affect how we pursue and practice the gifts. This should affect how we plan and pursue ministry. Are we doing it with love as the foundation-loving and longing for God’s Kingdom to come or is it about our kingdom?

Faith rests in and relies upon the God who in his great love sent his Son for the forgiveness of sins (Rom. 8:32). Hope looks forward to enjoying a relationship with God in Christ through the Spirit for all eternity. Love revels in the beloved and finds satisfaction and joy in him. Believers trust in God because they know of his love for them and reciprocate with love for God. They look forward to the future with hope because of the joy of knowing God’s presence and love for ever. 1 Corinthians 13:13

Schreiner, Pillar NTCS-1 Corinthians, accessed via Olive Tree Bible Software.