1 Corinthians 13 "Love"

Introduction

I am very thankful once again to bring the word before you today. Today we will not be in Romans but we are going to be looking at a passage of scripture that I can almost guarantee is familiar to everyone in this room. No doubt that this passage of scripture has been read at countless number of weddings over the years. Many have often referred to the this passage as the “love chapter” of the bible. The popularity of this passage and specifically verses 4-7 is demonstrated in that pop culture has grabbed onto these words and sought to define them. These words are used at weddings of non-christians and on fake TV weddings. I'm not sure that this is a bad thing as there are certainly aspects of this passage of scripture that apply directly to our marriages. That said, I think the apostle Paul who penned these words would be surprised that these words would be predominantly used at wedding ceremonies and connected with marriage when the context in which he penned these words doesn’t have marriage directly in mind. He certainly did not have the 90’s song “what is love, baby don’t hurt me” in his mind when he comes to this passage. This unfortunately is something that I would like to rid my mind of.

As we transition to go into our text I think it is important to consider the context for our passage of scripture. As I said, the apostle did not primarily have the marriage relationship in mind when he wrote 1 Cor. 13. Rather, he was making an argument from the lesser to the greater. The Corinthian church was a motley crew of individuals. This church brought so many challenges and they were constantly moving back and forth from one ditch to the other. They would go from being like Las Vegas to being like a monastery. The Corinthian church didn’t know if it was a seeker sensitive church or an Amish church. Their reaction from one to the other often fueled significant debate and upheaval in the church.

What fueled some of this was the fact that Corinth was one of the most populist cities in the Roman empire. It was a major source of commerce and trade and in many ways was a melting pot of different types of people and cultures. Corinth was like the New York City of the Roman empire. With this conglomeration of individuals it made for interesting issues as the church in Corinth sought to be biblical. One of the most important aspects of a church is unity and this unity was difficult to achieve because the members of this Church were so different. When you read Paul’s letters to the Corinthian church you begin to realize that this church was troubled often. Despite their troubles and the difficulties that were prevalent, Paul sought to point the Corinthians to Christ. They were divided by many things but he knew that as they grew towards Christ that they would grow towards one another. There is not much time to go through all of the context in the book but as we find ourselves in Chapter 13 this morning it is important to recognize that what Paul tells us about love in chapter 13 is really he continuation of an argument that he begins the flesh out in chapter 12. In Chapter 12 Paul begins to show that these individual Christian members of the Corinthian church have all been bestowed with a spiritual gift. He says this in 1 Corinthians 12:27–31 “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.” He shows how each member of the church as individuals has something to add to the rest of them. They are one body but their any many members and parts to that one body. All of the things that he mentions are important and they are good things and yet he ends his 12:31 saying “I will show you all a still more excellent way.” The more excellent way is what we will consider this morning.

Main Points

Love is greater than the sum of all noble actions

What is love?

Love never ends

Text

1 Corinthians 13 ESV

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 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. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 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. 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. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Exposition

Love is Greater than the Sum of All Noble Actions (V1-3)

Look with me again at verses 1-3 1 Corinthians 13:1–3

1 Corinthians 13:1–3 ESV

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 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. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Paul begins his argument regarding the supremacy of love by giving us several examples of many noble things. He first points to speech. You can be the most eloquent and best speaker of all time speaking in multiple languages even angelic languages and have not love and be nothing more than a bag full of hot air. It doesn’t matter how good you are with your tongue if you don’t operate from the basis of love those words will not live on.

He goes on further, if you have all prophetic power and understand the mysteries of Christ and have knowledge above all others. If you have the faith that moves mountains if you have not love you can be sure that those things are like a castle built on the sand. You may use this knowledge and understanding to accomplish many things and help many people but without love what is it for? What will live on after those things? If you give away everything even up to the point of giving away your very life for someone else and you don’t have love, what is to be gained?

Matthew Henry says this: “true charity [love} is the very heart and spirit of religion. If we feel none of its sacred heat in our hearts, it will profit nothing, though we be burnt to ashes for the truth.” 2268.

Brothers and sisters, we can often get caught up in doing all of the things at the expense of more excellent way. We can become more concerned with guarding and defending the truth that we forget that as 1 Timothy 1:5“The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”

This is in fact the very charge that Jesus makes to the church in Ephesus in Revelation chapter 2.

Turn your bibles to Revelation 2:1-7

Revelation 2:1–7 ESV

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. “ ‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’

Consider what Jesus says points to. He commends the Ephesian church that they have held fast to the word of truth and no put up with those who contradict it but they had forgotten their first love. They had forgotten the aim of our charge that is love. Brothers and sisters we must be on guard against thinking that we should be defending the word of guard against those who would contradict it in order to win the argument. Sure it is a good thing to defend the word of God but it is quite another to do it in love. Actions that can demonstrate our love do not necessarily point to love that is there.

As we have considered this first point we have quickly come to realize that the love that the apostle is pointing us to here is not really the type of love that we often think of when we hear of love. However, the love that the apostle is speaking of here is Agape love. You may have heard that this love is strictly a divine type of love. While in some cases this is true, it more often points to a love that is based on sincere appreciation and high regard for someone or something. This is different that the type of love that we may have with someone in our family or in our life. The love we have is

What we see here though is that love is much more than noble actions. Jesus speaks about this in Matthew 7:21–23 ““Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”

These people who claim to know Jesus did many good things. Yet, the response of the Lord is that they are to depart from him. His response indicates that these good things that were done were not done out of a true agape love for the Lord and the recipients of these works.

This brings us to our next point.

2. What is Love?

Paul begins this section of scripture defining what love truly is. Look with me at 1 Corinthians 13:4–7 “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

He gives us a full on - detailed list of what love is. Love is not demanding, it thinks the best of others, is does not seek to be first, it is not for its own sake, nor does it insist on its own way. Love is not self important and happy when things go wrong.

An exercise that a pastor had me do one time as I considered what it means to love was to put my name where love is in these verses.

Read verses with my name in there.

This is honestly a very humbling exercise that I commend to you. This passage of scripture in a unique way begins to very quickly show us our need for Jesus. If you are a student of scripture you will know that the sum of the two greatest commandments are given by our Lord Jesus in Matthew 22:36–40 ““Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.””

Jesus in very clear language points us to the fact that Love is upon which all of the law and the prophets depend.

Brothers and sisters we have a sin problem because we have a love problem.

Our world has a love problem, we have a love problem. Even as Christians when we fail to do what God commands it is ultimately because we have failed to love God and our neighbor as we ought. There are some who have sought to emphasize love over and against the law of God. You may have heard someone say in the past “We don’t need the law of God we just need to merely love each other.” They may even say that the law of God is there to condemn us and is useless now that we have Jesus. This however misses the point that Jesus makes that the Law of God actually teaches us what it is to love God and our neighbor.

Just take the 10 commandments for example:

We love God when we worship Him in his proper place placing nothing before him.

We love God when we respect that we are not to make anything in the likeness of the infinite God or exalt anything in His creation over him

We love God when we honor Him with our words not speaking or using His name in a flippant way

We love God when we remember the sabbath day and we keep it holy by devoting ourselves to Him specially in worship

We love God when we honor our father, mother, and those who he has set over us in authority. We love our neighbor by not constantly kicking against the goads and disrespecting their God given position over us.

We love God when we seek to preserve and protect those whom he has created in His image. This means that we seek to take actual steps to preserve and protect life while avoiding violence and murder. This shows love to our fellow man.

We show love to God when we do not commit adultery and make a mockery of marriage which he has instituted. We show love to our neighbor and our wives by seeking to preserve the covenant of marriage.

We show love to God by trusting that he has given us exactly what we need. We show love to our neighbor by not taking that which the Lord has put under their care

We show love to God by being truthful because he created us and is all truth. We show love to our neighbor in that we speak the truth to them in love.

We show love to God in that we do not disrespect him by wanting things that in His sovereignty he has not given to us. We show love to our neighbor by not looking at them with merely materialistic eyes desiring what they have and disregarding who they are.

You see, from the very beginning, the fulfillment of the Law was and is Love to God and to our neighbor.

If you ever have trouble with what love looks like - look at Jesus who was the perfect fulfillment of the Law. Look to the law of God that reveals the character of God which is love. If you look to the Lord it will protect you from becoming taken away by some worldly definition of Love.

This brings us to our final point:

3. Love Never Ends

Paul begins to close his argument by point to the fact that Love never ends. What a comfort to know that the love of Christ never ends. He then goes on to point to the things that will at sometime end.

He says prophecy will end. Think for a moment, what need of prophecy will there be when we are in heaven? None, we will have the Lord of Glory before us. What use will multiple languages or eloquent speech be in heaven? What use will he partial knowledge that we have right now be in heaven when the Lord is there to answer anything we may ask? All of these things are partial.

When the perfect comes that which is partial will pass away. Faith will become sight, hope will become reality. We will no longer be like little children but these things that we have that help us now will not be needed. We will outgrow them. However, the one thing that we will not outgrow is our need for true biblical love.

Christian, I ask you today, what is the status of your love today? As you consider the work of the Lord in your life, what do you need to change? Consider putting your name in verses 4-7. How can you grow in your love? Would you say that your life is characterized by love? If not, what must you repent of and what must you put on?

If you are not in Christ today, maybe you have been tempted to think of Love as the world thinks of love. Maybe you think of love as that which is all about fulfilling your selfish, desires. Its all about what you want. Do you see that the love that propelled Jesus Christ to bear the cross for His people was out of a sincere love of God and the Love of his people? Will you trust in the one who has always loved perfectly? He is your hope because he has fulfilled the law.

I pray that you would consider what it would be to increase your love.

I want to end with a prayer from the valley of vision.

MY DEAR LORD

depend wholly upon thee, wean me from all other dependences.

Thou art my all, thou dost overrule all and delight in me.

Thou art the foundation of goodness, how can I distrust thee?

how be anxious about what happens to me?

In the light of thy preciousness the world and all its enjoyments are infinitely poor:

I value the favour of men no more than pebbles.

Amid the blessings I receive from thee may I never lose the heart of a stranger.

May I love thee, my Benefactor, in all my benefits, not forgetting that my greatest danger arises from my advantages.

Produce in me self-despair that will make Jesus precious to me, delightful in all his offices, pleasurable in all his ways, and may I love his commands as well as his promises.

Help me to discern between true and false love, the one consisting of supreme love to thee, the other not,

the former uniting thy glory and man's happiness that they may become one common interest, the latter disjointing and separating them both, seeking the latter with neglect of the former.

Teach me that genuine love is different in kind from that wrought by rational arguments or the motive of self-interest,

that such love is a pleasing passion affording joy to the mind where it is.

Grant me grace to distinguish between the genuine and the false, and to rest in thee who art all love.