Sermon Feb 2nd 2025
One Spirit, One Body, One Love • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 6 viewsNotes
Transcript
One Love
One Love
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 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. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
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. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 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. 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.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
—————————-
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 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. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
—> We have spent the last two weeks talking about Spiritual gifts and how we understand those gifts and use them.
—> However, our gifts don’t matter if we aren’t using them with love.
—> Our suffering doesn’t matter if its not for the sake of love.
—> not just any love but God’s love
—> the love from God
—> This word for love is different than all the others.
—> It is unique to the New Testament and not used in other writings of the time.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
—> Love is the opposite of our human/worldly nature
—> The apostle Paul lists things that don’t always come the most naturally to us.
—> The love that he is talking about becomes evident in our lives when we look for the signs.
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. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 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. 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.
—> This chapter is bookended by the thought that our gifts, even our spiritual gifts, are temporary, but love, true love is not.
—> Love is complete.
—> As we grow in the love of God we are changed and transformed.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
—> J. Wesley says it like this “Faith, hope, and love are the sum of perfection on earth; love alone is the sum of perfection in heaven.”
—>
The First Epistle to the Corinthians 28. 13:1–13. The Fundamental Test
Ideally, men should imitate (4:16; 11:1) this love, and, through the gift of the Spirit, may in part do so, but even when they reproduce it least inadequately they must recognize that their love is derivative. ‘We love, because he first loved us’ (
