Never-Failing Love

Tonight we are wrapping up 1 Corinthians 13 and then next week, we will get to see really all of what we have gone through in these 4 weeks in action as we switch over to Romans 12. If there was one thing that I would want you to take away from these 4 weeks, it’s that Christian love is absolutely transformational. If we want to love as God intends us to love, it can only be done through Spirit-empowerment and Gospel living. Everything that we do as Christians should be shrouded in love. The love that we show to others, the love that we live out, can only be seen through Christians. The love that you show now as a Christian should stand head and shoulders over the love that you showed before you came to Christ. What we are going to see tonight is that love never fails and love is eternal. Love has always existed. John writes in 1 John 4:8 “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” If God is love and if God is eternal, that means that love has existed for as long as God has existed which we know is forever. What we are going to see tonight is a love that is forever So much in life has an expiration date. There is much in life that we have made use of that we quite frankly, don’t have use for anymore. Love isn’t that thing. Love never ends and love never fails. Let’s open up in prayer and then we will start to walk our way through 1 Corinthians 13:8-13.

1 Corinthians 13:8–13 NASB95

Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Love Never Fails

Now we won’t go through all of these verses in the same way that we did the last few weeks where we break down every little thing but I do want to spend a little bit of our time with the first 3 words of verse 8: Love never fails. What Paul means is that there is a permanence to love. Love is as long lasting as anything can possibly be. In 1 Peter 4:8 Peter writes, “Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.” Now this doesn’t mean that our love can atone for sin, only Christ can atone for sin. What it does mean though is that love is preventative and it is restorative. Love acts as a shelter. It does not parade a wrong that is done but instead seeks to care for the individual. I would go as far as saying that love covers a multitude of sins because the greater we love Christ, the more we will see the wickedness of sin and desire to cease sinning against both our Lord and our neighbors. Look at it in this way, the more that you love your spouse, the more you seek to do right by your spouse. The more that we love Christ, the more we seek to do right for Christ. The more that we love one another, the more we will desire their welfare and do right by them. Love is always the right option to take because love never fails. There is never a time where an increase of love towards a person can be seen as a negative when it comes to the things of God. Christian love is a love that abides. John writes in 1 John 4:16 “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” John Stott commenting on this verse said, “It is one thing to know and believe the love that God has to us and that God is love; it is another to learn to love and to abide in love ourselves. Yet this we must do, for the love that is eternally in God and was historically manifested in Christ is to come to fruition in us. The only way to love, as the only way to believe, is by dwelling in God and God in us. It is the divine indwelling which alone makes possible both belief and love. They are its fruit, and therefore its evidence.”The evidence of our salvation is seen by Christian love in action. I’m sure you know the hymn that goes, “They will know we are Christians by our love.” The programs we put on, the missions that we do, the evangelism that we take part in, the ministries that are performed, need to be rooted in love for God and our neighbor. If there is no love, we shouldn’t do it! Because what a misrepresentation of the renewed life that is. This doesn’t mean that we are tolerant in the sense that we just let the world do what it wants because it appears unloving to call sin sin. What it means is that the conversations that we have with people that believe things differently than us must be rooted in love for the person. Righteous anger can be placed towards sin but righteous love must be placed towards the sinner. I think of the “sin of the hour” of transgenderism and how the argument from one side of the aisle is that if we don’t honor how these people view themselves we are unloving. If we challenge them on what gender is even though gender and sexuality are clearly seen as God-ordained in Scripture, we are unloving because we are placing a weight on them that shouldn’t be there. Look all I know is that if God says one thing, all other arguments fall silent. Romans 3:4 “Let God be found true, though every man be found a liar.” It isn’t loving of me if you claim to identify as a bird and jump out of a plane claiming to be able to fly. It’s unloving for me to stand to the side watching you about to get squished by an 18 wheeler with the thought of, “Well, he claims to be a road so it would be unloving of me to question his decision making abilities.” Now I will be the first to say that the church at large has not treated the LGBTQ+ community as well as the church could. Having worked with teenagers that are struggling with their sexuality, the first thing that I usually hear is how horribly they have been treated by Christians. There’s a way to address any sin in a spirit of love. If we believe that God is able to restore and that no sin is incapable of being dealt with, why do so many seem to act as if same sex sins are the one area that are unforgivable or God is incapable of restoring? I really do think that we need to address the issue of same sex sin with the same desire for restoration and repentance as we would hopefully treat any sin. Love never fails because God’s love never fails. Any thoughts on any of that or any questions before we move on to the rest of the chapter?

Spiritual Gifts Today

As we get to the bulk of verse 8 and pretty much verses 9-12, we get to a hotly debated section of Scripture because we return to the topic of spiritual gifts. We have already talked about how love never ends, how love abides, and we will look at that more later on but Paul wants the Corinthians to know that the spiritual gifts that they so highly craved, will not always be there. They won’t always be a priority. Gifts of prophecy will be done away with, tongues will cease, and knowledge will also be done away with. Let’s just look for now at verses 8-10. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:8–10 “Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.” There are a lot of people in the Christian community, the charismatics or people that still believe that all of the gifts that are written about in the New Testament or seen in the life of the early church are still active in the world today that use these verses as a major argument for the continuation of spiritual gifts. Now I don’t think any true Christian will deny the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is eternal and active as God the Father and Christ the Son are. I think that if we look at the spiritual gifts found in Romans 12:6-8, I think we see that some gifts are very much still active in Christians. Paul writes:

Romans 12:6–8 NASB95

Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

I know that there are some excellent teachers that have the gift of teaching, there are some amazing Christians that I know and that we have in this church that have been clearly given the gift of serving, and there are people that excel in leadership roles. I think what we need to do is recognize that the Holy Spirit is still active in the lives of Christians but that does not mean that every single gift will continue to function as it was seen in the book of Acts and in the early church. When we look at the gift of tongues in the book of Acts, we see that what was heard by listeners was not some collection of sounds that we see in so many Pentecostal and charismatic circles. Instead, it was a human language that was able to be interpreted by someone or it was a language that was a person’s native language. We see this on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 which I think we looked at a little bit a couple weeks ago. If you look at the phenomenon that is claimed to be the gift of tongues today, we see something that is more disorderly. We see or hear something that could hardly be understood as any sort of rational human language. Largely it seems to be just a bunch of gibberish that follows certain vocal tones. Clearly, that is not what Paul is thinking of when he is talking about a spiritual gift of tongues. Do I believe that the gift of tongues exists today? It’s a tough question because I am by all accounts a cessationist. I think that the gifts of tongues and apostolic healing are not in use. I think that God can decide to heal anyone at any moment. I also think that you can have Christians that God empowers to learn languages, some very quickly. But I do not think we see now or really any time after the lives of the apostles, any evidence of a continuation of tongues or healing as we see in the book of Acts and in the early church. The tricky part of understanding if the gift of tongues continues seems to be from verse 10. Verse 9 is fairly self explanatory. No one knows everything perfectly. We as Christians have true knowledge but we do not have comprehensive knowledge. It’s likely that where Paul mentions prophecy that he is talking about how God does not reveal everything to the prophet. If we look at just the prophets of the Old Testament, we know that they did not know the full extent of what they were prophesying. There is a partial glimpse of the truth. They key takeaway though from verse 9 is that these things are incomplete for now. They are partial but a time will come when they are in full. In verse 10 we get to what makes verse 8 such a hard discussion. Paul says that when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away with. What is the perfect that is coming? Well some schools of thought say that Paul is referencing the completed New Testament. Paul is saying that once all of God’s special revelation through Scripture is complete, these other gifts will no longer be necessary or impartial. But it seems unlikely that Paul was thinking in that way. What most commentators believe is that Paul is referencing the return of Christ. When Christ returns, faith will become sight. That partiality will be a full reality. That’s the perfect that Paul is pointing ahead to. What does that mean then for our little discussion on the gift of tongues? Well Paul says that tongues will cease but that does not mean that there is no way that the gift of tongues could be removed before the perfect comes. A time will come when the full presence and knowledge of Jesus will fill all the longings that we have and fill all the gaps in the places that we are lacking. Anthony Thiselton refers to the presence of these spiritual gifts at the time of Christ’s return as being like a candle that is lit in the full blaze of the sun. What’s the use of a candle when you are standing before the sun? Totally unnecessary! I think that if we look through the history of the church we do see that the gift of tongues has ceased. If you read through the early church fathers, the generations right after the apostles, pretty much all of them say that tongues have ceased by the time that the apostles passed away. Origen around the year 240 mentions how the miraculous and healing gifts have practically ceased. St. Augustine about 200 years later says, “For not even now, when a hand is laid on the baptized, do they receive the Holy Spirit in such a way that they speak with the tongues of all nations; nor are the sick now healed by the passing shadow of the preachers of Christ. Even though such things happened at that time, manifestly these ceased later.” None of this is to say that God no longer performs miracles but for whatever reason, it seems that tongues and healing have largely, if not completely ceased. What might be best is to accept that Paul’s primary concern is not necessarily on putting a time stamp on the use of these gifts but to remind the Corinthians and us that these gifts are not the end all be all of the Christian faith. The upward prize isn’t greater usage of tongues or a successful ministry. The upward prize is Christ. Christ is the end goal. Everything prior to Christ’ first coming happened in anticipation of His first coming and now after the cross, everything that happens or will happen is in anticipation of His second coming. The spiritual gifts are never the goal. What Paul says in verses 11-12 shows that these things were good for a time but they were never meant to be where we dwell forever. 1 Corinthians 13:11–12 has some great imagery: “When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.” What Paul is saying is that when he was a child, the things that he was obsessed with, the things that he did matched that of a child but eventually he grew up. He matured, he didn’t talk like a little kid anymore and this was just a natural progression of maturity. Paul is saying to the church in Corinth, you need to grow beyond this one aspect of the Christian faith. The greatest gift that they can possess is love. Kim Riddlebarger said, “We must move beyond an immature preoccupation with ourselves (as children are apt to do), and learn to consider that love for and service of others is God’s purpose behind all spiritual gifts. These gifts are not given to demonstrate how spiritual I am, but to enable me to serve others (especially my brothers and sisters in Christ) for the common good.” Tongues won’t always be helpful. Even knowledge devoid of love is not helpful. Love is permanent. Paul wants the Corinthians to understand that love will always have a further reaching impact and value because it will never fail and it will never end. Charles Hodge wrote, “What Paul wishes to impress upon the Corinthians is, that the gifts in which they so much prided themselves, were small matters compared to what is in reserve for the people of God.” Before we finish up with verse 13, any comments or questions? One question that I have for us that I want us to talk about is this: When it comes to handling disagreements on theology, how can we see to it that we are always approaching that conversation, that disagreement, that brother or sister in the faith, in love? And if you have any time in your life where you have had to put this into action, I think it would be great for all of us to hear how that was dealt with.

The Permanence of Love

As Paul gets to the end of his famous 13th chapter to the Corinthians, we see again the permanence of love. Paul says in verse 13, “But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.” That has been Paul’s argument throughout the entire chapter. Love is the greatest of all spiritual gifts and the reason that it is the greatest is because it is the only gift that will last forever. Faith and hope are crucial for the Christian but it is love that Paul singles out as the one trait, the one attribute, the one gift that will last forever. Now understand that for Paul, faith was one of the dominant themes not just of his life, but of his writings. He says in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” Now I don’t think that there will be no faith or hope in Heaven. I think that what Paul is referring to is that faith and hope find their ultimate fulfillment in the perfect love that we will experience for eternity in Heaven. A time will come when we will live both by faith and by sight. Right now we live by faith alone. But when we go into the presence of Christ, that faith will become sight. The partial will be made complete. Right now we have hope in Christ, we hope with eagerly longing for that which we do not yet possess in full even though we know it is ours. In heaven, that which we hope for is completely ours. John says in 1 John 3:2–3 “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” When He returns, we know we will be like HIm. But then there is love. God’s love for us will see to it that all the partiality of our faith and hope now will be realized. John MacArthur said, “The objects of faith and hope will be fulfilled and perfectly realized in Heaven, but love, the God like virtue, is everlasting.” Perfect love will continue forever as God continues forever. God’s great love for us will be experience completely. In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul is telling his readers that love really is at the center of it all. It is God’s love for us that saves us, it is God’s love for us that changes us, it is God’s love that propels us to live a life of life, and it is because God loves us that we know with full assurance that our faith will become sight. What this means is that no matter what gift you may have as a Christian, all of these gifts exist solely to that you will love God and glorify Him forever. As Piper says, God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. That deep satisfaction, that deep love is like the fuel that propels Gospel expansion and workers into the harvest. When we look at 1 Corinthians 13:13, we see a picture of God’s rescue plan for lost sinners. God doesn’t save out of hope, He saves because He loves. Romans 8:35-39

Romans 8:35–39 NASB95

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We conquer through Him who loved us. We don’t conquer because God has some great amount of belief towards us. We are more than conquerors because He loves us! Daniel Akin said, “God did not send his Son into the world because he believed in the world and had hope in this world, but because he loved this world.” Now as Christians, everything that we do should be done as an act of love to the God who first loved us. God’s love really does change everything. So I know we will talk more about it next week but I really do want to take just a few minutes and think about Christian love in action. Are we seeking out opportunities for people to see the love of God in us? If people were to talk with you and interact with you, do you think they would walk away knowing that we are someone that has been changed by the love of God? Would they walk away feeling as if they were in the presence of someone who was just radiating the love of God? Are we actively searching for new ways to love people? Jonathan Edwards has an amazing book on 1 Corinthians 13 called Charity and its Fruit and in the book, Edwards says this: “Do not make an excuse that you have not opportunities to do anything for the glory of God, for the interest of the Redeemer's kingdom, and for the spiritual benefit of your neighbors. If your heart is full of love, it will find vent; you will find or make ways enough to express your love in deeds. When a fountain abounds in water it will send forth streams.” If we are filling up to the brim with the love of God, we will be looking for ways and opportunities to unload that love. It’s one thing for us to possess this love, it is another thing for us to utilize it and show it. John writes in 1 John 3:18 “Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.” A love that is all talk is not love. Love requires action and that is what we have talked about for the past 4 weeks now. Does Jesus love us in His words? Absolutely. But to really understand the love of Jesus, we need to look at His actions. It isn’t the words of Jesus that save us, it the action of Christ’s perfect life, death, and resurrection that saves us. Now I think that we would all admit that love as Paul talks about it is a huge undertaking. Loving as Jesus loves is incredibly difficult. I’ve heard it said before that the Christian life isn’t hard; it’s impossible. That’s why we need the Holy Spirit. Christian love is impossible without the Holy Spirit. Don’t let the flesh dictate your love but love by the Spirit. We all struggle to love. Like R.C. Sproul mentioned a few weeks ago, when we look at the love that is described in 1 Corinthians 13, we see that we have all fallen woefully short of that requirement. Look I don’t know who it is that you are struggling to love right now but I do know that God has called us to love our enemies as well as our friends. A time will come when love will be experienced in full so maybe we could all try to lessen the gap from the love that we show now to the love that we show and experience then. One of my favorite stories of Christians that didn’t always see eye to eye but still had great love for each other involves John Wesley and George Whitefield. Wesley and Whitefield were the founder of the Methodist movement and Wesley was an Arminian and Whitefield was a Calvinist. These theological differences, amongst other things, did not mesh well. For years, Wesley slandered Whitefield’s name in writings but a time came when the two reconciled. They still didn’t agree on everything but they agreed on what really mattered and they really did love each other. Look at any of Whitefield’s letters to or about Wesley and you will see a man that loved his brother in Christ. In one of these letters to Wesley, Whitefield asked for forgiveness of any wrong that he may have done towards Wesley and he writes: “May God remove all obstacles that now prevent our union; may all disputings cease, and each of us talk of nothing but Jesus and him crucified. This is my resolution, I am without dissimulation. I find I love you as much as ever, and pray God, if it be his blessed will, that we may all be united together.” When Whitefield died in the Fall of 1770, it was Wesley that gave the funeral sermon and sometime after Whitefield’s death, a woman came up to Wesley and asked, “Mr. Wesley? Do you expect to see dear Mr. Whitefield in heaven?” Wesley gave it some thought and after some time said, “No, madame.” She didn’t want to hear this answer but Wesley clarified what he meant in this way: “Madame; George Whitefield was so bright a star in the firmament of God's glory, and will stand so near the throne, that one like me, who am less than the least, will never catch a glimpse of him.'" Here were two men that found a great deal to disagree on, that experienced a good deal of hurt from each other, but in the end, they loved each other. What was it that made this happen? Love for God, love for neighbor, and an honoring of what we have read in 1 Corinthians 13 and really in all of Scripture. Let’s pray and then if you all have any thoughts, let’s talk about it.