The Way of Love

Introduction

BARISTA/MOPED STORY: Have you ever built up a relationship with “your barista”? its one of many joys that NYC offers that I feel like many other places just don’t —- you frequent places so often that are within your weekly rhythm that you begin to see the same people at the same places all the time —- I love this about our city. Well, naturally the barista and I got deep into conversation and she was asking me how old my kids are —- i told her 3 and 5 and it took everything in her to not cry — i was confused for a second — but she the said “hold onto those younger years… because these teenage years are about to kill me” —- she then went on to to say “in the kid stage they may do something dumb but it has no consequences —- but the teenage years they do dumb stuff and his has major consequences” —- it immediately sparked a memory I had of a time my parents bought me an old beat up Moped —- mopeds are like an e-bike before e-bikes were a thing… and of course I was a teenager at the time …. but this thing only went 10-15 MPH depending on if I was going up hill or down hill —- my friend comes over to check it out one day and after he rode it around a couple of times he asked me why the governor was still on it. I told him I had never met the governor let alone have they rode it before — He looked at me like I knew nothing about automobile engineering …. because i do not —- and he then showed me this silver cylinder on-top of the exhaust pipe —- he said you remove this right here and you’ll double your speed —- we of course removed it under the cover of the night …. and we quickly turned into nascar drivers going 50mph in a small suburban neighborhood ——

as silly as it is —- I think this is what it is is like when we try and live out the Christian life without the Love of Christ —- we try to rev the engine of generosity, or of serving, or of preaching, or of anything else —- and if we do these things without the Love that only comes from Christ alone, all is done for nothing and is cut off from the very source of what all of life is to be done through.

Love is the only rule for our actions as a Christian. The only correct means of regulating the right use of the gifts of God, for nothing in the absence of love, is approved by God.

CONTEXT OF THE PASSAGE:

if I say “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” what comes to mind?

-weddings?

-Instagram posts?

-t-shirts!

Hey, every time I officiate a wedding I use this passage somewhere! So, no shade!

But, Paul is not writing this with harp in hand, smiling from ear to ear —- no this passage sits inside the 12 chapters that precede it.

1) Paul is writing this to a group of believers he knows well

2) Paul is continually rebuking them for their lack of unity

3) Paul, in chapter 13, is actually going to give his greatest rebuke yet —- even after he called them children stuck with spiritual milk

Corinth: remember that Corinth is a booming city, full of trade, opportunity to become wealthy, and indulging in sex that was unmatched in Greece at that time. Corinth was a canal city, meaning it connected the north to the south —- it was only 4 miles wide with water to the east and to the west. It was the ideal place to make money, find trade, and had the highest density of travelers at any one time — it was a very transient city,

Corinth became so popular for its secularization that they coined a phrase for those who lived in Corinth or those who moved to Corinth —- it was a verb —- “Corinthianize” —- it meant that you left whatever you had behind and you and indulged in the ecstasy of the city while perusing wealth and trade

PAUL PLANTING A CHURCH HERE: So, naturally Paul thought we need to plant a church here so that the gospel can turn the love of sin into the love of Christ —- if they were in 2025 this may have been their vision or mission statement that they put on t-shirts and all ———- you can begin to see some similarities to the world that we live in today in our city

The reason Paul is writing this letter in the first place is because the church of Corinths mission, desire, and focus had began to be skewed by their sin —- they began to desire to be right rather than to be loving, they began to divide over who they thought the senior senior pastor was, they had begun to lose the focus of their mission.

so, when we read 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 Paul is not waxing poetic to make the latest hit single turned scripture —- he is writing this as a blueprint to the upside down kingdom that God is building in and through the local church —— he is rebuking them by giving them a picture of what a Christian should be —- as he just got done instructing them for 12 chapters about how they had missed the mark — specifically around division, divorce, misuse of gifts, and the lack of christlikeness. this passage acts as the cherry on top to all of that.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

The Way of Love

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 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. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,1 but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it his not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (SLIDE)

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 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. 12 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. (SLIDE)

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

The Gauge of our life in Christ is our Love

1 Cor. 13:1-3

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 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. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,1 but have not love, I gain nothing.

think with me for a second of the times you’ve been in a relationship with someone — be it a family member, dating relationship, or friendships —- where they seemed to meet some of your needs, enjoy being with you, but they did not Love you.

what happens in those type of relationships when you just know they do not love you? the lack of love shadows all of the other stuff, doesn’t it? it nullifies all of the actions, the money provided, or whatever it may be.

so it is with our life in Jesus.

The love that only Christ can give us is the very engine to the believer.

there is a tension in this passage that we can’t miss —— as Paul is rebuking the church through his instruction on love —- he also is holding in tension the reality of the gospel to the Corinthians —— look with me in chapter 6 of this book:

after he clearly unpacks a list of sinful things these people were stuck in, he then says this:

(SLIDE)

1 Cor. 6:11

English Standard Version (Chapter 6)

11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

You were broken, stuck in sin, with no hope of eternity, AND YET you have found the cleanser, the justifier, the savior, Jesus, our Lord —— this is proof that the gospel can change anyone

What does this teach us? That Pauls rebuke to them in the lack of love displayed, even going back to basically calling them children in the faith, does not exclude the gospel reality in their life —- it does not nullify the saving work of the gospel, it doesn’t take away the work of justification ——

Sometimes we as believers can get uncomfortable when the work of the church, all of us, begins doing what the church is called to do —- which is to build up a group of people into Christ —- holding one another accountable to the gospel, and calling one another into more and more of Christlikeness.

the work of salvation is complete —- we are saved in Christ Jesus —- now we must continuously work out our salvation!

1 Cor. 13:1-3

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 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. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

we must connect these 3 verses directly with the Word that Robin preached last week —- that if we exercise the gifts of the Spirit but do not love it results in nothing.

“The result of knowing the gospel, having faith in the Savior, using the gifts given by the spirit, and knowing that our eternal home is found with God, results in Love”

But, church, where is the source of our love?

1 John 4:8–12 (ESV)

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

Christ is love, what is Christs is now mine as a partaker in the gospel, therefore we are now extending that love to others!

Question: where am I loving well? Where must I grow in my love for others? Where must I grow in my love for the Lord?

The Gauge of our life in Christ is our Love

2) Love Does and Love Did and Love Always Will

1 Cor. 13:4-13

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it his not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 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. 12 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.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

a John Mayer song says “Love is a verb” and he was right —- and it was perfectly depicted in the life of Jesus.

Paul now transitions to teach about love from its effects or fruits, and he wants to help the Corinthians understand what are loves offices, and what is its nature.

I truly believe that the Love of God that is gifted to us, gives us new lenses to see this life through, and as our eyes see, and our heart desires more of Jesus, our lives begin to be formed around this love!

VERSES 4-7:

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it his not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

love leads to holiness. Holiness in patience. holiness in humility. holiness in justice. holiness in the truth. For holiness is found in love and love is found only in and from Christ, and love never ends.

Paul is writing this both as truth and as a rebuke —- in the midst of this incredible text lies a question —-

where in my call to love like Christ am I lacking? Am I patient? Do I boast in myself? Am I rude? Do I insist on my own way? Am I easily irritated? Do I pursue justice instead of division?

You see, this following Jesus thing begins to changes every single aspect of your being.

Paul wants the Church of Corinth to see that following Jesus doesn’t just inch you past the line of salvation —- but that it permeates every part of your being

why. then, are you Corinth needing 12 chapters of rebuke before we can get to the love part! This wasn’t a lack of knowledge it was a lack of sanctification

1 Cor. 13:8-12

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 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. 12 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.

The gifts will pass, but love never ends.

but the focul point of this passage really is verse 12

VERSE 12:

12 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.

“For now we in a mirror dimly” —- this passage ought to invoke in us humility and reliance

Humility: in that we, submit, that we do not know all, love all, and can conceive of all things in this life

Reliance: in that we know the one who does know all, love all, and has created all — that is the one I place my hope in

this verse should place the love in which we have received in Christ in perfect perspective.

the things in which, in this life, we cannot see or know —- the sin we find ourselves so easily tangled within, like a child touching something they know they should’t. the confusion that hardships, death, and all of lifes chaos brings —- and yet, all who call upon the name of Jesus as Lord can say — we are fully known and loved by the creator of the heavens and of earth

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.