What Is Love?

INTRODUCTION

Good morning and welcome again to First Christian Church. We are so glad you are with us and I am so glad we can come together this morning and worship our Savior. Any time that we can come together to worship is a great time. Go ahead and turn in your Bible to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. If you don’t have a Bible there should be one in the pew in front of you, and the verses will be on the screen as well.

It is amazing what a little motivation can do for our lives. When we are motivated about something, we can suddenly have a focus and energy that we didn’t have before. And when this motivation is love, there are all kinds of things that we would do for someone.

I have shared before I love Alabama football. But it should also be known that I don’t like Ohio State football. I just don’t. And I shared this story a few weeks ago in a message at the jail, but I had hoped that Tommy would grow, as my son, into a person who loved Alabama and could not stand Ohio State. This fall though, Tommy came to me and said, “Dad, I was born in Ohio and that means I was born to cheer for Ohio State.” I was devastated, but as his dad, I loved him. So what did I do? I turned on the Ohio State games so he could watch them. My love for my son motivated me to set aside my dislike for the football team and watch them.

When our actions are motivated by love, we will do all we can for those that we love. In our passage today we are going to talk about love, what it is, and how it motivates the gifts we have from God. Would you join me in prayer today?

PRAY

Gifts Mean Nothing Without Love

Paul continues the idea in chapter 12 into the beginning of chapter 13. As you end chapter 12 you see that Paul explains that we are all members of one body, and each of us is given a gift, but those gifts are different and unique to each of us. Because of that, we get into chapter 13:

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.

1 Corinthians 13:1–3.

If our goal is to acquire gifts that outwardly appear impressive but lack the compassion and love behind them, we have missed the point. And this is what Paul is telling the church. Corinth had placed this desire for sign gifts, viewing these gifts as the marker for true faith, above all other things. Paul is here to correct this false teaching and idea.

Why do we desire this, though? Sin will cause us to prize dramatic, but ultimately worthless, spiritual displays. That is exactly the type of display that Paul is talking about in verses 1-3. Tongues, prophecy, understanding, knowledge, faith, and martyrdom are all worth nothing if there is not true love behind what is happening. If the gifts are not being used because of the motivation of love for others, then they are of no worth.

Since the time of Paul and the early church, the temptation to fall for these displays has been strong. We spoke last week about how Satan will work to counterfeit the works of God, and that is what happens. Even Jesus warned us of this in Matthew 7:

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. 22 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?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Matthew 7:21–23.

Do we hear the warning from Jesus here? It lines up exactly with Paul. Lord, didn’t we do these things in your name? And what is the reply from Jesus? I never knew you, depart from me. Those may be the scariest words you could ever hear. This warning should ring in our ears as we evaluate our motivation for what we do. The use of our gifts should be motivated by love for Christ and love for those around us. Through the imparting of gifts to us, we are equipped to proclaim the glory of God to the world. We are equipped to do the work of a believer, taking the Gospel to the world. When it is not motivated by love for those around us, it becomes simply performative. Performative motivation leads you to hearing those dreaded words from Christ.

If this is supposed to be motivated by love, then what is love? What kind of love should be the motivation for me? How do I use that love to motivate me to be a light for God and someone who edifies the church?

What is Love?

1 Corinthians 13 is a familiar passage if you have ever been to a wedding or two. These verses are read at most weddings. But if we remove the wedding setting, and all that comes with that, and look at what Paul is saying about love, I believe we will see a clear answer to the question. Look at 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 with me:

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is 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.

1 Corinthians 13:4–7.

Love is explained here through both what it is and what it is not. Sometimes the best way to define something is to say both what it is and what it is not, and Paul uses that strategy here. By giving us this more elaborate definition of love, we are better able to understand the kind of love that should be our motivation.

First, it needs to be noted that this love is the Greek word agape. Agape love is not just a brotherly love, a deep friendship, or a romantic love. Agape is the highest form of love. It is a love that is willing to lay down its life for others. Other places in scripture that describe this type of love are:

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

John 15:13.

Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Romans 13:10.

This also describes the way that God loves us.

and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Romans 5:5.

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 4:8

This is not a love for a sports team, a love for a sandwich, or even a love for family; this is much deeper. It is the kind of love that would cause you to lay down your life for another, a stranger even. And we are told here, instructed, that it is this kind of love that we must have or our gifts are not worthwhile. Our motivation must be this kind of love.

If we need a perfect illustration of this type of love, we look to Christ. What is our example? A savior who came to earth and died for our sins. He laid down his life for us. He looks to the needs of others before the needs of himself. Verses 4-7 sum up what love is and is not, and if you were to sketch out a picture of love from those verses, you would end up with a portrait of our savior.

So, do we feel that type of motivation? Do we love others enough to want to see them know Jesus? Are we using our gifts, not to gain attention for ourselves, but in order to see God glorified? Do we care for our neighbor, friend, family member, or even the guy at the other end of the pew enough to show this kind of love to them?

Listen to how Charles Spurgeon handled this idea of love:

We shall not long have love to man if we do not first and chiefly cultivate love to God. A Good Start, Page 314

Charles Spurgeon

If we want to have love for man, we must learn to cultivate our love for God. In this love for God, we are compelled to love man, to want for them to experience the love of God for themselves.

When a biblical, agape love is not the motivator, you may fill a church with people attracted to the displays. You can pack out a church or event center, you can sell books, and have millions of followers, but if you are motivated by something other than the love that Christ has shown us, you have missed the mark.

What we have to realize about the gifts is that they should be exercised with the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-23 tells us the fruit of the Spirit:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22–23.

It is only through the Spirit growing the fruit in our lives that we really use our gifts to the best of our ability. Wherever the gospel goes, and it impacts a place, it brings along with it the fruit. The gospel changes people, and the Holy Spirit brings about the growth of the fruit of that change. When we are growing in our walk, bearing fruit, and using our gifts, we are working in the harmony of the Gospel.

Love Never Fails.

Why would love be the motivation that we need? Paul tells us:

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.

1 Corinthians 13:8–10.

Love never ends. All of these gifts, one day, will pass away. When we reach eternity, there will no longer be a need for tongues, prophecies, or a gift of knowledge because we will be in the presence of our Lord. But love will still be there. Love was the motivation for Jesus to come to earth and die for us. Love of our savior will be our motivation as we spend eternity worshipping our God. Not for some kind of reward on my part, or praise for me, but to give glory to the God who died for me.

While we are here on earth, verse 13 tells us:

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

1 Corinthians 13:13.

Faith, hope, and love abide with us, but still the greatest of these is love. Love will pass away in the eternal, but will still be present. It is a fruit of the Spirit, which means we must let this love grow in our life. The fruit will bear itself as we grow in Jesus, as we mature in our walk and continue on in our sanctification, we see the fruit grow in us.

We also know that we are imperfect people on this side of eternity. We will mess up. We will get frustrated and show the opposite of love to someone. That does not mean that love has failed, but it is a beautiful reminder that while we are limited, the gift and God are not.

Paul describes this phenomenon in verses 11 and 12:

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.

1 Corinthians 13:11–12.

Right now, we see dimly, in a mirror that is not perfect. In Roman times, a mirror would have been a piece of metal that had been polished to give a reflection. We aren’t talking about a mirror in our bathroom now that can see every pore on our face. The best mirror gave only a dim representation of the face of the beholder. We see the way God works in the same way now.

But when that perfect comes, spoken of in verse 10, we will no longer dimly see. We will no longer think or reason like a child, but we will be in the perfected eternal state. All immaturity, imperfection, childishness, and limitations that we have here on earth will be gone in the presence of our savior.

It is then that we will fully know, just as we are fully known. This is one of the most comforting sentences in the Bible, in my opinion. First, we have the promise that we who know Jesus will one day fully know what God has been doing. There will be a time when all the missing pieces will be filled in. All the questions will be answered. While here on earth we bear fruit and use our gifts to glorify God, but even with those gifts we are limited people serving an unlimited God. But one day we will know.

Secondly, this sentence tells me that I am fully known. By who? God. God fully knows who I am. He sees my highs and my lows. He has seen my best and he has seen me at my worst, but despite that, He still loves me. God still loves me. And God loved me enough to send His son to die for me. That is the catalyst that kicks off the chain reaction of this passage. The perpetual motion of Christianity is that God loved me enough to send His son to die for me, I can know that love, have my life transformed by the work of Jesus, be indwelled by the Holy Spirit, bear the fruit of the Spirit, and take the message that changed my life to others around me. The cycle continues on and on till eternity. I am fully known, I know what real love is, that my God would bleed and die for me, and I can let the world know what He has done.

Why would I do this? Because I understand love. I know what love is, and I understand love poured out for me. And as I have experienced this love, I then show that to a lost and dying world all around me. Nothing that I do matters if I am not motivated by a love for God and a love for others. That is our takeaway for today: our gifts don’t matter if they are not motivated by love.

It is because of the love I have experienced that I want you to know if you have never repented of your sin and turned to Jesus as your savior, I would love to talk to you about how that can be done. Today can be the day that you make that move from enemy of God to friend. We simply must repent, turn from sin, and turn to God. As we stand and sing I would love to speak with you.