Love Lasts Forever

Bottom line

We should seek to be known by the way we love others above anything else.

Opening Line

John 13:34–35 NLT

So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

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Introduction

Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. Jesus isn’t just telling them to be nice to each other, or love each other the way the world does. Jesus is saying here that the love that the disciples were going to show was different then anything the rest of the world ever experienced. It was so different that it would set them apart.

Main Point

So what does this love look like? More importantly, does your love resemble the kind of love that Jesus is hinting at?

Why it matters

The reason I ask that question is beause of how Paul ended the last chapter of 1 Corinthians.

1 Corinthians 12:31 NLT

So you should earnestly desire the most helpful gifts. But now let me show you a way of life that is best of all.

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I love that. Paul isn’t saying that the way of life he is going to show is slightly better. He doesn’t present it as an option that the church needs to seriously consider. He says that this way of life I am going to show you, it is the best of all. I would add, in light of what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, that the way of life Paul is about to describe is the only way that will endure to the end. When all else fades away, this way of life will remain.

Scripture

1 Corinthians 13:1–3 NLT

If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

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This is such a significant statement that Paul is making right here. He just finished talking about spiritual gifts in chapter 12 and how each of them are a necessary part of the body of Christ. But those gifts are meaningless if you don’t love others.

Then he dives into knowing the secret plans of God and all knowledge, something that the Corinthians would have greatly prized. As a centre for philosophical thought, knowledge was one of the most noble pursuits a person could have. But Paul squashes that by saying that if you don’t love others, all your knowledge amounts to nothing.

Even if you gave everything you had to the poor and sacrificed your own body, but didn’t love, you gain nothing. But wait, why would you give everything you had to the poor if you didn’t love them? Well, Jesus talks about this in the Sermon on the Mount. He pointed out how hypocrites would often make a spectacle of their giving, and they had received there reward.

Paul is breaking down for church’s typical marks of achievement. It doesn’t matter how spiritual you may appear, or how generous you are with everything, if it is not fueled by love, it doesn’t amount to anything. Which shouldn’t really surprise us, right? For the last couple of chapters, Paul has talked about seeking the good of others above your own good, and earnestly desiring the most helpful gift. Love should motivate us to serve and give. Pursuit of spiritual gifts should come from a desire to serve the church and community better, not for how it makes you look.

Why is Paul saying that? We are going to jump down to verse 8 before we circle back.

1 Corinthians 13:8–12 NLT

Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless. When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

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Why do you need to love others above all else? Because love is the only thing that is going to last forever. Spiritual gifts and knowledge are all going to pass away. I think we generally accept the fact that the things of the world will pass away, but even some spiritual things are going to pass away. They serve a purpose in the here and now, but when perfection arrives, those things are no longer necessary.

Which brings me an important point. There are some in ther gerenal church that believe that the gifts of the spirit have already ceased. The stance is called cessationism, and they believe that the perfection that Paul is speaking about here is the completion of the Word of God.

Now let me ask you. Based on what Paul is describing here, would you say that perfection has arrived? Paul talks about how we only know in part now, but then we will know everything completely. I know that many of you are smarter than I am so I ask you; do you know everything completely, just as God knows you completely?

No. Which means perfection has not come, which means we still need the spiritual gifts to operate within the church. We still need that spirit empowered life if we are going to see the Kingdom of God advanced here on earth. Perfection has not come.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I cannot wait for that day to arrive. Paul says that when perfection comes, you and I will be as different then we are now as an adult is from a child. We will see things differently, understand things differently. But he is clearly describing a time that has not come yet, when everything shall be revealed.

When perfection has come, and all that will not last has passed away, what will remain?

1 Corinthians 13:13 NLT

Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

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Faith, hope and love will remain, with the greatest of them being love.

So what is this love that will remain? What does it look like and how can we put it into practice?

1 Corinthians 13:4–7 NLT

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

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Some important points to draw out from this different kind of love that Paul describes. Love is patient AND kind, not OR kind. You don’t get to pick one or the other in a given situation. In the love that Paul is calling the church to, there is no running out of patience or testing patience. Love is patient and kind.

Love is not jealous. I need to clarify something here. Love in the setting of a marriage is jealous. You should love your spouse so much that if someone even looks at them seductively you will end that in a hurry. In the realm of a marriage, love is jealous.

However, in the setting that Paul is describing, love is not jealous when someone else succeeds. Love doesn’t envy when someone advances or gets something you really want. In fact, Paul just said in chapter 12 that in the church, each part celebrates when one succeeds. There’s no room for that kind of jealousy in love.

Love is not boastful or proud; in other words, love is humble. Instead of elevating oneself at the expense of another, love will actually try to elevate someone else by thinking of them more highly then yourself.

Love is not rude, which more or less goes with being kind.

It does not demand its own way. This was a fun lesson I tried this week to impart on my kids. Right now we are in this season where the girls fight for the front seat. So this week I was trying to teach them that instead of insisting that it was their turn in the front, they should ask their sister if they would like a turn. It was a tough go, but they started to get it.

To put it another way, this love that believers share is selfless rather than selfish.

It is not irritable, or it is not easily angered by minor inconveniences.

It keeps no record of being wronged. This is also known as keeping short accounts, or being quick to forgive. Holding onto past wrongs is another way of saying that you are holding onto unforgiveness. Jesus was pretty clear that if you forgive, the Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive, you will not be forgiven. It is hard to keep a record of wrongs when you freely and frequently forgive others.

It does not rejoice about injustice, but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love doesn’t celebrate when someone ‘gets whats coming to them’. Remember, Paul just said that if one member of the body, the whole body hurts with it. Same principle; you don’t hope someone gets theirs.

Instead, love celebrates whenever the truth wins out. What if the best way to love your community, or your country by extension, is taking a stand for truth. Not your truth or truth as defined by any other means then the truth of God’s word. You should celebrate when God’s kingdom is advanced, and the values that God has passed onto you are unpheld in the public realm. I think you should celebrate those who are willing to be vocal. I believe we all have a responsibility to stand for truth, but I also believe that some are called to be more vocal about it then others.

Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every cirucumstance. I can’t help but think of the prodigal son. For those who don’t know the story, Jesus tells a parable about a son who asks for his share of his inheritance while the father is still alive. He gets it and runs off to squander it. After the money is all gone and he is reduced to feeding pigs, longing to eat their food, he decides to go home and beg for mercy. Instead of anger, the father runs to him, embraces him, and clothes him in the finest clothes he can find. Despite the son basically telling his father he wished he were dead, the father never stopped hoping, waiting, longing for his son to return.

Love will last forever.

Transition to Application

I don’t know about anyone else, but when I read that list, there are a few areas I’m good, but a lot that need work. But to consistently exhibit that love in its entirety all the time feels like a tall order.

Main To Do

I think this is why Paul says that love will endure when everything else will fail. The love that Paul describes is going take your whole life to practice and get right.

I think it starts with memorizing those 4 verses, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. Get those verses into your brain so that they are quick to recall when you need them most.

Then take it one aspects at a time, one relationship at a time. Start with your relationship with God. Are you patient with God, trusting that He will move when the time is right? Are you humble before the Lord, submitting to his instruction, or doing your own thing?

Then work your way down. Your marriage, your kids, your friends and co-workers. Work on a different aspect with each relationship, showing this next level kind of love that Paul calls us to.

Why it matters

The reason you need to grow in this area is because it is the only area that will endure. How well did you love your fellow believers, especially in light of the love that Jesus shows you.

Which brings us to communion.

Closing Line

Love others like Jesus loved you.

Discussion Questions

What stood out from the message?

How can we intentionally demonstrate the love that Jesus describes in our daily interactions?

Reflecting on Paul's description of love in 1 Corinthians 13, which aspect do you feel you need to work on the most in your relationships?