Worship in Spirit and Truth 24 The Pre-eminence of Love - 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
Worship In Spirit and Truth • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 35:32
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· 5 viewsMorning 30 November 25
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53 He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies. 54 And he brought them to his holy land, to the mountain which his right hand had won. 55 He drove out nations before them; he apportioned them for a possession and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
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. 4 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. 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, evening as I have been fully known. 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Introduction
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Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul gave the world a love letter without equal. Here is Paul’s writing at its best on a subject that awakens everyone’s interest, love. His presentation of love, however, is without sentimentality, devoid of sensuality, and free from sexuality. The love that Paul has in mind is divine in origin and transcends earthly meanings. It is expressed in the well-known verse, “For God so loved the world” (John 3:16). The human mind cannot fully grasp the depth of that divine love. Kistemaker, S.
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1. A Clanging Cymbal v1
1. A Clanging Cymbal v1
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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.
The Corinthians, like many today, were obsessed with the gift of tongues. They had let many other things go and Paul had to challenge them on a number of issues that were bringing the name of Christ and his Church into disrepute.
31 But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.
a. Tongues of Men and of Angels
a. Tongues of Men and of Angels
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.
Paul speaks hypothetically of a possible mastery of both human and angelic speech.
Is using hyperbole - The meaning of HYPERBOLE is extravagant exaggeration .
We do not know what the tongues of angels are.
3 And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— 4 and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.
b. But Have Not Love
b. But Have Not 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.
Love is the binding agent, the foundation, the edifice, the pinnacle of what a true believer and God glorifying Church is.
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10 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.
c. A Noisy Gong or a Clanging Cymbal
c. A Noisy Gong or a Clanging Cymbal
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.
Noisy, impressive, proud, arrogant, domineering, vacuous, empty like a deflated balloon.
This is what so many of these Corinthians were like. Tragically there are so many of them today.
We need the love that God alone can give. A love the permeates the entire context of Christin living.
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2. Power, Understanding, Faith v2
2. Power, Understanding, Faith v2
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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.
a. Prophetic Powers
a. Prophetic Powers
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.
Prophecy is that which strengthens and edifies the Church. It is not just predicting the future it is also proclaiming God’s truth now.
10 Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz: 11 “Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” 13 And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
5 Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 6 but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.
However, a false prophet speaks words not out of love for God’s people but for personal gain. A prophet who speaks presumptuously in God’s name or in the name of other gods must be put to death, says the Lord God.
20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’
b. Mysteries and Knowledge
b. Mysteries and Knowledge
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.
Mysteries and knowledge. Once again Paul speaks hypothetically by saying that even if he understood all mysteries and all knowledge, but had no love, it would be of no avail to him. Kistemaker, S. J.,
8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit,
1 Corinthians: Crossway Classic Commentaries “The Greatest of These …” (Verses 1–13)
Mysteries are secrets that divine revelation alone can make known, things undiscoverable by human reason. And the gift of prophecy was the gift of revelation by which such mysteries were communicated;
1 Corinthians: Crossway Classic Commentaries “The Greatest of These …” (Verses 1–13)
And all knowledge. That is, “and though I have all knowledge.” By knowledge is meant the intellectual apprehension of revealed truth.
c. Faith
c. Faith
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.
Faith is God’s gift to man, a gift which the recipient must constantly exercise, strengthen, and amplify (see 12:9). When faith lies dormant, it disappears, while unbelief and disobedience take its place/Kistemaker, S
20 He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”
The remark on moving mountains is a Jewish proverbial saying that conveyed the idea of making the impossible possible. It attests to the intensity of exercising one’s faith to remove insurmountable barriers. Both Jesus and Paul, in their respective contexts, allude to this proverb. Kistemaker, S. J
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1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
The brevity of Paul’s conclusion, “I am nothing,” is forthright and to the point, for indeed, faith without love is ineffectual. Kistemaker, S.
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3. Self Sacrifice v3
3. Self Sacrifice v3
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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.
a. Give Away All that I Have
a. Give Away All that I Have
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.
Paul says that he would give away all his possessions piecemeal over a lengthy period. The obvious implication is that he would receive the praises of his fellow men. But Paul adds that if he would perform deeds of charity without love for the recipients of his gifts, those deeds would not mean anything at all. Then his motives would be self-centered and self-serving. His deed would fail to fulfil the royal law, “Love your neighbour as yourself” (James 2:8), and would be condemned in God’s sight.
8 If you really fulfil the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself,” you are doing well.
b. Give My Body to be Burned
b. Give My Body to be Burned
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: Crossway Classic Commentaries “The Greatest of These …” (Verses 1–13)
“Though I give my body to be burnt for others—that is, though I should die for them, without love it profits me nothing.”
If done without love it is worthless.
Paul died AD60? Nero’s persecution AD64
Conclusion
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35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
