Love Defined
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· 4 viewsA high-performance ministry detached from Jesus creates a carnal community.
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But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
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.
If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Introduction
Introduction
In this introduction session, my desire is to locate this years conference topic: love.
Session 1 – Love Defined
Session 2 – Love Described
Session 3 – Love Consummated
Picture with me the typical church in America in 2026.
Parking lots full of people.
Gifted music team with excellent performance.
People are serving and the church is growing to the tilt.
One thinks of Mary and Martha…
…Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”
A carnal community is not a church without ministry activity.
It is a church where ministry activity has become disconnected from love for Christ and love for one another.
What about the leaders?
The staff is busy, their calendars full.
Programs litter the calendar.
Disagreements among members about social issues.
Disagreements among members about styles.
Disagreements among the members about their leaders.
Pragmatic leaders – They measure success by attendance, budgets, systems, and growth.
Theological leaders – They emphasize doctrine, precision, confessions, and theological depth.
Shepherding leaders – They are concerned with counseling, discipleship, and caring for souls.
Missional leaders – They are consumed with evangelism, outreach, and engaging the community.
A carnal community asks, “Whose side are you on?” A spiritual community asks, “How can we together serve Christ?”
The Corinthian’s struggled to correctly apprehend the Spiritual gifts.
They loved the gifts but were deeply confused by them.
Their former paganism misused and even abused the gifts God gave (1 Corinthians 12:2-3).
Every believer has been given spiritual gifts, and it is our duty as Christians to exercise them in accordance with the Word of God (1 Corinthians 12:4-7).
4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
Every Christian is given gifts from above, that come from the hand of our Savior (Ephesians 4:7-10).
But is our biggest issue really gifting?
Everyone quickly acknowledges it’s not the biggest issue.
And like the Church in Ephesus we’re left
But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.
Could it be that the modern church’s problem is she has…
having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power…
Misconceptions of Love.
Misconceptions of Love.
What is love?
Modernity requires clarity on this question.
In a modern sense, I can say all of the following and it make sense,
“I love pizza”
“I love my cat”
“I love my wife”
“I love God”
All of these will make sense in a modern context.
The same way people speak of pepperoni pizza they will speak of their love for their wife.
I don’t think we can change the culture (even though the culture reflects something of a Christian ethic).
But we can think clearly on the topic of love.
The Greco-Roman world had a much different disposition toward “love” than we do in the West.
It’s not that the Greeks and Romans were holier than English.
But their speech was more nuanced.
Many people have observed the four loves within the Greco-Roman mind.
Eros (Romantic & Passionate Love)
Philia (Deep Friendship)
Storge (Familial Love)
Agape (Unconditional Love)
Eros (Romantic & Passionate Love)
Eros (Romantic & Passionate Love)
We will not consider this kind of love at all.
It’s what most country songs are about.
Philia (Deep Friendship)
Philia (Deep Friendship)
We get words from the Greco-Roman period like, “Philadelphia” (City of brotherly love).
This is brotherly love.
It’s love we share between friends.
Storge (Familial Love)
Storge (Familial Love)
This is the love you have for your children.
It is a “natural” love.
Unbelievers can have this kind of love.
Three of four of these loves can be shared with unbelievers.
The bulk of our time will be spent on the fourth kind of love.
Agape (Unconditional Love)
Agape (Unconditional Love)
This fourth category is used primarily in the NT, but it does not automatically translate to a good kind of love.
The God Who is Love
The God Who is Love
What was God doing before the world began?
In eternity past, what was God doing?
How we answer this question determines much of the character and nature of God.
If we primarily know God as Creator, then His character will be dependent on the creation.
“if God’s very identity is to be The Creator…then he needs a creation to rule in order to be who he is.” —Delighting in the Trinity
If we primarily know God as Ruler, we will inevitably think of Him as a “glorified traffic cop” (Delighting in the Trinity)
The Bible does give us insight into this…
Love from His nature
Love from His nature
Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
So when we read that God is love (1 John 4:8), we understand that God’s love is remarkably different than our own.
To say that God is LOVE, demands an object to love.
And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
What was God doing?
The Father was loving the Son, in the Spirit.
The Son loving the Father, in the Spirit.
This self-giving God is the Triune God of Scripture.
All of us are loved by other people.
Why do people love you?
Some are loved for what you do.
How you act.
Because you’re cute, or funny.
But the love of God does not respond to human loveliness.
The love of God is entirely different than the love of men.
The love of men is a responsive love.
God’s love is a creative love.
Natural Love – Horizontal Plane
God’s Love – Vertical Plane
God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Love that creates the lovely.
Love that creates the lovely.
Martin Luther would say,
“The love of God does not find, but creates, that which is pleasing to it. The love of man comes into being through that which is pleasing to it.”
The dominate way it’s used in the NT is God’s love for us.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ…
Application for all – God loves You
God doesn’t love you because of you.
If God’s love for you isn’t dependent on your performance, than you cannot lose His love.
And our subsequent love for each other.
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.
Our love for each other is an overflow of the love we have received in the gospel.
His love is a creational love that creates the thing pleasing to Him.
Notice how different our love is from God’s love…
Why do you love your wife?
Why do you love your kids?
A human love loves that which is lovely.
God’s love is radically different because it loves what is unlovable.
“Emotional love loves the other for the sake of itself; spiritual love loves the other for the sake of Christ.” —Life Together, Bonhoeffer
According to the Apostle Paul, the gift of love is the “higher gift” or “greater gift.”
31 But earnestly desire the higher gifts.
The word here for “earnestly desire” (Gk: ζηλόω) is the positive side of a desire, whereas the negative use is used earlier “jealousy” (1 Corinthians 3:3) (Gk: ζῆλος).
Paul likely is nodding here back to his previous reference of their jealousy.
Instead of contending against each other, he encourages them to contend for the “higher gifts” (1 Cor 12:31).
The excellent way will be to pursue that gift in thought and teasing out it’s implications in all of life.
Love is the gift that everyone has been given.
And I will show you a still more excellent way.
The Corinthians should be earnestly seeking after the higher gifts.
All believers have been giving the gift of love, so they thus should seek this excellent way.
1 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary (Schreiner) a. Gifts Useless without Love (12:31b–13:3)
Gifts build up the church, but love is superior since the goal and aim of the gifts is love.
Gifts for Ministry without Love
Gifts for Ministry without Love
This is an oxymoron.
It’s like dry rain.
Pittsburgh Pirates and winning.
Two contrary things.
The gifts that Paul will employ here are examples of the gifts he detailed in chapter 12 but lacking love.
The gifts listed here progressively get more impressive.
Gifts of skill, Gifts of wisdom, Gifts of power, and Gifts of sacrifice
You can do all of these gifts and if you don’t do it in love, it’s nothing.
What you say – Tongues without love is obnoxious clamoring.
What you say – Tongues without love is obnoxious clamoring.
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.
Think how important the gift of tongues would be in parts of the world where people speak of variety of languages?
The gift of tongues becomes paramount in cultures with diverse languages.
In the book of Acts, when the apostles speak, people from a variety of tongues can understand it.
This is remarkable feat.
Imagine being in a room with people you don’t speak the same language, and being given the utterance to speak in such a way that they can understand you.
It’s remarkable!
And to exercise the gift without love sounds like one of those monkeys that bangs the symbols.
To speak with an exalted tongue without love is like the loud, annoying blaring of a trumpet.
1 Corinthians Original Meaning
…tongues
We see Paul’s extravagance even with the “tongues of angels…
1 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary (Schreiner) a. Gifts Useless without Love (12:31b–13:3)
[E]ven if believers speak in the most exalted languages imaginable, if they do not have love they are like instruments that make an annoying and irritating sound.
The eloquent speaker that lacks love is merely a shrill cymbal.
You can picture the Corinthian believers then flocking to the kind of men that speak eloquently and desiring to speak like them.
They are pursuing vanity.
What you do – spiritual power without love is nothing.
What you do – spiritual power without love is nothing.
This list progressively gets more intense: prophesy, all mysteries, all knowledge, and all effective faith.
These all seem to be hyperbolic to prove Paul’s point.
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.
Gifts of power: things like prophecy, and faith.
Prophecy that understands all knowledge, faith that moves mountains.
These things come to nothing without love.
Power of Prophecy & Knowledge
Power of Prophecy & Knowledge
A person gifted in prophecy speaks spontaneous revelations from God.
I understand the gift of prophecy to be identical with what we understand as preaching.
The prophecy that produced new revelation is done, but what we see is the prophecy that expose revelation into new spheres.
Power of Faith
Power of Faith
Paul uses faith here because it seems different than Jesus’ use in Matthew 17:20
In Matthew 17:20, Jesus isn’t lauding the person’s great faith as much as showing how small of effective faith.
Paul seems to be using the word “faith” here more with respect to a gift of faith that a person has.
But all of these things are nothing without love.
Great manifestations of the Spirit without love do nothing.
What you give – Sacrifical giving without love is futile.
What you give – Sacrifical giving without love is futile.
If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
You’ll notice a footnote in the ESV that says,
“Some manuscripts deliver up my body [to death] that I may boast”
The difference between the translations is the difference of one letter.
Most of the later manuscripts picked up on the “to be burned” language because of the high volume of martyrdom in the 1st century at the stake.
“to be burned” – means that a person is giving their body up for another in martyrdom (dramatic overstatement)
Similar to Daniel’s friends in Daniel 3:28, they were given over to the fire, but without love they would have gained nothing.
If I give away everything I own, and if I give over my body in order to boast, but do not have love, I receive no benefit.
“to boast” – meant for a person who willing gave themselves over to slavery on behalf of another.
1 Corinthians Original Meaning
the ancient practice of selling oneself into slavery to raise funds for distribution to the poor.
Regardless of translation choice: if a person gives everything to be gain without love is nothing.
1 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary (Schreiner) a. Gifts Useless without Love (12:31b–13:3)
Love cannot be restricted to actions alone but also has to do with motives and intentions.
A high-performance ministry detached from Jesus creates a carnal community.
A high-performance ministry detached from Jesus creates a carnal community.
Corinth teaches us that gifted ministry is not the same thing as spiritual maturity.
Churches can be active, growing, gifted, influential, and still be deeply carnal.
Why?
Because love is not produced by ministry performance.
Love is produced by abiding in Christ.
Just as Jesus says in John 15:4-5
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
This is not merely for the salvation of sinners.
This is also for the continued sanctification of sinners.
Especially for the growth of sanctified sinners in community with one another.
“Like the Christian’s sanctification, Christian community is a gift of God to which we have no claim. Only God knows the real condition of either our community or our sanctification. What may appear weak and insignificant to us may be great and glorious to God.
Just as Christians should not be constantly feeling the pulse of their spiritual life, so too the Christian community has not been given to us by God for us to be continually taking its temperature. The more thankfully we daily receive what is given to us, the more assuredly and consistently will community increase and grow from day to day as God pleases.
Christian community is not an ideal we have to realize, but rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate. The more clearly we learn to recognize that the ground and strength and promise of all our community is in Jesus Christ alone, the more calmly we will learn to think about our community and pray and hope for it.” —Life Together
