1 Corinthians 13:1-

Intro

-The Corinthians church were not walking in turn with God’s Spirit

-selfish

-divided

-and living in the flesh

-Abused the Gifts of the spirits

-Little to no regard for others.

-They may have had gifts of the spirit,

-BUT they lacked the fruit of the spirit

-Paul reminds them in Chapter 13 that you could be the most spiritual gifted individual in the world and if you lack love you are NOTHING.

-Notice the context has nothing to do with weddings...

-The context is the love shared between brothers and sisters in the faith who share the fellowship of the same local church.

-AGAPE - Love

-Rarely used in ancient Greek lit

-most commonly used word for Love in the NT

-Not romatic of sensual love…like eros

-not in the NT

-Does not mean friendship or brotherly love like Philio

-NO…AGAPE IS A DEEPER KIND OF LOVE.

-SACRIFICIAL, PURE, SELFLESS, AND HOLY.

-Paul defines it for us in Chapter 13.

-IMPORTANT FOR US TO ALLOW THE BIBLE TO DEFINE LOVE.

-culture has mis-defined it.

I. Speaking Gifts without Love VS 1

-exaggeration here...

-speak in the tongues of men and of angels..

-hyperbolic language

-Saying if I had the greatest gift of eloquence and the greatest speaking gift in the world…and have not love I would be a clanging cymbal.

-It is interesting here that even someone of great eloquence could become nothing but noise.

-Even speaking truth without love is nothing but noise.

YOU CAN SPEAK THE RIGHT TRUTH IN THE WRONG WAY.

II. Knowledge & Faith without Love Vs 2

Prophetic powers -

Prophesy is a speaking gift, but it is related to knowledge because it is the proclaiming of knowledge.

Requires understanding....

-A man of God is obligated to share the truth of God in love.

Ephesians 4:15 ESV

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,

Understand all mysteries and all knowledge

-Mysteries - divine spiritual understanding

-knowledge - the grasping of facts and history etc

“all faith” - REMOVE MOUNTIANS

BUT HAVE NOT LOVE…I AM NOTHING

III. GOOD WILL & WITHOUT LOVE VS 3

“GIVE AWAY ALL I HAVE”

“DELIEVER BY BODY TO BE BURNED”

Some groups promote self-humiliation, self-harm, and self denial to earn spritiual favor in the eyes of GOd and men.

“Deliever my body to be burned” - somebelieve this is a reference to slavier

-Slaves often branded with a hot iron to make themelsves as owned property.

-could be a reference to being burned alive as a martyr

-I GAIN NOTHING