The Greatest Things

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THE GREATEST THINGS

What are the greatest things?

I am going to read the end of 1 Corinthians 13, then a little while later, I’ll read the rest.

1 Corinthians 13:13 NIV

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Faith, Hope and Love

Now, I want to talk about what i think is a unifying factor between these two. And it’s obvious with faith and hope, but not so obvious with love.

Define Faith - That one’s blunt in the bible. Hebrews 11:1

Hebrews 11:1 NIV

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

I want to highlight these two words - confidence and assurance.

Confidence in God and His Word is the root of faith

Hope is a little more difficult, we have to jump around a bit.

Romans 5:2-5

Romans 5:2–5 NIV

through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Romans 8:25

Romans 8:25 NIV

But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

Galatians 5:5

Galatians 5:5 NIV

For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope.

Are you seeing a common thread here? Qualities like perseverance and character lead to hope. Hope is patiently waiting - even eagerly awaiting.

I’ve talked about hope before, how we see hope as ‘man, i really hope this will happen’. Like, ‘I really hope I’ll win the lottery this time!’.

Biblical hope is rooted in certainty. Worldly hope is rooted in wishful thinking.

I saw a definition of biblical hope once as ‘the expectation or belief in the fulfillment of something desired’. So, hope in the bible isn’t ‘i really hope things will go well!’, its ‘i expect and believe they will in confidence’.

So we have these two traits - faith and hope. And both are rooted in this idea of confidence, assurance, eager expectation.

I will talk a little about faith and hope. It’s love I want to dwell on a bit. And I want to ask a starting question:

How do we build love on a foundation of confidence and certainty?

If we’re REALLY honest with ourselves, I think our definition of love will work like this. “I love everyone - but I don’t like everyone’. ‘I love everyone - but I can’t tolerate certain kinds of people or attitudes’. ‘I love everyone - when they are good’

But see, Paul here, he’s saying, a biblical concept of love is so firm and foundational that you can put it right up there with faith and hope in terms of the greatest things in our faith. And that’s saying something. Paul is saying, your faith, which is of greater worth than gold - love is right up there beside it. But loving each other tends to fall to the background. We strive so hard to make sure we stay in the faith - to Paul, we should be dedicating just as much effort to making sure we stay in love. So what kind of foundation can we lay to make sure that we are living biblical love?

read

1 Corinthians 13 NIV

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Love is certainty in the fact that my spiritual gifts are useless to me without love

This sounds REALLY counter intuitive. Because Jesus said, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you can tell this mountain to go jump in a lake and it will. How could Paul say, moving a mountain isn’t enough without love? But it’s true!

Every quality Paul names off at the beginning of the chapter are amazing things. There’s no misunderstanding. If we saw a person who was speaking in the language of angels, practicing prophecy, understood all mysteries and had complete knowledge, could move mountains, and gave away all his possessions and surrendered himself to hardships - we’d pat that person on the back! We would hold them up and say this person - they’re a GREAT example of how we should be.

But Paul gives us a warning - he says,

1 Corinthians 13:11-12

1 Corinthians 13:11–12 NIV

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

Paul literally says, don’t be childish - you need to be mature and understand that you don’t see things fully from this side of eternity. And it’s funny how, maturity in this case means accepting that we don’t see things fully clearly - often, we think that works the other way around.

Paul gives us the real metric to ask about someone and if they are walking in spiritual maturity - are they loving? Because if all you’re looking at are these spiritual gifts here, if that person doesn’t have love - they aren’t anything.

And Paul goes through three different ‘nothings’ here, if you didn’t notice. With tongues, he talks about how without love, we’ve accomplished nothing. With prophecy and faith, he says without love we ARE nothing. And with giving away to the poor and surrendering to hardships, without love, we GAIN nothing. Paul’s covering all the bases. You haven’t done anything, you haven’t gained anything, and you haven’t become anything, if you don’t have love.

So what do we do about that?

VIDEO

Love is certainty in the idea that I have to do more work than the other person

From verse 4 to 7, Paul gives an amazing description of what love is. And I read over this section a whole bunch of times to make sure I could say this confidently: not one word of what paul speaks about the definition of love critically depends on what the other person is doing, being, thinking, believing, saying, wearing, Nothing. Love is about responding to those things, but at no point does paul say, ‘now, love also means, the other person has to (BLANK)’

Is the other person aggravating? Be patient with them. Is the other person deserving of scorn or mistreatment? Be kind. Do they seem ‘better than you?’ don’t envy. Do they seem less than you? don’t boast or be proud.

Do they seem like they don’t deserve honor? Don’t dishonor them. Do they make you feel like YOU deserve more honor? Don’t be self seeking. Are they making you angry? don’t be easily angered. Are they doing wrong things? Don’t keep a record. Do they seem to be a mixture of evil things and truth? Don’t delight in the evil - rejoice with the truth.

It’s almost like saying, do everything you can to always give that other person more chances.

Always seek to protect the other person. Always trust (That’s a hard one!). Always hope for the best. And always, always persevere.

I heard it said once, that if you read through the entire new testament looking for the behaviours of the early church, you could say seemed to constantly be trying to one-up each other in love and service. That’s an amazing perspective.

Love is certainty in the idea that love is the greatest thing

we should want to see operating

I read all of 1 Corinthians 13, and that seems like enough context to understand a verse. But if you keep reading around, you see a trend.

1 Corinthians 12, the main idea? The spirit is working in all believers for the common good, so keep unity and build each other up.

1 Corinthians 14, the main idea? The spiritual gifts exist to build up the rest of the body, so look for order in the service, to make sure other people are being edified.

We use a part of this chapter to talk about romantic love - Paul wrote this entire thing to talk about how a church should operate.

Paul devotes a HUGE amount of 1 Corinthians to driving this simple point home again and again and again - REAL faith in you individually doesn’t just build up you individually - it builds up everybody. REAL hope in christ in yourself doesn’t just draw YOU in individually - it inspires other people to be drawn in.

And love is the greatest foundation because it is the primary way God reminds us to not just think about ourselves - that there are other people in the body too. And faith and hope don’t operate correctly without that conviction. Paul later in corinthians, calls the church out for seeking an experience with spiritual gifts and church order that didn’t consciously build up the entire body. He says, did the word of god originate with you? Or are you the only people it’s reached?’

And you know what? Paul says, love is so great, that all the things we seek after in this life in terms of our spiritual experiences - we love to see healings, we love to see speaking in tongues, people being slain in the spirit, people speaking in prophecy - all of those things will one day disappear, but love will still be around. One day we won’t need healing, but we will need love. We won’t need tongues, but we will need love. We won’t need prophecy, but we will need love. You get the idea.

A life of certainty in love as the greatest thing here is the conviction that, we could see all the spiritual gifts operating in our church, but if people leave this place without feeling loved, feeling accepted. If they leave feeling rejected. If love is not the greatest thing we see operating in the church - then we have accomplished nothing.

And you see this truth reflected in reality if you pay attention. In church growth circles, and i’ve talked about this before, what’s the single greatest factor that determines whether or not a new person sticks around at a church? That they feel welcome. They have a place they feel connected, they feel like they belong. It’s not quality of sermon, or worship. It’s not facilities, or abundance of ministry programs. It’s love.

That’s why it feels like the ushers practically have a more important job than me on a sunday morning. They are the first face a person sees coming through the door, and first impressions are really important.

In my experiences, what’s one of the greatest factors that drives families with children to continue in a church? They feel like their kids are loved and accepted. I could build a giant funhouse on the side of this building, fill the entire place with balloons, and make this the most fun building for a thousand kilometers in any direction - if their children leave feeling rejected and unloved, feeling looked down on, they are gone. Kids speak the language of fun, and we teach them through fun so they actually listen and understand - but they NEED the language of love.

If love is the greatest thing here to Paul, then love needs to be the greatest thing our church exports.

And, sidebar, we’ve been talking about spiritual gifts here. And that’s a really important topic to a lot of churches - as it should be! and, often, that conversation steers to the topic - how do we see more, or how do we start seeing, spiritual gifts operating? What I have learned in all of my years of studying the bible is this - ask the questions the bible asks. And in this case, it’s asking the question - are we loving? They may be counter-intuitive, they may not make sense to us - but they’re right.

Because, don’t be mistaken - God is not in the game of just indulging us in our every whim. He’s not here just to give us an experience to make us feel good. He’s got a plan and a purpose. And he DOES have a way he wants stuff done, but it’s not like our ways. I think it’s a red flag when God’s ways start to consistently look just like our ways all the time. God is so infinitely good, and powerful, and beyond our comprehension - I don’t think it’s possible for us to ever get to a point that we’re not needing to constantly evolve in our understanding of how to interact with Him.

And paul reminds us of this - he says, you’re only seeing a reflection of the true realities. some translations say ‘a dim mirror’. And his point isn’t to say with spiritual gifts - remember, you don’t know! He’s saying, remember, you aren’t seeing the full reality - so don’t ever forget that God’s greater priority for seeing the spiritual gifts operating is love for each other.

And I can promise you this much. Honoring God’s greater priority of love will lead to a greater outpouring of the spiritual gifts. Because as much as spiritual gifts are worthless without love, love is the function that enables spiritual gifts to be really meaningful and powerful in the church. God’s not in the game of playing ‘religious experience’ - he wants to build up his body.