USELESS Fellow

A person without Love

have you heard this statement that was said about you or about your sibbling or for that matter about anybody.

may be it was your teacher or someone who knows you well

i’m sure we all would have heard this about our selves one time at least if not more.

for some of us this is a resounding statement all life long.

we all have made mistakes yeah

and some of them can be a blunder mistake.

and i’m sure that you at least thought to your self that you are an useless fellow. or at least what you did was useless.

not only in your life, there may be situations at your work place that you might think that what i am doing here is useless.

i am sure that when you were in school or if you are in school, you might be thinking that why am i studying physics or maths or chemistry or for me it was social studies. why are we studying these useless stories and using storage space in our minds.

have you felt like what you see in this image on your screen that you were made a hammer but if the head of the hammer is fixed on a chain, can we hammer anything. maybe you an use this as an nunchuk but not a hammer.

or have you see these designer cutlery that is termed as rope cutlery. the intend of this object is to be used for dining, however its useless cause you cant hold them let alone carry anything with the spoon. or imagine cutting your stake with this rope knife.

it might look elegant, but its useless.

you might be thinking that i have a colleague like this.

or is someone talking about you like this?

in the scripture, paul makes statement like this. he refers to himself that i am nothing or i am useless, if........

1 Corinthians 13:1–3 ESV

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.

1 cor 13 is a chapter of love. this is a chapter that is sandwich in between the issues that Paul is addressing in the church about the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

so what is love and what is not love, we are going to see next week.

today we are going to see the character of a person who calls and functions as a christian / believer and is without love.

its like the hammer image or the cutlery image; you are supposed to be a christian, full of love, but you don't have love.

last few weeks we talked about the gifts from the Holy spirit, gifts from Jesus and Gifts from God the father.

and Paul picks up from here saying the following

6 types of gifts mentioned here

Speaking in tongues of Men & Angles

Prophecy

Understand mystery (Knowledge)

faith to remove mountains

feeding the poor (giving)

ones body to be burned / consumed or overused, to be on fire.

all these are nothing or noise or of no value.

v 2 - i am nothing

v 3 - i profit nothing

QUESTION—What is meant by ‘I am benefited nothing’?

There is a different result for each of these attainments: I produce nothing of value (13:1), I am of no value (13:2), and I gain nothing of value (13:3) [EGT, ICC, MNTC]. This changes from ‘I am nothing’ (13:2) to ‘I am benefited nothing’ because the focus changes from the worth of the person to the worth of the acts [Gdt]. Everyone who serves the Lord will receive a reward only if he has love [NIC]. At God’s judgment he will receive no credit

in other words, if we dont have love, i’m useless and its useless

its like the time when the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait took place. the then Iraqi regime, issued new kuwaiti dinar notes. we had dinar in our hand but it was of no value because the currency serial number was invalid.

even if we had a million of the old currency, its of no value.

like the demonetization that happened few years back in India. overnight a lot of people who were millionaires went broke. it became of no value. it all was just paper.

in the same way the gift is valid an legitimate.

but if there is no love, its useless.

so LOVE is important a d essential to our christian walk

in the first part you are being Gods voice or his wish. but you are nothing without love

in the second part you are being Gods hands but you are nothing without Gods love.

1 Corinthians 13:1 ESV

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.

Language of Men & Angles

QUESTION—What kind of language is referred to in γλώσσαις τῶν ἀνθρώπων ‘tongues of men’?

1. This refers to foreign languages spoken by human beings [Alf, HNTC, Ho, Lns, MNTC, TG, TH, Vn]. It refers to common human speech [HNTC]. It refers to languages and dialects that the speaker has not learned such as happened at Pentecost [Ho, Lns]. It refers to being able to speak all sorts of languages with the eloquence of the greatest men [MNTC].

2. This refers to the gift of tongues [AB, Ed, EGT, ICC, My, NIC, NIC2, NIGTC, NTC, TNTC]. He means people speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit but not understanding what they are saying [NIC2]. It refers to tongues, but coupled with angelic speech, is general enough to include all kinds of speech [TNTC]. Both the preceding and following context argues for the sense of glossolalia [AB].

What is meant by γλώσσαις τῶν ἀγγέλων ‘the tongues of angels’?

It indicates that angels spoke among themselves in different languages than people [TG]. He refers to, but does not endorse, a view held by some in Corinth that the gift of tongues was an angelic language [NIGTC]. This phrase coupled with ‘tongues of men’ indicates all languages, human and divine [Ho]. This phrase coupled with ‘tongues of men’, indicates mystical utterance at its highest realization [EGT]. He refers to speaking with even angelic eloquence [MNTC]. The plural ‘tongues’ does not imply that angels spoke a number of languages. This is simply an addition meant to surpass what the Corinthians practiced in regard to tongues [Lns].

QUESTION—With the image being a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal, and the topic being a person speaking in tongues with no love, and what is the point of similarity.

The point of similarity is the lack of intelligent communication [AB, HNTC, ICC, TNTC]. The point of similarity is the empty hollow sound of heathen worship [ICC, NIC2, Vn]. The point of similarity is the lack of heart in both resounding gongs and people speaking in tongues without love [NIC]. Paul is saying that such action without love is without meaning [HNTC, NTC, TG, TNTC] and, in fact, pagan [HNTC]

NOISY GONG - SOUNDING BRASS

χαλκός (chalkos)

A metal of various types, such as copper or bronze

Copper money

could it be she sound of money clashing together?

Matthew 10:9 ESV

9 Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts,

Mark 12:38–44 ESV

38 And in his teaching he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces 39 and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, 40 who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” 41 And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. 42 And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. 43 And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. 44 For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

the treasury was a donation box that was kept to receive the offerings of people. they were made of metal.

so when the people put the offering the count of it was from the sound it made as the coins fell into the box.

thats how jesus knew that the widow put only 2.

because it sounded twice and it was little sounds because it was the small copper coins.

what is pauls trying to say. if you dont have love, you sound like the treasury box dead sound which the pharisees demanded to hear to pray for you.

Clanging Cymbals:

to cry out loudly in wailing, of people over one who has died

Shrill tones

it could mean the bad use of cymbals where its used to make a noise

or it could mean when two pairs of cymbals are clashing together. like metal pots hitting together.

it sound like when in you kitchen you have metal utensils stakked up together and by mistake you hit it and they all fall down. thats the sound. it wakes up all who are a sleep.

in my grand mothers house there was a cat. most of the afternoon, after lunch we keep the balance food out to have had for dinner.

quite often the cat will come to eat the left overs so the fist thing that we hear if a cat had come is the sound of the steel lid that falls on the ground.

you want to jump and chase the cat out of your dinning table

that sound means get rid of the cat.

Psalm 150:5 AMP

5 Praise Him with resounding cymbals; praise Him with loud clashing cymbals!

cry of war, joy of victory

what is Paul trying to say

you sound awfull if you dont have love.

like the treasury box