1 Corinthians 13 Love
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 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 have not love, I am nothing.
3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 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.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.
11 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 childish ways behind me.
12 Now we see but a poor 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.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
This year we will be looking at ways of reaching out into the community. However we must realise that it is not the slick program that will attract people to Jesus the single most important thing is how people see us as Christians. Are we judgemental, are we hypocritical, are we party poopers…. So the question is are we really showing people that we are authentic Christians? What is an authentic Christian?
How do people know that you are a Christian? Going to church, reading your bible, praying, not swearing……. By this people will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." John 13:35
When Paul wrote to the church in Corinth he was writing to a church was that was anything but a good example to the outside world. It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not found even among pagans1Cor.5.1 The church members were bickering against each other they were taking each other to court and they were behaving in a most unloving way. Paul urges them to get their act together and his most powerful argument is that they should love one another. This passage t5hat we are lokingt at today is the greatest definition of love that you will find anywhere in the world.
Paul lists fifteen characteristics of Christian love.
1) Love is patient.
a) The Greek word ("makrothumein") used in the New Testament always describes patience with people and not patience with circumstances. Chrysostom said that it is the word used of the man who is wronged and who has it easily in his power to avenge himself and who yet will not do it. It describes the person who is slow to anger and it is used of God himself in his relationship with us. In our dealings with others, however nasty and however unkind and hurting they are, we must exercise the same patience as God exercises with us. Such patience is not the sign of weakness but the sign of strength; it is not defeatism but rather the only way to victory.
2) Love is kind.
a) Origen, a Christian leader around 200, said that this means that love is "sweet to all." . It’s not merely passive; it is actively engaged in doing good to others. It’s the picture of a person who spontaneously seeks the good for others and shows it with friendly acts. Not because you can get something back but simply because you want to show kindness to others.
3) Love does not envy.
a) It has been said that there are really only two classes of people in this world--"those who are millionaires and those who would like to be." There are two kinds of envy. The one covets the possessions of other people; and such envy is very difficult to avoid because it is a very human thing. The other is worse-- it does not so much want things for itself as wish that others had not got them. Meanness of soul can sink no further than that. Paul said that he had learnt to be content with what ever he had, 11 Not that I am referring to being in need; for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. 12 I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
4) Love does not boast.
a) There is a self-effacing quality in love. True love will always be far more impressed with its own unworthiness than its own merit. It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be confident but rather we should be aware of our own short comings just as much as our strengths and therefore keep a balanced view of who we are.
5) Love is not proud (not inflated with its own importance.)
a) The really great person never thinks of his own importance as being greater than anyone else’s. This creates a true humility in your life.
6) Love is not rude (does not behave gracelessly.)
a) Love creates that kind of charm and winsomeness that keeps persons from behaving “rudely”. Instead of practicing self-assertiveness, love makes us more tactful and polite. Love has a way of making us more concerned for the real needs of others and less preoccupied with our own rights. Not to be “provoked” means that when we love people we are good-natured and don’t have temper tantrums or “fly off the handle.” This makes us easier to live with.
b) It is a significant fact that in Greek the words for grace and for charm are the same. There is a kind of Christianity which takes a delight in being blunt and almost brutal. There is strength in it but there is no winsomeness. There is graciousness in Christian love which never forgets that courtesy and tact and politeness are lovely things.
7) Love is not self seeking (does not insist upon its rights.)
a) In the last analysis, there are in this world only two kinds of people--those who always insist upon their privileges and those who always remember their responsibilities; those who are always thinking of what life owes them and those who never forget what they owe to life. It would be the key to almost all the problems which surround us today if men would think less of their rights and more of their duties. Whenever we start thinking about "our place," we are drifting away from Christian love.
8) Love is never easily angered (never flies into a temper.)
a) The real meaning of this is that Christian love never becomes exasperated with people. Exasperation is always a sign of defeat. When we lose our tempers, we lose everything. The person who is master of his temper can be master of anything. It is much easier not to get angry with others when we realise that God doesn’t get angry with us when we make mistakes.
9) Love does not keep a reco4rd of wrongs. (does not store up the memory of any wrong it has received.)
a) The word translated store up ("logizesthai") is an accountant's word. It is the word used for entering up an item in a ledger so that it will not be forgotten. That is precisely what so many people do. One of the great arts in life is to learn what to forget.
i) A writer tells how "in Polynesia, where the natives spend much of their time in fighting and feasting, it is customary for each man to keep some reminders of his hatred. Articles are suspended from the roofs of their huts to keep alive the memory of their wrongs--real or imaginary."
ii) In the same way many people nurse their wrath to keep it warm; they brood over their wrongs until it is impossible to forget them. Christian love has learned the great lesson of forgetting.
b) When we are able to love, we don’t store up or keep a record of the wrongs that have been done to us. One of the most destructive things peopel do to each other is to keep track of the injuries or supposed injuries.
10) Love does not delight in evil (finds no pleasure in evil-doing.)
a) It might be better to translate this that love finds no pleasure in anything that is wrong. It is not so much delight in doing the wrong thing that is meant, as the malicious pleasure which comes to most of us when we hear something derogatory about someone else. It is one of the queer traits of human nature that very often we prefer to hear of the misfortune of others rather than of their good fortune. It is much easier to weep with them that weep than to rejoice with those who rejoice. Christian love has none of that human malice which finds pleasure in ill reports.
11) Love rejoices with the truth.
a) That is not so easy as it sounds. There are times when we definitely do not want the truth to prevail; and still more times when it is the last thing we wish to hear. Christian love has no wish to veil the truth; it has nothing to conceal and so is glad when the truth prevails.
12) Love can endure anything.
a) It is just possible that this may mean "love can cover anything," in the sense that it will never drag into the light of day the faults and mistakes of others. It would far rather set about quietly mending things than publicly displaying and rebuking them. More likely it means that love can bear any insult, any injury, any disappointment. It describes the kind of love that was in the heart of Jesus himself,
13) Love is completely trusting. This characteristic has a twofold aspect:
a) In relation to God it means that love takes God at his word, and can take every promise which begins "Whosoever" and say, "That means me."
b) In relation to others it means that love always believes the best about other people. It is often true that we make people what we believe them to be. If we show that we do not trust people, we may make them untrustworthy. If we show people that we trust them absolutely, we may make them trustworthy. Love can motivate others to believe in themselves an dto encourage them to bring the best out in themselves.
14) Love never ceases to hope.
a) Jesus believed that no one is hopeless. Jesus never gave up on his disciples even when they deserted him; he never gives up on us. So we should never give up on each other. We should be looking for ways to encourage each other to spur each other on.
15) Love always preservers, it never fails.
a) The verb used here ("hupomenein") is one of the great Greek words. It is generally translated to bear or to endure; but what it really describes is not the spirit which can passively bear things, but the spirit which, in bearing them, can conquer and change them. It has been defined as "a masculine constancy under trial." Love can bear things, not merely with passive resignation, but with triumphant fortitude, because it knows that all things work for good for those who love the LORD and are called according to his purpose.
16) One thing remains to be said--when we think of the qualities of this love as Paul portrays them we can see them realized in the life of Jesus himself.
17) It would be easy for us to give up and say well I could never achieve that so why bother?
18) However I believe that rather than give up it should spur us on to recognise that we all could be better and we should remember that the Holy Spirit has been given to us to empower us to live a life that reflects Jesus.
19) If we could try and develop this church as a loving church then I believe that we will be in th strongest position to reach out into the community. Even if we failed to achieve all the attributes that Paul outline we would still be in a very strong position. So let us all encourage one another to reach this high ideal let us “Love one another.”