Valentine's Day
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Good morning my brothers and sisters. Welcome to another online message from True Gospel Tabernacle in Duncan, Oklahoma.
We are doing an online message this morning because of the severely cold weather that has descended on Oklahoma, reports say this is the coldest weather in Oklahoma in 70 years.
My name is Les Calger. I am one of the ministers at True Gospel Tabernacle, and I bring you greetings from our Pastor, Suffragan Bishop Sherman P. Tyler.
If you are not a member of True Gospel Tabernacle, we encourage you to stay with us for this look into God’s Holy Scripture this morning.
We are going to start off our service with some special music this morning from Sister Audrey.
Today is Valentine’s Day. It is day when we celebrate those special loved ones in our lives, whether it be wives or daughters or mothers or just that special person who adds so much to our lives.
Our message today will be coming from 1 Corinthians, Chapter 13, which is known as the love chapter in the Bible, but before we get to that, let’s look at a little bit of early church history related to Valentine’s Day.
Every February 14th we celebrate Valentine’s Day, or Saint Valentine’s Day, or the Feast of Saint Valentine. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian Martyrs named Saint Valentine.
One of the more popular stories goes back to the third century. The Roman Emperor Claudius II believed that single men made better soldiers that married men and did not allow his soldiers to be married.
Saint Valentine would secretly perform marriages for the soldiers against the emperors orders. When Saint Valentine was brought before Claudius, he was offered his freedom if would renounce God and worship the pagan gods of Claudius. Instead of converting, Saint Valentine witnessed to the emperor in an effort to get him to follow the true path.
Claudius sentenced him to death, and while awaiting his execution, Saint Valentine converted his guard and 46 members of the guard’s family.
Saint Valentine was put to death of February 14, 269. I don’t know how much of that story is true, but it is interesting to note that Valentine’s day did not become a romantic occasion until about a thousand years later.
As I said earlier, today we are looking at the love chapter in the Bible, a chapter that has been used in countless weddings, and in other romantic kinds of contexts, but today we will see that this chapter is not talking about romance at all.
It is talking about the unbounded love that God shows for us, and how we, through God, are to love those around us.
Today we will take this chapter on love and discover:
Its value
Its virtue 4-7
And its victory 8-13
Love - Its value (vv. 1–3)
Love - Its value (vv. 1–3)
1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
Charity would be better translated as love, and is in some translations.
There are three words in Greek that we interpret as love.
One is Philao, it means a kind of brotherly love. Like Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love.
Then there is eros, we would translate this word as wild, unbridled passion. A love that burns like a fire out of control and is soon burned out. A love out of control. Compare it to a fire you have built in the middle of your living room. This word does not appear in the New Testament at all.
Then there is Agape, charity, the unselfish love that God has for us.
Liken this to a nice cozy fire, build in your fireplace, instead of the middle of your living room. It’s warm, comforting, and long lasting.
It says if I have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
Sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. The question I would ask is who of us really enjoys a nice cow bell solo.
You may consider yourself a great orator, or a great singer, but without love, agape love, it is harsh and unpleasant.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
Knowledge alone is not enough; love must be added to that knowledge. Understanding alone is not enough. Love must be added to that understanding.
I see this in a lot of our churches today. There is a knowledge of the Bible and an understanding of the truths of the Bible but a lack of love.
How terrible it is to find churches filled with gossip, bitterness, and hatred! Along with knowledge there must be love.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
This love is an act of the will.
Love involves the heart (v. 1),
the mind (v. 2),
and the will (v. 3).
Love is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.
Think of it this way:
Write down a string of zeros
prophecy alone is zero,
knowledge alone is zero,
understanding alone is zero,
faith alone is zero,
generosity alone is zero,
all these zeros lined up equal zero, but add Love, the number one, to the front of that line of zeros and now you have something that is worth something.
Without love, it is nothing.
Love - Its virtue 4-7
Love - Its virtue 4-7
4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
Love is patient and kind.
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32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
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Envieth not. The first murder committed in the Bible occurred over envy when Cain killed Able.
It means not looking at someone else’s circumstance and saying, why has the Lord blessed him with so much when I have so little.
charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
its not braggadocios, it doesn’t make more of itself than what is there.
Frilled lizard, norther Australia.
5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
Love does not behave itself unseemly; that is, it doesn’t act peculiar.
Now, it is true that in 1 Peter the believers are called a peculiar people, but it doesn’t mean they shouldn’t act peculiar.
We are to be courteous, we are not to be rude to others. We ought to be polite to others. Today I see a lot of unlovely religion. But love does not behave itself unseemly.
6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
Does it make you happy to see someone you know succeed, or do you get more pleasure in seeing someone you don’t particularly like, not succeed?
7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
This verse is not talking about being hopelessly naive, it is talking about being optimistic, seeing the good in others, and persevering through adversity.
Love - Its Victory 8-13
Love - Its Victory 8-13
8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
So many of the things that we put faith in shall vanish away. It is happening even today. Many of the things I was taught as science as a child have been disproved. The things that were cutting edge medical practice a hundred years ago are now considered archaic and cruel.
Love is the only thing that lasts, is eternal.
9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
We only know a part of the story, but when Jesus returns we will know the whole story.
11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
The image here is looking through the window in an old abandoned building. It’s dark on the inside and the grass is dirty and hard to see through. That is our vision, that is the part we can see now, of what God has in store for us.
13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.