A Better Way

Introduction

Pullin' out my big black book Cause when I need a word defined that's where I look So I move to the L's quick, fast, in a hurry Threw on my specs, thought my vision was blurry I looked again but to my dismay It was black and white with no room for grey Ya see, a big "V" stood beyond my word And yo that's when it hit me, that luv is a verb

We’re going to be in 1 Corinthians 13 this morning. We’re continuing our short dive into the middle of Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth. 1 Corinthians 13, that’s on page 652 of the white pew Bible.

That song I just quoted was from dc Talk’s 1992 record Free at Last, the song called Luv is a Verb. A little goofy, perhaps, but accurate nonetheless.

The song continues:

Words come easy but don't mean much When the words they're sayin' we can't put trust in We're talkin' 'bout love in a different light And if we all learn to love it would be just right

Here’s our major takeaway from 1 Corinthians 13: Christians must demonstrate self-sacrificial love because love, not gifts, is the truest expression of Christ-likeness and love, not gifts, is what will last forever between his disciples.

Christians must demonstrate self-sacrificial love because love, not gifts, is the truest expression of Christ-likeness and love, not gifts, is what will last forever between his disciples.

In this letter to the Corinthians, Paul has been instructing the Corinthian church on how to order their worship in a proper way. The members of the church at Corinth, it seems, have been acting in an extremely selfish way. They’ve been elevating themselves instead of helping others, turning a blind eye to sin, and forming themselves into little cliques.

So, Paul writes this letter to tell them to get their act together. Last week, we saw how he specifically taught them that spiritual gifts, manifestations of the Holy Spirit for believers, were given in order to promote diversity within the unity of the body and to unify their natural diversity.

Remember our main idea from last week:

The one Holy Spirit gives a variety of gifts within the church, with the intention that they are used for the common good to build one another up in the faith.

Bringing diversity to our unity and building unity within our diversity.

And he affirms, spiritual gifts are good. They are God-given, after all. But the Corinthians were using them abusively, to promote themselves, to make themselves look good. And they were looking down on people in the church who had been given what they considered to be “lesser” gifts. Gifts that weren’t flashy or showy or put you in the spotlight. They thought those weren’t as good.

Paul says, not only are those good, we actually ought to give more honor to those gifts because they are less showy.

And when we get to the end of chapter 12, actually, that’s where we’re going to start today, 12:31, Paul says, “Yeah, it’s OK to desire gifts. If there is a spiritual gift that you’d like, there’s nothing wrong with asking God for it.”

The Father gives good gifts to His children, Jesus said. So, desire the greater gifts. But then he says, I will show you an even better way.

Now, stick with me, because we have to do some grammar work real quick to follow Paul’s train of thought. In 12:31, he says “Desire the greater gifts.”

Now, look at 14:1: “Pursue love and desire spiritual gifts.”

So, here’s what’s happening: Paul is starting a new train of thought in 12:31. He’s just finished his setup that gifts are to be used for the common good to build one another up, and now he’s going to tell them with specifics how they are to use their gifts, especially tongues and prophecy. That’s chapter 14. So in 13, he immediately interrupts his train of thought with almost this parenthetical statement. Imagine, as it were, a set of parentheses around all of chapter 13.

“I’m going to tell you how to use your gifts in the church, but first, let me just say up front that all of these gifts have to function in this way, the better way…in love. The way you guys are using your gifts right now is going to tear your church apart. You are using your gifts to build yourself up at the expense of others. I’m going to show you the way that is beyond comparison: Using your gifts in love, that is, seeking the good of others before yourself, edifying the church, and seeking the common good.

Christians must demonstrate self-sacrificial love because love, not gifts, is the truest expression of Christ-likeness and love, not gifts, is what will last forever between his disciples.

Love...

And so, now to our text:

1 Corinthians 13 CSB

1 If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, 5 is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. 6 Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put aside childish things. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known. 13 Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love—but the greatest of these is love.

The passage that is so often used in weddings, it turns out, really has little to do with romance. Paul writes it in the context of a church that is ripping itself apart from the inside through selfishness, everyone demanding their rights, and thinking about me, me, me.

This is a passage for the church, to tell us how to operate and serve one another. And in it, we find a clear expression of the gospel of Jesus Christ, who is love itself.

PRAY

Paul wants us, the Church, to desire gifts of the Holy Spirit. But, they are not to be divorced from their intended purpose, to be used in love, to look out for others instead of ourselves. In fact, he says, without love, gifts, no matter how great, mean absolutely nothing.

Love is Necessary

Our first point today, verses 1-3: Love is Necessary.

Christians must demonstrate self-sacrificial love because love, not gifts, is the truest expression of Christ-likeness and love, not gifts, is what will last forever between his disciples.

Paul starts this section laying right into the Corinthians. Remember, in their minds the ability to speak in tongues, to speak in a language that they hadn’t studied, was the premiere gift of the Spirit and it made you better than anyone else.

And Paul comes right in and says, if I speak in tongues, heck, if I speak the language of angels, but I don’t do it in love, all I’m doing is making obnoxious noise.

Then he goes on to list all of these other gifts, gifts that he’s just finished telling them are important in the life of the church, and says they are completely pointless if they aren’t exercised in love.

Can you prophesy, can you preach like Charles Spurgeon or George Whitefield? If you don’t do it in love you are nothing.

Do you have knowledge of the Scriptures? Are you a walking tome of spiritual wisdom from the pages of the Bible? If you aren’t sharing it in love, you are just a bag of hot air.

And he doesn’t stop just with gifts, he lays into their, and our actions, as well. Are you an extremely generous person? Are you willing to give everything away, are you even willing to sacrifice your own body? If you don’t do those things in love, you gain nothing.

He’s not saying that these activities are pointless. The activity isn’t at stake. The person doing them is at stake. I am nothing, he says. I gain nothing.

All of these things are good things, what is not good is religious performance, putting your gifts on display when you aren’t acting in love, which we’ll see in the next paragraph and our next point.

Remember, the Corinthians thought the mark of a spiritual person was that they had flashy spiritual gifts. No, Paul says, the mark of a spiritual person is that they are a loving person.

The question before us this morning, then, is this: what do you think the mark of a spiritual person is? Put that into Paul’s words...

If I go to church every Sunday, but do not have love...

If I give money to the church regularly, but do not have love...

If I preach like Spurgeon, but do not have love...

GET THE COVENANT

Love is necessary. Regardless of what your gifts may be, or what you may give, or how much you may sacrifice, if you aren’t acting like a loving person, you are nothing spiritually. Without love, you have missed the point of being one of Christ’s disciples. A failure to act in love is a mark of spiritual bankruptcy, no matter how good you may look or what you might do.

So, if we are to act in love, what does love act like?

Love is Others-Focused

Paul tell us, at least gives us some examples, of exactly how love acts in verses 4-7. Let’s read them again, probably one of the best known passages in all the Bible, and for good reason:

1 Corinthians 13:4–7 CSB

4 Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, 5 is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. 6 Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

We can sum it up this way. To act in a loving way is to look out for other people first, even if it costs you something.

To act in a loving way is to look out for other people first, even if, or perhaps especially when, it costs you something.

Christians must demonstrate self-sacrificial love because love, not gifts, is the truest expression of Christ-likeness and love, not gifts, is what will last forever between his disciples.

Love, as dc Talk said, is a verb. Bob Goff wrote an incredible book a few years ago with a simple yet elegant title which perfectly fits here: Love Does.

That’s Paul’s point. Love, for the Christian, is not just a feeling. It’s not merely affection or affinity. Love is a decision and love goes into action.

Look at the various ways he describes love:

Love is patient and love is kind. On one hand, a loving person is forbearing toward those who do them wrong, offering quick forgiveness and a long lead, they would rather suffer the wrong than lash out against someone. On the other they are kind toward them; they actually do active good on behalf of the person who wrongs them.

Matthew 5:40 CSB

40 As for the one who wants to sue you and take away your shirt, let him have your coat as well.

Paul goes on:

Love doesn’t envy, it doesn’t try to tear down someone else and cause division because of jealousy. No, love asks; How can I serve these people, fellow disciples who were bought with the blood of Jesus, regardless of what I want? It doesn't envy.

It doesn’t boast and it isn’t arrogant. Literally, Paul says a loving person doesn’t act like a windbag. A loving person isn’t someone who is full of hot air and always trying to draw attention to themselves. You can’t boast and love at the same time; it’s impossible. A boasting person wants others to look highly upon them. A loving person doesn’t care, but only wants what’s best for the church as a whole, even if that means they stay in the back.

Love isn’t rude. I actually like the KJV here, it doesn’t behave in unseemly ways. Paul is calling back to all of the things he’s chastised the Corinthians for so far. Love doesn’t hog all the good food and wine for themselves at the church dinner. Love doesn’t disrupt the church services with loud outbursts or flaunt their freedom in front of others. A loving person cares entirely too much for the other people of the church to act like that.

Love isn’t self-seeking, it seeks the good of others. I think Paul was intentional in placing this one at the center because it really is the fullest expression of what Christian love looks like. We are called, as disciples of Jesus, to seek the good of our neighbor — and our enemy — more than we seek our own good.

Love isn’t irritable, it doesn’t get angered easily. If your temper flares at the drop of a hat, you are not acting like a Christian, plain and simple. If there is a constant seething below the surface that is constantly in jeopardy of erupting at your wife or your kids, you are not displaying Christian love and it’s time to repent. It’s time to start loving. That might mean finding a counselor or a therapist. Listen, especially men, sometimes going to counseling is THE MOST loving thing you can do.

We’re running out of time, so I’m not going to elaborate on the rest. Love doesn’t keep a record of wrongs. It doesn’t rejoice in sin, but rejoices when the truth is proclaimed. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. I think he means for us to read that as “always.” Love always puts up with what’s going on and it always perseveres. It is resolute in present circumstances because it has a hope and a belief in the future. And that hope and belief enables us to live in whatever circumstances we find ourselves and constantly pour ourselves out for the good of others.

Love is others-focused.

Love is Eternal

Thirdly, love is eternal.

In the final verses of this chapter, Paul reminds the Corinthians that the gifts they are valuing so highly are only temporary. But the loving service of a disciple of Jesus will last forever.

Prophesy — preaching — he says, will come to an end. Praise Jesus, one day I’m going to be completely out of a job. I think I want to be a poet and a coffee shop owner in the new heavens and the new earth. We will see God face-to-face, you won’t need me to preach the Word anymore. The living Word will be with us forever.

The gift of tongues will cease, the gift of knowledge will cease — again, we will be in the very presence and full revelation of God. We won’t need to teach each other with tongues and knowledge. We will be before him together.

While we’re here, Paul says, this is summarizing 9-12, while we’re here we need preachers and speakers and teachers and apostles and all those. We know God in Jesus, but it’s like we’re looking into a mirror with a film on it. Forgive the modernization, but if Paul were writing this today he might say something like, yeah, we can see what’s on the screen of our iPad, but there’s fingerprints and smudges all over it. The glory of God is dimmed by our sinful nature, so we need the teachers and preachers and all the gifts now to help us see Jesus more clearly.

But that’s not always going to be the case. One day we will see him face to face.

And that’s why he says these things will remain: faith, hope, and love. These three words sum up the Christian faith. Faith, a complete trust that God forgives sin and accepts us in Christ. Hope, a recognition that the future is secure for us in Christ. And love, sacrificial service toward one another to build up the faith and hope of our fellow disciples.

Jesus is Love

Let me end with this thought.

Paul has shown us in this passage that love is necessary, other-focused, and eternal.

Love shows us our need for redemption. Our sin causes us to prize dramatic spiritual displays more than our neighbor’s good.

And this passage motivates us and enables us to live and to love in such a way because it ought to deepen our appreciation for the love of God in Jesus Christ. It is in Christ that we are able to live with such love. Not our own power.

Love is how we build one another up in the faith, rather than simply relying on spiritual gifts. If you desire the greater gifts, but God, in his wisdom, chooses to withhold them, you are not disqualified from beneficial life in the church. Far from it. Because there is a better way, one that is attainable for every disciple of Jesus, no matter how humble or ordinary.

We are not spiritual superheroes. We are normal. And there is a way for each of us normal people to participate in the life of the Church, to benefit the common good, and to build one another up in the faith.

It is love, the love of Jesus, revealing the very character of God. Jesus is patient. Jesus is kind. Jesus does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and Jesus does not keep a record of wrongs. Jesus finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. Jesus has borne all things and endured all things, to give us hope and belief in Him.

Our active expression of self-sacrificial love stems from the fact that Jesus is the embodiment of love. If you are in Him, you have that same love.

Where you fail to love, Christ has loved for you and therefore you are forgiven. Now, move toward Christ-likeness by giving up yourself and your desires and your comfort for the common good.

John 3:16 CSB

16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

God is love. And God gave.

Let’s pray.