1 Corinthians 13, "The Way of Love"
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
What do you want people to say you accomplished with your life? How do you want to be remembered? What big thing do you hope will be your legacy?
We all want to see God do big, amazing things. We want to be part of them. I believe you come fully alive, fully human, when you walk in the way of Jesus. Walking any path includes using both feet. In this case the way of Jesus has two steps: 1. abiding in Him, and 2. being sent by Him to love God, love others, and make other disciples.
The way each of us makes disciples of Jesus will be similar because we are pointing everyone to Jesus. But our way will be unique too. We saw last week from 1 Corinthians 12 that God works through us in by giving us a variety of gifts, a variety of ways to serve, and a variety of activities. When these three line up for each of us, it’s like we’re firing on all cylinders. We can take pleasure in what God has invited us and called us to do to become profitable to Him and caring for others.
In our passage today, Paul will tell us that there are big things God can do through us, but nothing’s as big as the love.
Paul concludes 1 Corinthians 12 that chapter by saying,
But earnestly desire the higher gifts.
And I will show you a still more excellent way.
“Earnestly desire” is the literally, “be zealous”. The word for “higher” is mega, really big. The word for “more excellent” is hyperbole. We use this word in English to describe an excessive description of something. Everyone is about “mega” today. There are mega-meals, megabucks, Megamind, even mega-churches.
Paul is saying it’s okay to be excited over big gifts that God can use, but even the big gifts are nothing compared, and I cannot say too much about (hyperbole), the way they should be practiced.
And then comes the love chapter.
With a familiar passage of the Bible, it’s too easy to miss the main point because we have our favorite parts, or we’ve been told by so many people what we should think about it. So I hope to tell you nothing new, but also I hope to show you some angles that get missed.
The first is right here in 12:31. What Paul is about to describe is a “way”. The word is used of a road, a path, anything upon which you might walk to get to your desired destination. Our desired destination, as we saw last week, is to be profitable to God in His kingdom expansion and grow in mutual care for one another as we proclaim and demonstrate Jesus as Lord. Where is Jesus not known as Lord? Let’s go there, and cooperate with the gifts God has given each of us to serve others and do good work in Jesus’ name.
As we go along that path, here’s what you should keep in mind. You are going to need three tools, and one of these is the best one. You will need faith, hope, and love, but the “mega” of these three is love.
In Your Zeal for Mega, Love
In Your Zeal for Mega, Love
Paul uses some of the more miraculous and, from man’s perspective, powerful gifts as a lesson in the supremacy of love.
1 Corinthians 13:1–3 (ESV)
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 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. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
What do most people think the church needs to be effective, powerful, and relevant? We need good communicators. What do all the mega churches have? A good communicator on stage.
They also have smart people: educated, knowledgeable, prophetic leaders who can discern our times and will use God’s word to tell us how to live for God.
To do big things, we need people with the gift of faith, willing to be bold for Jesus. We need givers and martyrs, people who will give their money, time, efforts, and are willing to die for the faith. We need people sold out to the cause.
We think we need gifted people to have a successful gospel ministry. Paul says, nope! You need people who have learned love. Even if you had all of these gifted people all in one place, if you did not have love, you have done nothing, you are nothing, you gain nothing. It’s time to...
Learn the Hyperbole of Love
Learn the Hyperbole of Love
Paul describes love in verses 4-7 that make it clear he’s talking about love in a different way than we do. His version of love is not a disposition or a feeling. He’s talking about a person that we should get to know.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
This isn’t the love the world thinks it knows. It isn’t some squishing good feeling for the people, places, and things that make me feel good. Love is a person, as tough as nails, whose crown was not made of laurel leaves, but of thorns. This is someone that did not envy the political leaders in their comforts or the religious leaders with all their fawning followers.
When His few followers boasted about who was best, He set the example by becoming a servant to all. He was not arrogant or rude, but stopped at the roadside to touch the untouchable hurting. He submitted to the will of God the Father, even when it meant suffering and death. He was never irritated with anyone, and was not resentful of those who betrayed Him, abandoned Him, and crucified Him.
He did not rejoice with wrongdoing, but rejoiced every time someone discovered, understood, confessed, and lived the truth. Because He is the Truth. He bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. If He didn’t, He would have given up on His foolish followers, and would have run from the cross. But because he does, He has been raised to eternal life, which He shares with all who believe in Him.
God is love, and we know the love of God in Jesus, God with us. Long after all the “gifted” people have passed away, the people who have learned love live in God.
Paul is telling us, if you want to become fully alive, fully formed, fully human, if you want to do big things with your life, walk in the path of love. You’ll find Jesus there. But to walk this path, you’ve got to learn humility too.
To Grow Big, Embrace Small
To Grow Big, Embrace Small
Learning love is also learning humility. It’s embracing our limits.
Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
One day, everyone will know the glory of God, and no one will need to tell them. One day, every one of us will ascend the mountain of the Lord to be instructed by Him, and the smart people won’t seem so smart. One day, God will no longer require sacrificial giving because when He restores the world there will be no need. But on that day, love will still work. When you think about it, love was around before all these things were needed. God is love, after all.
Paul says that for all those who think they know so much, and all those who think they speak so well and clearly for God, they need to realize that anything we could ever know here is only a part of what God has for us to know, and whatever you can say for God is only part of what God will say to us when we see Him face to face.
For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
Those who depend on mega gifts and don’t love are still children.
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 gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
Every child has questions they are not able to understand until they grow up. Like, why do people hate other people who have a different skin color? Or why does grandma cry when I ask about grandpa? Or why do you go to work every day when I want you to play with me? Or why can’t I have all the candy I want? Or why can’t we get an elephant? Life is the best teacher. Just like we all had to grow up one day to understand these things, Paul says there are some things for now we will only see in a fuzzy way. But one day, we’ll all grow up when we see Jesus face to face. Right now, no matter how smart you think you are, I want you to know you couldn’t hold a candle to the Apostle Paul. You only know part of everything he could have taught us. But when you see Jesus, and realize it wasn’t about what you know, but about the One that knows you, you won’t care how many degrees you did or didn’t earn.
For the last 100 years, the successful churches were those that hired a gifted preacher who would speak with certainty on all the doctrinal issues that people have debated for 2,000 years or more. Paul’s inviting us into a new era.
I strive to be as certain and clear on the essentials of our faith. Nothing wrong with doctrinal certainty. But the better way is learning doctrinal humility. We only know a part of everything we will know, and we are all somewhat fuzzy in certain areas and we practice faith and hope.
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
But one day our faith will become sight, and we will have everything we hoped for. When we all see Jesus face to face all will be clear. Not because we got smarter. It was never about knowing stuff. It was, is, and always will be about knowing a person. The person of Jesus Christ. And better than that, being known by Him.
Implications for living:
Gospel ministry is not the work of “gospel preachers”. It is loving others through good works that demonstrate Jesus as Lord by serving with the gifts the Spirit of God has given each of us. We have enough preachers. We don’t have enough people who show up consistently to love others in Jesus’ name. Who is someone that is disconnected from the love of Jesus through the church, and how can you bring it to them with two other Christians?
Learning to serve God is not a class, it is relationship. Last week I encouraged everyone to seek an answer to two questions. Who am I connected to in the body of Christ? Where am I using my unique gifts and ways of serving to do good work in the power of God to proclaim and demonstrate that Jesus is Lord? Maybe you thought, I don’t even know my unique gifts. Where am I supposed to start? You start with the first question. Who are you connected to in the body of Christ? We have disconnected teaching from discipleship. And we’ve disconnected discipleship from relationship. We’ve taught classes on the Holy Spirit when we should seek out a more mature believer who will teach us how they listen to and obey the Holy Spirit. We have taught seminars on spiritual gifts when we should be helping connect younger disciples of Jesus with older disciples of Jesus, who can bring them along as they serve others. Bring someone to the food pantry to pack boxes together. Make a meal together for a sick neighbor. Make a meal together and invite in a neighbor. Pack a cooler with water bottles and greet people in Deering Oaks with a word of kindness. Your community group or triad could hold a clothing drive and bring bags to Casco Bay Inn for our new American neighbors. Or maybe you could teach someone in your Bible study group how you prepare and facilitate a Bible study. That process will reveal their unique gifts. We have spent too much time teaching classes to pass on knowledge, and too little time learning through practice how to walk the way of love. Jesus is on that way. He is that way.
For some of us, your love is cold. You’re doing all the work, you’re teaching, you’re giving, you’re making sacrifices, and when you examine your heart, you have not love. You are burnt out and jaded because people don’t change, the work never ends, the fruit is slow to bear. It’s time to take a sabbath. Spend time being known by God. Take time to rest in God’s love for you. Wait until He restores your soul and wait until He shows you some need that He is sending you to help meet. And don’t do it alone. Bring someone else with you. Never disconnect your ministry work from relationship.
Questions for Discussion
1. What are some lessons you learned from your Mom?
2. Who is someone who taught you what love is? How did they teach you that?
3. What are some big things we hope to see God do through our church? How will pursuing the way of love accomplish some of these hopes?
4. Paul says it’s possible to do big, miraculous things without love. How do we know when we are lacking love? How do we find our way back to the path?
5. Paul learned it was childish to boast about his knowledge and gifts of prophecy and “tongues”, and was pursuing a more mature way, the way of love. Who are the models of maturity in this way for you? What are you learning from them?
6. How would you describe Community of Grace’s way of making disciples? How would we change that if we want to help people discover and use their spiritual gifts to serve others in love?
7. What is one step of obedience God is inviting you to take to pursue this “more excellent way” this week?
8. Who is someone you can share this with this week?