I'm going to read from God's Word now the passage that David is shortly going to come and preach to us from.
1 Corinthians chapter 13, those first 13 verses.
The words are going to be on the screen.
The words are in your bulletin if you've got one at the front door.
There's also a collection of Bibles at the back.
If you'd like to have a Bible for the reading or to refer to during the sermon,
please get up and get one at any time.
This is 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verses 1.
To 13.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love,
I'm a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,
and 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.
Love is patient and kind.
Love does not envy or boast.
It's not arrogant or rude.
It does not insist on its own way.
It's 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.
Love never ends.
As for prophecies, they will pass away.
As for tongues, they will cease.
As for knowledge, it will pass away.
For we know in part and we prophesy in part.
But when the perfect love comes, the partial will pass away.
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.
So now faith, hope, and love abide.
These three.
But the greatest of these is love.
Amen.
And this is God's own holy word.
Well, in our morning worship, we've been working our way through the Old Testament book of Daniel.
And Corey has been leading us through that.
This morning we're taking a little break from that series.
And as a standalone sermon this morning, we're looking at this very famous passage from 1 Corinthians 13.
One of the most famous and perhaps well-known passages in all of Scripture.
Arguably the most well-known of Paul's writings.
Some have called it the hymn to love.
One commentator calls it the greatest, strongest, deepest thing that Paul ever wrote.
But 1 Corinthians 13 is not sentimental poetry.
It's the Word of God, sharp as a two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit.
Here is Paul holding up a mirror to the Corinthian church so that they might examine themselves and change their ways.
Because, of course, Paul did not write these famous words of 1 Corinthians 13 for a wedding ceremony.
Or for them to be quoted in a hallmark greeting card.
The words of the apostle here are not to be wrenched out of the context in which we find them.
And we discover these verses sandwiched between two chapters in which Paul deals with a contentious issue in the Corinthian church
over the use or abuse of spiritual gifts.
One of the problems in the Corinthian church was the way in which so much emphasis was placed on certain gifts of the Holy Spirit.
We're told in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 7, Paul says that the Corinthians lacked no spiritual gift.
When it came to gifts.
When it came to gifts, this was a church that had them all.
A church ablaze with the charismata.
They spoke in tongues.
They prophesied.
They healed.
They worked miracles.
These dramatic, supernatural gifts of the apostolic age were greatly valued and esteemed in Corinth.
And yet at the same time, the Corinthian church was also a church riddled with division, factions, pride, selfishness, and moral failure.
Many had started to prize their gifts above all and everything else.
And these wrong attitudes had in fact left the church in a sad and sorry state.
And so, what we have here in 1 Corinthians 13 is not a cozy, feel-good passage of Scripture, although often it's presented as such.
But rather, Paul giving the Corinthian church a searing critique of their behavior and conduct.
Paul wasn't writing to the Corinthians so that they would say,
Well, Paul, what a marvelous piece of literature.
So that they would have lots of warm, fuzzy feelings.
He was writing so that the Corinthians would recognize just how far they had fallen.
Just how complacent they had become.
And just how immature they really were.
He was writing these verses to burst the bubble of their spiritual pride and superiority.
Because here was a church guilty of misusing and abusing the good gifts of God.
And at the close of chapter 12, a chapter that speaks about the spiritual gifts and their use,
Paul says this, chapter 12, verse 31.
He says this,
And the language that Paul uses there is very emphatic.
He says,
Here is something far more wonderful.
Here is something far greater.
Here is something you really need to take note of.
Here is something that puts all these gifts,
wonderful as they are in the shade.
Here is the more excellent way.
And that is the way of love.
And what Paul is saying here to the Corinthians, and indeed to us,
is that love is the hallmark of Christian maturity.
It is the most excellent way.
And without it, we are deluding ourselves about the nature of our relationship with God.
We may have gifts aplenty.
We may have great theological knowledge.
We may have had wonderful spiritual experiences.
And yet, for all those things,
we can be missing out on what is the most important thing.
And the chapter, you'll notice there, as Chris read it for us,
has three main paragraphs,
each one telling us something about the nature of love
and its fundamental importance
for any Christian community that is seeking to grow up into Christ.
And the first paragraph that we look at is in verses 1 through 3,
and we'll entitle this,
The Priority of Love.
The thrust of these opening verses of the chapter
is that there is nothing as crucial or as important
as the presence of love.
Love is the vital ingredient
without which we have and are nothing.
And Paul really contrasts in these verses
the gifts on the one hand with love on the other.
The Corinthians laid great store on these gifts.
They viewed these gifts as being the real mark
of maturity and true spirituality.
And what Paul is telling them
is that in that they have got it all wrong.
It's not gifts that are the priority.
It is love.
Gifts without love are useless.
And you'll notice in these verses
how Paul homes in on the kind of things
that the Corinthians believed were important.
And he begins in verse 1 with tongues.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels,
but have not love,
I am only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
The gift of tongues was greatly valued
in the Corinthian congregation,
just as it is by many and some sections
of the church today.
It was a gift that Paul himself exercised.
And the Corinthians saw this gift
as a great mark of spiritual well-being and maturity.
Some believed it to be a language
of angelic or heavenly origin.
And yet Paul tells them here
that such a gift is empty
if love is not present.
The gong, the cymbal,
were instruments commonly used
in pagan worship
as, you know, to drive away spirits
or to attract a God's attention.
And the clanging of bronze at these temples
would have been a very familiar sound
in the city of Corinth.
Despite their great claims
to spiritual maturity
and the elevation of these spiritual gifts,
the absence of love,
Paul says,
means that the Corinthians
were no better than the pagans.
Without love,
the church is little more
than a pagan temple.
And then he says,
if I have prophetic powers,
verse 2,
understand all mysteries,
all knowledge,
if I have all faith,
so as to remove mountains,
but have not love,
I am nothing.
And here Paul speaks
of the great gifts of God
that he himself
had enjoyed as an apostle,
gifts that marked him out
as being someday important
and special,
prophecy,
knowledge,
miracles,
wonderful apostolic gifts.
And yet even so,
even these are not comparable
with love.
No matter the marvelous gifts
we enjoy,
without love,
it's nothing.
We can have degrees
after our name,
we can be academically brilliant,
we can have a miracle-working faith,
yet even so,
the absence of love
means we're nothing,
says Paul.
Supernatural gifts
may make us a somebody
in the eyes of the world,
but the absence of love
makes us a nobody.
And Paul says,
if I give away all I have,
verse 3,
deliver my body to be burned,
but have not love,
I gain nothing.
Here Paul speaks of gifts
that the world admires,
sacrificial giving
for the benefit of others,
and yet even such noble actions
can be motivated
by something less than love.
People can give
for a whole variety of reasons,
personal kudos and fame,
to be thought well of by others,
to gain something for themselves
by way of reward.
But without love being present,
Paul says there is simply
no gain or benefit.
Last Sunday night,
Corey told a story,
a famous story,
first told by Charles Spurgeon
in one of his sermons.
I've been guilty of stealing
Corey's stories
and illustrations before,
so I'll continue in that vein
by telling it again.
This is the story of the king,
the farmer,
and the nobleman.
And this is how the story goes.
Once upon a time,
there was a king
who ruled over everything
in the land.
And one day,
there was a gardener
who grew,
this is a strange story,
an enormous carrot.
And he took it to the king,
and he said,
my lord,
this is the greatest carrot
I've ever grown,
or ever will grow.
And so,
I want to present it to you
as a token of my love
and respect for you.
Well,
the king was touched
by this man's actions.
He discerned the man's heart.
And as the man turned to go,
the king said,
wait,
you're clearly a good steward
of the earth,
and I want to give you
a plot of land to you,
freely as a gift,
so you can garden it all.
The gardener was amazed
and delighted
at this generous gift,
and he went home rejoicing.
But,
there was a nobleman
at the king's court
who overheard all of this.
And he reasoned,
he said,
well,
my,
if that's what you get
for a carrot,
what if you gave the king
something better?
And the next day,
the nobleman came before the king,
and he was leading
a handsome black stallion.
He bowed low,
he said,
my lord,
I breed horses.
This is the greatest horse
I've ever bred,
or ever will.
Therefore,
I want to present it to you
as a token of my love
and respect for you.
The king discerned
this man's heart,
and he said to him,
thank you.
And he took the horse
and simply dismissed the man.
And the nobleman
was confused and perplexed.
And so,
the king said to him,
let me explain.
That gardener
was giving me the carrot
that you were giving yourself.
The horse.
And Paul says here,
if we give only for ourselves,
then such an action
amounts to nothing
on heaven's balance sheet.
And it is possible,
friends,
for some people
to be generous
and kind
and giving
and to appear that way,
and yet in reality,
they're doing it all
for themselves.
actually using people
rather than loving people.
They love
and they give,
but only if they're getting.
Admiration,
obedience,
affection.
And if they're crossed
or don't get what they want,
your history.
Friends,
we know from Paul's writings
that he understood
love to be
a product
of an authentic
work of God
in someone's life.
It's an evidence
of the work
of the Holy Spirit.
It's a hallmark
of Christian
authenticity.
Peter,
2 Peter 1
says this,
add to your faith
love.
It's a mark
of maturity.
It's the opposite
of immature
egocentricity
because it's giving
like God gets.
And we desperately
need this kind
of love
in our own lives,
in our own families,
in our churches,
and indeed
in our wider society.
C.S. Lewis
in his little book
The Four Loves
wrote this,
if you don't want
your heart broken,
give it to nobody.
Lock it up
in a little casket
of selfishness,
and in that
casket,
it will not be broken.
It will become
unbreakable,
impenetrable,
irredeemable.
And friends,
it can happen.
People who are
so gifted,
so knowledgeable,
so able,
but so unable
to really love
anyone else
but themselves.
Paul says
it's not our gifts,
our talents,
our abilities
that really matter.
It's love,
the priority
of love.
It brings me
to the second thing
here from verses
four through seven.
And we'll call this
the power
of love.
If love is more
important than
the gifts,
then secondly,
love is more powerful
than the gifts.
And Paul tells us
something here,
I think,
in these verses
about the power
of love.
love.
Many different
words in Greek
to describe
different kinds
of love,
that between a man
and a woman,
a parent and a child,
between friends
and so forth.
But the word
that Paul uses
here is the word
agape.
It was rarely used
before the writing
of the New Testament.
But it's a word
that the apostles
took to describe
Christian love.
And it relates
to love for the
unlovely,
love for the
unworthy,
love for those
who are different,
love for the sinner,
love for the guilty,
love for the lost.
And what Paul
endeavors to do here,
I think,
in these verses
is to sketch
for us a portrait
of love's power.
He describes
or depicts love
not in terms of,
you'll notice,
feelings or emotions,
but rather in terms
of what it does
and does not do.
In the original language,
there are verbs
everywhere here,
doing words,
words of action.
Love is active.
Here is the way
of maturity.
This is what love
looks like.
This is how you know
it's the real thing.
Look at what he says.
Love is patient
or long-suffering.
Whatever it faces,
love does not
lose its temper.
Human nature
means that we are
often patient
and understanding
with ourselves,
but much less so
with others.
Love is kind.
It cares more
for others
than for self.
It's generous.
It has an open hand.
Love does not end
envy or boast.
It's not puffed up.
It's not proud.
Eugene Peterson,
in his paraphrase,
the message says,
love doesn't want
what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut.
Love doesn't have
a swollen head.
Actually,
all through this letter,
we detect
that was actually,
that was a major problem
for the childish
Corinthians.
Chapter 4,
verse 18,
Paul says,
some of you become arrogant.
Later,
he says in chapter 5,
verse 2,
you're proud.
Chapter 8,
he tells them,
knowledge puffs up,
but love builds up.
Love is not arrogant
or rude.
The Greek word
literally means
to ride roughshod
over someone,
to take advantage
of them,
to bulldoze,
to steamroller them,
to take no notice
of their feelings.
Love does not insist
on its own way.
It's not self-seeking.
Paul has already
told the Corinthians
in chapter 10,
verse 24,
nobody should seek
his own good,
but the good of others.
Love is always
me first.
And it's easy,
even in,
even in God's service,
to seek position
and influence
and status
for our own glory
rather than God's.
The Christian mystics
in John of the Cross
once wrote these words,
all visions,
revelations,
heavenly feelings,
whatever experiences
greater than these
are not worth
the least act
of humility.
For acts of humility
are the fruit
of that agape love,
which neither values
nor seeks itself,
which thinks well
not of self,
but of others.
love is not irritable
or resentful.
It's not easily angered.
It isn't touchy.
Love is not easily provoked.
Love is a long fuse.
I've been in churches
where, you know,
some Christians
should be wearing a sign
around their necks,
danger,
high explosive.
Love keeps no record
of wrongs.
It wipes the slate clean.
It forgives.
It doesn't go around
casting up people's mistakes.
It doesn't treasure
grievances,
bearing grudges.
It doesn't think
the worst of others,
always impugning
their motives
or the motives
behind their actions.
Love does not rejoice
at wrongdoing.
It rejoices with the truth.
Love is not anything goes.
That's sometimes
what we hear
in our wider culture.
Sometimes people
paint a contrast
between the right thing
and the loving thing,
but friends,
the right thing
is the loving thing.
And the loving thing
is always the right thing.
Love is never,
ever to be an excuse
for sin
and evil
and immorality.
Then he says,
love bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things,
endures all things.
It's indestructible.
It's powerful.
Many years ago,
we had a lady
that we prayed for
who was served
overseas
in China.
And when she was there,
the authorities
sent a woman
to spy on her,
to get close to her
and to report back to them.
And eventually,
after a few months,
this lady
who'd been sent
from the government
spoke to our friend
and said,
confessed.
And she said,
look,
I can't report on you
because
the love that you've shown me,
the love that you've displayed,
I love you too much.
As Paul's description proceeds,
surely it's clear to us
that there is only
one human model
he could have used
for this portrait.
And that's
our Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the,
alone is the one
through whom we can come
to know
this kind of love.
Love looks like Jesus.
He is the image
of the invisible God,
the Word made flesh.
Love is the revelation
of God's character
that we discover
and encounter
in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Corinthians were gifted,
but they were graceless.
They thought they were
so spiritual and mature,
but they were children.
They were spoiled brats.
They'd lost sight of Jesus.
Friends,
let's not elevate our gifts
at the expense of love.
What does it matter
about our gifts
if we cannot get on
with each other,
if we can't forgive
one another,
if we can't serve
one another in love?
Because this is what
matters to God.
Not miracles
and signs
and wonders.
Love.
May not be as showy,
but it's more important.
You can have great gifts
and you can be a devil.
Just think of those words
at the end of the,
towards the close
of the Sermon on the Mount
of Jesus.
On that day,
many will say to me,
Lord, Lord,
did we not prophesy
in your name,
cast out demons
in your name,
do many mighty works
in your name?
And I will declare to them,
I never knew you.
Depart from me,
you workers of lawlessness.
The priority of love.
The power of love.
And then thirdly
and finally here
in verses 8 through 13,
the permanence of love.
In these final words
of the chapter,
Paul really lifts up
our eyes
to the eternal horizon.
He says,
love never ends.
As for prophecies,
verse 8,
they will pass away.
For tongues,
they will cease.
As for knowledge,
it will pass away.
Love alone will last.
The gifts will fade.
They will disappear.
They will go.
Prophecies,
they'll pass away.
Tongues will fall silent.
Knowledge will be consumed
in the vastness of eternity.
Only love will remain.
For we know in part,
verse 9,
we prophesy in part,
but when the perfect comes,
the partial will pass away.
Perfection is coming,
says Paul.
A new creation
will dawn in all its fullness
and it will swallow up
everything that is partial
and temporal
and ephemeral.
The perfect that is still to come
is, I think here,
almost certainly
a reference
to the return
of Jesus Christ.
Yes, there are some
who argue
that this perfection
relates to the completion
of the Scriptures
after which the supernatural
gifts died away.
And while I agree
with the view
that these more spectacular
gifts were used by God
in the early days
of the church
to authenticate the gospel,
they were given
for a temporary purpose
while the New Testament
was being written
and compiled,
I do not think
that this text
relates to that.
Paul is simply
making the point
that spiritual gifts,
supernatural or otherwise,
belong to this present age
and not the age to come.
Love alone will endure.
Love alone will last.
Love alone will stand.
Gifts of teaching,
mercy,
helping,
administration,
all of these
are provisional.
Yes, they're needed now,
but they're not going to be needed
in the new heavens and earth.
In the new creation,
there will be no need
for patience
and forgiveness
or faith or hope,
but love will continue.
The mark of heaven
that we experience now
is love.
Love is the language of heaven,
not tongues
or any other gifts.
These things are temporary.
They are not lasting.
They won't endure.
They will pass away.
Jonathan Edwards wrote,
heaven will be
a world of love.
So, Paul says in verse 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 gave up childish ways.
And I think that verse
is more than just an analogy
or an illustration.
This theme of childish immaturity
runs like a thread
throughout the whole letter.
And already,
Paul has accused
the Corinthians
of being worldly,
mere infants in Christ
in chapter 3.
In the next chapter,
chapter 14, verse 20,
he exhorts them
to stop thinking like children
and you're thinking be adults.
Sometimes,
with young children,
we have a couple
of young grandsons,
and you discover
that they're more interested
in the cardboard box
and the wrapping paper
than the present
that's contained within it.
And that's fine,
isn't it,
with toddlers?
It's cute.
It's funny.
But if you were to see
a 17-year-old
discarding the games console
and climbing inside
a cardboard box,
you might think
there was something
seriously wrong.
And spiritually speaking,
this is what
the Corinthians were like.
They should have grown up
and been mature,
but instead,
they were clinging
to childish ways.
It's a danger.
Maybe there's,
maybe somebody here,
you need to climb out
of the cardboard box
of your selfishness
and your immaturity
and leave it behind
in your thinking.
Be adults.
For now we see
in a mirror dimly,
then face to face,
verse 12,
now I know in part,
then I shall know fully,
even as I've been fully known.
Corinth was a city
famous for metal work,
and that included
the manufacture of,
there were kind of
bronze mirrors.
And these mirrors,
nothing like as clear
and as accurate
as those we have today.
In those mirrors,
you only saw
a poor reflection.
Seeing someone face to face
was very different.
And in this present age,
we see the face
of Jesus Christ,
yes, reflected
in His creation
and in the Scriptures.
But a day is coming
when we will have
no need of those mirrors
that reflect His glory,
for we will meet Him
and see Him face to face.
There's an old hymn
we sometimes sang,
Face to face
with Christ my Savior,
face to face
what will it be,
when with rapture
I behold Him,
Jesus Christ,
who died for me.
Our knowledge of God here
is always partial
and incomplete,
but a day is coming
when all will be revealed.
As we ourselves
are known and loved by God,
so we will know
and love Him.
We shall see Him
face to face,
we will know Him
as He is,
and our knowledge of Him
will be so much greater
and more wonderful.
Now these three remain,
verse 13,
faith, hope, and love,
but the greatest of these
is love.
And yes,
faith and hope
are important
in this world,
but love is in a category
of its own,
because love is a property
of God Himself
in a way in which
faith and hope are not.
God doesn't need faith
or hope.
If He did,
He wouldn't be God.
But if God didn't love,
He wouldn't be God.
And it's in this sense
that love is the greatest
of gifts,
because the essence of love
is that we are turned
away from ourselves
towards others,
towards God.
and beyond anything else
that can build up
any Christian community
in harmony and unity
and maturity
is love.
Maybe it's good
to look at ourselves.
Are we like the Corinthians
of old,
in danger of becoming
noisy gongs,
clanging cymbals,
gifted but loveless?
Do we prize our knowledge,
our zeal,
our service,
our preaching,
while our hearts
are cold and indifferent?
Maybe we should be praying,
Lord, help me
to be more loving,
because this is
what's important.
This is the most
excellent way.
And no matter
who you are this morning,
young or old,
gifted or not,
big or small,
strong or weak,
no matter who you are,
if you are in Jesus Christ,
you can be great in love.
We need to be committed
to loving one another.
By this shall all men know
that you're my disciples,
said Jesus.
It's the real test
of our discipleship,
because church is not
a gathering for the gifted.
It's a community
of compassion and care.
That difficult brother,
that annoying sister,
that person who gets
on your nerves,
they are your calling
as God's children.
Love them.
Be patient with them.
Forgive them.
Bear with them.
And do that not
in your own strength,
but in the power
of the Holy Spirit,
who in His grace,
God pours His love
into our hearts.
The final thing
I'm going to say
just as we close,
be looking to Jesus Christ,
because He's the one
who embodies this love.
He was patient
with His slow-witted disciples.
He was kind
to the outcast and sinner.
He was compassionate
to the lost,
forgiving towards His enemies.
For sinners,
He endured the cross,
despising its shame.
And if you want to know
what love looks like,
look there.
Look to Jesus.
Look to His cross.
Look to Calvary.
Look to the blood
and the nails,
because it's there
that we see
that the steadfast love
of the Lord
never ceases.
It's there that we see
that His mercies
never come to an end.
There's a question
that sometimes,
on occasions,
it's usually
the wife's wife
will ask this question
of her husband
rather than
the other way around.
But the question is this,
do you love me?
Well,
the answer to that question,
of course,
is yes, darling.
Of course I do.
But if you answer
in that way,
you're not going to get
off that easy,
because there's always
a follow-up.
And the follow-up
is the
why do you love me
question.
Why do you love me?
Lots of possible answers
you can give to that.
I love you
because of your
beauty,
because you're,
you've lost
some money,
because we've got
similar interests,
because you're
a great cook,
because you're
much prettier
than I am handsome.
You know,
there's lots of things
you can say.
But friends,
there's only one answer
upon which you can
build a marriage.
And that's,
I love you
because I love you.
I love you
because I love you.
Because if you're loved
because of this,
that,
and the other,
all that does
is breed
an incredible
insecurity.
And the other person
is left wondering,
are they still
pretty enough,
rich enough,
patient enough?
We long
as human beings
for a love
that liberates.
We long
to be really loved.
And this is
God's love
in Jesus Christ.
This is
His electing love.
This is
what Christ
says to us
in the gospel.
He says,
I love you
because I love you.
He loves us
and invites us
whoever we are
to come to Him
in faith.
And it's a powerful love.
It will transform you.
Being united
to Jesus
will change you.
This is the love
that converts sinners,
that builds relationships,
that strengthens churches,
that matures disciples.
It is the essential
ingredient
in that process
of growing
as a Christian.
we learn
and grow
not as we
fixate
on ourselves,
our own gifts
and abilities.
We learn
and grow
as we reflect
and rejoice
in the amazing
love of God
for us
in Jesus Christ.
It's in being
joined to Jesus
that we draw
from Him
all that we need
to love God
and to love
our neighbor
as ourselves.
And it's only
as Jesus
and His love
overwhelms us
and indwells us
that we can even
begin to think
of loving like this.
It's the love
that we see
at the cross.
Look there
and see how much
He loves you.
The Scottish preacher
James Denny
used to say
that the only time
He envied
the Roman Catholic
priest
His crucifix
was when He
wanted to shake
it in people's
faces
and say
God loves you
like that.
It's only
as we look
to the cross
in faith
that we receive
from Christ
that wonderful
assurance
that can change
us and transform
us
because it's
there at Calvary
He tells
sinners
I love you
because
I love you.
Let's pray together.
Almighty God
we are
weak and frail
human beings.
We
falter
and fail
in so many
different ways
especially
in this whole
realm
of love.
Lord
would you be
pleased
in your
mercy
to pour
out your
love
into our
hearts
by your
Holy Spirit
that we
may be
transformed
and changed
that you
might conform
us to the
image of your
Son
that we
might be
more like
him.
Lord
forgive us
restore us
renew us
and refresh
us
by your
Spirit
by your
love
that you
might
receive
all the
glory
honour
and
praise
in Jesus
name
Amen
Amen.