Well, happy Father's Day.
Am I on?
Hello?
Happy Father's Day.
I wore this this morning because I got it yesterday for my kids.
I hope you don't mind.
It was my Father's Day present, so what can I say?
It's what I got.
You know, when I was a kid growing up, I discovered somewhere along the way that I was one of those hopeless romantics at times.
This will date me terribly, but I listened to Air Supply and Chicago and a little later Celine Dion a little bit.
And I watched movies like Say Anything and Sleepless in Seattle.
And I wish Pastor Nick were here to translate that for all of you who are under 35.
But there's a lure out there, a vision in our popular culture that there is a love that is everlasting, a love that will lift us up where we belong.
There is a love that will capture our hearts and transport us forever into some eternal bliss.
And there's something that we long for in that that is right and good.
And yet, if you've lived a little bit longer than my 15 years when I was captured by all these things, you realize that love is not always that easy, is it?
I think I've told this story before, but it's worth telling again.
You may know it.
Robertson McQuilkin was the president of Columbia International University, a strong Christian university that sent missionaries all over the world.
And it became clear that she was descending into Alzheimer's disease and the effects of it.
As she slowly lost her ability to think, to plan, to recognize people.
It was his presence that brought her the most peace.
She desired so much to be with him, in fact, that she would at times walk from their house, which was a mile away from campus, up to 10 times a day simply to physically be present with him.
Because that was where she found peace and hope.
And so, after 22 years, he stepped down from his position and wrote a moving letter and a powerful testimony of what he did.
He said,
I know that she's happier when I'm with her than when I'm not.
It's not that my work is done.
There are many plans still on the board, ready to be accomplished.
There are many dreams that will be laid aside for this.
But she has served me for 40 years.
And if I served her for 40 years from this day, I would still be in her debt.
And he stepped away from that position to serve her for the next 10 years.
When she didn't know who he was, when she lost her ability to speak, when he spent day in, day out with this woman who, in terms of their daily interactions, was no longer who she used to be.
Love can be hard, can't it?
It's hard because it costs us, our very self, our preferences, our desires, our time, our energy, our agendas, our hopes and dreams, may be laid aside in order to love the people that God has put into our lives.
And it's exhausting.
It's exhausting to keep dying to self.
It's exhausting to do that through the seasons of marriage.
It's exhausting to do that as you raise your child from infancy to adulthood.
It's exhausting to love your church when they're imperfect and when they've disappointed and hurt you.
It's exhausting to love your friend when life circumstances change and what used to be very close is now more distant.
When they get married and you think, what happens now to our friendship?
In so many different ways, love is hard to endure in, isn't it?
The Corinthian church struggled with this.
They wanted love to be something that gave them return.
They wanted their service that they would say would be done in love to result in something for them where they could see a tangible result in a short period of time.
I wonder if we do that too.
And so it leaves us with the question, how is it that we can endure in love, to persevere in love, to keep loving for the rest of our life?
Well, this leads us to our passage this morning.
We're continuing in our service, in our series in 1 Corinthians 13.
1 Corinthians 13.
Well, we're going through the whole book and we're in 1 Corinthians 13.
It's page 960 in your pew Bible.
If you want to look there with me, we're going to read it in just a second.
As we close this chapter up, this great chapter on the nature, the necessity, and today the permanence of love.
We're going to look today at verses 8 through 13.
So let's look at that together.
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 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.
Please pray with me.
Lord, we thank you for your word.
And we thank you that in it you have spoken to us.
You have spoken with clarity and with timeless truth.
Lord, I pray today that you administer to our hearts.
That, Lord, we would be ready to receive with soft hearts what you have to say to us this morning.
We pray, Lord, that you administer to our minds.
That we would know and understand and think rightly about you.
Who you are and what it is that you have called us to in Christ.
God, I pray that as we look into this passage this morning, that you would enable me to speak your words.
Lord, that we all would be taught by you and by your spirit this morning.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
The fundamental idea that I want you to go away with this morning, the principle that Paul is presenting in this passage is this.
That we can endure in love because God has made love eternal.
We, that sounds really cheesy, doesn't it?
It kind of sounds like a Hallmark card.
But it's, I hope we will see by the end that it's much more significant than that.
That we can persevere in love.
Because God himself has made love an eternal thing.
So we're going to look at this passage.
We're just going to walk through it.
The principle is introduced in verses 8 through 10.
The principle is illustrated in verses 11 and 12.
And then the principle is brought home in verses 12 and 13.
So that's what we're going to do.
If you're following along with notes, there's your outline.
First of all, the principle.
God has made love forever introduced in verses 8 through 10.
Look again with me at the passage.
And as we look at it, remember that the Corinthian, in this letter, Paul has been talking in this section in 1 Corinthians 12 through 14.
He's talking about how do we gather together.
What does it look like for Christians to gather together for worship?
And specifically, how is it that spiritual gifting, that is particular ways that God by his spirit works through us to bless one another.
How is it that those things are meant to exhibit themselves in a godly fashion in our context?
And at the center of it, as we've said before, is this chapter on love.
That love is the context.
Love is the engine.
And love is the thing that determines the goal of how it is that we exercise these spiritual gifts.
How it is that we are to treat one another.
And he's contrasting it, seemingly, with the way the Corinthian church grabbed onto gifts and exalted themselves
because they said, well, I have this, so I'm important.
Or you don't have that.
What's wrong with you?
This sort of divisive character of their community.
Paul says, no.
Love is at the center of how you ought to do these things.
And we've seen that in verses 1 through 3.
It said, it doesn't matter what you do.
If you don't have love, there is no benefit for you in it.
There is nothing to puff yourself up in it.
And then in verses 4 through 7, as I said earlier, we saw the nature of love.
That love as a self-giving for the good of another is tender and is truthful and is tenacious.
And Paul starts here again by beginning to transition out of what seems like an almost esoteric discussion of love back to his topic of gifts.
So we see in 8 through 10 a contrast, don't we?
He says, love never ends.
But, and then he begins to talk about the gifts.
And he says, do you see what he does?
He says, there are three gifts he picks on.
He says, as for prophecy, it will pass away.
Right?
And prophecy, as we'll see in chapter 14, is the thing that Paul's going to say may be the most beneficial for the gathered congregation.
In terms of spiritual gifting.
He's going to say, this is the one I really want you to do well.
He says, but you know what?
It's going to pass away.
And then he says, and you know what else is going to pass away?
Tongues will cease.
Knowledge will pass away.
These spiritual gifts that are word-based gifts that are meant to help the gathered congregation increase in their knowledge of God and their understanding of God.
And Paul says, none of these things will last forever.
Love will.
The gifts will not.
Why is that?
Look with me at verse 10.
Nope, 9.
Verse 9.
For we know in part.
And we prophesy in part.
But when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
Now, what does he mean by in part by this?
I think what he means is that there is this growing.
It actually could be translated part by part or bit by bit is how we would say it today.
For we know bit by bit, a little more.
He's not saying we don't know anything or we're destined to ignorance.
But what he does say is that these things, we may have incremental growth in our knowledge of God through the exercise of these gifts.
And yet it will always be insufficient.
It will never reach to the fullness or the perfection or the completeness of what they're destined to do.
Which is that we would know God fully.
He says, but there will be a day when that will come.
There will be a day when the perfect will come.
And when it will, these imperfect means, these partial means that are not bad in and of themselves.
Paul is not denigrating them.
He's simply saying they're not going to last forever because they're pointing to something else.
They will become obsolete.
As one commentator put it, at the coming of Christ, the final purpose of God's saving work in Christ will have been reached.
At that point, those gifts now necessary for the building up of the church in the present age will disappear.
Because the complete will have come.
To cite Bart's marvelous imagery.
Because the sun rises, all other lights are extinguished.
Isn't that a beautiful picture?
Your flashlights and your candles that you're holding out in the darkness of this partial knowledge.
When the sun arises, will suddenly be no longer necessary.
Because all the light that you ever could have wanted is abundantly yours.
And when Christ comes and finishes his work, when he establishes fully his kingdom,
and we'll see later more about what this means,
these gifts are no longer necessary.
They simply become overcome.
They're overcome by what God will do.
Now, let me address for just a minute, and I want to do this with all humility and gentleness.
There are some who have read these passages through particular lenses.
They have thought that the perfection that is to come is not the future coming of Christ
and the full establishment of his kingdom.
But at some point, they saw that Paul was looking ahead to something different.
To the perfection of the church as it established itself ecclesiologically and organizationally.
Or some see it as the perfect is the coming of the scriptures and the writing of the scriptures
such that when those things came, then suddenly these gifts would pass away
and would no longer be necessary.
This is an argument that would say that these gifts of prophecy and tongues and knowledge
are no longer valid in the church today.
Let me just say humbly that I think that it misses the flow of thought to say it that strongly.
I believe that this passage and what we have seen already in chapter 12
and what we will see in chapter 14
is arguing that these gifts are meant to be a part of church life today.
And Paul is going to give very specific instructions on how they can be good and profitable.
And let me acknowledge that there are many ways in which
under the name of these gifts,
people have done all sorts of really crazy things
that have very little to do with the gospel or the kingdom.
And especially because they've often lacked the love that Paul is emphasizing here.
But I think it's a mistake to read these verses to suggest that these gifts have ceased.
I think that they properly expressed are meant to be an ongoing part of the partial bit by bit growth
of the church in their knowledge of God in this present age while we yet await that future age.
which as we'll see later will bring a place where we will know fully just as we are fully known.
So Paul says,
these gifts are like signposts.
They are pointing to a knowledge that is yet to come.
And he's contrasting it with love
because the love that he's expounding upon and commending to us,
that love is not a signpost to something else.
It is a foretaste.
It is in continuity with what will happen in the future.
So that's what he's,
that's the explanation that he's trying to give.
Love is permanent and these sign things,
these things that you are taking hold of and making so important,
they are ultimately temporary and not eternal.
And then he goes on in the next couple of verses
and he gives some great illustrations.
Some pictures.
Look with me again at verses 11 and 12.
Let's read this together.
Woo!
Here we go.
Got to get my spectacles back on.
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.
I love it when Paul gives us these really clear analogies.
But it always raises the question,
what is he actually talking about?
Some people have read this
and particularly in light of,
if you go back to 1 Corinthians 3,
Paul uses the picture of infancy
as a sign of spiritual immaturity.
And so he picks that.
Back then he says,
to be like an infant or to be like a child
is to be immature.
And in a derogatory,
or in a negative sense,
to lack the maturity that you ought to have.
Some people have read that into this
and think that Paul is talking about
the immaturity of the Corinthian church,
but that the maturity would be
a different kind of exercise
that they could do in this age.
But again, I think that's missing the point.
I think what Paul is saying is,
when I was a child,
I did the things that children do.
There's nothing wrong with that.
Because that's what they do.
That's what it means to be a child.
But then I grew up and I became an adult.
And I didn't continue in the childish ways
because that's no longer the season that I'm in.
And what Paul is saying is similarly for the church.
You now have these gifts
because of the partial nature of what you have.
And that's appropriate for now.
It's a good thing.
But recognize that what maturity,
what adulthood,
what the next age,
the next season,
the next stage for you will be,
what eternity will look like,
it's not going to have these things anymore.
You're going to be in a different place
and you're going to have different things
that characterize you.
And so,
he uses this analogy of the difference
between childhood and adult
to talk about this difference
between the present age and the age to come.
And it's okay to have these gifts now,
but recognize, again,
don't exalt them to this eternal state
or to this ultimate value in your life.
Because when you become an adult,
they will no longer be here.
When Jesus comes and establishes his kingdom,
you will no longer need it.
He then goes on and uses an imagery,
an image of a mirror.
Verse 12.
For now we see in a mirror dimly,
but then face to face.
Now,
I will admit that this one's a little harder
for a number of reasons.
One is,
when you look in a mirror,
who do you see?
Yourself,
right?
That's what you use a mirror for
in our culture
and in our world.
That is not the point of this analogy.
It's not about looking at ourselves
and thinking about
what do I know about myself
and whether my mirror gives a good reflection
of that or not.
And I will say this too,
the translation of dimly
is a really tricky word to translate.
If you look at other,
maybe you have other Bibles here
and you look at it and say,
it might mean that
other translations would be
a reflection as in a mirror,
a reflection of something
where you're maybe seeing
like around a corner
because you're looking in a mirror.
Or another translation is
through a glass darkly.
So you're not looking at yourself,
but you're looking through something,
but there's an opaqueness to it
or a lack of clarity.
In fact,
the word could be translated
a vision or a riddle.
For now we know in a vision
or in a riddle,
which is kind of an odd phrase.
But I think that what he,
at the core of what Paul is saying
with this is that
now we see in a mediated sense
something.
That is,
there is something between us
and the thing that we want to see
and want to look at.
Right?
And so,
so we see that indistinctly
because there's something in between
that we have to have.
So if I'm looking around a corner,
I have to look at the mirror
to get the reflection around the corner.
Or,
it's possible that Paul
is actually meaning,
so,
what you're getting
is things and visions
and riddles
that are words
that are trying to speak truth to you,
but you're not going to get it
clearly right now.
So it's indistinct
or indirect
is what this image is pointing to
of what we have now.
And part of the reason
why I say that
is because it's so clear
with the contrast.
What is the contrast with?
Right?
Now,
we see indistinctly
or indirectly.
Then,
how will we see it?
We will see it face to face.
The difference between
knowing about someone
by reading a bio
and knowing them in person.
The difference between
an online chat
and a coffee date.
The difference between
a photograph
and being
on the south rim
of the Grand Canyon.
What we have now
is all mediated.
But friends,
one day,
one day we will see
face to face.
One day we will actually be
in an unmediated way,
able to see
the things that we most long for
and most want.
and in that we will have
both the personal knowledge
and the complete knowledge,
the experiential knowledge
of that which we long most to have,
which is God himself.
And Paul then takes this
and he brings the principal home.
The end of verse 12
and in 13,
he says,
then I will know fully
just as I
am fully known.
Friends,
do you see what this verse is saying?
He's saying,
one day
we will know
everything about God
that we need
and want to know,
that we are capable
of knowing.
We will know everything
about God.
And you know what it's like?
It's like how God knows us.
It's like how the God
who knows,
who created the world
and everything in it,
who knows our frame,
who knit together
the atoms
and the molecules
and who breathed life
into us,
who knows every hair
in our head,
who knows every thought
and intention
of the heart.
God knows us
that well.
Now.
And he says,
one day
we will know God
to the full extent
of our capacity
to do so.
We will know God
because we will see him
face to face.
There will no longer be
an indistinction.
There will no longer
be a mediation.
But we will actually
see him.
And this is why
these gifts
are temporary.
This is why
these gifts
are only for now
and not for eternal.
This is why
the gifts
are not worth
building our identity
and exalting
and puffing ourselves
up over.
Because one day
they will pass away
and we will see
our God
face to face.
And this, friends,
is why he turns
at the end of the chapter
to this verse
that is so well known.
faith, hope,
and love.
These three abide
or these three remain.
But the greatest
of these
is love.
You know,
it's funny when
we were talking about
this last week
with the pastors.
I said,
well, yeah,
clearly because
faith doesn't last.
Right?
Because,
as we see
in Hebrews 1,
faith is
seeing things
that we don't yet see
and hoping for things
that we have not,
that have not yet
come about.
Right?
And so faith
and hope
are inherently
things of this age
just like the gifts
and they're not
for the future.
And that's what I thought.
And there's some
validity to it
in some sense
because Hebrews 1,
Hebrews 11,
1 does say that
or Romans 8,
24 does talk
about the way
that hope
that is seen
is not hope
at all.
It's knowledge.
It's something else.
But as I read
through this passage
again and as I thought
about it,
that's not actually
Paul's point
in saying
these three remain.
What he's going to
is he's reminding
the Corinthians
of the very foundation
of their faith.
Faith, hope,
and love
is almost shorthand
for Paul
to the very core
of what it is
to be a Christian.
It is to believe
that Jesus died
on the cross
for our sin
and to entrust
our eternal salvation
to that.
It is to hope
that because of that
we who have been
forgiven of our sin
will be raised
to new and eternal life
with Jesus
and that this life
is not all there is
and we are not abandoned
to the grave
but that Jesus
will raise us with him.
Faith, hope, and love
and love
which is the beginning
and the end
of this work of salvation.
God who has loved us
and God who has called us
in love
to love the world.
This is the very core
and he's saying
these things remain.
Right?
The gifts,
they pass away.
These things will remain.
If faith means
a trusting in God,
even in eternity,
we will do this.
If hope means
that the future
has a certainty
of God's goodness,
we will continue
to believe that
in heaven.
So he says,
these things remain
but the greatest
of these
is love.
Think about it,
friends,
how wonderful
this is.
What is the greatest
commandment?
To love the Lord
your God
with all your heart
and all your mind
and all your soul
and all your strength.
And the second one
is like it.
To love your neighbor
as yourself.
Love is the very shape
of our Christian life.
Love is at the very center
of our salvation.
Romans 5.8
God demonstrated
his love for us
in this.
While we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us.
Friends,
we can fight hard
against the mushiness
and the sentimentality
and the emptiness
of air supply
and the craziness
of our culture
in terms of what love
really means.
But let us not forsake
the centrality of love
in the kingdom of God.
God so loved the world
that he gave
his only son.
That whoever believes in him
should not perish
but have eternal life.
The work that God
has done
has been done
in love.
It is an overflow
of his fatherly care
for his creation.
It is the overflow
of his kingly care
for his people.
He has shown his love
by sending his son Jesus
to die on that cross
and to rise from the dead
so that we
who were dead
in our sins
who are alienated
and outside of love
can be brought in.
He has shown love
that is giving
and love
that is costly
and love
that is enduring
to us
in our salvation.
The very things
that we struggle
to do
he has done
for us
in our salvation.
But friends
the greatest of these
is love
not only because
it is the shape
of the Christian life
not only because
it is the very engine
of our salvation
but because God
himself
is love.
Have you ever thought
about this?
God is not faith.
He is faithful
but God himself
is not faith.
Nor is God hope
though he is trustworthy
and dependable
and sovereign
and good.
But the Bible says
the Bible actually says
that God is spirit
God is light
and God is love.
Those are three things
that says God is
essentially.
because God is love
his steadfast love
endures forever.
Because God is love
everything that he has done
from the nature
of his relationship
within the Trinity
before the creation
of the world
to the very act
of creation
to his patience
with a fallen world
that has rebelled
and rejected him
to his act
of salvation
to reaching into it
to his patient
kindness
and not bringing
justice
and ending this world
but continuing
to endure
and loving
as he showed
in the book of Hosea
this love
for a wayward people
in a wayward world
he has endured
in his kindness
so that he might
save more
so that he might
do more good
in this world
and in his love
he will come
and make all things
right one day
and he will make
all things new
and it will be beautiful
and it will be
as it was meant to be
from the very beginning
and in that day
we will see him
face to face
and we will be changed
we will see him
face to face
and we will no longer
need the mediated gifts
that God has given us
now
as we in part
strive to know him more
because we will be
in his presence
and we will see him
and know him
as the God of love
and our hearts
having been redeemed
by Christ
will respond
in heartfelt
overflowing
loving devotion
and worship
to him
this is how we can endure
in loving others
because this is the kind
of God
that we know
because he has shown us
what it looks like
and because he has given us
his love
with which to love
one another
there is nothing
that you can do
that will have greater purpose
and significance
than pursuing a life
of loving others
for the sake of Christ
there is no gifting
that you can exercise
there is no success
or achievement
you will accomplish
there is no version
of perfection
that you think you
will bring about
in this life
there is no duty
that you can perform
there is no romantic
high to chase
or chest heaving moment
to grasp for
that will have
any weight
compared to pursuing
a life of loving
for the sake
of Jesus Christ
friends
this is what he calls us to
and you know
in light of the events
of the past week
and the media
there are some
who say
well gosh
the church
doesn't look
very loving
friends
let us
live such
good lives
such lives
of love
among the Gentiles
that though
they may hate
what we believe
and what we
stand for
they will see
the love
in our hearts
and they will glorify
Jesus
on that last day
friends
let us
outdo
one another
in love
let us
think about
how we can be
tender
and how we can
be truthful
and how we can
be
patiently
enduring
tenacious
in our love
let us
do that
as we gather
together
today
think about
who is it
that you
need to
persevere
in love
this morning
who has
hurt you
who is
hard for you
to love
who have you
given up on
in love
writer
john
puts it
this way
beloved
let us
love
one
another
for love
is of
god
and
whoever
loves
has been
born
of god
and
knows
god
anyone
who does
not
love
does
not
know
god
because
god
is
love
in
this
love
of
god
was
made
manifest
among
us
that god
sent his
only son
into the
world
so that
we
might
live
through
him
in
this
is
love
not
that
we
have
loved
god
but
that
he
loved
us
and
sent
his
son
to be
the
propitiation
for
our
sins
beloved
if
god
so
loved
us
we
also
ought
to
love
one
another
no
one
has
seen
has
ever
seen
god
if
we
love
one
another
god
abides
in
us
and his
love
is perfected
in us
first john
chapter 4
verses 7
through 12
let's pray
lord as
we listen
to this
text
we are
convicted
of how
unstable
how
wavering
how
inconstant
our love
can be
though we
may rise
to occasions
in heroic
action
lord how
hard it
is for
us to
love
over
and over
again
how
hard it
is for
us to
die to
self
and to
all the
things that
come to
our ego
and to
our
self
understanding
or to
die to
those things
so that we
might truly
love
others for
your sake
to seek
their good
as you
define it
lord we
confess as
well that
there are
times when
we are
confused
uncertain as
to how to
do that
lord we
praise you
that you
are the
god of
love who
will help
us in
those
moments
oh lord
have mercy
on us
and lord
minister to
us a
knowledge of
your love
so that
we may
in turn
be people
of love
because love
is forever
we pray this
in jesus name
amen