THE BEST GIFT OF ALL
1 Corinthians 12:31b-13:13
Warren Wiersbe dared to voice a thought which has often lurked in the back of my mind:
"Few chapters have suffered more misinterpretation and misapplication than 1 Cor. 13.
Divorced from its context, it becomes a hymn to love or sentimental sermon on brotherhood.
Many people fail to see that Paul is still dealing with the Corinthians' problem when he writes these words: the abuse of the gift of tongues, division, envy of others' gifts, selfishness, impatience, and behavior that’s disgracing the Lord"
[Paul is still addressing ] The church that had everything --EXCEPT LOVE
While his instruction applies to marriage, or any other love relationship, Paul is specifically addressing what love for one another looks like in the church.
He tells the church that didn’t lack any spiritual gift that . . .
LOVE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ANY SPIRITUAL GIFT!
The Spirit's presence is more clearly shown by love than by any spiritual gift.
Jn. 13:35 “By THIS all men will know you are my disciples: if you LOVE one another!”
It’s the missing ingredient at Corinth.
They have all the gifts— BUT LOVE is missing. (Cp. 1:7 & 9)
WORTHLESSNESS OF SERVICE WITHOUT LOVE 12:31b-13:3
What activities are worthless if done without love?
• Speaking, whether in human or "angelic" languages
• Prophecy (proclaiming God’s Word)
• Knowing (whether it’s understanding deep mysteries or all knowledge)
• Faith –even the kind of faith that will move mountains
• Giving everything to feed the poor
• Martyrdom –even dying for the Lord is meaningless, without love
All these are good and important things! Yet 3 times he reminds us:
v. 1-without love, "I’m just a noisy gong or a clanging symbol"-A NOISE MAKER!
v. 2-without love, "I AM NOTHING!"
v. 3-without love, "It profits me nothing”
-I GET NOTHING OUT OF IT; IT'S USELESS!
All our service for the Lord is worthless if it's not accompanied by love.
CHARACTERISTICS OF LOVE 13:4-8a
True love seeks the best for the one loved, without considering merit.
C.S. Lewis, identifies two kinds of love:
1) Need love--born out of a need in the one showing love, arising out of a feeling of emptiness. I love someone because of what I get out of it.
2) Gift love--the lover gives to fill the need of the person who is loved.
Giving love is important for parents.
Children are not given to fulfill the parents' needs.
Gift love, that includes complete acceptance with no strings attached, is the greatest gift a parent can give a child.
Gift love is important between husbands and wives.
"Need love says, 'I have a need, and I want you to fill it.'
Gift love says, 'I have something to give, and I want to share it with you.'"
15 characteristics describe what true love looks like:
Each could be introduced by: "The person who truly loves . . . ."
Whether that love is directed toward brothers and sisters in Christ,
your family, your spouse, your children, your girl friend or boy friend, whomever
–this is what true love looks like.
Two Positive Characteristics: 4a [ "The person who truly loves . . . ." ]
1. Love is patient Two N.T. words for "patience"
—Bearing up under a load in a time of affliction
** —Putting up with someone who's hard to get along with
"Slow to anger" (macro + thuméo)
2. Love is kind ["The person who truly loves . . . is kind.to the person loved"]
Eight Negative Characteristics: 4b-6
[ "The person who truly loves is NOT . . . (any of these things!"]
1. Love is NOT jealous Not suspicious, untrusting
Prov. 31:11a-Her husband trusts her
-due to her conduct he has confidence in her.
When we truly love someone, we’re not afraid they might hurt or betray us.
We don’t lack of confidence in them.
2. Love does NOT brag < peri -about, around < revolve around
It doesn't suffer from "revolve-around-me-itis"
It doesn't insist that everything revolve around me.
We don't have to be the center of everything-self-centered.
Christ loved > and gave Himself!
3. Love is NOT proud > not puffed up, inflated
One who loves doesn't manifest a haughty, arrogant spirit.
4. Love is NOT rude —it doesn’t act unbecomingly [NAS]
It doesn't behave in a shameful, embarrassing way.
Refers to discourteous, rude conduct. ("Don't be a brute!")
5. Love is NOT self-seeking
Doesn't seek benefits for self
We don't always have to have our own way
6. Love is NOT easily angered > provoked
Doesn't get irritated—not that you never get upset.
It isn't EASILY irritated or upset. —not marked by impatience.
7. Love does NOT keep track of wrongs suffered
Doesn't "consider evil"-doesn't focus on wrongs committed
True love isn’t into “list making”
Doesn't get hung up meditating on offenses—doesn’t savor them!
8. Love does NOT delight in evil
BUT RATHER, it rejoices with the truth
Emphasis on the positive (Cp. Phil. 4:8)
Some people actually want their spouse (or another person) to do something wrong so they can let them have it—they’re watching for it!
—it helps us feel better about our own short comings.
Love isn't pleased when someone takes the wrong path
—neither for oneself —nor for the one loved
They desire the best, what’s true, for both of them.
Four Universal POSITIVE Characteristics—"ALWAYS” 7
1. Love ALWAYS protects—it bears all things [NAS]
Endures, accepts whatever comes
It’s able to bear any insult, injury or disappointment.
2. Love ALWAYS trusts
Not that it accepts whatever someone may tell them (It isn’t gullible!).
But, when we love someone, we have confidence in them.
3. Love ALWAYS hopes
Positive attitude toward the future.
Optimistic about the one we love—expects the best.
4. Love ALWAYS perseveres The other kind of patience
Patience/perseverance—ability to “hold up under a load” (affliction)
One Universal Negative Characteristic-"NEVER" 8a
Love NEVER fails (lit.) It never falls ( = collapse, come to an end, terminate)
Genuine love can survive anything!
Two main characteristics that sum up the rest:
1. True love doesn't consider the merit of the one loved.
Not based on their deserving it. Not conditional. Rom. 5:8
2. True love seeks what’s best for the one loved.
CONTRAST BETWEEN LOVE AND GIFTS 13:8-12
Gifts are temporary Love is permanent 8
Gifts are imperfect (partial) Love is perfect (complete) 9-10, 12
Gifts are for childhood Love is for the mature 11
Although gifts are important, they are temporary and imperfect,
while love is perfect and lasts forever.
This is true of all spiritual gifts, not just tongues.
They are all temporary and imperfect.
When that which is perfect comes, they will all end.
They will have served their purpose and no longer be necessary.
While this is true of all 3 gifts, there’s a distinction in the way they end:
Prophecy and knowledge will be "rendered useless".
Proclamation of God's Word ("prophecy") and ability to understand it ("knowledge") are gifts most people assume are around today.
However, these gifts are clearly temporary.
13:9-10—The revelation is limited—partial.
We don't see the whole picture.
When Christ returns, we’ll have a perfect revelation.
We will no longer need the partial one.
It will be rendered useless by the appearance of the perfect.
Similarly, tongues will “cease”.
It doesn't say they become useless
It just says they will stop.
13:11: The reason they stop: they were intended for "childhood" stage
In growing up, they would no longer be necessary.
The church would learn an "adult" way of communicating.
Spectacular gifts are for early phase of church, to show serious seekers that God is authenticating the apostles as His messengers, and their message as His Word.
Heb. 2:3-4 how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. 4 God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
How do mature Christians communicate with God today?
Through prayer and through the study of His Word.
We no longer need the spectacular.
We have learned to trust His Word and go to it to find truth.
12 Now we see as in an old-fashioned mirror.
We're used to "silvered glass", a technique not invented until the 13th Century.
Their mirrors were burnished metal, like metal mirrors in freeway rest areas.
You could only see a vague image of the real thing–that’s how we see now.
We see vague images; now we only know partially.
Then it’ll be like seeing face to face. We’ll see clearly.
A few years ago an unusual wedding took place. The bridegroom had been blinded in an accident when he was 10. A beautiful woman fell in love with him. Shortly before the marriage, the young man had an operation on his eyes. On the wedding day the bride walked down the aisle with her father. Standing with the groom was one of Britain's foremost surgeons. During the ceremony, the doctor removed the bandages. For the first time, he looked into the face of his beloved. With a surge of joy, he cried, "At last! At last!"
Our present knowledge of truth, and ability to communicate, will look puny in light of the full revelation when we see Jesus face to face!
CONCLUSION 13:13
Rather than seek a gift, we benefit more from pursuing 3 permanent, essential qualities: faith, hope and love, but love’s the best!
That’s what they have failed to seek.
Far too often that’s true of us also. We cling to all kinds of things–EXCEPT love!
SPIRITUAL FRUIT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ANY SPIRITUAL GIFT
Spiritual fruit receives more emphasis in Scripture than all the gifts put together.
Don't get hung up on the secondary!
Any spiritual gift used without love is just noise!
To emphasize spiritual gifts is to emphasize what’s temporary.
To emphasize love is to emphasize what will never pass away!
People are looking for something that will fill the void in our lives and satisfy us.
John 7:37-38: "If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water."
And yet we feel dry. Instead of feeling refreshed, we feel tired and drained. We ask ourselves what's wrong.
We set out to find something that will fill the empty spot within us.
We try everything.
One of the things many have tried, to fill that void, is religious experience
–for some, that experience centers on tongues.
God created that void to be filled by Himself, a personal relationship with Him, based on His love—NOT on an emotional experience!
Only love will fill the void!—His love for us, and our love for each other!
Try to fill it with a spiritual gift—be it tongues or prophecy—it will fall short.
Try to fill it with knowledge, it won't make it.
People who depend on an emotional experience for the vitality of their faith eventually dry up.
Too often this is a final frustrating step on the way out the door.
We need something more substantial, more deeply satisfying.
What ultimately fills the void is a balance of faith, hope and love. BUT most effective, and best of all, is LOVE.
A shabbily dressed boy trudged several miles through snowy streets, to attend a Bible class led by D. L. Moody. When he arrived, he was asked, "Why did you come to Sunday school so far away? Why didn't you go to a church near home?" He answered, "Because you love a fellow over here."
There are many ways for us to show that we really "love a fellow."
AIDS has affected our society, much as leprosy affected society in Jesus' time.
Many consider it a punishment for sin, and its victims are often treated as “unclean.”
Some Christians have decided it’s time to reach out to those victims.
Volunteers offer friendship, help victims find housing, do errands, and care for themselves as long as possible.
Other people minister to people facing other kinds of needs:
Widows, divorced, abused, single parents, shut ins,
people struggling with pornography or homosexuality, etc.
There are many legitimate ways we can reach out to people around us in love.
Here’s A HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT for this week:
Take each of the descriptions of love and write at least one way that it would be recognizable in our life, if it were present.
Try to identify an area that you still need to work on.
Ask God to show you one specific way you can demonstrate love
to someone around you this week.
TO WHOM CAN YOU SHOW LOVE IN SOME SPECIAL WAY THIS WEEK?
HOW DO YOU PLAN TO SHOW IT?