Well, it's a privilege to be here with you. I've
already been blessed this morning and I hope
we'll come out of this time strengthened by God's
word. Now, all of us in this room have some kind
of spiritual responsibility or at least looking
to have some kind of spiritual leadership responsibility
going forward. But what does it mean to be a
spiritual leader? What does it mean? Well, I
guess you can answer that in a variety of ways.
There are different answers to that. But this
lunchtime, I want us to focus on just one simple,
crucial thing. And it is basically what this
passage talks about. Leadership, spiritual leadership,
is about love. It's about love. See, every leader
is presented with a basic choice. as they go
into ministry. Will I subordinate loving relationships
to power, or will I subordinate power to loving
relationships? There's a whole strain of philosophical
thinking that goes from Nietzsche to Foucault
that basically sees human beings as essentially
driven by power. Nietzsche says we live by will
to power, that all human interactions are about
power. And to be honest, when you look at church
history, you can kind of see. Quite a bit of
that. People living out of power. Believers have
sometimes been a bit more Nietzschean than showing
the new life that Christ gives us. And that was
definitely an issue for the Corinthians in our
passage. Here we've got a bunch of believers
who are rich in spiritual life. Yes, they've
got spiritual power. They're gifted. They're
passionate. They want spiritual power, they have
spiritual power, but they are also divided, competitive,
and full of one -upmanship. And they were swimming
in the ethic of the Roman Empire, which was all
about power. Chapter 1, they're full of factions
and divisions. Chapter 11, they're treating each
other badly as they take the Lord's Supper. And
then 1 Corinthians 13 just comes like a kind
of an exocet missile of love and explodes all
of this. reworking their brains and our brains
too and Paul here teaches them this is the way
this is the excellent way not the way you've
been going let me teach you let me show you how
you should be dealing with one another how you
should be using this power and here we get a
simple vision of love now just to say I know
that you've read 1 Corinthians 13 before okay
This is the least obscure passage of the Bible
I could choose to preach on in this setting.
But brothers and sisters, this is not too ABC
for you. It is not too basic. We need this. Evangelicals
have sometimes spent lots of time in 2 Timothy,
but somehow skipped 1 Corinthians 13. Most books
on leadership contain many wise and helpful things
about leadership, and yet often don't really
talk about love, the centrality of love. It's
kind of assumed. And even in training, now I've
been involved in training leaders, it's very
easy to assume these things. But 1 Corinthians
13 breaks into our world and tells us that love
is essential to ministry in the body of Christ.
And this isn't some kind of one -off message.
It's not that Paul is feeling a bit gooey one
day, so he composes a poem about love. No, this
is the essential house rules for God's children.
It's central to the Christian view of reality,
isn't it? If the universe is basically matter
plus energy, then of course everything is about
power and the collision of forces. But if the
universe is the creation of an absolute personal
God of love, well, things are very different.
If the world is the overflow of the love between
the Father, Son and Spirit, then everything is
different. It means that love is the ultimate
reality and everything else is basically just
footnotes. to that. The Bible tells us the universe
is not ruled by a will to power, but by a will
to love. And so at the heart of everything is
other -centeredness. When we love, it's not just
that we're doing a good thing. It's actually
what we're doing, what we are designed to be
and to do. So it's a basic choice for you and
me. Will we subordinate love to power or power
to love? The fruit of that decision is massive.
So let's dive into 1 Corinthians 13 and get a
vision, its vision for ministry. Firstly, we
see the priority of love, verses 1 to 2. If I
speak in the tongues of men or of angels but
do not have love, I'm only a resounding gong
or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy
and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge,
and if I have a faith that can move mountains
but do not have love, I am nothing. The point
is simple, isn't it? We grasp it straight away.
Without love, our gifts and our spiritual capacities
are worthless they are useless and they're useless
not because they're bad things they're great
things the gifts of the spirit should not be
despised 1 corinthians 14 1 tells us we should
eagerly desire the gift of prophecy but the point
is that spirit those spiritual capacities those
gifts that power should be subordinated to the
priority of love now the reality is that every
leader knows that their ability to lead is really
all about an ability to speak. Your speaking
is kind of how you influence, how you shape.
But the thing is, it's much easier to get a handle
on someone's speaking gifts than it is on their
love, isn't it? I mean, think about the leaders
you know. Their fame and their position, their
influence is often driven by their giftedness,
isn't it? In speaking, knowing things, envisioning.
But these verses warn us. We may be eloquent
preachers, great communicators, but in God's
ear, without love, we're just spiritual noise
pollution, just a gong. And actually, the same
goes for essays and dissertations and PhDs. Without
love, it's not worth anything. Does that sound
a bit extreme? I blame Paul, not me. in verse
3 Paul says something even more startling if
I give all I possess to the poor and give over
my body to hardship that I may boast but do not
have love I gain nothing he said that sacrifice
without love means nothing but you know we're
called to make sacrifices Jesus calls us to sacrifice
doesn't he of course but what Paul is saying
is we might engage in an outward form of sacrifice
that really has nothing to do with love there
can be An engagement for the poor, commitment
to ministry, a willingness to suffer that is
actually, at its heart, devoid of love. And there's
a reminder here that in Christianity, the noblest
behavior is not martyrdom. It is love for your
neighbor. So what we see here in these opening
verses is that ministry is to be shaped around
the priority of love. Because that is God's priority.
And what a tragedy to give my whole life to something,
to use the gifts that God has given me, to think,
yes, I've given up so much. And yet, to find
out at the end, when I stand before God, it was
worthless. It was empty. That is pretty alarming,
isn't it? But actually, it's something very positive
and encouraging in this as well, because what
this implies is that to... Have love is to have
something greater than the gifts of Moses and
Elijah. In other words, the love that you have
been showing people is worth everything. It's
worth more than any leadership position. It's
worth more than any teaching gift. It's more
significant than any theological education. Love
is your treasure. And God will not assess you
by whether or not you've moved mountains in ministry.
Whether you've planted churches or preached to
thousands or written great books or people know
who you are, no, he will assess you by how you
have treated people. Your kindness and your selflessness
will be your crown. Now, when I think about my
own ministry and my own lack of progress and
love, it dawns on me that actually one of the
reasons I haven't progressed more in love is
because it simply hasn't been the priority. Other
things have crowded it out, not bad things, but
I've used other yardsticks often on my self -assessments.
But that's why these verses are so good. They
just recalibrate, don't they? Yes, spiritual
gifts matter. Yes, of course, knowledge matters.
Yes, of course, personal sacrifice matters. But
the point in these verses is not that love is
the only thing, but it is that love is number
one on the list. It's top of the list. And so
what this means is that love cannot be something
where you opt in or out of. It cannot be a specialization.
You can specialize in your theology, but you
can't say, I'm sorry, I just don't do love. You
can't delegate it to someone else. You can't
say, look, I'm just not gifted in that area.
You can't employ someone else on your ministry
team to do the love while you do the other stuff.
No, brothers and sisters, you've got to do this
one yourself. and so if love has reached a low
ebb in our life we need to sit up and take notice
we need to put it back on the top of the list
yes let's study the doctrine of god but even
better is to study to be like the god you are
studying this is crucial isn't it because as
leaders we shape the communities and the congregations
and the groups that we lead inevitably they do
start to take on something of the priorities
and the character that we live out as leaders
loving leaders tend to develop loving communities.
Not absolutely, but they tend to. Love is our
priority. Secondly, the practice of love. Okay,
I've done the theory, done the priority. We need
some action, don't we? And the rubber needs to
hit the road. Well, 1 Corinthians 13 is action
-packed. Because all these words in verse 47
are verbs and not adjectives. As my kids are
learning in primary school, a verb is a doing
word. Okay, so love does stuff and it doesn't
do some other stuff. Love, in other words, is
not just something inside of us, a kind of feeling,
an attitude, but it can be seen. And here, these
verses describe for us what love does do and
what it doesn't do. In other words, if you have
love, You will do things you never imagined doing.
And you will not do some things you could easily
imagine doing. And what Paul's doing is he's
holding up a mirror to the Corinthians and actually
maybe to you and me as well. And he's rather
uncomfortably exposing their faults and their
behavior. He is actually twisting the knife a
little bit here. So when he says love is patient,
he's kind of saying, because you're not. When
he says to the Corinthians, love doesn't boast,
he's actually saying to them, actually, that's
exactly what you guys do. How about you and me?
We need help, don't we? Don't we need help? Goodness
me, we're all a bit of a mess. We've all fallen
short. Even now, there are things on our consciences.
Let's go through this. Firstly, love is patient.
If nothing else, ministry involves bearing with
people. You can start with vision and pizzazz,
the flush of energy that comes from starting
something new, but you will only ever finish
if you do it with patience. Love is kind. Love
is kind. I've learned in my own ministry, people
look at me and listen to me essentially through
my kindness. It's partly... being a pastor of
a small church. And a lot of my ministry has
been amongst the disturbed and the slightly dangerous.
And what I have realized over the years is that
when I fail to love that, it rings like an alarm
bell. But when I do love, it opens up doors.
I almost need people to kind of get sick and
go to hospital so I can visit them so they feel
loved, and then they will listen to the preaching.
No one's interested in my gifts or how well I
speak or my preaching or my leadership. They're
interested in how I love them. Love is kind.
Love does not envy. Love does not envy. There's
a terrible chronic disease amongst people in
ministry. It's called comparisonitis. It's the
compulsive comparing of myself with other people.
It is very debilitating and very, very destructive,
very corrosive. But love does not envy. Love
doesn't boast. There are lots of very obvious
ways of doing this and subtle ways of doing this.
But it is strange when you're at the foot of
the cross to boast about yourself, isn't it?
Love doesn't boast. Love isn't proud. Literally,
it isn't puffed up. It is very easy to secretly
nourish the belief that I am remarkable, unique,
superior, and different from all the other leaders
around me. And I would not be surprised if that
is going on in our hearts. But not be surprised.
But love is not proud. Love is not proud, is
it? Time helps us with that as we fail and mess
up and get things wrong. It kind of chips away
that kind of narcissism that easily grows within
us. Love does not dishonor us, does not dishonor
others. We need to be careful that parent position
don't lead us into the mistreatment of other
people. There is the old adage that so you know,
Someone, not by the way they talk to the king,
but by the way they talk to their servants. How
do we talk to those who don't have power around
us? Love does not dishonor others. Love isn't
selfish. Selfishness qualifies everything that
we do. People sniff it out in us. Last week,
I had to repent because basically we had a member
of our congregation who's quite frail, elderly,
and we're having a weekend away, and we just
said, I don't think we can take you. It's too
difficult. And he was quite hurt. And I reflected
on that. I thought, actually, you're absolutely
right. We have not stretched for you. We've not
gone the extra mile for you. And that is not
the community we need to be. So we basically
had to repent. And we've tried to sort that out.
But love is not selfish, is it? It's not self
-centered. It's not going the easy way. Love
doesn't get easily angry. Ministry is permanently
frustrating. I think a lot of pastors really
struggle with anger. either suppressed or overt,
because things constantly get in your way. People
don't do what you're asking them to do. It's
very strange. It's been so sensible, so obvious,
and you don't want to do it. We need to be aware
of that growing anger and impatience within us.
Love doesn't keep a record of sins. It's strange,
isn't it, that we should keep a record of wrongs
when we ourselves confess sins all the time.
It's strange to keep a record of sins when the
Lord has wiped our record clean. Love doesn't
delight in evil. I think the Corinthians might
have been shocked by some of the stories we've
had in recent years. Been looking down their
spiritual noses at us. Love doesn't delight in
evil. Love perseveres. Verse 7, it always protects,
always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
We're called to persevere in loving people. It's
one thing to care for people for a season. But
to do it for years and through difficult circumstances
is very tough. So here we get to see love in
practice. It's an action. It's a behavior. It's
basically other -centeredness. And that is at
the heart of all ministry. Other -centeredness.
Not thinking about myself, but thinking about
others. In Acts 20, when Paul is doing his farewell
speech to the Ephesian elders, right at the end,
he says, It is more blessed to give than to receive.
That's the last thing he says to them. And you
kind of think, oh, that wasn't what I was expecting
you to say. Other -centeredness is at the heart
of what it means to be an elder, of what it means
to be a leader. Of course, in leadership abuse,
people reverse that. It's more blessed to receive
than to give. Other -centeredness. I think actually
people will put up with a lot in us if they...
basically experience that we love them. They
might go, oh, his preaching could be better,
but he is actually very loving. There are better
evangelists around, but she does welcome in the
needy into our home. There's others with better
leadership skills than him, but he does actually
remember what's going on in my life. Yeah, she
may not be top flight academically, but you know
what? She is really kind. Love is a doing word.
Why not do a little love audit on your life today?
What does our love look like? How are we treating
one another? Thirdly, the permanence of love.
Now, as I've just said, the Corinthians prioritised
spiritual gifts. They love spiritual gifts. And
Paul marvels actually in the letter how gifted
they are. So back in chapter 1, verse 5, he says,
in every way you were enriched in him in all
speech and all knowledge. And chapters 12 and
14 show us the extent of the Corinthian gifting.
And we would love a bit more gifting, wouldn't
we? I mean, in our churches, wouldn't we love
a bit more gifting? There just aren't enough
gifted people around to do the ministries. There's
no lack of gifting for the Corinthians. No, there
was an abundance of giftedness amongst them.
They were overflowing with gifts. We wouldn't
mind a bit of that, would we? But Paul... kind
of turns that on its head in verses 8 to 12.
Because here their giftedness is relativized.
And what he basically tells them is that their
spiritual gifting is a temporary thing that is
coming to an end and is passing away. Gifts are
like stabilizers. You know, stabilizers on little
bikes with kids. You know, you see someone kind
of riding around when they're 18 with stabilizers
on. It's a bit weird, isn't it? But when you're
three, that's fine. Stabilizers aren't meant
to be permanent. They are a temporary stage.
And Paul's basic point is that these spiritual
gifts are stabilizers for God's people. The prophecies,
the tongues, the spiritual knowledge, he says,
they will go silent and they will disappear.
Now, in church history, there's been some debate
about when this moment is. I don't want to get
into that with a bunch of theological students,
but I think most modern commentators say this
is really about the return of Christ. The point
is the spiritual gifts are temporary blessings
looking forward to the end of time and judgment
day. And that's clear from the way that they
are described in verses 11 to 12. Can you see
that? When I was a child, I talked like a child,
I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.
When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood
behind me. For now we see only a reflection,
as in a mirror, then we shall see face to face.
Now I know in part, then I shall know fully,
even as I am fully known. These spiritual gifts
were imperfect, childish things, a mere dim reflection
of what is coming. They communicate something
of Christ, but the reality is Christ, but they
belong to this age. which is passing away. Perfection
comes in the future. And when we have that perfection,
we won't need those spiritual gifts. Now, when
people walk into a church, almost the first thing
they notice about the church is the gifts, how
good the music is, how good the leader is at
leading, how good the praying is, how good the
preaching is. But the funny thing about that,
is that it means that the first impression people
get is largely based on the things that are most
temporary and childlike about the church. The
things about the church that won't be in heaven.
See, Paul's getting us to look at our giftedness
in a new way. He's showing us that the giftedness
is not a sign that we have arrived, but a preparation
for the arrival of Jesus. They're not a sign
of spiritual maturity. but a preparation for
spiritual maturity. So let's not overestimate
ourselves by our gifts, and let's not be discouraged
by our lack of gifts. To do that is to assess
ourselves by what is most temporary and what
is most passing. Paul's big point is verse 8.
What lasts is love. Literally, love won't collapse
or fall over. Now, knowing that something lasts,
Changes the whole way you relate to it, doesn't
it? You know, whether it's a cooker or a car
or a mobile phone, you choose something that
lasts and you invest in it because it lasts.
In other words, Paul is saying, invest in that
which truly lasts. Invest in love. Because love
is part of the perfect grown -up age that is
coming. And as Jonathan Edwards said, heaven
is going to be a world of love. We're going to
live in that world in the future. And so Paul
ends in verse 13 with this very striking verse.
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three,
but the greatest of these is love. Now that triad
is mentioned a few other places in the New Testament,
but the point here is that love surpasses all
of those things. Love is more important. In the
new creation, faith and hope will merge into
sight, but love will continue and become even
bigger. It will not pass away. It won't be replaced
by something bigger and better. It will be the
oxygen and the fuel of our world. This is what
we're designed for. This is what the Father,
Son and Spirit have been doing. And this is what
they have been preparing for us, a world of love.
And so in the new creation, we will be busy loving
and being loved. So let's invest in that. That's
a very wise investment. Let's throw ourselves
into acts of love and promote compassion and
mutual care. There are lots of things we can
waste our time doing, but you will never waste
your time becoming more loving. It will be what
you have been destined to be forever and ever.
So here we have 1 Corinthians 13, and we are
called here to subordinate. our relationships
not to power but to love, to live under the priority
of love, to practice love, to get a big view
of the permanence of love. And as you do that,
you can know that 1 Corinthians 13 has been lived
out for you. Forget the Corinthians, the Lord
Jesus was the ultimately gifted one, wasn't he?
The one who possessed all power, who had infinite
resources and gifts at his disposal. But he emptied
himself. He became nothing. for you and me. He
endured subordination to the power schemes of
men. He was envied. He was dishonoured. He fell
into the hands of evil men. But he did it for
you and me. He did not seek his own good. He
did not keep a record of our wrongs, but rather
took the record of our wrongs. And so 1 Corinthians
13 is the very means of our salvation. How can
we live for power when we've got a saviour like
this? How can we subordinate people to our power
when Jesus was subordinated for my salvation?
How can I thirst for control when I have a king
who's given up control? You are much loved and
you are destined for a world of love. And much
loved people love other people. This is the heart
of all ministry and all leadership. Shall we
pray? Lord Jesus. We are astounded at your infinite
love. It is incomprehensible. You who are adored
by a hundred million angels and the seraphim
bowing down before you. You made yourself not
just a man, but you went to the cross. You have
endured shame and hatred. You have borne the
record of our wrongs. You were envied. You were
boasted over. And yet you did that out of love
for us. And we praise you. Oh, Lord Jesus, help
us. Help us with all the pettiness in our lives
and the self -centeredness and the self -promotion
and the sore little egos. Help us. We need your
fullness. We need your presence. We need your
life. We need the transformation. Of the gospel
in our lives. Please Lord Jesus fill us afresh.
Renew us. And prepare us for this world of love.
Amen.