I'm going to ask you to take your Bible and turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 13.
First Corinthians chapter 13.
This chapter of course is well known because of its emphasis on the very theme that we
have focused our attention on this morning, the theme of love.
As we talk about it, I don't want you to lose sight of the fact that chapter 13 comes between
chapter 12 and chapter 14.
Chapters 12, 13, and 14 all deal with the same matter of spiritual gifts.
Last Sunday we talked specifically about the spiritual gifts and attempted to define them
and to outline some suggestions as to how each of us can determine our spiritual gift
personally.
If you were not here last Sunday and would like a copy of those notes, I think that they
are available in the church office.
We have a few left over and you can drop by there afterward.
We're this morning going to talk about the matter that Paul brings up right at the end
of chapter 12 when he says, and now I show you the most excellent way.
That word way means road, a course.
We talked about the spiritual gifts and how they relate within the body of Christ.
He says, now I want to show you the way, the course you should follow as you exercise your
gifts.
This is how you should conduct yourself as a believer in the body.
Of course, then he begins to speak about this matter of love.
If there were such a thing, we could call this chapter a non-narrative biography of
Jesus Christ.
We're going to read the first seven verses.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am 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 faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love,
I gain nothing.
Love is patient.
Love is kind.
It does not envy.
It does not boast.
It is not proud.
It is not rude.
It is not self-seeking.
It is not easily angered.
It keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
In the text we read this morning, we learn about love, first its preeminence.
The apostle tells us in verses 1 and 2 that love is preeminent over the gifts of the Spirit.
He first makes reference to the gift of tongues.
He says, if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only
a resounding gong, a clanging symbol.
In other words, he says, though I may possess the gift of tongues and have great eloquence,
if I do not speak with love, then all of my words are only as a gong that echoes and as
a symbol that keeps clanging.
All of us love to attend a symphony concert, I would assume.
We enjoy hearing all the various instruments combining to produce that lovely sound.
Can you imagine going to a symphony concert that was only cymbals?
All the players had were cymbals and everybody was clanging away.
And right in the middle, perhaps, was a gong and there was a fellow beating the gong, bong,
bong.
And everybody else playing the cymbals, would that be beautiful?
Of course not.
That would be noisy.
It would not be music.
The apostle is saying that if you and I, though we may have great gifts of speaking to people,
if we speak but we do not possess love, then we are no more than just noise.
There are some people who think that if one is greatly gifted, that's the most important
thing in life.
It is not.
There are others who think the most important thing in life is to be well known and respected
in your profession.
It is not.
The most important thing is to have love.
It's preeminent over all of the gifts.
In verse 2 he mentions the gift of prophecy, which we talked about last week in its technical
meaning and its broader meaning.
He talks about fathoming mysteries, perhaps referring to wisdom there.
He talks about the gift of knowledge and the gift of faith.
In fact, such great faith that one could literally move mountains.
He says that one may have these gifts if he has not love, he is a zero.
He is less than a nobody.
He is a zero, though he may be greatly gifted.
He says love is more important than any gift.
And then he says love is more important than benevolence.
He says if I give all, I possess to the poor, perhaps referring to the gift of giving.
But at least he is talking here about the act of sharing, of giving out to the poor.
He says though I may give everything I possess to those who have little, if I do not do it
with love, I gain nothing.
So love is more important than benevolence.
And finally he says if I give my body to be burned, in other words if I experience martyrdom,
and yet if I do not have love, there is no profit in it.
There were some, especially under the reign of Darkletian, who felt that martyrdom was
a great mark of distinction.
Of course that is still true today in some religions.
For example, some sects of the Muslim religion believe that it is a great mark of honor,
it is sheer entrance into heaven according to their theology, if one suffers martyrdom
for a cause.
Paul says here by the Spirit that though we may even suffer martyrdom, if we are not possessed
by love, we have gained nothing.
There is nothing that is more important than love.
Without love I convey nothing, I am nothing, and I gain nothing.
That is how important love is.
Then in verses 4 through 7 we have the portrait of love.
I would like for us to spend most of the rest of our time this morning looking at the specific
description of love that we find here.
To be controlled and possessed by love is to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ
Himself.
Let us understand clearly too that the love that is mentioned here is not mere human love,
this is agape love, the distinctive kind of love that God has and shares with us.
It is an unselfish giving of one toward another, expecting nothing in return.
It is not mutual admiration, nor is it friendship, but it is a love that self-sacrifices, as
we clearly see from the description here.
There are some people who feel that love is kind of a, or the fuzzies I guess they call
it.
It is kind of a sentimental thing, it is an emotional feeling that comes over you.
Someone has penned this little poem, love is a funny thing.
It is just like a lizard, it curls up in your heart and jumps in your gizzard.
And there are some people who feel it is just that way.
Unless there is something inside of them that gets all tickled, they don't feel like there
is love.
But that is not love according to the Bible.
Love is something that is active in seeking another's welfare even if the other person
is undeserving.
Let us look at some of the qualities that are mentioned here in the portrait of love.
And again may I say to you that we are here actually painting a portrait of the life of
Jesus Christ.
You can take every phrase here that describes love and go back to the gospels and find specific
illustrations of love in action in the life of Christ.
We don't have time to do that today but that would be a good Bible study for you sometime.
Love is patient or long suffering.
What does that mean?
It means that it endures injuries and slights without losing interest in the welfare of
the one causing them.
Did you get that?
It means that even though someone may injure you and hurt you, you do not lose a desire
for their welfare.
Love is patient.
It does not become resentful and bitter at others.
It is patient under provocation of evil from others.
Love is never in a hurry.
Love can wait.
Love is a calm.
Love is patient.
And then it says love is kind.
Actually it means merciful.
It means to be easy on another.
To extend good to others.
This is the positive aspect of number one.
Number one says love is patient.
It sort of receives, blows, and does nothing to retaliate.
But when it says love is kind, it is the outgoing side of that.
Love is the hand that is outreached to another.
It is giving another genuine pleasure.
There was a young boy who had been converted at an early age.
The word of God was daily read in his home and he faithfully attended Sunday school.
One day the child said to his mother, Mother, I wish Jesus lived on earth now.
She said, Why, Johnny?
Because I'd like so much to do something for him.
But what could a little fellow like you do for the Savior?
The boy replied, Why, I could run all kinds of errands for him.
His mother said, So you could, Johnny, and so you shall.
Here are some oranges and a glass of jelly for poor old Margaret who lives down the street.
I will let you take them to her in Jesus' name.
Then noticing that her son was rather surprised by that, she explained, When Christ was here
on earth, he said, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these, ye have done it
unto me.
That means, Johnny, that whenever you do a kind act for anybody because you love the
Lord, it's just the same as he were living on earth and you were doing it for him personally.
Does that help you understand what kindness is?
Someone wrote these words, I shall pass through this world but once.
Any good thing therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human
being, let me do it now.
But may not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.
Love understands that and is kind.
How is it expressed in your dorm?
How is love expressed in kindness there in your room?
How is it patient with that person down the hall?
How about your home, your husband, your wife?
Love is patient.
Love is kind.
Furthermore, it does not envy.
It is not envious.
The root word here means to boil, which is an interesting thought about envy.
Because envy, you see, is rather hidden and yet it's very real in the heart and the spirit
of a person.
It boils down underneath where it can't be seen.
But every now and then one of those little bubbles of air comes popping up and there
will be a little bit flash out of the life, like lava that comes out of a volcano.
That's the way envy is.
But love is not envious.
Envy has been described as the dislike we feel when someone is in a better position
than ourselves.
It's the attitude that was seen in the Corinthians who felt that their gifts were inferior.
They were envious of the others who had other gifts.
Love does not bear a grudge over the success of another, but rather it rejoices when another
is promoted or succeeds or is honored.
Love is that part of the Christian life that rejoices when another guy is elected captain
or another gal is given the first place.
Love is not envious, nor does it boast.
The word means a braggart, a show-off, one who, as it were, blows his own trumpet.
And here Paul is probably thinking about those Corinthians who felt they were greatly gifted
and who showed off with a display the gifts that they possessed of the Spirit.
Paul says love is not ostentatious.
It is not pretentious.
It is not a braggart.
It does not boast about itself.
He goes on to say, and love is not proud or is not puffed up.
Well, the one word, boast, talks about the outward display of arrogance.
Being puffed up is, again, the inner word.
It talks about the spirit of a person, the kind of a person who is a windbag, as it were,
where there is no real substance within.
It's just being puffed up with arrogance.
This is a word that is related to the Greek word for bellows.
And so you could just almost see a person like a bellows swell up with his attitude
of himself.
And though he may not say or show that arrogance, it is obvious in his life because his spirit
does show through.
Love is not puffed up.
Love does not act unbecomingly.
In other words, it is not rude.
It does not display bad taste.
The thought here is not necessarily evil, but it refers to that which is uncouth.
Again, the apostle may be thinking about the Corinthians and the way they acted at the
Agape feast.
Remember we talked about that?
When they would get together to observe the Lord's Supper, which should be a beautiful
display of their unity and their oneness, they would jump in and there would be those
who would eat the food very quickly and leave none for others.
It was actually a display of selfishness.
And that's what Paul is probably thinking of here when he says that love is not rude.
Do you notice how these are in the negative?
Sometimes in order to show something at its most beautiful point, you have to paint a
black scene behind it.
If you want to show a diamond, for example, one excellent way to do that is to put it
on a piece of black velvet.
So the apostle paints love here against the negatives first.
He says furthermore that love does not seek its own.
It is not self-seeking.
It looks out for the advantage of another, in other words.
Sometimes it's hard for us to discern, isn't it?
Because our hearts can be very deceitful.
And we may think that we are looking after another's welfare when in fact we are subtly
looking toward our own.
Perhaps again Paul had in mind the Corinthians and those who felt that it was fine to eat
the meat that had been offered to idols, which he talks about in chapter 8.
Then there were others who felt that it was wrong and it was a stumbling block to them.
Paul is reminding them that love is not self-seeking.
There is no happiness in having or in getting, but only in giving, says Henry Drummond in
his book The Greatest Thing in the World.
And there he says love is not pervert.
It is not easily angered.
It does not give way to a fit of emotional violence.
It does not become irritated at another.
The apostle knew what this was because the very thought here was found in his own life
when he and Barnabas had what is called in the New Testament a sharp disagreement in
Acts 15 verse 39.
Whatever the whole story was there, we know part of it at least, there was a sharp disagreement
or an irritation or a provocation between Paul and Barnabas.
Paul comes back to say to us that love is not provoked.
It is not irritable.
And then love keeps no record of wrongs, or as the King James puts it, it thinks no evil.
And actually I think the NIV comes closer to the meaning here because the word means
that love does not count up evil.
There are some people who live as though they have a great ledger book before them.
And when an evil is done to them they write it down in the ledger book so that they can
keep track of how everybody in their circle of friends is doing.
And when the occasion calls for it they draw the line and they sum up all of the evils
that another has done, perhaps to justify some evil action back at that person.
What Paul tells us here is that love does not take account of evil.
There is no ledger book for it.
To nurse a real or an imagined injury is to miss the point of love.
Love does not hold a grudge.
Love does not allow resentment to build up, because resentment poisons the mind and it
sours the spirit.
Love considers any slight as unintentional.
But if in fact it realizes that the slight is deliberate, it chooses to take no notice
of it, because it keeps no record of wrongs.
Proverbs 10 and 12 says, hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs.
That s the point here.
How s your ledger book?
Where do you keep one?
Then he says, love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.
Now the two verbs in that particular clause are similar.
But the second one means that love is a partner with truth.
On the other hand, it has nothing to do with iniquity.
Again the apostle is probably thinking of the Corinthians, who are rather proud of their
broad mindedness, because they allowed immorality in their church, as spoken about in chapter
5.
What the apostle says here is that that s not love, because love does not rejoice or
delight in evil.
But on the other hand, it delights, it rejoices with the truth, because it is a partner with
the truth.
In the Psalms it says, mercy and truth are met together.
Where do they meet together?
In the person of Jesus Christ, who may be described by the very clause that is before
us here.
Love grieves over the fallen one, and quickly shields him when it s possible.
It rejoices when the truth prevails.
Love seeks to put things in a proper context, in a proper light.
Love does not mean that one is spineless.
For truth condemns evil, and love concurs with that condemnation.
But it does mean that love allows no bitterness, and no undue harshness.
There are some people who believe that we ought to overlook iniquity and evil out of
love.
In fact, to put it in one illustration, I was associated for a brief time with a denomination
where that was true.
In their seminaries there is a great deal of iniquity and evil in terms of liberal theology
that is being poured out into the minds of the students and from them into the churches
of that denomination.
And there is a great struggle in that denomination this day, over this matter of liberal theology.
And there are those in the denomination who stand up and say, for the love of our convention,
we ought not to make this an issue, this matter of the inerrancy of the Bible, etc.
And yet, that very sentence betrays the essence of love.
Because love does not delight in evil.
On the other hand, it rejoices when the truth triumphs.
And so love is not that which pulls the rug over sin.
In fact, there are times when love exposes the sin so that it can be dealt with because
sin destroys.
But love, on the other hand, is not harsh and bitter about it.
Love bears all things.
It always protects.
And you'll notice these last four phrases each have always in it.
Always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
And it says that love always protects.
The word there is rooted in the word for roof.
We speak about having a roof over our heads, and the thought is that that roof is there
to protect us from the elements.
Well, here it says that love is a roof to the heart.
It protects us from resentment and from bitterness.
Not only that, it shelters and protects others as well.
Love endures without divulging its distress toward another.
It's like a ship that is tight against the water.
Love does not allow the water to seep in.
It keeps the vessel dry and floating, and so love does that with the life.
It protects us.
It always protects.
The loving man contains himself in silence.
He does not allow, for example, the mastery of his tongue.
He does not allow his tongue to get out of control.
He allows his tongue rather to protect others.
That's what love is concerned about.
Are you ever concerned about that?
Of course you are, because love is concerned about protecting others.
And then love is always trustful.
That does not mean that love is gullible.
There's a difference between being gullible and being trusting.
What it does mean is that love is not always suspicious.
Love is predisposed to trust another.
Love always expects the best qualities from another.
Someone has said it is far better to be deceived in a doubtful case and suffer hurt than as
a skeptic to hurt another who should have been believed.
And then love always hopes.
What does that mean?
It means that love is always optimistic, not blindly optimistic, but it's optimistic.
Love is a realism that is anchored in the promises of God.
Love does not get to the point of despair.
Love sees the bright side of things.
It always counts on God, this coming through, as being faithful and able and willing.
And then love always perseveres.
It endures all things.
The thought here is to remain under a load.
Love persists in the face of all odds.
Though there are adverse circumstances, love sticks to it.
It perseveres.
Often in a warfare, it is the general who is most persistent who wins, not always the
one that is the most brilliant.
The general of this might be Ulysses Grant, although he was a talented general.
But on one occasion he said in a battle, I intend to fight it out on this line if it
takes all summer.
Now he transfers that kind of an attitude into love in the Christian context and it
shows that love always perseveres.
Impatience is forever self-destructive.
Impatience causes disintegration in relationships.
But love endures.
As we read through these phrases, we read what Jesus Christ is like.
The question that I would pose to each of us today is this one.
How much are we like Jesus?
How conformed are we to the image of Christ?
It's easy to have an emotional feeling about that.
It's also easy to talk about love.
But when we begin to define love in the terms of the chapter that is before us, it is a
test to see how much love we really have.
What about that person you're engaged to?
Are you patient?
Do you overlook those things about that person that you don't particularly care for?
Does love protect the other person by sealing the tongue?
Is love causing a courtesy in your life so that you are not rude?
Does love restrain you from becoming boastful or inwardly arrogant about your abilities
or your accomplishments?
Do you trust other people or do you always think the worst about them?
Those are just some of the questions that we need to ask ourselves when we talk about
this matter of love.
Love is so very important.
It is the mark of Christlikeness.
Jesus said by this, shall all men know that you are my disciples if we possess the kind
of love that's described here.
Not if we talk about love and not if we sing about it and not if we hold hands and sing
about it, as good as that may be.
But the test is, how do I act on the way home in the car or on the bus?
What about this afternoon?
What about the basketball game Tuesday night or Friday night?
How do I act out on the floor?
What about my spirit as I sing in that group, as I minister?
Am I arrogant?
Am I there to receive glory for myself?
How do I feel when that person gets up in front and I feel like he's there too much?
Am I envious of him?
Do I condemn him?
You see, these are some of the points raised by chapter 13 of Corinthians.
How much love do we express within our small churches?
It's easy to say, well, they don't love.
No, that's not the question.
Do you love?
That's the question.
Do you reach out?
Do you care?
Because love is not what others give to me.
Love is what I give to them.
That's love.
There's a young boy who was rushing through the streets of Chicago about 100 years ago.
One stop, he said, where are you going?
He said, I'm going down to Moody's Sunday School.
You see, Moody had started a Sunday School for the street urchins there in Chicago.
So why are you going down there?
He said, because they love a fella down there.
There is nothing that is more attractive than love.
Now, as we look through these qualities, very frankly, I shrink from them because I cannot
produce these qualities very consistently.
I can work on one or two of them at a time for a while and fail the rest of them and
then fail the ones I'm working on, ultimately.
The whole point is that the fruit of the spirit is what?
It's love.
You see, the life that is before us here and the quality that is sought is a life and a
quality that only the Holy Spirit can produce through us.
If you're not a Christian this morning, then these phrases and these descriptions escape
you entirely.
You cannot know them until you know the one whose life this describes and you share his
life.
And if you have done that, then the question, of course, to us is this.
Is his life flowing through me today or is it my own selfish life?
Is he Lord or am I Lord?
The one whose life is perfectly described in this chapter was not honored by men, but
he was rejected, cruelly treated, and ultimately he was nailed to a cross.
And we should expect nothing more than that if our lives are controlled by love.
We can also expect that our lives will be glorifying to Jesus Christ, and that's the
most important thing.
Not acceptance here in the world, but acceptance to our Lord.
Heavenly Father, I pray that none of us will be able to escape the point of this chapter
today because there's application for all of us.
If there be some friend here today without Christ as Savior and Lord, may there be a
hunger to know Jesus Christ after seeing the beauty of his life as described here.
All of us have to confess to you the bankruptcy that we feel as we try to produce these qualities.
Thank you for bringing us to the point where we feel that bankruptcy.
But now do we also confess that we want you to be our Lord and our life and to produce
this quality of living through us, in our homes, in our dorms, with our families and
our friends and where we work?
Lord, produce this life, this beautiful quality of life described in this chapter, through
us and attract people to yourself.
I pray this in Christ's name.
Amen.
Would you take your hymn and join me in singing?
The second verse of 397.
This will also serve as an invitation hymn, and if there is some spiritual need in your
life today that you would like someone to pray with you about, we invite you to come
here to the front so we can introduce you to a counselor.
If you have never trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, then we implore you to come.
Not that coming forward in itself will make you a Christian, but the point is that coming
forward we will be able to help you and talk with you personally and answer your questions.
Those people that Jesus called, he called publicly, and he may be calling you to follow
him today.
Will you come?
And then if today as a Christian you feel defeated and empty and you want someone to
pray with you, to talk with you, we encourage you to come too.
Let's sing together very prayerfully the second verse of 397, O'er to be like thee, full of
compassion.
Amen.