Speaker 1: 0:03

Good morning. I invite you to open your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 13 this morning, the love chapter. We've been making our way very slowly through this. It's one of those places in the scriptures where it calls special attention to us to slow down and take it in, because it's so rich like cheesecake. And so when we look at the love chapter it's just packed full of so many descriptions. It's got three parts, this chapter. The first part in verses one through three. It's telling us there that we can exercise the flashiest spiritual gifts. We can speak in tongues, we can have all prophetic powers, we can understand all mysteries, have all knowledge, we can have the faith that moves mountains.

Speaker 1: 1:05

Paul says we can give away all that we have to the poor and needy. We could deliver up our body to be burned as a martyr. But if we don't have love, we're just a noisemaker and a gong, so to speak. If I don't have love, I am nothing and I gain nothing. Paul says I am nothing and I gain nothing in the eyes of God and in the judgment of God of those particular acts. If we don't do things motivated by love, then Paul calls this a pseudo love. It's not a real and true love. It's not Christ-like love. Christ loves us from the heart, not just outwardly as he bites on a stick and says, okay, he loves us. It flows from his heart as he loves us. And so Paul, in these first three verses, is pounding home the importance of loving motives in all that we do. It's not enough to have outward actions, we have to have loving motives and heart and mind. But then in the second part he flips it around. In the second part he's talking about love is more than just what goes on inside us, in our heart and mind, and in fact we spent a good many weeks focusing on the fact that he gives these 15 characteristics of love, and they're all action verbs. It's not as obvious in our English translations, but they're all verbs. And it's a love that acts. It's a love that outwardly behaves in a particular way, and so love doesn't simply send another well wishes, love acts. Aren't you glad Christ acted on our behalf? He not only loves us as it flows from his heart, but he acted on our behalf, for our good and for our salvation.

Speaker 1: 2:58

Notice in verse four the two positive characteristics that start out these 15, love is patient and kind. And then Paul moves from those two positive characteristics and he flows into eight characteristics listed next. And this is what love does not do. It doesn't do this. It doesn't act envious or behave boastfully. It doesn't act arrogant or behave rudely. It doesn't insist on its own way, it does not act irritable or behave out of resentment. It does not rejoice at the wrongdoing of others. And just as we catch our breath there, he turns it positive again and he says love rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Speaker 1: 3:40

What Paul is really giving us is a portrait character of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the fulfillment of 1 Corinthians, chapter 13. Jesus is patient and kind. Jesus never acts or behaves in all the negative ways that are listed here. Jesus always rejoices with the truth. Jesus is the one who bears and believes and hopes and endures all things for the glory of God and for the good of his people. We see this supremely in his death on the cross, supremely in his death for the sins of the world, for the sins of God's elect people. And this is why we need the Holy Spirit within us, because what we see in Christ on that cross as he absorbs the penalty for our sin is not natural for us to do. It's not natural for us to sacrifice ourselves for other people, even unto death. And so we need the Holy Spirit in us to transform us, to have this kind of sacrificial agape love, as Paul calls it.

Speaker 1: 4:49

Well, we're going to move now to the third part of this chapter of 1 Corinthians 13. This morning We've seen the importance of motives in verses one through three. We've seen that love also acts in verses four through seven. Now in verses eight through 13,. It can be summarized with what we see there in verse eight Love never ends. Love never ends. That's the idea that dominates this cluster of verses.

Speaker 1: 5:15

With that brief introduction, I'd like to invite you to stand, as I read not the whole chapter. I'm going to read this portion. I'm actually going to begin with verse seven this morning. This is the inerrant, infallible, holy word of the living God. He sends it to you and to me in love. So let's receive it with expectation in our hearts that he will use it to make us a more loving people.

Speaker 1: 5:37

Verse 7. 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 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. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord endures forever.

Speaker 1: 6:45

God's people said amen. Thank you, you may be seated, father. We thank you for the privilege to come to your word this morning. Your word gives life. Your word transforms our hearts from being hateful to being loving. Word transforms our hearts from being hateful to being loving. Oh God, send forth your Holy Spirit and power this morning and even as we come to your word, forgive us of our many sins and now bless us through the Holy Spirit and his grace. And even as we come to your word, gathered here in this place, lord, we remember Angel Sandoval and Barb Meister, especially this morning, as those two battle their cancer at home. Bless their families as they watch with us In Jesus' name, amen.

Speaker 1: 7:40

Well, the way I'm going to approach this, I'm going to give you two observations and then I'm going to give you two brief applications. I want to spend a little time wrapping our brain around Paul's thoughts and his reasoning in this. The first thing I want to draw your attention to. The first observation is here in verse 8. Note that love never ends. It's pretty obvious. Paul just states it boldly.

Speaker 1: 8:07

Some of you may remember, back in 2007, there was a bridge collapse in Minnesota. What a horrific thing that was. I'm sure many of you have seen online. When they do a demolition of a building and they fire off all the dynamite and the building comes down and you can just see the dust, the big cloud of dust that rolls up as the building comes down. Many of you I should say older saints can remember 9-11 and that horrific day when the Twin Towers came down.

Speaker 1: 8:42

And what's the point? Bridges come to an end. We know that Buildings come to an end, all things that are built in this world. They come to an end, but love never ends. Love never ends. It never falls to pieces. It never collapses or suffers ruin. It never falls to pieces. It never collapses or suffers ruin. Love never fails. Love never comes to an end. That's its very nature. That's the very nature of true love.

Speaker 1: 9:18

Now, why is that? There's a theological reason for it. God is love. God is love and God never ends. Aren't you glad for that? When everything else is going to pot, remember that God is love and he never ends. He is eternal, he is unchangeable. This word never here. Love never ends. It's a very strong word. Paul's really pounding it hard Never once, never one time, never at any time. There is absolutely no possibility that love will ever end. And so we need to ponder this for a moment. Put aside all the troubles in our life and just ponder this morning that love never ends. Isn't that a beautiful thing. Love never ends.

Speaker 1: 10:16

Let's see by the very nature of love. We see that true love is divine and it flows from the divine being and it's eternal in nature. And therefore true Christ-like love cannot be created. True Christ-like love can't be reproduced or sustained by sinful human beings in our own strength. It can't be produced by us in our own efforts. It has to come from God. We're totally dependent upon him for this kind of love, this self-sacrificing love for the good of the glory of God and for the good of others, and it only comes as we have faith in Christ. So we have faith in Christ, god assures us the Holy Spirit will be within us and he will transform our hearts and make us more and more loving.

Speaker 1: 11:13

David Pryor says this love never folds under pressure of the most intense and sustained kind. This love continues through death into eternity. This is the love of God. Was that cross intense for Christ? The love sustained him there. And this love, this love of Christ, christ being love incarnate, continues through death into eternity. He not only died in love, he was raised from the dead in love for us and for the glory of the Father. And so we've seen that love.

Speaker 1: 12:08

In the seventh verse we spent several weeks looking at. Love bears all things and endures all things in this world and in this life. But we get to 1 Corinthians 15, what do we see? The resurrection. God is love. And as Christ, the Son of God, became incarnate after he paid for the penalty of our sin, he rose from the dead, he conquered death. The Song of Solomon really wasn't kidding when he said that love is stronger than death, and we see that in Christ. It's the power of God's love, infinite power of his love, to even conquer death. God is great, christ is great, his love knows no bounds and the salvation of his people. Love is stronger than death, because the sovereign God is stronger than death, aren't you glad? That's the first observation Love never ends.

Speaker 1: 13:18

Second, the temporary nature of these miraculous spiritual gifts. The Corinthian church overvalued the miraculous spiritual gifts and there was a reason for it In the Greco-Roman world. First of all, they were sinners, but secondly, that sin was magnified as they lived in the Greco-Roman world because in that world everyone was constantly reminding other people of their place. If I was above you in society, I had no problem reminding you of where you were, always about one's status. We've seen before how that played out at the Lord's Supper, in this same letter to the Corinthians. But they're always reminding one another of their social status. And so what ends up happening? God ends up bringing these miraculous gifts into the life of the church, like speaking in tongues people having a word of knowledge from the Lord to share, as we see back in chapter 12, verse 8. People begin speaking prophetically. And so how were they thinking about all these things? They're thinking in terms of status. How were they thinking about all these things? They're thinking in terms of status? Oh, I'm exercising this gift. It's a competition, I'm above you. That's how they were looking at it in their sinful pride.

Speaker 1: 14:39

All three of these gifts tongues, a word of knowledge, prophecy they're all verbal gifts that were used in the corporate gathering of God's people, in public worship in particular. But Paul says look, he says about these miraculous gifts of prophecy in tongues in verse nine. You'll notice there in your Bible what it says they will cease. Paul's trying to remind them have perspective, they're going to cease. That won't go on forever. God has a time coming in which he will no longer empower his people with such gifts like that. And then he says also here in verse 9, about the gift of knowledge, or a word or utterance of knowledge Verse nine it will pass away. It will pass away. He's trying to get them to let that sink in and to let them inform them, keeping proper perspective, the gifts that God has granted to them. Now, obviously, not all knowledge is going to pass away, but Paul's talking about the spiritual gift of knowledge.

Speaker 1: 15:48

Here 1 Corinthians 13 is about spiritual gifts, as well as 1 Corinthians 12. In other words, god gives some people a special measure of knowledge in various ways that we see in the scripture. God grants to some in this age this special measure of knowledge through the Holy Spirit by which to build up God's church. And they weren't viewing it properly. They were viewing it in terms of one-upmanship and pride. And you can see here in verses 9 and 10, a day of perfect knowledge is coming, paul says. He reminds them of the temporary nature of these miraculous gifts. And then he says a day of perfect knowledge is coming for all of god's people. And he says for we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. I like how the New Living Translation does translate this dynamically. I think it's helpful in this case.

Speaker 1: 16:49

Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only a part of the whole picture. But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless. So Paul's not saying that these things are bad. Paul's not saying that these things don't have God's purposes built into them. No, they're good. He's just trying to say to them. You've lost perspective in what you need to remember to help get things started. As that, these things are temporary and you ought not to therefore be thinking about them in the way that you're thinking about them. When the sun comes out, you can turn your porch light off, right? That's what he's saying. Let the sun coming out inform how you view the porch light. There's something much greater coming when the perfect comes, when christ returns in all of his glory and we who believe in him are all basking in a world full of the knowledge of god and of love. Can you imagine that the partial will pass away?

Speaker 1: 18:21

I can recall growing up about 100 miles south of Wrigley Field. Yes, I was a Cub fan still am. I'd go up there as a boy to see the Cubs play and they didn't win too often in those days. But they had this old historic stadium. It had been built over 100 years before and they had certain seats about halfway up in the first deck and they had these big steel beams. You can still see them. If you see a game with Wrigley Field, they had these big steel beams that were there and if you were one of those lucky folks that got to sit right behind one of those beams. You can only see about half or a third of the field. Now, of course, if you had a buddy next to you, you could kind of elbow him and turn around and see the whole play or whatever, but you couldn't quite see the whole thing. Much of the field was blocked from your view. Good price on the tickets, but not that great of a view.

Speaker 1: 19:18

We know God now in this life, in this fallen world, partially. There's a sense in which we sit behind a beam spiritually. There's a sense in which we sit behind a beam. We can see him, but not like we one day will. One day we'll be right behind home plate and it'll be a great day. How do we have our knowledge of God in this life? We learn it bit by bit. A bit of knowledge here, a bit of knowledge there, a piece of understanding here, another piece of understanding there.

Speaker 1: 19:55

Martin Luther used to say that our knowledge of God in this life, as powerful and transforming and as important as it is, we should want to get as much knowledge of God as we can. But though all those things are true, our knowledge of God in this present world is a patchwork Powerful knowledge, but a patchwork. And the Corinthians had lost sight of that. They'd become too proud. Sometimes, when we remember what we don't know, it helps humble us in the things that we do know, and Paul was trying to bring them to humility. So Paul gives two illustrations here and, by the way, I think one of the reasons God sends people to seminary if you think you know something.

Speaker 1: 20:52

Well, then you go into a class where Knox Chamlin, dr Chamlin's, teaching. He says, well, I've been studying the apostle Paul for 50 years and it makes you want to go. I'll be back here in the corner if you need me, dr Chamlin. It makes you realize woo. And then you go to another class and a guy's in there. He spent his whole life studying the first five books of the Bible, the Mosaic books, and it's good to appreciate knowledge and yet realize wow. And even those professors will tell you they admire one another because they don't know so much themselves you. They admire one another because they don't know so much themselves. There's always more to learn about God. We learn bit by bit and God takes that and he transforms us with it.

Speaker 1: 21:37

But Paul moves to two analogies to help us further understand what he's getting at. He uses contrast. The first analogy is 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. When I was a child, I spoke like a child.

Speaker 1: 21:55

Now, if you come during the week and you come into the preschool over here, you're not going to find these kids discussing marginal tax rates. They're not going to be talking about the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle in their classrooms. They're not going to be talking about the relationships of Russia and NATO and the wonders of grandchildren. They speak like children. They think like children. They're not thinking about the history of the United States, really at any time. They're not thinking about the latest job market stats and what that means around Tampa Bay. They're thinking about snacks and ice cream and their buddy and their toys. They think like a child and they reason like a child A child, even though sometimes they marvel us with little insights. They don't have a sophisticated way of reasoning. They're not going to evaluate all the different reasons of why you should go on a family vacation to Maine versus Colorado. They don't understand the trade-offs of this or that what they tend to focus on as children is what's right in front of them, what's in front of them at the moment. And only over time do they begin to grow more and more to widen their perspective away from themselves and out into the world.

Speaker 1: 23:19

And Paul is saying here at the end of verse 11, you see, when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. Now why is Paul saying this? He's not denigrating childhood. He's not denigrating the Christian lives God's people live in this world only with a partial knowledge of God. He's not denigrating our Christian life in this world. He's not denigrating the great spiritual gifts God had blessed the Corinthian Christians with. He's not doing that.

Speaker 1: 23:47

No, not too terribly long ago I got a haircut and there was a young boy in the chair and there was a bunch of men sitting in there and they were solving the world's problems as they do in barbershops and there was this little boy in the chair. And the whole time I noticed that boy didn't say a word. He just sat there quietly. But when the lollipop bucket came out, that was a different deal. He got excited. I said to the man next to me life was simpler then, wasn't it? He said to me, no doubt. You see, the world of that child is temporary. It quickly passes away, doesn't it? It quickly passes away. And it's the same with these miraculous gifts. They're great, they're wonderful, they're blessings from God. God has his purposes in them, but keep in mind, they're passing away. That's the first analogy he gives. He gives a second analogy.

Speaker 1: 24:53

He talks about our Christian lives now, as if it's like looking through a mirror. Dimly, we're like looking through a mirror. When you look through a mirror, you're looking at something. Indirectly, you can see it, but it's through the mirror. It's one thing to celebrate Christmas, isn't it? With your family all around, right next to you. It's another thing. If you do, you see them on Zoom, or maybe even have a photograph. Whatever the case may be right, there's coming a day. You see, our knowledge now is more akin to a Zoom call on Christmas, but there's coming a day when we'll be with family forever. We'll be with God and all of his people forever, with a knowledge, a personal and intimate knowledge of him that won't compare to what we have now. A day's coming, dear Christian, look at verse 12, that we shall see God face to face. We're going to unpack that next week. Actually, paul says now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

Speaker 1: 26:04

Now, what do we do with this? Things are temporary. What do we do? Two things I want to do with it this morning. Two applications. One those things which last into eternity must be the most valuable things to us in all the world. Those things which last into eternity must be the most valued things in our lives, now in this world.

Speaker 1: 26:35

Look at verse 13. So now, faith, hope and love abide these three, but the greatest of these is what Love? It isn't because faith and hope are bad. Love is eternal. And so what does this mean for us? What's the goal of our Christian life?

Speaker 1: 26:55

If you know God, what, within the Christian life, is our goal? What are we aiming at when we put our feet on the ground, we get out of bed every day? What's our goal? What's our ultimate purpose? What is it? What rules our heart and mind as we go about our day? The Lord's not asking us here If we have goals, plural, we have lots of goals, but what's the goal of all the other goals?

Speaker 1: 27:27

What's the main thing? Is it to love Christ and to love his people and to love our neighbor and to love even our enemies, because we serve an eternal God of love, and God's love is holy. It's holy. It's the kind of love that you see in heaven, in glory, the kind of love approved by the word of God. It's nothing like anything else in this world. It's seen most clearly in the cross of Christ. The Corinthians were full of pride. They had pride. They had these spiritual gifts which were impressive, but they weren't using them to love other people. They were using them in self-righteousness, to feel above other people. All the blessings God gives to us, every single blessing think of all the blessings God's given you and me in this life Every single blessing is to be taken and channeled in the purpose of loving God and loving other people, especially those of the household of faith, which is what this chapter is about Love in the church.

Speaker 1: 28:54

Studies have shown that one of the most difficult things for those who are in deep poverty is that they don't think long term. Those who work among the poor on a regular basis come to realize poverty is a lot more complicated than just providing resources. They tend not to think long term. Why? It's one of the great tragic effects when you're wondering where your next meal is coming from or how you're going to pay your next bill before you get booted out of your house. It's kind of hard to think about college or retirement. You don't think that way and when you live that way over and over and over, week after week after week like that, it begins to warp how you view time itself, to where you just begin to live for what's right in front of your face. It's a tragedy and injustice only worsens it. Middle-class people and wealthy people they can lift their eyes and begin to focus on five or 10 years down the road and what it might mean to invest this week so that they have something down that way, or maybe lifelong plans or their retirement.

Speaker 1: 29:56

But Paul is saying wise people keep eternity in view. They don't just think about today, they don't just think about five, 10 years of retirement, they think about eternity. They let the light of eternity shine into their life and inform how they live today, in the church, in our family, in our community, in the church, in our family, in our community. Many today we don't have at least from this Reformed Presbyterian's viewpoint the miraculous gifts today. But many are chasing status, many are overly competitive in the world, if not in the church, in such a way that we can lose the main thing, keeping the main thing.

Speaker 1: 30:44

The main thing, which is what? To love God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love one another as ourselves. So that's the first thing. That which lasts into eternity must be valued above all things, and love endures forever. Secondly, and very briefly, realize that love is not simply our duty, dear Christian, although it is, christ has taken care of our salvation. We can be at peace with God. He wants us to move on with loving people, knowing that he's already accepted us and will hold on to us. But love is not simply our duty as Christians. It is, by the grace of God, as a free gift, our destiny. Love is our destiny, and I just want to flush this out to end.

Speaker 1: 31:33

What does our future look like For those who know Christ by faith? What does God promise to us? Well, god is love, and God in the person of his son. He became incarnate in love. He died for the penalty of our sins, and when we come to him by faith in Christ alone for salvation, what does he promise our future will be? Well, death could not hold Christ. That's very important. That opens up a future for us. He's risen and he's ascended into heaven, and the Bible says when he comes again, he will make all things new. He'll make a new heavens and a new earth. He'll give us new bodies to go along with our glorified souls.

Speaker 1: 32:17

And here's the thing, in the words of Jonathan Edwards we'll live in a world of perfect love. That's our future, that's our destiny as God's people. Every day we live, we're moving closer to a world of love. Isn't that a beautiful thing that God has secured for his people? That God has secured for his people and we who believe in Christ, by the sheer grace of God alone, will enjoy perfect, loving communion with God, with one another. We'll know God fully and to the brim and overflowing. Can you imagine looking face to face into the source of all goodness, truth and beauty, the source of all love? Into the source of all goodness, truth and beauty, the source of all love? What God is calling us to is to recenter our life on keeping the main thing, the main thing to love Him and to love one another according to His word, knowing that in Christ we're secure in His love forever. So let's pray and ask God for His help.