Well, good morning. It's good to see you guys give
you a chance to find your seat. As you do.
You can open your Bible to 1st Corinthians chapter 13, First
Corinthians 13. We're still working our way
through love through this chapter on love here.
So we'll be in verses 8 through 13 today, but First Corinthians
13, if you'll remember, if you were here last week, we studied
Paul's description of love and the way that he defined it
really is action. All right?
It was. There was a character nature to
love, if you will. And so he defines it in its
character or in its action and the things that it does.
He mentioned things like love is patient and kind.
It rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes
all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
And so there was a lot there about love and the kind of love
that all exists, particularly among believers, right,
Particularly among believers. Now, the reason this was
important is because the Corinthians had forgot love.
We'll look at it more today. But they were so, so convinced
that spiritual gifts, particularly the sign gifts or
the greatest examples of a maturing Christianity, right
that those things were to be held in high regard.
And so they were they they would prefer some gifts of their other
others. They would prefer some people
who held those gifts other over others.
And it was creating in them a real sense of pride.
Pride is selfishness. Pride is anti love, right.
And so now what Paul does in this chapter is he turns from
Love's character to Love's duration.
How long does love last, right? How long does love go on?
And so he turns from the character of love to the
duration of love. And what he's going to do here
is he's going to contrast for us love with spiritual gifts.
He's going to contrast them even with virtues that we would hold
in high regard, like faith and hope.
And what he's going to show us is that love is supreme because
it alone endures forever. It lasts forever.
Love never ends. OK, so First Corinthians 13/8
through 13. If you're able to, would you
please stand as we read God's Word together?
I think what I'll do today is I'll read one through 13.
This is a way to catch the context, in case you weren't
here last week. If I speak in the tongues of men
and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a
clinging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers
and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all
faith so as to remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing.
If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be
burned but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast.
It is not arrogance or rude. It does not insist on its own
way. It is not irritable or
resentful. It does not rejoice at
wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things,
endures all things. Verse 8.
Love never ends As for 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, we prophecy
in parts. 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. This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come now to
1st Corinthians 13, and particularly with eight through
13 in mind. And we ask, Lord, that you would
instruct our hearts, that you would instruct our minds, that
you would instruct our our lives and our very souls, Lord, that
you would give us life through your word today.
And Father, as we examine the enduring nature of love, Father,
would you help us to be so convinced, so convinced that
loving the Lord God with all our heart and mind and strength and
loving our neighbor as ourself are two of the greatest things
we can give ourselves to. It's the enduring way, it's the
virtue that never expires. And Lord, as we see that today,
would you help us to be convinced of it, that we might
live it out? And so, Father, plant this word
deep into our heart by the power of your spirit as it's
proclaimed that it might bear fruit for generations to come.
We love you, Father, and we thank you for Christ our Savior.
We thank you for the Spirit which grants us life and
godliness, and we ask that you, Father, would instruct us today.
It's in the name of Christ we pray.
Amen. Amen.
You may be seated. You and I live in a world where
everything wears out. Everything has an expiration, if
you will. Your car will break down.
Batteries will run low, cutting edge technology is replaced in 5
minutes. It seems your bodies even are
wearing out right? They will give way to death.
Even the strongest athletes eventually retire eventually
cannot perform at the highest level any longer.
Everything has an expiration date.
Everything right. And the Corinthians knew this
really well. They then understood the idea of
exploration. Their their city was filled with
monuments to pass to glory, monuments erected for past
victories, past, you know, even Olympic athletes and past gods
and and those sort of things. Monuments to pass glory.
Buildings that once shined now weather with age, right?
What buildings that once stood as great inventions of mind and
hand are weathered? Their harbor.
We've mentioned that there are port city.
Their harbor brought in treasures from across the
empire, but even the newest goods eventually wore outs.
They were worthless. And sadly, the church in Corinth
was acting as if even the most precious things of God were
disposable, acting as if these things don't matter.
They were boasting in their spiritual gifts.
They were dividing over which ones were most important, but
forgetting the one thing that would never expire.
Love. Love for God and love for your
brother and sister in the Lord. And So what Paul wants the
Corinthians to understand in verses 8 through 13, what he
wants us to understand is that love has no expiration dates.
Spiritual gifts, as wonderful and as necessary as their season
may be, will one day vanish. Even the central graces of faith
and hope will one day give way to something better.
But love, Paul says love will endure forever.
Love never ends. Why?
Why does love never ends? Well, if you remember some of
what we talked about last week, you make it answer that question
this way. Love never ends because love
reflects the eternal character of God himself.
Think about it. And eternity.
When you're present with the Lord and his people, you won't
need prophecy. God's word will be fulfilled and
eternity. You won't need tongues because
we will all praise with one voice before the throne.
We won't need faith because faith will become sight.
We won't need hope because every hope that we had, hope and the
promises of God will be fulfilled.
But love, Paul says, will never end because God himself is love,
and he has made us to dwell in his love with his love forever.
So the main point of today's passage is this Christian love
endures forever because it reflects the eternal character
of God. If you're taking notes, you may
want to write that down. Christian love endures forever
because it reflects the eternal character of God.
Paul's going to show us this in four different ways in these
verses. I'll just mention those to you
and then we'll walk through them and you can take notes at that
point. But we're going to 1st see the
permanence of love. Paul's going to show us that
gifts will fade, but love never ends.
We're going to see the permanence of love.
Then we're going to move into the progression of maturity.
The progression of maturity. Childish things pass away, but
love leads us to grow up. Love leads us to maturity.
Third, we'll come to the perspective of eternity.
One of the greatest things I hope for you is that you'll have
a strong sense, a strong understanding of eternity and
that your perspective for all of life will be viewed through this
lens of eternal things. But right now, Paul's going to
show us we have a dim knowledge, but that dim knowledge is going
to give way to face to face clarity in Christ.
And then finally, he's going to show us the preeminence of love,
that even above faith and hope, love stands as the greatest.
So today we're going to walk through each of these truths,
and along the way we're going to see why love is the greatest
investment that we can make with our lives because love is the
one thing that lasts forever. First, the permanence of love.
Look at verses 8 through 10 again.
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
prophecy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will
pass away. Paul's explaining here the
permanence of love. He contrasts what is temporary
with what is permanent. Knowledge will pass away,
prophecies will pass away, tongues will cease, and when the
perfect comes, these partial things will pass.
You see the Corinthians exalted spiritual gifts, especially
those quote UN quote spectacular ones, but Paul says they all
have a built in expiration date. Again, prophecies will pass
away, tongues will cease, knowledge will pass away.
These gifts, if you think about building a building right, these
gifts would be like scaffolding on your building project.
The scaffolding is necessary for a time, but once the building is
complete, they're removed. Love, however, never fails.
Love is a part of the foundation of the structure.
When Paul says love never ends, that phrase means it never
fails. It never falls over, it never
topples. It never collapses.
It never becomes obsolete. Love never ends.
It is a love that endures into eternity because it's grounded
in our eternal God and our eternal God never changes.
In Malachi 3 verse 6, the Lord reveals something about his
nature, about his character. He says, for I, the Lord do not
change, I do not change. In first John 48 we read anyone
who does not love does not know God because God is love.
So love outlast all failures if you will.
Paul strengthens the point on the permanence of love by
comparing it to the spiritual gifts that the Corinthians
highly prized, prophecy and knowledge and languages or
tongues, all of which he says will come to an end.
Now in the text there may be a distinction being made here on
how prophecy and knowledge come to an end and how the gift of
languages comes to an end. It's indicated by two different
Greek verbs being used. In the case of prophecy and
knowledge, they are both said to pass away, or in other words,
they are to be abolished. In both cases, the verb
indicates that something will put an end to those two
functions. Verses 9 through 10 indicate
that what will abolish knowledge and prophecy is that which is
perfect. When that occurs, those gifts
will be rendered inoperative, will no longer be needed.
The perfect in verse 10 does not refer to the closing of the
Canon of Scripture, but to the consummation of Christ's
Kingdom, the Scripture. The Scriptures do not allow us
to see yet face to face or have perfect knowledge as God does
now. The perfect must be the eternal
state when we see in glory God face to face and have a full
knowledge in the eternal new heavens and the new earth.
Just as a child grows to full understanding, believers will
come to perfect knowledge and no such gifts will be necessary.
Now, let me pause and clarify something for a moment, because
this might sound different than something I said a couple of
weeks ago. A couple of weeks ago, I said
that the perfect referred to the Canon of Scripture.
However, as I've studied this more carefully and I've as I've
examined the great teachers throughout church history, such
as and, and just walking from kind of beginning of those those
men to most recent. As you look at the teachings of
Saint Augustine or John Chrysostom or John Calvin or
Martin Luther, Jonathan Edwards or Matthew Henry or Charles
Spurgeon or RC sprawl or John MacArthur.
What I found is that Paul's words here clearly points to the
return of Christ. Paul explains this in verse 12
when he says, then you will see face to face or then we shall
see face to face. Now that cannot be reduced to
possessing a complete Bible. It points to seeing Christ in
glory, as Revelation 22 Four says they will see His face and
His name will be on their foreheads first.
John 32. We read there from John,
Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not
yet appeared. But what we know what I'm sorry,
but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him because we
shall see Him as He is. So the point is this that Paul
is making in, for and in these verses.
Gifts are temporary, but love is eternal, because love alone
carries over into eternity, when we will see Christ Himself.
Saint Augustine said this. He said love will last forever.
For when we see him face to face, what we need, sorry, What
need will there be of faith? What need of hope?
Love, having begun here, will be perfected there.
Amen. So knowledge and prophecy will
pass away at the consummation of the Kingdom of God.
But languages or tongues get a different Greek verb when he
says they will cease. Paul teaches that tongues will
cease by themselves, as it did at the end of the Apostolic age.
It will not end by the coming of the perfect, for it will have
already ceased. The uniqueness of gift language,
the gift of languages, the uniqueness of their
interpretation, was, as all sign gifts, meant to authenticate the
message and the messages of the gospel before the New Testament
was completed. Hebrews 2, Three through 4 we
read this. How shall we escape if we
neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the
Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God
also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles,
and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His
will. Tongues is also limited by being
a judicial sign of Israel's judgment from God.
Tongues were also not a sign to believers, but unbelievers,
specifically unbelieving Jews. 1st Corinthians 14.
We'll get into this in the coming weeks, but Paul writes
there. Thus, tongues are a sign not for
believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for
believers but for believers. Tongues also ceased because
there was no longer a need to verify the true messengers of
God. Once the Scriptures were given,
it became the standard. The Scriptures became the
standard by which all teachers are to be tested as either true
or false. Tongues was a means of
edification, but it was a means of edification in a far inferior
way to preaching and teaching. In fact, chapter 14 in First
Corinthians is designed to show the Corinthians who were so
preoccupied with tongues that it was an inferior means of
communication, it was an inferior means of praise.
It was an inferior means of evangelism.
Paul says there that prophecy was and is far superior.
Another reason that tongues have ceased should be clear from
their absence from any other books in the New Testament
except Acts. Tongues ceased to be an issued
of record or practice in the early church as the scripture
was being written. Tongues is also another sign of
it ceasing to us. That should be clear.
Is its absence through church history?
Since the 1st century? It appears only sporadically,
and then it only appears in questionable groups.
We're going to see these truths about tongues more clearly in
chapter 14, but it's worth mentioning here because Paul
says they will cease and he uses a different Greek verb rather
than saying they will pass away or be abolished at the point of
the text, Chapter 14, we'll get more into prophecy in tongues.
The point of the text today is that love never ends.
And so it demands our highest pursuits, demands our highest
pursuits. So again, you think of
scaffolding around a cathedral, right?
It's necessary while the work is in progress.
But when the cathedral is finished, the scaffolding is
removed, it's taken down. The church is God's cathedral.
It's God's temple, if you will, and the gifts are like
scaffolding. But love is a part of the very
building itself, and it will remain even when the work is
complete. This means we must not cling the
gifts as if they are ultimate. All right, all of you have a
spiritual gift. And the warning here is that we
not cling to the gift as is. It's as if it's the ultimate
thing in our lives, all right. Spiritual gift is a tool meant
to be used for the glory of God and the good of your brother and
sister in the Lord. How can it be used for the glory
of God and the good of your brother and sister and the Lord
if it's not used in love, A love for God and a love for his
people? All right, so gifts are
temporary, but love is eternal. And so when we read that, we
have to ask ourselves this, do I prize experiences?
Do I prize knowledge? Do I prize my abilities more
than love? Like when our lives are over,
what will matter most is not the measure of our talents, but the
measure of our love. What will matter most is how
much do I love God? How much do I love his people?
And if love is permanent while gifts are temporary, then we
must also learn to grow up into love because love marks true
maturity. Which brings us to our next
point in verse 11, the progression of maturity.
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. Paul illustrates with the
picture of childhood versus adulthood here.
Childhood has its ways, doesn't it?
A child speaks a certain way, they think a certain way, they
reason a certain way. And all of these are fitting for
a child, right? We understand as we're raising
children that they're, they're going to speak like a child,
think like a child, reason like a child.
And a part of being a parent is helping your child grow up out
of those things, to learn to speak and to reason and to think
with maturity. Maturity requires putting
childish things away. In the same way the church is
now in its childhood, so to speak.
We are being formed, we're growing.
We are still dependent on temporary means, like the
spiritual gifts that you all may possess, but in eternity, in
eternity the church will be fully mature.
It will lack nothing, and love will be the marker of that
maturity. Ephesians 413 says God's purpose
is that the church would attain to the mature manhood, to the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that the
church would be matured well. Love is the evidence of this
maturity. Knowledge and gifts without love
are childish things. Remember Paul said, if I speak
in tongues of men and angels, but I have not love, I'm a noisy
gong or a clinging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers
and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all
faith so as to remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing.
If I give away all that I have and if I deliver it my body to
be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is the evidence of maturity.
John Calvin put it sharply when he said this.
He said he who has not love, though he be an Angel, is
nothing but a child. When you were a child, you
probably treasured some toys that you no longer think about
all right, or don't think much about.
As I've been raising kids, I've found myself hearkening back to
toys I really loved. Often I'll go buy something
that's similar to that, and my kids are not interested, all
right? It doesn't carry the same glory
for them that it carried for me. Rest in peace, Ninja Turtles,
I'm afraid. They seem so important, though,
those toys of your childhood. But you outgrew them all, right?
In the same way the Corinthians were clinging to gifts like
children do to toys. But maturity means laying them
aside and embracing what will endure, which is love.
Some Christians never seem to grow beyond childishness.
Age is not representative of spiritual maturity.
It's just not. Age is not representative of
godly wisdom. It's just not right.
The Lord and his, the maturity of of a love that's growing for
God, a love that's growing for his people.
Those things represent maturity. Some Christians never grow
beyond this. They're always chasing
experiences. All right?
I've even heard churches now calling the Lord's Day worship a
worship experience. That's icky to me.
They're always comparing gifts I wish I had that gift, or a
person doesn't have the gift I have.
They're always quarreling over secondary matters, finding
issues to fight over, but really, in the grand scheme of
things, mattered not. But true maturity is measured
not by the gifts you display, but by the love you demonstrate.
And how do we know this? How do we know that true
maturity is found in love? Well, because of the perspective
that Paul gives us in the next verse.
Right now we see dimly, but one day we will see fully.
So Paul offers this perspective of eternity.
He's trying to ground the Corinthians and understanding
that love will last forever and that those eternal things are
what are most important. Look at verse 12 again.
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. Corinth was famous for its
bronze mirrors. You know, I think about a bronze
mirror. Maybe you just looked into a
bronze, you know, a plate or a cup or something to see the
reflection. But the reflections never
reflected perfectly. They're not like the mirrors we
have today. And Paul says our present
knowledge of God is like looking into those bronze mirrors.
It's real, but it's dim and incomplete.
But one day you will see face to face.
This is the language of God's immediate presence.
And Exodus 3311 we read there. Thus, the Lord used to speak to
Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend.
It's a real presence. We will see Christ himself in
heaven, and then we will know fully, just as we have been
fully known by God. The phrase dimly, for we see
dimly, literally means that you see in a Riddle.
All right, my boys just this morning and Nolan were asking
ChatGPT to tell them various riddles.
All right, it's pretty fun. Dimly means you see an
obscurity. It's not clear to you.
You can't figure out everything. Our knowledge is now partial.
Our knowledge is now mediated. Our knowledge is indirect.
But in eternity it will be immediate and direct and
complete. We will know fully as we have
been fully known. This first rules out again.
The Canon view of the perfect scripture is complete and
sufficient. Yes and Amen. 2nd Corinthians
316 through 17 tells us as much, but Scripture has not removed
our dim vision of God. You think Ecclesiastes 311 that
says God has put into the heart of every man a desire for
eternity, but in such a way that he cannot figure out its end,
right? We have in our heart a desire
for eternal things. We have in our heart a desire to
know that which is eternal, and yet the inability to do so.
Proverbs 25, I think verse 2 tells us that it's the glory of
kings to search things out, and it's the glory of God to keep
them hidden. Our dim vision remains.
We still walk by faith, not by sight.
As Second Corinthians 57 tells us.
The fullness awaits Christ's return.
You think of think of a loved one who's been away for some
time, all right. And maybe on your front door you
have like a frosted glass. They come home and you can see
the outline. Maybe you can hear their voice,
but you don't see the full detail.
And then you open the door and you behold them face to face.
What's the difference between now and eternity?
And this truth should produce two things in US.
One, humility. Humility because none of us can
see fully now. No matter how much you might
think you know, no matter how much you might actually know,
you don't see fully now. Even the most mature Christian
has a dim view of God. We'll be humble before the Lord.
We ought to know that there are thoughts that are greater than
the thoughts we have. There are actions that are far
beyond the actions that we understand, like God is forever
amazing. He's eternal, right?
He's sovereign in power. He's magnificent and glorious
and holy beyond recognition. And we can know pieces of those
things about God. You know, what does Paul pray in
Ephesians? My prayer is that you would come
to know the height and the depth and the breadth and the width of
God's love for you. You just think about what that's
describing. It's describing a height that is
unending. It's describing a depth that is
unending, A width and a breadth that are unending.
And Paul's prayer, there is a hope you will come to know it.
I hope you come to see this love that he has.
There ought to be a humility in us when we think about knowing
in part, they're also. The second thing this ought to
do to us is create a hope within us, A hope because one day we
will see clearly. Really, really struggle to talk
about heaven without getting teary these days.
In eternity, our faith, our faith will become the sight our
our questions will be answered and our communion with Christ
will be unhindered, uninhibited. My doubts and fears and
frustrations and failures and sin and temptation, it'll be
unhindered. We have perfect communion with
our Lord in heaven. So I ask you, if that's where
history is headed, if it's headed to an eternal dwelling
place with God, and it is, then what do you think we should
value most right now? Well, Paul answers that question
for us when he says the greatest of these is love #4 the
preeminence of love, the preeminence of love.
Look at verse 13. So now faith, hope, and love
abide these three, but the greatest of these is love.
Paul ends with a triad of Christian virtues, faith and
hope and love. And I don't know about you, but
I can remember being a teenager reading these verses and
thinking to myself, how can love be greater than faith and hope?
Like wrestling with that in my mind.
What is Paul talking about? He says they all abide right
now. Faith and hope and love all
abide right now. They're all essential right now.
But even among these, love gets the greater value.
Love is the greatest. Why?
Well, faith is trusting in what we cannot see, walking by faith,
not by sight. Faith is trusting what we cannot
see. But one day faith will give way
to sight. Think about Hebrews 11/1.
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction
of things not seen. Second Corinthians 57 For we
walk by faith, not by sight. So faith trusts and what we
cannot see. But one day it will give way to
sights, and so it will pass away.
Hope anticipates what is not yet right.
Hope is anticipating the promises of God that are yet to
be fulfilled. Hope is trusting that the Lord's
Word is true, knowing that it's true, building your life on His
Word. But hope will one day be
fulfilled. Romans 824 and 25 For in this
hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not
hope, for who hopes for what he sees.
But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with
patience. So hope will have an end.
It'll one day be fulfilled. But for now, hope should abide
in you. You should hope with great
patience for what is to be revealed in heaven one day.
Amen. Hope.
But Paul says in verse 8, love never ends.
That's the way he started this passage that we're looking at
this morning. What is love never end?
Well, we covered the sum last week, but it bears repeating.
Love is the very nature of God. In first John 48, God's John
writes there of God. God is love.
Anyone who knows God should know
love. And anyone who is not loving
does not know God. They they're lying.
Love is the very nature of God. But two his people, God's
people, you and me, will dwell in his love forever.
Forever, if we are hidden ourselves in Christ.
So the objects of faith and hope will be fulfilled.
They have an expiration, they'll be fulfilled.
They'll be perfectly realized in heaven.
But love, the God like virtue of love, is everlasting.
It's never ending. Heaven will be the place for the
expression of nothing but perfect love toward God and each
other for eternity. I hope that you look forward to
that one day. No more broken relationships, no
more arguments, no more pain, no more distress, no more
backbiting, no more slander, no more gossip, no more bitterness
and unforgiveness. All those things will cease in
heaven, Amen. And love will be the ultimate
reality. A love from God, a love for God,
a love from God, a love for his people.
Perfect. The Puritan Richard Baxter,
great pastor, once said this. He said faith will be swallowed
up. Insight and hope will be
swallowed up in fruition, but love will be perfected in
heaven. Heaven is a world of love
because God himself is love. You may think of a wedding,
right? We have a wonderful couple here
set to get married. Today's the 31st, just next
month, right? Engagement ring that's given
from a man to a woman. It's precious and it's necessary
for a time. But the wedding day makes the
engagement ring less central, because the reality has come.
In the same way, faith and hope are like the engagements, but
love is the marriage itself that lasts forever.
This is why Paul says in Colossians 314.
Above all these put on love, which binds everything together
in perfect harmony. Above all these put on love,
which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
Above all these, put on love, which binds everything together.
In what's Paul saying in Colossians 3 and in First
Corinthians 13, he's saying we must.
As Christians, we must pursue love more than talents.
We must pursue love more than gifts.
We must pursue love more than knowledge or more than
reputation. Love is the one virtue that
carries over into eternity. And so Paul has shown us in
First Corinthians 13/8 through 13, the preeminence of, or
sorry, the permanence of love. He's shown us the progression of
maturity. He's shown us the perspective of
eternity. He's shown us the preeminence of
love. And the point that he's making
is that everything else fades away, but love endures forever.
Again, the sermon in a sentence, if you will, Christian love
endures forever because it reflects the eternal character
of our God. But I need you to listen to me
for a moment. You and I do not endure forever
in this life. We have an expiration.
We're made of dust, and to dust we will return.
Our days are short, our days are numbered.
They're fixed by God from eternity past.
Our breath is fleeting and we only have so much time given to
us. As some of you sitting in here
feel the weight of that greater than others.
Maybe it's age, maybe it's body breaking down, wearing out,
maybe it's injuries, maybe it's an illness, maybe it's hurt and
pain. Give a deep sense of the
fleeting nature of life. It truly is a vapour.
It's here one day and gone the next.
We only have so much time to love God and to love others with
the love of Christ. And so I'm imploring you from
First Corinthians 13 today, do not waste your life chasing what
will fade, whether it's the gifts of the spirits or the
treasures of the world. Do not waste your life chasing
what will fade. Give yourself holy, everything
that you are. Give yourself to what will last
church. When your life is over, what
will matter most is not the strength of your gifts or the
size of your knowledge, the size of your bank account, or the
extent of your experiences and your adventures.
What will matter most is whether you loved God and loved others
with the love of Christ. We live in a world that has
attempted to define love and all manner of unholy, unloving ways.
So the question should come to us when Paul's telling us to
love a certain way and that love never ends, right?
When he's talking this much about 1 virtue, we should ask
what does he mean by love? I think he answered much of that
last week as we were looking at First Corinthians one through 7.
But just kind of as a way to bring all this together, at the
end of chapter 13, I want to provide for you some thoughts on
what biblical love is. And maybe by hearing what it is,
we'll hear some of what it is not.
Biblical love is not a passing feeling.
You can't wake up one day and say I don't love you anymore.
It's not a passing feeling. It's not it's, it's not up to
your feelings. Biblical love is action.
There's a character, nature, quality to love.
Biblical love is not a passing feeling.
Biblical love is not mere kindness.
It is a kind thing to open the door for the little old lady as
she's coming into Walmart. Or those are automatic.
Sorry, terrible example. Just step on it real quick, all
right? Maybe you help her load her
groceries. There you go.
Biblical love is not mere kindness.
Biblical love is not tolerance either.
The world defines love as tolerance, so long as you are
tolerant of the right things. Biblical love is the self
giving, sacrificial commitment to seek the good of others in
obedience to God, which is modeled perfectly in Jesus
Christ. I'll say it again in case you
want to write that down. Biblical love is the self
giving, sacrificial commitment to seek the good of others in
obedience to God, modeled perfectly in Jesus Christ.
Jesus said in John 1513. Greater love has no one than
this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
Who modeled the laying down of life better than Christ?
Nobody. Nobody.
Often imitated, never duplicated.
Paul wrote God shows his love for us and that while we were
still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 58 John tells us by this we know love, that he laid down
his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the
brothers, meaning the church. His biblical love is active
again. We talked some about this last
week, but you have to bring it back in here because this is
what Paul's hammering home. Biblical love is active.
It bears burdens. It forgives wrongs.
It seeks holiness. It speaks truth that endures
trials. It's rooted in God's own
character. God is love again.
First John 48 and it's poured into our hearts through the Holy
Spirit as we see in Romans 5 verse 5.
So what does this mean when you think about your life?
I want to I want to apply this a bit further because right now
I've offered a lot of general truths, right?
And the Lord I trust is leading you in certain directions in
your mind and in your heart now of how can I be loving?
How can I walk in the love of Christ?
I pray that's true, but I want to push that down a bit further
into your hearts. Now what this means is that
husbands, you are to love your wives not only with words, not
only with pleasantries, but with daily sacrifice.
Daily sacrifice. Wives, you are to love your
husband's with patience and respect.
Parents, you are to love your children by providing for them,
but even more so by leading them to Christ and discipling them.
In Christ Church families, we think about being members of one
body together, love one another by bearing burdens, love one
another by forgiving offenses, love one another by speaking the
truth in love that we might grow up together in Christ again.
The world wants to Make Love abstract.
It can mean anything you want it to mean.
And what I'm telling you is the scriptures do not Make Love
abstract. In fact, they refute an
abstractness to love. It's not abstract.
Love is lived out in the ordinary and in the costly of
your day. When you stand before Christ on
the last day, He will not measure your life by your resume
or your reputation or your achievements.
He'll measure it by love. He'll measure it by whether you
knew His love, whether you trusted His love, and whether
you reflected His love. That's why the greatest of these
is love. So let us invest our lives,
everything that we are. Let us invest ourselves in what
lasts forever. I want you to pursue love.
Pursue it with everything that you are.
Live in love. Let the definition of love and
verses 4 through 6 be a part of who you are becoming.
Pray those verses. Lord, help me be this kind of
man, this kind of woman, live in it and let the love of Christ
shape our church and shape our lives until we see him face to
face. Would you pray with me?
Heavenly Father, we thank you particularly.
We thank you for love today. We thank you for your love which
has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit
through the sacrifice of Christ Jesus.
That while we were still sinners, He died for us because
of your love for us. Ephesians 2 shows us that we
were once dead in our trespasses and sins.
We were sons and daughters of disobedience following the the
Prince of the power of the air following Satan, but that you
saved us with great mercy and great love.
You poured out your grace on us in Christ.
You send him to the cross who knew no sin so that we who knew
only sin might know his righteousness.
And you've made us Co heirs, Co heirs with your son.
And then you've given us the spirit as a sign and a seal of
that work in our lives. And so we thank you today for
your love for us. It exceeds all that we could
ever ask or think. It surpasses all of our
understanding. And yet we desire, Father, to
know it more fully. One, that we might understand
your love, that we might rest in your love, that we might
understand that we are Co heirs with Christ in this love and all
that that means for our future, all that that means for heavenly
reward and residing with you forever.
I want us to know that Father. But two, as we come to know your
love, may we love you more fully.
But we give all that we have, and we give all that we are.
May we use all the gifts and the talents and the personality, the
way that you've wired us, the space and time you've put us in.
May we give it all to you, Lord, as sacrifices of our love for
You. And may we grow in it, maybe
grow inwardly in our understanding of your love, so
that outwardly we become more loving to those around us.
May we love the people you've put beside us, the church you've
placed us in. May we love the brothers and
sisters here. May we love our spouses and our
children with the love of Christ.
May you convict us of all the nastiness in US, all those sins
that are in US, the the gossip and slander, the backbiting, the
insecurities, the pride, all those things that keep us from
loving others well. Would you convict us of those?
Would you eradicate them from our lives by the power of your
spirit, that we might love your people well?
I'm going to give you a moment now to pray there in your seat
to seek the Lord, however He may be leading you.
Maybe there's something in this passage that's convicting for
you. And so you have a need to
confess sin or unbelief. You have a need to confess and
to repent, to walk in the light and to know the forgiveness of
Christ today. Maybe there's something here
that Lord's calling me to obedience in.
You need to ask the Lord now. Help me to obey you.
Help me to walk in love. Maybe you're here today and you
don't know Christ at all. You you're familiar with church,
you're familiar with the words and some of what I've said
today. But you've not made Christ Lord
of your life. You've not submitted to him.
You've not surrendered your life to Him.
You're holding on to your sin. You're holding on to your own
righteousness. You're suppressing truths.
Friend, would you give your life to Christ today?
Would you submit yourself to Him fully, finally, forever?
Would you make him Lord by confessing that you are not
Lord, that you make a terrible Lord, and that you need a
Savior? You need Christ to save you from
your sins. If you believe in your heart
that Jesus is Lord and confess with your mouth that God raised
him on the third day, and you will be saved this day.
Heavenly Father, again now we thank you for your love.
We thank you for your mercy and grace.
Thank you that you meet us right where we're at.
Whatever trial, whatever trouble, what whatever it is
we're battling in our hearts and minds, we're wrestling with by
your spirit, you meet us there. Lord, help us to be obedient to
You. I'm reminded now of the words of
Christ in John 15. He says, If you love me, you
will obey my commandments. Lord, help us to obey your
commandments because of our great love for your Son Jesus.
It's in the name of Christ to ask these things.
Amen.