Sunday LinkUp – February 2, 2025 – 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

 

CALL TO WORSHIP

 

OPENING COMMENTS  

  • Today is February 2, 2025.  It’s the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany.  
      • Today – the first Sunday of this month
      • So, this is our second FACE-TO-FACE for this year.
  • The theme for this week is LOVE
  • In our sermon today, which is based on 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, we’re reminded that love is the greatest gift of all.  

 


OPENING SONGS

 

 


FIRST READING

1 Corinthians 13:1-3    

If I speak in the tongues of humans and of angels but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging 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 do not have love, I am nothing.   If I give away all my possessions and if I hand over my body so that I may boast[a] but do not have love, I gain nothing.    

 


FIRST MESSAGE

 

Speaking of Life  video presentation …

  • Hitting Too Close to Home      
  • Heber Ticas

SECOND READING

1 Corinthians 13:4-13    

4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  

Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.  For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part, 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.  11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.  12 For now we see only a reflection, as in a mirror, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.  13 And now faith, hope, and love remain, these three, and the greatest of these is love.    

 


SPECIAL MUSIC

 


SERMON (Interactive) 

 

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 NRSVue 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 NLT
1 If I speak in the tongues of humans and of angels but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging 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 do not have love, I am nothing.   

1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing.
If I give away all my possessions and if I hand over my body (to be burned) so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.    If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;[a] but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.  It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs;   Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 
6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.    6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.  
8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.    Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!   
For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part,  10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.    Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.
11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.    11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.
12 For now we see only a reflection, as in a mirror, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.    12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.  All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.  
13 And now faith, hope, and love remain, these three, and the greatest of these is love.    13 Three things will last forever — faith, hope, and love — and the greatest of these is love.

 

WHAT CAN WE TAKE AWAY?

  • For me … it’s The necessity of love

Some time ago, I gave a sermon entitled, “Good, not necessarily right.”

The point was that someone may do something that seems, at first glance, to be “good” … but which, after all, was not the “right” thing … because there was a “better” thing that could have been done.

In today’s text, Paul seems to be saying that the seemingly “good” thing may not be really good, after all, because it was not done out of love.

Verses 4-7 and 8-13 speak to the NATURE and the SUPREMACY of LOVE, but, for me, the most important part … is in vv.1-3, where Paul speaks of the necessity of love.

What we can see.

What William Barclay saw.

 

Many people do what

  • From Barclay’s commentary

THE HYMN OF LOVE   

1 Corinthians 13:1-3

I may speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but if I have not love, I am become no better than echoing brass or a clanging cymbal. I may have the gift of prophecy, I may understand all sacred secrets and all knowledge, I may have faith enough to remove mountains, but if I have not love I am nothing. I may dole out all that I have, I may surrender my body that I may be burned, but if I have not love it is no good to me.

For many this is the most wonderful chapter in the whole New Testament and we will do well to take more than one day to study words whose full meaning not a lifetime itself would be sufficient to unveil.

Paul begins by declaring that a man may possess any spiritual gift, but if it is unaccompanied by love it is useless.

(i) He may have the gift of tongues. A characteristic of heathen worship, especially the worship of Dionysus and Cybele, was the clanging of cymbals and the braying of trumpets. Even the coveted gift of tongues was no better than the uproar of heathen worship if love was absent.

(ii) He may have the gift of prophecy. We have already seen that prophecy corresponds most closely to preaching. There are two kinds of preachers. There is the preacher whose one aim is to save the souls of his people and who woos them with the accents of love. Of no one was that more true than of Paul himself. Myers, in his poem St. Paul, draws the picture of him looking at the Christless world,

“Then with a thrill the intolerable craving Shivers throughout me like a trumpet call– O to save these–to perish for their saving– Die for their lives, be offered for them all.”

On the other hand there is the preacher who dangles his hearers over the flames of hell and gives the impression that he would rejoice in their damnation as much as in their salvation. It is told that Sir George Adam Smith once asked a member of the Greek Church, which has suffered much at the hands of Islam, why God had created so many Mohammedans, and received the answer, “To fill up hell.” The preaching which is all threat and no love may terrify but it will not save.

(iii) He may have the gift of intellectual knowledge. The permanent danger of intellectual eminence is intellectual snobbery. The man who is learned runs the grave danger of developing the spirit of contempt. Only a knowledge whose cold detachment has been kindled by the fire of love can really save men.

(iv) He may have a passionate faith. There are times when faith can be cruel. There was a man who visited his doctor and was informed that his heart was tired and he must rest. He telephoned his employer, a notable Christian figure, with the news, only to receive the answer, “I have an inward strength which enables me to carry on.” These were the words of faith but a faith which knew no love and was therefore a hurting thing.

(v) He may practise what men call charity; he may dole out his goods to the poor. There is nothing more humiliating than this so-called charity without love. To give as a grim duty, to give with a certain contempt, to stand on one’s own little eminence and throw scraps of charity as to a dog, to give and to accompany the giving with a smug moral lecture or a crushing rebuke, is not charity at all–it is pride, and pride is always cruel for it knows no love.

(vi) He may give his body to be burned. Possibly Paul’s thoughts are going back to Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego and the burning fiery furnace (Dn.3). Perhaps more likely, he is thinking of a famous monument in Athens called “The Indian’s Tomb.” There an Indian had burned himself in public on a funeral pyre and had caused to be engraved on the monument the boastful inscription: “Zarmano-chegas, an Indian from Bargosa, according to the traditional customs of the Indians, made himself immortal and lies here.” Just possibly, he may have been thinking of the kind of Christian who actually courted persecution. If the motive which makes a man give his life for Christ is pride and self-display, then even martyrdom becomes valueless. It is not cynical to remember that many a deed which looks sacrificial has been the product of pride and not of devotion.

Hardly any passage in scripture demands such self-examination from the good man as this.

 

THE NATURE OF CHRISTIAN LOVE  

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Love is patient; love is kind; love knows no envy; love is no braggart; it is not inflated with its own importance; it does not behave gracelessly; it does not insist on its rights; it never flies into a temper; it does not store up the memory of any wrong it has received; it finds no pleasure in evil-doing; it rejoices with the truth; it can endure anything; it is completely trusting; it never ceases to hope; it bears everything with triumphant fortitude.

In 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Paul lists fifteen characteristics of Christian love.  

  1. Love is patient. The Greek word (makrothumein, GSN3114) used in the New Testament always describes patience with people and not patience with circumstances. Chrysostom said that it is the word used of the man who is wronged and who has it easily in his power to avenge himself and who yet will not do it. It describes the man who is slow to anger and it is used of God himself in his relationship with men. In our dealings with men, however refractory and however unkind and hurting they are, we must exercise the same patience as God exercises with us. Such patience is not the sign of weakness but the sign of strength; it is not defeatism but rather the only way to victory. Fosdick points out that no one treated Lincoln with more contempt than did Stanton. He called him “a low cunning clown”, he nicknamed him “the original gorilla” and said that Du Chaillu was a fool to wander about Africa trying to capture a gorilla when he could have found one so easily at Springfield, Illinois. Lincoln said nothing. He made Stanton his war minister because he was the best man for the job and he treated him with every courtesy. The years wore on. The night came when the assassin’s bullet murdered Lincoln in the theatre. In the little room to which the President’s body was taken stood that same Stanton, and, looking down on Lincoln’s silent face, he said through his tears, “There lies the greatest ruler of men the world has ever seen.” The patience of love had conquered in the end.
  2. Love is kind. Origen had it that this means that love is “sweet to all.” Jerome spoke of what he called “the benignity” of love. So much Christianity is good but unkind. There was no more religious a man than Philip the Second of Spain, and yet he founded the Spanish Inquisition and thought he was serving God by massacring those who thought differently from him. The famous Cardinal Pole declared that murder and adultery could not compare in heinousness with heresy. Apart altogether from that persecuting spirit, there is in so many good people an attitude of criticism. So many good Church people would have sided with the rulers and not with Jesus if they had had to deal with the woman taken in adultery.
  3. Love knows no envy. It has been said that there are really only two classes of people in this world–“those who are millionaires and those who would like to be.” There are two kinds of envy. The one covets the possessions of other people; and such envy is very difficult to avoid because it is a very human thing. The other is worse–it grudges the very fact that others should have what it has not; it does not so much want things for itself as wish that others had not got them. Meanness of soul can sink no further than that.
  4. Love is no braggart. There is a self-effacing quality in love. True love will always be far more impressed with its own unworthiness than its own merit. In Barrie’s story Sentimental Tommy used to come home to his mother after some success at school and say, “Mother, am I no’ a wonder?” Some people confer their love with the idea that they are conferring a favour. But the real lover cannot ever get over the wonder that he is loved. Love is kept humble by the consciousness that it can never offer its loved one a gift which is good enough.
  5. Love is not inflated with its own importance. Napoleon always advocated the sanctity of the home and the obligation of public worship–for others. Of himself he said, “I am not a man like other men. The laws of morality do not apply to me.”The really great man never thinks of his own importance. Carey, who began life as a cobbler, was one of the greatest missionaries and certainly one of the greatest linguists the world has ever seen. He translated at least parts of the Bible into no fewer than thirty-four Indian languages. When he came to India, he was regarded with dislike and contempt. At a dinner party a snob, with the idea of humiliating him, said in a tone that everyone could hear, “I suppose, Mr. Carey, you once worked as a shoe-maker.” “No, your lordship,” answered Carey, “not a shoe-maker, only a cobbler.” He did not even claim to make shoes–only to mend them. No one likes the “important” person. Man “dressed in a little brief authority” can be a sorry sight.
  6. Love does not behave gracelessly. It is a significant fact that in Greek the words for grace and for charm are the same. There is a kind of Christianity which takes a delight in being blunt and almost brutal. There is strength in it but there is no winsomeness. Lightfoot of Durham said of Arthur F. Sim, one of his students, “Let him go where he will, his face will be a sermon in itself.” There is a graciousness in Christian love which never forgets that courtesy and tact and politeness are lovely things.
  7. Love does not insist upon its rights. In the last analysis, there are in this world only two kinds of people–those who always insist upon their privileges and those who always remember their responsibilities; those who are always thinking of what life owes them and those who never forget what they owe to life. It would be the key to almost all the problems which surround us today if men would think less of their rights and more of their duties. Whenever we start thinking about “our place”, we are drifting away from Christian love.
  8. Love never flies into a temper. The real meaning of this is that Christian love never becomes exasperated with people. Exasperation is always a sign of defeat. When we lose our tempers, we lose everything. Kipling said that it was the test of a man if he could keep his head when everyone else was losing his and blaming it on him, and if when he was hated he did not give way to hating. The man who is master of his temper can be master of anything.
  9. Love does not store up the memory of any wrong it has received. The word translated store up (logizesthai, GSN3049) is an accountant’s word. It is the word used for entering up an item in a ledger so that it will not be forgotten. That is precisely what so many people do. One of the great arts in life is to learn what to forget. A writer tells how “in Polynesia, where the natives spend much of their time in fighting and feasting, it is customary for each man to keep some reminders of his hatred. Articles are suspended from the roofs of their huts to keep alive the memory of their wrongs–real or imaginary.” In the same way many people nurse their wrath to keep it warm; they brood over their wrongs until it is impossible to forget them. Christian love has learned the great lesson of forgetting.
  10. Love finds no pleasure in evil-doing. It might be better to translate this that love finds no pleasure in anything that is wrong. It is not so much delight in doing the wrong thing that is meant, as the malicious pleasure which comes to most of us when we hear something derogatory about someone else. It is one of the queer traits of human nature that very often we prefer to hear of the misfortune of others rather than of their good fortune. It is much easier to weep with them that weep than to rejoice with those who rejoice. Christian love has none of that human malice which finds pleasure in ill reports.
  11. Love rejoices with the truth. That is not so easy as it sounds. There are times when we definitely do not want the truth to prevail; and still more times when it is the last thing we wish to hear. Christian love has no wish to veil the truth; it has nothing to conceal and so is glad when the truth prevails.
  12. Love can endure anything. It is just possible that this may mean “love can cover anything,” in the sense that it will never drag into the light of day the faults and mistakes of others. It would far rather set about quietly mending things than publicly displaying and rebuking them. More likely it means that love can bear any insult, any injury, any disappointment.  It describes the kind of love that was in the heart of Jesus himself, “Thy foes might hate, despise, revile, Thy friends unfaithful prove; Unwearied in forgiveness still, Thy heart could only love.”   
  13. Love is completely trusting. This characteristic has a twofold aspect. (i) In relation to God it means that love takes God at his word, and can take every promise which begins “Whosoever” and say, “That means me.” (ii) In relation to our fellow men it means that love always believes the best about other people. It is often true that we make people what we believe them to be. If we show that we do not trust people, we may make them untrustworthy. If we show people that we trust them absolutely, we may make them trustworthy. When Arnold became headmaster of Rugby he instituted a completely new way of doing things. Before him, school had been a terror and a tyranny. Arnold called the boys together and told them that there was going to be much more liberty and much less flogging. “You are free,” he said, “but you are responsible–you are gentlemen. I intend to leave you much to yourselves, and put you upon your honour, because I believe that if you are guarded and watched and spied upon, you will grow up knowing only the fruits of servile fear; and when your liberty is finally given you, as it must be some day, you will not know how to use it.” The boys found it difficult to believe. When they were brought before him they continued to make the old excuses and to tell the old lies. “Boys,” he said, “if you say so, it must be true–I believe your word.” The result was that there came a time in Rugby when boys said, “It is a shame to tell Arnold a lie–he always believes you.” He believed in them and he made them what he believed them to be. Love can ennoble even the ignoble by believing the best.
  14. Love never ceases to hope. Jesus believed that no man is hopeless. Adam Clark was one of the great theologians but at school he was very slow to learn. One day a distinguished visitor paid a visit to the school, and the teacher singled out Adam Clark and said, “That is the stupidest boy in the school.” Before he left the school, the visitor came to the boy and said kindly, “Never mind, my boy, you may be a great scholar some day. Don’t be discouraged but try hard, and keep on trying.” The teacher was hopeless, the visitor was hopeful, and–who knows?–it may well have been that word of hope which made Adam Clark what he one day became.
  15. Love bears everything with triumphant fortitude. The verb used here (hupomenein, GSN5278) is one of the great Greek words. It is generally translated to bear or to endure; but what it really describes is not the spirit which can passively bear things, but the spirit which, in bearing them, can conquer and transmute them. It has been defined as “a masculine constancy under trial.” George Matheson, who lost his sight and who was disappointed in love, wrote in one of his prayers that he might accept God’s will, “Not with dumb resignation but with holy joy; not only with the absence of murmur but with a song of praise.” Love can bear things, not merely with passive resignation, but with triumphant fortitude, because it knows that “a father’s hand will never cause his child a needless tear.”

One thing remains to be said — when we think of the qualities of this love as Paul portrays them we can see them realized in the life of Jesus himself.  

 

THE SUPREMACY OF LOVE  

1 Corinthians 13:8-13

Love never fails. Whatever prophecies there are, they will vanish away. Whatever tongues there are, they will cease. Whatever knowledge we have, it will pass away. It is only part of the truth that we know now and only part of the truth that we can forthtell to others. But when that which is complete shall come, that which is incomplete will vanish away. When I was a child I used to speak like a child; I used to think like a child; I used to reason like a child. When I became a man I put an end to childish things. Now we see only reflections in a mirror which leave us with nothing but riddles to solve, but then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; but then I will know even as I am known. Now faith, hope, love remain–these three; but the greatest of these is love.

In 1 Cor.13:8-13 Paul has three final things to say of this Christian love.

(i) He stresses its absolute permanency. When all the things in which men glory have passed away love will still stand. In one of the most wonderfully lyrical verses of scripture The Song of Solomon (SS.8:7) sings, “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it.” The one unconquerable thing is love. That is one of the great reasons for believing in immortality. When love is entered into, there comes into life a relationship against which the assaults of time are helpless and which transcends death.

(ii) He stresses its absolute completeness. As things are, what we see are reflections in a mirror. That would be even more suggestive to the Corinthians than it is to us. Corinth was famous for its manufacture of mirrors. But the modern mirror as we know it, with its perfect reflection, did not emerge until the thirteenth century. The Corinthian mirror was made of highly polished metal and, even at its best, gave but an imperfect reflection. It has been suggested that what this phrase means is that we see as through a window made with horn. In those days windows were so made and all that could be seen through them was a dim and shadowy outline. In fact the Rabbis had a saying that it was through such a window that Moses saw God.

In this life Paul feels we see only the reflections of God and are left with much that is mystery and riddle. We see that reflection in God’s world, for the work of anyone’s hands tells us something about the workman, we see it in the Gospel and we see it in Jesus Christ. Even if in Christ we have the perfect revelation, our seeking minds can grasp it only in part, for the finite can never grasp the infinite. Our knowledge is still like the knowledge of a child. But the way of love will lead us in the end to a day when the veil is drawn aside and we see face to face and know even as we are known. We cannot ever reach that day without love, because God is love and only he who loves can see him.

(iii) He stresses its absolute supremacy. Great as faith and hope are, love is still greater.  Faith without love is cold, and hope without love is grim.  Love is the fire which kindles faith and it is the light which turns hope into certainty.    

 

So … WHAT CAN WE TAKE AWAY?

 

For me, it’s the NECESSITY OF LOVE.

In vv.4-7, Paul tells us about the nature of love (what true love looks like).

  • Barclay concludes his commentary on those verses by saying, “One thing remains to be said — when we think of the qualities of this love as Paul portrays them we can see them realized in the life of Jesus himself.
  • With that in mind, NOTICE what John said in 1 John 4:8 and 16
      • 1 John 4:8   Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.
      • 1 John 4:16  So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.  God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.
  • … God IS Love
  • The POINT:  If God is LOVE … and LOVE is all the 15 things Paul mentioned, then God is the 15 things Paul listed.

In vv.8-13, he tells us about the supremacy of love (love never fails … will never end).

But notice vv.1-3, again …

1 Corinthians 13:1-3    

If I speak in the tongues of humans and of angels but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging 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 do not have love, I am nothing.   3 If I give away all my possessions and if I hand over my body so that I may boast[a] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

The POINT:  It doesn’t really matter what gift we have … If we are NOT using them with love, then it doesn’t really count with God.

To quote Barclay again …

  • Paul begins by declaring that a man may possess any spiritual gift, but if it is unaccompanied by love it is useless.” 

 



CLOSING SONG 

 

SHARING TIME

 

COMMUNION CEREMONY

Text for today …

1 Corinthians 12:12-13  For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.  13 For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — Jews or Greeks, slaves or free — and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

    • When we share in communion, we are acknowledging two amazing truths.
      1. One, Jesus offers us His life — the bread of life — and reminds us we are now part of that life — His life, the one body.
      2. And two, Jesus offers us the cup of love — or as Paul called it, “the cup of thanksgiving” — reminding us that we are part of that one body because He is our Savior.
    • Let us be reminded that we can always and forever trust Jesus to call us, guide us, accept us into his body, and love us for eternity.
    • BLESSING OF EMBLEMS
    • SHARING OF EMBLEMS
    • PARTAKING OF EMBLEMS

OFFERING

Text for today …

1 Corinthians 16:1-3   Now concerning the collection for the saints: you should follow the directions I gave to the churches of Galatia.  2 On the first day of every week, each of you is to put aside and save whatever extra you earn, so that collections need not be taken when I come.  And when I arrive, I will send any whom you approve with letters to take your gift to Jerusalem.

  • A few things stand out in Paul’s instruction:
    1. Unity in Practice: Paul had given the same guidance to the church in Galatia. Collecting offerings was a practice across the early church. In this letter, Paul also emphasizes doing things ‘decently and in order,’ in peace and without confusion. This model encourages us to offer our gifts in a spirit of unity and peace today.
    2. Prepared and Purposeful Giving: Paul says, ‘each of you,’ suggesting that this practice was meant for all believers. This guidance invites us to prepare and plan our giving thoughtfully. While spontaneous generosity is beautiful and welcome, regular giving can be something we pray over and reflect on in advance.
    3. Supporting Both Local and Distant Needs: The specific offering Paul describes here was intended for the persecuted church in Jerusalem. Paul’s example shows us that a healthy church is a giving church — one that meets needs both close to home and in the wider community of believers.
  • As we prepare to give today, may we do so with hearts centered on Jesus and with an understanding of how our giving joins us in the larger work of Christ’s body. Our offering here is a reflection of God’s love and provision, shared freely and joyfully.
  • COLLECTION OF OFFERING
  • BLESSING OF OFFERING

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

1.  Notes for today’s meeting can be seen on our website, under RECENT POSTS  … Go to the home page, scroll down to “Recent Posts” and select “Sunday LinkUp – February 2, 2025…” and click on it … The sermon sent out by our Home Office can be seen at the bottom of this page.

2.  Reminder:

    • Our next FACE-TO-FACE church meeting is scheduled for the first Sunday of next month, starting at 10:00 a.m.
    • We’re inviting our ONLINE family members to join us, as they did today, and consider telling a friend about our online meetings.

3. Speaking of ONLINE MEETINGS … In addition to our Sunday LinkUps, we have …

  • on Tuesdays … a Bible Study, starting at 7:30 p.m.
  • on Thursdays … a Prayer Meeting, starting at 8:00 p.m.
  • on Fridays … a Bible Study, starting at 7:30 p.m.

4.  We’re thinking about Sunday School for our face-to-face meetings … so if you have any ideas, please let us know.

CLOSING PRAYER

 

BENEDICTION 

 

 

 


MAIN MESSAGE from Home Office … 

 

The Most Excellent Way

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 NIV

 

The last two weeks we have traced Paul’s words to the Corinthian church as he addresses some of the problems they have been struggling with.  This week, we will continue where we left off, however we will not rehash an old problem or address a new one.  Rather, Paul will fill out what he introduces as “the most excellent way.”  We will see that this is how the believers in Corinth were to work through all the problems they faced, and it is the same way for us to move forward as well.

There are a few challenges in preaching this text.

  • First, it is so beautifully written that adding words or commentary to it risks diminishing its impact.
  • Second, it is such a familiar passage that we may not expect to hear anything new.
  • Third, and most challenging, the passage speaks of “love,” which is a word so overused and misused in our society that the word risks becoming meaningless.

However, we will read this passage in the context of the challenges Paul has been addressing with the Corinthian church.  This will hopefully lift the passage off our wedding invitations and land it directly as “the most excellent way” forward for any particular problems we may be facing in our own churches and lives today.

Let’s give it a try.

 

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have 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 a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 NIV  

 

The necessity of love

The first three verses of this section speak to the necessity of love.  Paul does not argue that we should dispense with spiritual gifts and only have love.  Rather, what Paul advocates is that love should be the controlling factor of how we use those gifts.  For Paul, to “have love” is to speak and act towards others in the same way God has spoken and acted toward us in Christ.  So, we cannot detach love as some generic feeling or ideal that we possess apart from the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Paul takes issue with the Corinthian church for masking many sins under a label of “spirituality.”  Other chapters in the letter record Paul’s correction of the Corinthian church for their tolerance and even endorsement of sexual immorality, greed, and idolatry.  They did this while using certain gifts, like speaking in tongues, as a claim to spirituality.  But their actions clearly indicate that they claimed a spirituality based on certain religious trappings while endorsing and even acting out a debased Christian ethic devoid of the love we see displayed in Jesus Christ.  The love Paul speaks of is defined by the concrete act of Jesus coming to die for the sins of the world.  That love certainly does not endorse the various sins our society would like to push.

Notice the theme of the language used in Paul’s comparisons to illustrate the necessity of love.  He begins with speaking in tongues since that gifting seems to be the prevailing claim to spirituality.  But he also includes things like prophecy, knowledge, faith, charitable acts, and self-sacrifice.  Paul certainly does not say these things are bad or meaningless.  Rather, these all reflect “religious” language and “spirituality.”  The Corinthian church seemed to be more interested in their spiritual appearance than in actual love for their neighbor.  Paul uses these comparisons with emphatic statements to show how they all amount to nothing without love.  So, to just say or do “good” things is not enoughIf those things do not build up the church, or edify the body of Christ, or bear witness to Jesus in our world, then we are no better than a “clanging cymbal.”   That’s an interesting illustration Paul chooses to begin with since “clanging cymbals” were also used in many of the surrounding pagan cults.  This seems to be a nod that their claim to spirituality by exhibiting certain gifts without having love was tantamount to being no better than the empty pagan culture around them.

 

Paul now moves on to describe the character of love.  In doing so, he does not allow any room for any idealistic conceptions of love that fall outside the revelation of God’s love toward us as seen in Jesus Christ.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, 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.  1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NIV

The character of love

Paul includes fifteen descriptors to detail the character of love.  The first two are positive statements, “Love is patient” and “love is kind.”  These two statements taken together show that love plays both a passive and active role toward others. These statements point to the work of Christ towards us. He took our sins upon Himself and patiently endured them all the way to the cross, while at the same time exercised great kindness toward us and gave us all things that belong to Him.

Then Paul moves to list seven characteristics of love with statements of what it does NOT do. This list seems tailor-made for the Corinthian church. Each statement adds up, and essentially Paul says that love is not what you have been doing. Ouch! This list would make a wonderful study on its own and would be worth going through one statement at a time.

The next two descriptions, “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth” probably are meant to be treated as two sides of the same coin. Here again we see a description of who Jesus is toward us and who God is in His very heart and character. God is a God of truth and because of that He cannot and will not affirm evil. If we truly live out the love of the Father poured out to us by the Spirit, we will celebrate and stand for all that is good while at the same time not entertaining or supporting that which is not aligned with the truth.

Paul then concludes his list. He adds four more characteristics that love “always” does: protects, trusts, hopes, and perseveres. Included here are both faith (trust) and hope which are the other two great Christian virtues. One thing Paul’s multiple descriptions of love provides for us is a list of checks and balances for our conceptions of love. We must hold all of them together. Otherwise, we could risk seeing love as just “kindness” towards everyone without resisting evil or holding accountable that which does not benefit everyone. In other words, love is not just a feel-good sentimentality. We should not treat others contrary to the way God has treated us in Jesus Christ. Paul’s list also gives us an opportunity to see an epiphany of who God has revealed Himself to be in Jesus Christ.

We could go back and substitute the name “Jesus” where it refers to “love” and it would read as an accurate picture of who God is in His very heart and character. That may be an exercise to do on your own. However, Paul means this list to be a point of reflection for the Corinthian church. So, we could also go back and substitute our name for “love” and see how we are doing. Where is there a call to repentance and an opportunity to receive more of the love the Spirit has for us? That too would be a good exercise to engage in personally.

 

The permanence of love

Paul now concludes as he proclaims the permanence of love.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:8-13 NIV

This section begins with “Love never fails.” That is a statement of permanence the Corinthian church needs to measure against the temporary nature of spiritual gifts, which Paul states, ultimately pass away and disappear. Paul is trying to redirect their understanding of being “spiritual” to that which is eternal. Paul does not devalue gifts, but rather highlights the importance of using those gifts to serve the purpose of love. If they do not use their gifts to build up the church, to edify and honor their brothers and sisters, and Paul himself, but use them for their own self-gain, then they essentially act like little children who have not grown up or like people who have confused a reflection in a mirror for a real person.

Paul concludes as he places love alongside faith and hope. In this way, he shows that love is in a whole different category and should not be equated with spiritual gifts. Faith, hope, and love continue in the present in all we do and say in the church. However, even here our faith will one day become sight, and our hope will be fulfilled when Jesus returns with His kingdom. And that kingdom will be one of love. In that way, Paul pushes the permanence of love to the very end.

This is a point in the passage where we can take a good look at ourselves and see if our efforts are aligned with what is eternal, or if we simply seek to achieve some temporary status in the present day. Those who belong to the church are called to be witnesses and citizens of another kingdom — God’s kingdom that will never fade. This world and all it claims to offer is nothing in comparison to where King Jesus is taking us. Jesus is real, and the love of the Father revealed in Him will never fail.

 

 

 

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