1 Corinthians 13:8-13

Well, happy Father's Day.

Am I on?

Hello?

Happy Father's Day.

I wore this this morning because I got it yesterday for my kids.

I hope you don't mind.

It was my Father's Day present, so what can I say?

It's what I got.

You know, when I was a kid growing up, I discovered somewhere along the way that I was one of those hopeless romantics at times.

This will date me terribly, but I listened to Air Supply and Chicago and a little later Celine Dion a little bit.

And I watched movies like Say Anything and Sleepless in Seattle.

And I wish Pastor Nick were here to translate that for all of you who are under 35.

But there's a lure out there, a vision in our popular culture that there is a love that is everlasting, a love that will lift us up where we belong.

There is a love that will capture our hearts and transport us forever into some eternal bliss.

And there's something that we long for in that that is right and good.

And yet, if you've lived a little bit longer than my 15 years when I was captured by all these things, you realize that love is not always that easy, is it?

I think I've told this story before, but it's worth telling again.

You may know it.

Robertson McQuilkin was the president of Columbia International University, a strong Christian university that sent missionaries all over the world.

And it became clear that she was descending into Alzheimer's disease and the effects of it.

As she slowly lost her ability to think, to plan, to recognize people.

It was his presence that brought her the most peace.

She desired so much to be with him, in fact, that she would at times walk from their house, which was a mile away from campus, up to 10 times a day simply to physically be present with him.

Because that was where she found peace and hope.

And so, after 22 years, he stepped down from his position and wrote a moving letter and a powerful testimony of what he did.

He said,

I know that she's happier when I'm with her than when I'm not.

It's not that my work is done.

There are many plans still on the board, ready to be accomplished.

There are many dreams that will be laid aside for this.

But she has served me for 40 years.

And if I served her for 40 years from this day, I would still be in her debt.

And he stepped away from that position to serve her for the next 10 years.

When she didn't know who he was, when she lost her ability to speak, when he spent day in, day out with this woman who, in terms of their daily interactions, was no longer who she used to be.

Love can be hard, can't it?

Love can be hard, can't it?

Love can be hard, can't it?

It's hard because it costs us, our very self, our preferences, our desires, our time, our energy, our agendas, our hopes and dreams, may be laid aside in order to love the people that God has put into our lives.

And it's exhausting.

It's exhausting to keep dying to self.

It's exhausting to do that through the seasons of marriage.

It's exhausting to do that as you raise your child from infancy to adulthood.

It's exhausting to love your church when they're imperfect and when they've disappointed and hurt you.

It's exhausting to love your friend when life circumstances change and what used to be very close is now more distant.

When they get married and you think, what happens now to our friendship?

In so many different ways, love is hard to endure in, isn't it?

The Corinthian church struggled with this.

They wanted love to be something that gave them return.

They wanted their service that they would say would be done in love to result in something for them where they could see a tangible result in a short period of time.

I wonder if we do that too.

And so it leaves us with the question, how is it that we can endure in love, to persevere in love, to keep loving for the rest of our life?

Well, this leads us to our passage this morning.

We're continuing in our service, in our series in 1 Corinthians 13.

1 Corinthians 13.

Well, we're going through the whole book and we're in 1 Corinthians 13.

It's page 960 in your pew Bible.

If you want to look there with me, we're going to read it in just a second.

As we close this chapter up, this great chapter on the nature, the necessity, and today the permanence of love.

We're going to look today at verses 8 through 13.

So let's look at that together.

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.

Please pray with me.

Lord, we thank you for your word.

And we thank you that in it you have spoken to us.

You have spoken with clarity and with timeless truth.

Lord, I pray today that you administer to our hearts.

That, Lord, we would be ready to receive with soft hearts what you have to say to us this morning.

We pray, Lord, that you administer to our minds.

That we would know and understand and think rightly about you.

Who you are and what it is that you have called us to in Christ.

God, I pray that as we look into this passage this morning, that you would enable me to speak your words.

Lord, that we all would be taught by you and by your spirit this morning.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

The fundamental idea that I want you to go away with this morning, the principle that Paul is presenting in this passage is this.

That we can endure in love because God has made love eternal.

We, that sounds really cheesy, doesn't it?

It kind of sounds like a Hallmark card.

But it's, I hope we will see by the end that it's much more significant than that.

That we can persevere in love.

Because God himself has made love an eternal thing.

So we're going to look at this passage.

We're just going to walk through it.

The principle is introduced in verses 8 through 10.

The principle is illustrated in verses 11 and 12.

And then the principle is brought home in verses 12 and 13.

So that's what we're going to do.

If you're following along with notes, there's your outline.

First of all, the principle.

God has made love forever introduced in verses 8 through 10.

Look again with me at the passage.

And as we look at it, remember that the Corinthian, in this letter, Paul has been talking in this section in 1 Corinthians 12 through 14.

He's talking about how do we gather together.

What does it look like for Christians to gather together for worship?

And specifically, how is it that spiritual gifting, that is particular ways that God by his spirit works through us to bless one another.

How is it that those things are meant to exhibit themselves in a godly fashion in our context?

And at the center of it, as we've said before, is this chapter on love.

That love is the context.

Love is the engine.

And love is the thing that determines the goal of how it is that we exercise these spiritual gifts.

How it is that we are to treat one another.

And he's contrasting it, seemingly, with the way the Corinthian church grabbed onto gifts and exalted themselves

because they said, well, I have this, so I'm important.

Or you don't have that.

What's wrong with you?

This sort of divisive character of their community.

Paul says, no.

Love is at the center of how you ought to do these things.

And we've seen that in verses 1 through 3.

It said, it doesn't matter what you do.

If you don't have love, there is no benefit for you in it.

There is nothing to puff yourself up in it.

And then in verses 4 through 7, as I said earlier, we saw the nature of love.

That love as a self-giving for the good of another is tender and is truthful and is tenacious.

And Paul starts here again by beginning to transition out of what seems like an almost esoteric discussion of love back to his topic of gifts.

So we see in 8 through 10 a contrast, don't we?

He says, love never ends.

But, and then he begins to talk about the gifts.

And he says, do you see what he does?

He says, there are three gifts he picks on.

He says, as for prophecy, it will pass away.

Right?

And prophecy, as we'll see in chapter 14, is the thing that Paul's going to say may be the most beneficial for the gathered congregation.

In terms of spiritual gifting.

He's going to say, this is the one I really want you to do well.

He says, but you know what?

It's going to pass away.

And then he says, and you know what else is going to pass away?

Tongues will cease.

Knowledge will pass away.

These spiritual gifts that are word-based gifts that are meant to help the gathered congregation increase in their knowledge of God and their understanding of God.

And Paul says, none of these things will last forever.

Love will.

The gifts will not.

Why is that?

Look with me at verse 10.

Nope, 9.

Verse 9.

For we know in part.

And we prophesy in part.

But when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

Now, what does he mean by in part by this?

I think what he means is that there is this growing.

It actually could be translated part by part or bit by bit is how we would say it today.

For we know bit by bit, a little more.

He's not saying we don't know anything or we're destined to ignorance.

But what he does say is that these things, we may have incremental growth in our knowledge of God through the exercise of these gifts.

And yet it will always be insufficient.

It will never reach to the fullness or the perfection or the completeness of what they're destined to do.

Which is that we would know God fully.

He says, but there will be a day when that will come.

There will be a day when the perfect will come.

And when it will, these imperfect means, these partial means that are not bad in and of themselves.

Paul is not denigrating them.

He's simply saying they're not going to last forever because they're pointing to something else.

They will become obsolete.

As one commentator put it, at the coming of Christ, the final purpose of God's saving work in Christ will have been reached.

At that point, those gifts now necessary for the building up of the church in the present age will disappear.

Because the complete will have come.

To cite Bart's marvelous imagery.

Because the sun rises, all other lights are extinguished.

Isn't that a beautiful picture?

Your flashlights and your candles that you're holding out in the darkness of this partial knowledge.

When the sun arises, will suddenly be no longer necessary.

Because all the light that you ever could have wanted is abundantly yours.

And when Christ comes and finishes his work, when he establishes fully his kingdom,

and we'll see later more about what this means,

these gifts are no longer necessary.

They simply become overcome.

They're overcome by what God will do.

Now, let me address for just a minute, and I want to do this with all humility and gentleness.

There are some who have read these passages through particular lenses.

They have thought that the perfection that is to come is not the future coming of Christ

and the full establishment of his kingdom.

But at some point, they saw that Paul was looking ahead to something different.

To the perfection of the church as it established itself ecclesiologically and organizationally.

Or some see it as the perfect is the coming of the scriptures and the writing of the scriptures

such that when those things came, then suddenly these gifts would pass away

and would no longer be necessary.

This is an argument that would say that these gifts of prophecy and tongues and knowledge

are no longer valid in the church today.

Let me just say humbly that I think that it misses the flow of thought to say it that strongly.

I believe that this passage and what we have seen already in chapter 12

and what we will see in chapter 14

is arguing that these gifts are meant to be a part of church life today.

And Paul is going to give very specific instructions on how they can be good and profitable.

And let me acknowledge that there are many ways in which

under the name of these gifts,

people have done all sorts of really crazy things

that have very little to do with the gospel or the kingdom.

And especially because they've often lacked the love that Paul is emphasizing here.

But I think it's a mistake to read these verses to suggest that these gifts have ceased.

I think that they properly expressed are meant to be an ongoing part of the partial bit by bit growth

of the church in their knowledge of God in this present age while we yet await that future age.

which as we'll see later will bring a place where we will know fully just as we are fully known.

So Paul says,

these gifts are like signposts.

They are pointing to a knowledge that is yet to come.

And he's contrasting it with love

because the love that he's expounding upon and commending to us,

that love is not a signpost to something else.

It is a foretaste.

It is in continuity with what will happen in the future.

So that's what he's,

that's the explanation that he's trying to give.

Love is permanent and these sign things,

these things that you are taking hold of and making so important,

they are ultimately temporary and not eternal.

And then he goes on in the next couple of verses

and he gives some great illustrations.

Some pictures.

Look with me again at verses 11 and 12.

Let's read this together.

Woo!

Here we go.

Got to get my spectacles back on.

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.

I love it when Paul gives us these really clear analogies.

But it always raises the question,

what is he actually talking about?

Some people have read this

and particularly in light of,

if you go back to 1 Corinthians 3,

Paul uses the picture of infancy

as a sign of spiritual immaturity.

And so he picks that.

Back then he says,

to be like an infant or to be like a child

is to be immature.

And in a derogatory,

or in a negative sense,

to lack the maturity that you ought to have.

Some people have read that into this

and think that Paul is talking about

the immaturity of the Corinthian church,

but that the maturity would be

a different kind of exercise

that they could do in this age.

But again, I think that's missing the point.

I think what Paul is saying is,

when I was a child,

I did the things that children do.

There's nothing wrong with that.

Because that's what they do.

That's what it means to be a child.

But then I grew up and I became an adult.

And I didn't continue in the childish ways

because that's no longer the season that I'm in.

And what Paul is saying is similarly for the church.

You now have these gifts

because of the partial nature of what you have.

And that's appropriate for now.

It's a good thing.

But recognize that what maturity,

what adulthood,

what the next age,

the next season,

the next stage for you will be,

what eternity will look like,

it's not going to have these things anymore.

You're going to be in a different place

and you're going to have different things

that characterize you.

And so,

he uses this analogy of the difference

between childhood and adult

to talk about this difference

between the present age and the age to come.

And it's okay to have these gifts now,

but recognize, again,

don't exalt them to this eternal state

or to this ultimate value in your life.

Because when you become an adult,

they will no longer be here.

When Jesus comes and establishes his kingdom,

you will no longer need it.

He then goes on and uses an imagery,

an image of a mirror.

Verse 12.

For now we see in a mirror dimly,

but then face to face.

Now,

I will admit that this one's a little harder

for a number of reasons.

One is,

when you look in a mirror,

who do you see?

Yourself,

right?

That's what you use a mirror for

in our culture

and in our world.

That is not the point of this analogy.

It's not about looking at ourselves

and thinking about

what do I know about myself

and whether my mirror gives a good reflection

of that or not.

And I will say this too,

the translation of dimly

is a really tricky word to translate.

If you look at other,

maybe you have other Bibles here

and you look at it and say,

it might mean that

other translations would be

a reflection as in a mirror,

a reflection of something

where you're maybe seeing

like around a corner

because you're looking in a mirror.

Or another translation is

through a glass darkly.

So you're not looking at yourself,

but you're looking through something,

but there's an opaqueness to it

or a lack of clarity.

In fact,

the word could be translated

a vision or a riddle.

For now we know in a vision

or in a riddle,

which is kind of an odd phrase.

But I think that what he,

at the core of what Paul is saying

with this is that

now we see in a mediated sense

something.

That is,

there is something between us

and the thing that we want to see

and want to look at.

Right?

And so,

so we see that indistinctly

because there's something in between

that we have to have.

So if I'm looking around a corner,

I have to look at the mirror

to get the reflection around the corner.

Or,

it's possible that Paul

is actually meaning,

so,

what you're getting

is things and visions

and riddles

that are words

that are trying to speak truth to you,

but you're not going to get it

clearly right now.

So it's indistinct

or indirect

is what this image is pointing to

of what we have now.

And part of the reason

why I say that

is because it's so clear

with the contrast.

What is the contrast with?

Right?

Now,

we see indistinctly

or indirectly.

Then,

how will we see it?

We will see it face to face.

The difference between

knowing about someone

by reading a bio

and knowing them in person.

The difference between

an online chat

and a coffee date.

The difference between

a photograph

and being

on the south rim

of the Grand Canyon.

What we have now

is all mediated.

But friends,

one day,

one day we will see

face to face.

One day we will actually be

in an unmediated way,

able to see

the things that we most long for

and most want.

and in that we will have

both the personal knowledge

and the complete knowledge,

the experiential knowledge

of that which we long most to have,

which is God himself.

And Paul then takes this

and he brings the principal home.

The end of verse 12

and in 13,

he says,

then I will know fully

just as I

am fully known.

Friends,

do you see what this verse is saying?

He's saying,

one day

we will know

everything about God

that we need

and want to know,

that we are capable

of knowing.

We will know everything

about God.

And you know what it's like?

It's like how God knows us.

It's like how the God

who knows,

who created the world

and everything in it,

who knows our frame,

who knit together

the atoms

and the molecules

and who breathed life

into us,

who knows every hair

in our head,

who knows every thought

and intention

of the heart.

God knows us

that well.

Now.

And he says,

one day

we will know God

to the full extent

of our capacity

to do so.

We will know God

because we will see him

face to face.

There will no longer be

an indistinction.

There will no longer

be a mediation.

But we will actually

see him.

And this is why

these gifts

are temporary.

This is why

these gifts

are only for now

and not for eternal.

This is why

the gifts

are not worth

building our identity

and exalting

and puffing ourselves

up over.

Because one day

they will pass away

and we will see

our God

face to face.

And this, friends,

is why he turns

at the end of the chapter

to this verse

that is so well known.

faith, hope,

and love.

These three abide

or these three remain.

But the greatest

of these

is love.

You know,

it's funny when

we were talking about

this last week

with the pastors.

I said,

well, yeah,

clearly because

faith doesn't last.

Right?

Because,

as we see

in Hebrews 1,

faith is

seeing things

that we don't yet see

and hoping for things

that we have not,

that have not yet

come about.

Right?

And so faith

and hope

are inherently

things of this age

just like the gifts

and they're not

for the future.

And that's what I thought.

And there's some

validity to it

in some sense

because Hebrews 1,

Hebrews 11,

1 does say that

or Romans 8,

24 does talk

about the way

that hope

that is seen

is not hope

at all.

It's knowledge.

It's something else.

But as I read

through this passage

again and as I thought

about it,

that's not actually

Paul's point

in saying

these three remain.

What he's going to

is he's reminding

the Corinthians

of the very foundation

of their faith.

Faith, hope,

and love

is almost shorthand

for Paul

to the very core

of what it is

to be a Christian.

It is to believe

that Jesus died

on the cross

for our sin

and to entrust

our eternal salvation

to that.

It is to hope

that because of that

we who have been

forgiven of our sin

will be raised

to new and eternal life

with Jesus

and that this life

is not all there is

and we are not abandoned

to the grave

but that Jesus

will raise us with him.

Faith, hope, and love

and love

which is the beginning

and the end

of this work of salvation.

God who has loved us

and God who has called us

in love

to love the world.

This is the very core

and he's saying

these things remain.

Right?

The gifts,

they pass away.

These things will remain.

If faith means

a trusting in God,

even in eternity,

we will do this.

If hope means

that the future

has a certainty

of God's goodness,

we will continue

to believe that

in heaven.

So he says,

these things remain

but the greatest

of these

is love.

Think about it,

friends,

how wonderful

this is.

What is the greatest

commandment?

To love the Lord

your God

with all your heart

and all your mind

and all your soul

and all your strength.

And the second one

is like it.

To love your neighbor

as yourself.

Love is the very shape

of our Christian life.

Love is at the very center

of our salvation.

Romans 5.8

God demonstrated

his love for us

in this.

While we were yet sinners,

Christ died for us.

Friends,

we can fight hard

against the mushiness

and the sentimentality

and the emptiness

of air supply

and the craziness

of our culture

in terms of what love

really means.

But let us not forsake

the centrality of love

in the kingdom of God.

God so loved the world

that he gave

his only son.

That whoever believes in him

should not perish

but have eternal life.

The work that God

has done

has been done

in love.

It is an overflow

of his fatherly care

for his creation.

It is the overflow

of his kingly care

for his people.

He has shown his love

by sending his son Jesus

to die on that cross

and to rise from the dead

so that we

who were dead

in our sins

who are alienated

and outside of love

can be brought in.

He has shown love

that is giving

and love

that is costly

and love

that is enduring

to us

in our salvation.

The very things

that we struggle

to do

he has done

for us

in our salvation.

But friends

the greatest of these

is love

not only because

it is the shape

of the Christian life

not only because

it is the very engine

of our salvation

but because God

himself

is love.

Have you ever thought

about this?

God is not faith.

He is faithful

but God himself

is not faith.

Nor is God hope

though he is trustworthy

and dependable

and sovereign

and good.

But the Bible says

the Bible actually says

that God is spirit

God is light

and God is love.

Those are three things

that says God is

essentially.

because God is love

his steadfast love

endures forever.

Because God is love

everything that he has done

from the nature

of his relationship

within the Trinity

before the creation

of the world

to the very act

of creation

to his patience

with a fallen world

that has rebelled

and rejected him

to his act

of salvation

to reaching into it

to his patient

kindness

and not bringing

justice

and ending this world

but continuing

to endure

and loving

as he showed

in the book of Hosea

this love

for a wayward people

in a wayward world

he has endured

in his kindness

so that he might

save more

so that he might

do more good

in this world

and in his love

he will come

and make all things

right one day

and he will make

all things new

and it will be beautiful

and it will be

as it was meant to be

from the very beginning

and in that day

we will see him

face to face

and we will be changed

we will see him

face to face

and we will no longer

need the mediated gifts

that God has given us

now

as we in part

strive to know him more

because we will be

in his presence

and we will see him

and know him

as the God of love

and our hearts

having been redeemed

by Christ

will respond

in heartfelt

overflowing

loving devotion

and worship

to him

this is how we can endure

in loving others

because this is the kind

of God

that we know

because he has shown us

what it looks like

and because he has given us

his love

with which to love

one another

there is nothing

that you can do

that will have greater purpose

and significance

than pursuing a life

of loving others

for the sake of Christ

there is no gifting

that you can exercise

there is no success

or achievement

you will accomplish

there is no version

of perfection

that you think you

will bring about

in this life

there is no duty

that you can perform

there is no romantic

high to chase

or chest heaving moment

to grasp for

that will have

any weight

compared to pursuing

a life of loving

for the sake

of Jesus Christ

friends

this is what he calls us to

and you know

in light of the events

of the past week

and the media

there are some

who say

well gosh

the church

doesn't look

very loving

friends

let us

live such

good lives

such lives

of love

among the Gentiles

that though

they may hate

what we believe

and what we

stand for

they will see

the love

in our hearts

and they will glorify

Jesus

on that last day

friends

let us

outdo

one another

in love

let us

think about

how we can be

tender

and how we can

be truthful

and how we can

be

patiently

enduring

tenacious

in our love

let us

do that

as we gather

together

today

think about

who is it

that you

need to

persevere

in love

this morning

who has

hurt you

who is

hard for you

to love

who have you

given up on

in love

writer

john

puts it

this way

beloved

let us

love

one

another

for love

is of

god

and

whoever

loves

has been

born

of god

and

knows

god

anyone

who does

not

love

does

not

know

god

because

god

is

love

in

this

love

of

god

was

made

manifest

among

us

that god

sent his

only son

into the

world

so that

we

might

live

through

him

in

this

is

love

not

that

we

have

loved

god

but

that

he

loved

us

and

sent

his

son

to be

the

propitiation

for

our

sins

beloved

if

god

so

loved

us

we

also

ought

to

love

one

another

no

one

has

seen

has

ever

seen

god

if

we

love

one

another

god

abides

in

us

and his

love

is perfected

in us

first john

1 John 4:7–12

chapter 4

verses 7

through 12

let's pray

lord as

we listen

to this

text

we are

convicted

of how

unstable

how

wavering

how

inconstant

our love

can be

though we

may rise

to occasions

in heroic

action

lord how

hard it

is for

us to

love

over

and over

and over

again

how

hard it

is for

us to

die to

self

and to

all the

things that

come to

our ego

and to

our

self

understanding

or to

die to

those things

so that we

might truly

love

others for

your sake

to seek

their good

as you

define it

lord we

confess as

well that

there are

times when

we are

confused

uncertain as

to how to

do that

lord we

praise you

that you

are the

god of

love who

will help

us in

those

moments

oh lord

have mercy

on us

and lord

minister to

us a

knowledge of

your love

so that

we may

in turn

be people

of love

because love

is forever

we pray this

in jesus name

amen