March 8, 2026 – Agape: The More Excellent Way | 1 Corinthians 13:1–7 Baptist Bible Church, Sparta MI

Have you ever had a meal and asked for the recipe afterwards?

And have you ever heard the chef tell you, here's the ingredients, but I have to say, there is a secret ingredient.

You can't know it.

Maybe it's a recipe passed down through generations in the family, and there's a secret, it's a secret recipe.

Can't tell you that part.

My dad, we'd like to go to first walk, the Chinese restaurant.

We enjoyed going to first walk.

I remember going several times growing up.

And uh dad's favorite was the chicken and broccoli.

And I remember one time he asked the chef, you gotta tell me the recipe.

He wanted the recipe from first walk for the chicken and broccoli, or the yeah, the chicken and broccoli.

The chef said, Nope, can't tell you.

I was like, Dad, come on.

Ask in the restaurant for the recipe.

I was embarrassed, but he wanted it.

They said, Nope, it's a secret.

We've been reminded the last couple of weeks that we are all members together of the body of Christ, that we are called as members of the body to use how God has gifted and enabled us to serve one another.

However, the recipe for a healthy growing church is not quite complete.

There is one more ingredient.

One more important key ingredient, and after today, it will no longer be the secret ingredient, thankfully.

God's word tells us what this extra ingredient, this key important ingredient is to a healthy growing church that must be added in order for a church to truly go grow in healthy unity.

And that key ingredient is love.

And not the sappy Hallmark channel kind of love, by the way.

Love according to God's definition and God's design.

So this morning we're going to delve into the text together, 1 Corinthians chapter 13, beginning in verse 1.

1 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

We're going to recognize this morning how we are called to not just serve, not just use how God has gifted us to serve in the church, but to do so to infuse our serving with biblical love.

1 Corinthians chapter 13, read with me beginning in verse 1.

1 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not 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 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.

Father, thank you for today.

Thank you for this opportunity we have to be here this morning.

Help us as we open up your word to understand what it says, to be challenged by it, and to not just go out these doors forgetting what we've heard, but applying it to how we live.

It's in Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

I want us to notice a couple things in these first several verses in chapter 13.

Notice the first thing is that Paul lists several different gifts of the Spirit, many of which he has already mentioned in chapter 12.

If you'll notice in verse 1, he has mentioned the gift of tongues.

In verse 2, the gift of prophecy and faith, and in verse 3, the gift of giving.

But notice, interestingly enough, that in each case, there is an escalation.

There's an escalating of the gift.

So if you'll notice, he talks about the tongues of men, and there's an escalation to the tongues of angels.

In verse 2, you have the gift of prophecy that escalates to knowing all mysteries, knowing all knowledge.

In verse 2, the second half, you have the gift of faith, and then you have the gift not just of ordinary faith, but the faith to move mountains.

And then in verse 3, not just the gift of giving away the possessions, the things I have, but the gift of giving up my very body, my very self.

So you'll notice in each in each gift that Paul mentions, he escalates it to the fullness of that gift.

It's a little bit like if you ever go to the dealership and you're looking at buying a car, and you'll know when you go to the dealership, you can get the basic car.

There's like the basic level, right?

That's like the cheapest version.

But then the dealership, you know, the salesperson, they'll usually, what do they try to do?

They'll try to entice you to buy the souped up version.

And there's multiple levels, aren't there?

Right?

You go up and and boy, if you get the next the next version up, you get this the heated seats.

Ooh, in Michigan in winters, that sounds pretty good.

You know, you get you get you go up and you get the you get the souped up entertainment system.

Ooh, that sounds nice.

Right?

They try to they try to sell, and then you can you can go all the way up.

It used to be one of them was going from the manual windows to the electric.

Now everything's pretty much electric, isn't it?

It's almost as though what Paul is doing here in the text is he's is he's saying, here's the basic version, and here's what the gift looks like if it's like the ultimate souped-up version, and you're using it to the fullest of its extent.

It's like here is the top, here's the top spiritual gift, the top version of it.

And what's his point?

What's Paul doing by by escalating these gifts?

His point in the first three verses is to say is that you as a Christian, you could have the most amazing gifts and abilities.

And you could use those amazing gifts and abilities to serve the church and to serve others to the fullest capabilities, to the fullness of what they're capable of.

And if in this context you do that, but you're missing love.

It's worthless.

It's worthless.

There's no value to it.

It's worthless.

It's likely Paul has in mind his earlier teaching in chapter 3 in 1 Corinthians.

And if you recall, in chapter 3, Paul's challenge is to build upon the foundation.

His challenge is to build the church.

We're called to build the church together.

And he says, there's the foundation has been laid.

And now it's our responsibility to build.

And he says, be careful how you build.

Be careful.

Why?

Because if you build with wood and straw, he says that eventually those works will be tested by fire.

And the works that you've used, that you've done to build the church that are that are wood and straw and hay, they'll burn.

He says, you'll be left with nothing.

It's likely Paul is thinking of this when he writes these first three verses.

You can do amazing things for Jesus.

You can say, I'm serving Jesus.

I'm doing amazing things.

I'm giving up my life.

I'm serving, serving, serving.

I'm a serving machine.

Everything I do, I'm serving.

But if you don't have love that is infused into your serving, if love isn't a part or the reason why you're serving, then those works are simply wood and hay, and they will ultimately be burned up.

And you'll be left with what?

Nothing.

It's easy as Christians, I think, to get involved in serving in a church.

And maybe there's a time in which love is the motivating force, but maybe over time, if you've been Christian for a long time, if you've been coming to church for a long time, there's there, I think there can be a tendency for the love to start to fade away.

And there's other motivations for serving that tend to creep in.

There's a few that I've listed here for you.

I think one possible motivation that shoves love aside is the personal merit motivation, the personal merits.

That my relationship to God is contingent upon how I'm serving.

So the more I serve, the more God loves me.

The more I serve, the happier God is with me.

The more I serve, the more I gain in standing before God.

This is personal merit.

The praise of man motivation.

I serve to be seen.

I serve because I want praise.

I want people to see me.

I want people to congratulate me.

I want people to thank me.

I want my works to be seen by people.

It's easy to fall into that.

The obligation motivation.

You know, I just want this church to succeed.

I want it to grow.

I want it to work.

I'm invested in this church.

And so I view myself as a cog in the machine.

And as this cog is turning, the machine is working, the machine of the church is working, and man, we're really, we're we're producing and we're growing because the machine is.

And I'm the cog.

And so I'm obligated.

There's, I see a need, somebody's got to do it.

I guess it'll be me.

I'm serving Jesus.

I'm serving.

I think the problem with all of these ulterior motivations, and maybe there's a, there's, you know, like I said, maybe there's like love that's like the start of it, but like I said, I think that at times we can these other motivations creep in and just kind of start shoving love to the side.

The problem is that with all of these ulterior motivations, they are missing love.

Which ultimately transforms love into a self-centered activity, which is the antithesis of Paul's point in chapter 12.

We serve because of love for others.

But when these motivations come in, serving becomes about me.

And by the way, it also transforms serving from being a blessing to a burden.

A burdensome activity that ultimately just leads to burnout.

On the contrary, when serving is fueled by love, serving goes from being a burden to a blessing.

It's why I made that point last week.

It's not so much what you do as it is who can I serve.

Why?

Because serving is about other people.

It's about the fact that I love, because I love you, I want to serve you.

And when serving is about loving, serving then ultimately becomes an incredible blessing to the server.

I love you, and because I love you, I want to serve you.

It is my pleasure.

It brings me great joy and satisfaction to serve you because I love you.

This is the picture here.

Can you see how that is an immense blessing to the server?

The cog in the machine model is cold and lifeless.

There's no joy in that, is there?

Don't you want some joy this morning?

Somebody, do you want joy this morning?

Do you want joy in serving?

This is it.

Not this, serving without love.

What the text tells us.

Motivate your serving with love.

And then you'll understand what Jesus means when he says it's better to give than to receive.

Because there's joy in giving.

That is way better than in the getting.

So what is this kind of love?

How are we called to serve with love?

We have to ask the question because we live in a world that has twisted up what love really means, don't we?

Don't we live in a world that has told us what love is?

It's a twisted up version of love, which means if we're going to choose this morning to say, I'm going to serve out of love, then we need to understand what do we mean by that?

What is the love God wants us to have for other people?

Well, the Bible uses a few different terms for love.

We call it true love.

Love in the New Testament has a few different words there.

Our word for love in 1 Corinthians 13 is agape.

Maybe you've heard that one before.

This is the word utilized in 1 Corinthians 13.

It's a selfless, sacrificial kind of love.

Interestingly enough, this 1 Corinthians chapter 13 passage, verses 4 through 7, oftentimes is a passage read at weddings.

1 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

You'd say love is pretty important for marriage, wouldn't you?

Okay, maybe not.

Yeah, it is, yes.

Yes.

But Paul doesn't write this text in the context of marriage, does he?

What is this passage written in the context of?

The church.

The church.

Which means that as we reflect on the true definition, the true meaning of what love is, this is meant to be the love we have.

Just look around this room.

Here.

This is the love we're meant to have in this room here.

Some of you aren't looking around.

That means you're focused on loving me.

That's okay.

That's good.

This is church love.

Church love! 1 Corinthians chapter 13.

1 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

My challenge this morning, we're gonna work through this definition of love.

My challenge to you this morning is to pick one.

Pick one where you know this is one that I struggle with.

This is one where I need to grow.

And my challenge is going out of the service this morning.

Go away with one of these.

That you say, Lord, help me.

Lord help me.

I don't love that way, and I know I need to grow in that.

So Lord help me.

That's my challenge to you this morning.

So as we go through this definition, you'll notice in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 4, Paul begins by saying, Love is patient and kind.

1 Corinthians 13:4

Love is patient and kind.

Patience and kindness are two sides to the same coin.

Patience represents love's passive response to others.

Literally, it's the ability to bear up while being provoked without complaints.

This is patience is what love does when something is done to you, when you are at the receiving end of something.

This is the passive response to what happened to how I respond to when I'm being provoked.

At our house with four boys, there's a lot of provoking that happens on a regular basis.

They love to provoke.

Benia, I've got your blanket.

Lincoln, I've got your pup.

Riot, I've got your lego.

I hear these things all the time.

And you know, you just you know what happens, don't you?

They're provoked, and there is a response to the provoking.

There is a, believe me, there is a response.

You may say this morning, you know what?

I'm a pretty, I'm a pretty patient person.

I'm patient, I'm reasonable, unless somebody provokes me.

But what does Paul say?

What is love?

It's patience, it's the ability to bear up when being provoked.

That's when love comes out, when being provoked, when being attacked, when being sinned against.

Love is patience.

And notice what else, not just patient when being provoked, not able to bear up when being provoked, but but without complaint.

Without complaints.

Meaning, when you're wronged, when you're sinned against, when you're slighted, maybe in the moment you can keep your mouth, you know, it's okay.

But when you're alone with someone else, do you complain about it?

Do you complain about that person?

Do you throw their name in the mud?

Ah, did you hear what they said to me?

Did you did you let me fill you in?

Did you know what they did to me?

You start talking behind people's backs, complaining, complaining, complaining.

Love is patient.

True love.

Love is patient.

Some of you already have your one to work on this morning, don't you?

Well, we're just getting started.

Love is patient, love is kind.

Kind is the active response.

It's the active response.

These are your personal initiated actions and activities.

These are deeds of compassion and mercy that you do to others.

So while patience is the passive, kindness is the active.

It's what you do.

We're reminded this morning that love is visible.

Love isn't just an inner quality, it's not an inner mushy-gushy emotion.

Love is a visible, demonstrable activity.

It's serving others.

It's doing deeds of those deeds of compassion and mercy demonstrated through our actions.

As we go on in the text, we notice love does not envy.

Envy is the desire for what someone else has coupled with intense negative feelings towards that person.

Meaning, I not only want that person's success, I also want them to fail.

Envy is personal.

You find yourself this morning rejoicing in the failures of others.

Oh, that's did you hear about so-and-so?

That's too bad.

Oh, that's a bummer on the outside and on the inside.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

They deserve that.

That's what they get.

That's envy.

That's envy.

Envy embitters you towards others.

God says love isn't envy.

Love doesn't boast.

Boasting is to heap praises on oneself.

Boasting is contrary to love because love is inherently other focused.

Love is other-oriented.

We're going to notice that in these descriptions.

Time and time again.

That's the idea.

Love is about other people.

It's focused on other people.

Boasting is antithetical to love because boasting does what?

Zoop, goes inward, points inward, directs attention and gaze and focus to self rather than focusing on those around us.

Paul says love doesn't boast.

Notice love is not arrogant or proud.

Pride would be the elevation of self.

If I have elevated myself above others, then by the way, it's my needs, my desires, my preferences that are first.

I'm going to care about myself more than I care about others.

And so Paul says love isn't arrogant.

Love doesn't say that my desires are more important than you.

He says, love is not rude.

The word here means to pursue your wishes.

And desires while completely disregarding what is good or proper or right.

This is rudeness.

The image that I think comes into my mind reflecting on rudeness is the person at the ice cream shop shoving their way to the front of the line.

We'd all say, that's rude.

I want ice cream.

You can't just cut in line.

It's rude.

Okay, so in that illustration, in the idea, the person's desire for ice cream means that they're ignorant of how they're how their actions are affecting anyone else.

They just don't care.

Because it's me first attitude.

This is rudeness.

Again, we notice here what's the problem?

It's me-focused, it's self-centered, self-oriented, whereas love is other-oriented.

So love isn't rude.

Rudeness reveals that you have been dominated by your own selfish desires to the point that you are unaware of how your actions are affecting others.

Notice love doesn't insist on its own way.

Again, self-focus.

It's about me, it's about what I want, it's about my way.

And Paul says, no, it's not love.

You're not loving if that's the mindset, if that's the attitude, if that's your disposition this morning.

He says, your disposition needs to be, what?

It's not about me.

He says, love is not irritable.

Meaning love doesn't have a short temper or a quick fuse.

Proverbs chapter 16, verse 32 says, Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.

Proverbs 16:32

That's interesting, isn't it?

Solomon's point is that when you think of a mighty person, a strong person, he says, you think of a conquering warrior.

Someone who can go in, they can conquer a city.

What a mighty warrior! We say that's a that's a mighty person.

But Solomon says, let me show you who the mighty person really is.

It's not, you think the person that can conquer a city is mighty.

How about the person that can rule their own spirit?

How about the person that can rule their anger?

Solomon says, that's the sign of a mighty man.

That's a mighty warrior.

Someone that can rule their spirit.

Paul says, love is not irritable.

Irritability reveals our desires, doesn't it?

Why do we get irritable?

Because what we want has been denied us.

Isn't that usually the case?

Something didn't go my way.

I didn't get what I wanted.

So now I'm irritable.

I'm angry.

I'm allowing that anger to rise to the surface.

It just anger reveals irritability, it reveals our own selfish desires.

Love is able to set aside those personal desires.

He says, love is not resentful.

This is an accounting term.

You know it's tax season.

Yeah.

I know there's one person here that knows it's tax season.

Taxes must be calculated using precise records.

In order to calculate how much you owe in taxes, you must have the exact numbers and you have to calculate how much income and what's you know, what's uh the income that doesn't count, and what is the income that does count, and you have to have all the records put together in order to calculate the outcome.

I think sometimes as Christians we can be really good accountants.

We can keep really good records sometimes.

We can keep records of how people have wronged us.

And we hold on to that.

Don't we do that?

I can remember the exact day, the exact time, the exact wording of what that person did to me, of how I was wronged.

And I've got my list in my heart, and I can go down the list, and it's like I can recite it because I've got a precise record.

I've kept exact accounts of who the people are who have heard me, who have done me wrong, who have slighted me, who've sinned against me, and I've got and I can pull out that record at any time and I can go ahead and I can recite the damage.

God says, I want you to get out that list.

I want you to burn it.

Burn the list.

Why?

Because love doesn't keep the record.

It doesn't keep the record, it doesn't hold on to the list in the hearts.

Love releases people from personal judgments.

That's a biblical definition of forgiveness.

Releasing someone from my personal judgment.

And maybe you're here this morning, you'd say, I've got a list.

I've got a list in my heart.

And that's not to say that we don't go through life without getting sinned against.

And that that doesn't hurt.

And that's not real.

It is.

Paul says that genuine love takes that list and it tosses it in the trash.

It doesn't keep the record.

You got a record this morning, you get a toss?

Love, we read, doesn't rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.

There is an immense amount of pressure today for Christians to rejoice in wrongdoing.

We are called hateful, bigoted, evil people if we don't rejoice in wrongdoing today.

But here it's important to notice that the affirmation and celebration and the accepting of what is wrong is not loving.

It isn't loving.

Instead, it is, you know what the opposite of love is, don't you?

It's not hate, it's apathy.

It's apathy.

I don't care.

I just don't care about you.

And the opposite of love in our context today is to say, I'm going to rejoice in wrongdoing because I don't want to be labeled the bad guy.

I don't want to look bad.

I don't want to have that kind of a reputation.

So I'm not going, so I'm just going to rejoice in whatever the wrongdoing is.

And what you're really communicating is, I don't care about you.

I don't care.

I don't care your eternal destiny.

I don't care about your relationship with the Lord.

I don't care.

Rejoicing in wrongdoing communicates that to people.

They may not realize it, but that is actually what you're doing.

And so Paul says it doesn't rejoice in the wrongdoing, but what does love rejoice in?

The truth.

The truth.

Truth is love.

Truth is love.

By communicating truth, you are loving someone.

By speaking truth, even if they may not like to hear it, is loving.

It's genuine love.

It's biblical love.

That's why I say love according to the world is a twisted version of what genuine biblical love really is.

Genuine love rejoices in what is true and what is right, and will always seek to share the truth as an act of love.

As we look at our final verse this morning in verse 7, the outer frame of the verse parallels each other, and the inner frame parallels each other.

So what I mean is we read, love bears all things, and then if you look at the end of the verse, love endures all things.

These are synonymous concepts.

Love bears and endures.

And it forms this pattern here at the end of the verse to summarize what biblical love ultimately really is.

There's a summary of what we could summarize biblical love in this way.

It is in verse 7, it bears all things and it endures all things.

This concept is that love is unfailing.

And it corresponds to the most commonly used word for God's love in the Old Testament, which is loyal or unfailing love.

Steadfast love.

As believers today, our love is meant to mirror the love of God.

That it's loyal, it's steadfast, it doesn't fail.

How often are we we transform into umpires in a baseball game?

Strike one, strike two, strike three, you're out.

Love revoked! You gotta earn it.

What does the Bible tell us?

What is genuine love?

Doesn't fail.

Could you characterize your love like that this morning?

Boy, you you know, you can wrong me, you can hurt me, you can sin against me.

I'm never gonna stop loving you.

I'm never gonna stop.

Try to make me.

You can't.

I'm loving.

That's the kind of love here.

That's God love.

Loyal, unfailing.

And notice the inner the inner frame.

What do we see in the inner frame?

It believes all things and hopes all things.

Believes all things and hopes all things.

This one's interesting because it addresses our judgment of motivation.

It can be very easy, and one of the greatest stumbling blocks to being able to love someone is to create a picture in our head of a person that matches our perception of reality.

So, what I mean is somebody says something to us, and you in your mind, maybe you're reflecting on that conversation later, and you start to create this image of this person by reading into what they said, by looking into the motivations behind it.

They said that because they think this, or they believe this, or they feel that way about me, or they that you look back and say, that person did that, and I know why they did it.

It's because on the inside they're selfish and they only think about themselves.

You see how that mindset, that when we do that, how destructive that is to love, it destroys your capacity to love someone if you get into the routine and the habit of judging motivations of the hearts.

Did you hear that this morning?

You will destroy your capacity to love someone if you get into the routine or the habit of judging the motivations of their hearts.

And by the way, place yourself in a position in which God alone has the rights and authority to be in.

Because who alone has the power to look inside of you and know you to your core and to judge your motivations?

Who alone has the power to do that?

God.

God does.

Which means you place yourself in the position of God when you start judging motivations of people.

Paul says love believes all things and hopes all things.

What does he mean?

He means that when someone says or does something to you, you assume the best.

You assume the best.

You create in your head a perception, a picture that says, I'm gonna assume that person meant the best.

The best possible explanation is what I'm going to default to.

I'm gonna hope all things.

I'm gonna believe all things.

If you place yourself in this kind of a disposition where I'm gonna hold others up in the most charitable light as possible, if you create this pattern in your own life, you will increase your capacity to genuinely love someone.

Because instead of assuming the worst about them, you are assuming the best where you can't see.

God's design for you this morning is to serve.

His design is for you to use your spiritual gifts and abilities to be a servant.

To use those gifts to bless others.

But maybe you're here this morning and maybe you're tired of serving.

Maybe you're here this morning and say, man, I serve a lot.

And I'm getting tired of it.

And I don't get anything in response.

And I'm weary.

Can I ask you this morning?

When's the last time you served because you loved somebody?

When's the last time you allowed verses four through seven to shape you and mold you in how you love someone, and then out of that, you served them?

Could I challenge you this morning?

If you're here this morning and you'd identify that way, you'd say, I'm weary, I'm tired.

I serve and I serve and I'm I'm just getting worn out.

Could I challenge you this morning to refresh your heart in the Word of God, to renew your attitude in serving by rooting it in love?

And and I'll make you a promise.

I promise if you approach serving in this way, you will find immense blessing and joy in your serving.

Serving will become a joy to you.

You'll say, I can't serve enough.

What else can I do?

How else can I serve?

Who else can I bless?

Because there is great joy and satisfaction and delight in serving others.

It's better to give than to get.

Better to give than to get.

Okay, that's my translation.

There's blessing in serving.

Blessing in serving.

Do you believe that this morning?

Father, thank you for today.

Thankful for this opportunity.

We have to dig into your word and to reflect on the key ingredients of serving.

Lord, I know I need to be reminded and refreshed in this all the time.

It's way too easy for serving to become burdensome and to grow weary.

And I know I need to be reminded that I love my church.

I love my church.

Not the idea of it.

I don't love the idea of Baptist Bible Church.

I love the people.

The people are the church.

And Father, I know I need to be challenged in that and reminded of that on a regular basis.

To renew my heart in love for my church family.

And I pray, Father, that as you renew in me a heart of love for the people of this church, Father, there is immense blessing and satisfaction and joy in then being able to selflessly serve my people.

Lord, create that disposition and attitude in all of us this morning.

Renew our hearts in love this morning.

Help us to grow in love according to your design.

And I pray, Father, that as we seek to serve and use how you've gifted us this morning, we wouldn't do it in a self-centered way, in a selfish way, in a self-glorifying way, but that we would serve because we simply love and we want to bless others and how we can serve them.

And I pray that as we do that, you would fill us up with joy this morning.

Joyful serving.

That's what we want.

That's the kind of serving we want, Father.

We pray that you'd give it to us.

It's in Jesus' name I pray.

Everybody said, Amen.