Love Never Ends (I Corinthians 13:1-13)

1 Corinthians 13.

Um, it's known as the love chapter for very obvious reasons, and there was no intentionality on my part of having these verses on Mother's Day.

It's just how the teaching schedule worked out.

But it does seem very appropriate uh to be speaking on this passage on Mother's Day because we'll be talking about sacrificial love.

And that is the love of a good mother, is sacrificial love.

But more importantly, that's the love of God, and that's the love that He asks us to have for one another.

But before we jump in, I want to address something uh from the get-go.

In the Greek language, there's four different words used for love.

Where we in English we just have one word that we use uh for various situations.

Because I can say, I love God, I love my wife, I love my kids, I love my friends, and I love steak.

You know, you can say, and we have one word for that whole realm of different loves and different contexts and different ways of expressing that love.

Now, in the Greek, when the New Testament was written, so the New Testament Greek, we can find four words for love.

And two of those words are found specifically in the New Testament.

So the first of those four words is eros, and that's the erotic or sexual love that we actually don't see in the New Testament, but it was a part of the Greek language at that time.

The second one is storge, which is like a familial love, you know, the love for a parent toward a child.

It's love with devotion.

And we don't see it in the New Testament, but we see kind of the opposite.

We see aestorge, which means without familial love.

That one we actually can't find.

But the two words that we do find in the New Testament, the first one is phileo.

It's where we get the word Philadelphia, you know, the city of brotherly love.

It's an affectionate, friendly love because you actually like the person.

There's some feelings involved in this kind of love.

But the love that we're going to be talking about today is agape, which a lot of you have probably heard that word before.

But this is the love used in the New Testament for God's love for us.

It's a sacrificial love that is not dependent upon feelings.

In 1 John 4.8, we see the word used twice in two different forms.

So 1 John 4.8 says, the one who does not love, that's the verb form of agape, does not know God.

Because God is love.

God is agape.

So that verse is telling us that God is the perfect embodiment of agape love.

But it's not only used in that context.

We can't put agape love just in that box and say that's the only way we can use it.

Because we see it in its adjective form in the New Testament to describe how people love sin and how they love darkness as well.

In John 3.19, Jesus says, and people loved, that's that word right there, darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil.

So we can't just say it's it's God's love and that's all it is, because people can love sin and darkness in that same way.

So it's not only God's love, it's a sacrificial love toward anything.

Whatever we have a commitment to, whatever we devote ourselves to.

And that is the love that we're looking at here today.

A sacrificial love that's not based on feelings, but on behavior.

It's based on a sacrificial commitment that's based on action.

So I wanted to clear that up before we even start reading.

So when we see the word love, we know exactly what we're talking about.

Because every time you see the word love in this chapter, it's talking about agape love.

So let's stand for the reading of God's word.

We're gonna go through 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verses 1 through 13.

1 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

It says, If I speak human or angelic tongues, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong and a cling symbol.

If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so that I can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind.

Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs.

Love finds no joy in unrighteousness, but rejoices in 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 in part, and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end.

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 put aside childish things.

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror, but then face to face.

Now I know in part, but then I will know fully as I am fully known.

Now these three remain faith, hope, and love.

But the greatest of these is love.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you so much for this passage.

Lord, for this chapter that's wedged in between talking about spiritual gifts.

Lord, I pray that you would help us to understand love, that you'd help us to understand your love and our love for each other better than we ever have by what you wrote through the hand of Paul here in 1 Corinthians 13.

Lord, I pray that we would come to you with open minds and hearts and ears.

Lord, and that you would do mighty things inside the hearts of each one of us and among this body here this morning, we pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

Like I said, 1 Corinthians chapter 13 is a very well-known chapter.

1 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

You know, you've probably heard portions of it at a wedding, at least.

And you've probably heard portions of it even in an Alan Jackson Country song.

He used it in one of his songs.

But this chapter is in the context of the body of Christ.

And specifically within the context of spiritual gifts being used unselfishly and for the benefit of the whole body of Christ.

Now, the question is: can we use these verses in other contexts, like weddings and regarding marriages or the love of a mother?

Yeah, absolutely.

I think that we can.

The love is patient, love is kind.

Absolutely, that encompasses a lot more.

But the context of this chapter is regarding the people that are sitting next to you and in front of you and behind you, and specifically regarding the spiritual gifts God has given each one of us.

You know, God has gifted each one of his children with a function specifically within his body, but that gift is not, if it's not used in love, then what Paul's going to tell us throughout this chapter is your gift is really worthless when it comes to the kingdom of God.

You know, if your gift is used in bitterness or frustration, or if your gift is used because you've been hurt, or because you want to allow sin to continue, you know, either with yourself or with the people sitting around you.

Or if you use your gift to just show how talented you are, or to elevate yourself in any way.

What Paul's telling us is it's worthless in God's kingdom.

Don't bother even using it.

You know, it's better if you don't use your spiritual gift at all, if it's not used in love.

In verses one through three, we're gonna jump in here and start picking this apart, but Paul's gonna be talking about the extremes here in verses one through three.

If you have a gift to the max capacity, if you're the most gifted in this area and you do not have love, it's pointless.

So look at verse one with me.

If I speak human or angelic tongues, but do not have love, I'm a noisy gong or a clanging symbol.

You know, it sure seems as if the Corinthian church was fascinated with the gift of tongues, doesn't it?

As many times as it's come up, it's getting a lot of airtime, chapters 11 through 14, as we're gonna see.

But he says here, if you have the gift of tongues, but you don't use it because you love the people around you, you're just making noise.

Here's an example.

Has anybody here ever been to a concert or a church where the drums were just way too loud?

You can raise your hand.

It's okay.

I see a lot of heads nodding.

I love drums, but when they're too loud, especially when the drummer won't lay off the cymbals, it gets annoying and exhausting really quick, doesn't it?

So if we're just speaking in tongues to be heard or to show off or to elevate ourselves, that's what it sounds like.

It means that if we're doing it that way, we're annoying and exhausting in that way.

Where people are like, oh boy, here they go again, you know, but as soon as the gift starts to go.

Remember, when somebody speaks in tongues before the body of Christ, it should be for the edification of the whole body.

It should be for the building up.

And that's why an interpretation is so important as we went through a couple weeks ago, so that all can understand and have the ability to say, I agree with that praise or that thanksgiving that was being expressed in that moment.

And when it's done correctly, it's for the edification of the whole body.

Now, there's a question left here of, you know, what is an angelic tongue?

Because Paul just kind of throws that in there, doesn't he?

And it's kind of like, wait, wait, hold on a second.

We don't know a lot, but apparently when we speak in tongues, sometimes it's in a language or maybe even languages of angels.

They cannot be understood by any person, and it doesn't match any earthly language that we have, you know, as some sort of a heavenly tongue.

That the Holy Spirit can inspire someone to speak in that moment.

And also inspire somebody to understand so they can interpret in that moment as well.

Now let's look at verse 2 as he continues on with the extremes.

He says, If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

So remember, Paul's talking about the extremes.

All mysteries, all knowledge, all faith.

So if you are the gifted of the gifted in these areas, and he starts off with prophecy.

So let's look at that first.

He says, prophecy and understanding all mysteries.

So if we have the gift of prophecy and understanding, but we use it to talk down to people, if we use it to maybe scare people into submission, if we use it to lord over people, that's the opposite of edifying the body.

If we're doing it incorrectly in that way for selfish reasons, Paul says we're nothing.

Or if we have all faith, so we trust God with everything.

We trust God with the big things.

But we say, you know, say we belittle those that struggle with trusting God.

Or we elevate ourselves in some way above those that are struggling to trust God.

It says, we are nothing.

Now let's move on to verse 3.

It says, and if I give away all my possessions, you know, that's the extreme of being a giver, isn't it?

It's trusting God to the point of giving everything away.

But if you do that just to be seen or just to be elevated within the eyes of the church, because you want some pats on the back, Paul's saying, don't even bother.

Just keep your stuff.

You're doing it for the wrong motivation.

You know, like the couple that we see in Acts 5, Ananias and Sapphira, they sold some land, they led some people to believe that they gave all of the proceeds from that sale to the church because they wanted to appear generous.

But turns out they held some of the funds back, and God killed them for that lie.

They just dropped dead.

They wanted to appear generous more than anything else.

They did it for the wrong reasons, to be able to boast, to be able to elevate themselves among the eyes of the people that were in the body of Christ.

So Paul again here, he says, if it's not motivated by love, we gain nothing.

Look at the second part of verse 3.

It says, And if I give over my body in order to boast, some of your translations might say, to be burned, but do not have love.

I gain nothing.

So even if we give up our bodies to the point of death, but don't have love, again, don't bother.

We gain nothing.

Now, Paul's gonna shift gears a little bit here as we get into verse four, and he's gonna uh get into what love does look like in the context of the body of Christ within the greater context of spiritual gifts.

So look at the first part of verse 4.

It says, Love is patient, love is kind.

This is what love is.

You know, patient means to be long-suffering, to give multiple chances.

It means to endure with one another.

And then kind means to be friendly and considerate.

And I love the definition from Strong's Dictionary.

It says to show oneself mild.

That's what kindness looks like in this context.

And now, as we finish verse 4, we're gonna see what love is not.

So look at the second part of verse 4.

It says, Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs.

Love finds no joy in unrighteousness.

And then now Paul switched back to what love is once again.

He says, but rejoices in the truth.

Verse 7, it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

These things, I think, are generally easy for us to do and not do, depending on what he's talking about, with people that we really like, right?

For the most part, it's like I really like this person.

These things aren't too hard to do because I have feelings for this person that are of love or of warmth, that are of kindness, you know, and things like that.

These things are hard to do with people that are hard to love, aren't they?

Or with people that we might find annoying, right?

Or people that we've tried to love and they've just ended up hurting us.

You know, there's a line from a song that we sing that I often find myself praying, and it's a prayer to God.

It says, Teach me how to love like you have loved me.

That godly love, that perfect and sacrificial love.

That's not dependent on feelings.

You know, the question really becomes how am I doing with verses four through seven with the people that are hard to love?

That's the question we should all be asking ourselves.

And you'll often hear people say, you know, if you want to be convicted, you insert your name and place of love in this passage.

Anybody heard that before?

And it's very convicted to do that.

And there's nothing wrong with doing that.

But some say, you know, it can actually be a good gauge of spiritual maturity.

If you can plug your name in there and it doesn't sound really far-fetched, right?

If you plug your name in there and it doesn't sound fetched, far-fetched to anybody else either.

But if we truly want to keep this in context, we should insert when using spiritual gifts among the body after each phrase.

So it would sound something like this in verses four through seven.

Starting verse four.

Love is patient when using spiritual gifts among the body.

Love is kind when using spiritual gifts among the body.

Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs when using spiritual gifts among the body.

Love finds no joy in unrighteousness, but rejoices in truth.

It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things when using spiritual gifts among the body.

That's truly keeping that in context.

And this really makes sense because how does Jesus say that we will be known as his disciples?

He tells us in John 13, 35, it'll be by the love that we have for one another.

That's how we will be known as the disciples of Jesus Christ.

You know, the mark of a mature believer, it's not spiritual gifts or how many spiritual gifts you have.

Excuse me.

It's not about head knowledge.

It's how are we doing in loving one another.

If you want to know if you're a mature believer, work on inserting your name in regards to the body of Christ in verses 4 through 7 there.

And if it doesn't sound far-fetched, and if others don't think that it sounds far-fetched, you're probably on the right track towards maturity in Jesus Christ.

But these are not things that we can do on our own when we plug our name into those verses.

There's no way we can do these things by just trying harder.

We'll burn out and we'll flip our lid and then the anger will show eventually.

But it's through the Holy Spirit that we can that this is even possible, that we can insert our name and say, like, yeah, I'm actually growing in these areas, and it doesn't sound too far-fetched when I put my name in there.

You know, this isn't, like I said, a love that we can attain by trying harder.

It's a love that comes by abiding closer with Jesus, the head of the church, and by walking more closely with the Holy Spirit.

So we allow him to work through us so we can love in this way.

And then verse 8 says, Love never ends.

And what that means is we're never gonna come to our place, to a place from now through all of eternity where love ends and it's no longer needed.

It's like, oh, it was accomplished, we're done with that, and we don't need love anymore.

It never ends, it never fails.

We're gonna experience love and know love through all eternity.

And in regards to loving God and loving the body of Christ, it should be something that's only growing and growing and growing within us.

Now he finishes off verse 8.

He says, 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 in part and we prophesy in part.

But when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end.

So this verse always raises a lot of questions.

You know, when will these things that are being talked about come to an end?

What is the perfect that's referred to in here?

And when does that all come?

You know, we believe as a church that the perfect is Jesus' second coming.

It's Jesus, really, himself, but in his second coming.

You know, that's when prophecies, tongues, and words of knowledge will no longer be needed and will come to an end.

Now, as individuals, we may experience being face to face with Jesus before he comes back, you know, in our own death, in which case we won't need the gifts that are being referred to here, but they will still be active among the church, even if we pass away and come face to face with Jesus.

But in either event, whether Jesus is second coming or our death, we're gonna be face to face with Jesus, and we're finally gonna see things clearly.

When he comes or when we die and go to heaven, prophecies, tongues, words of knowledge, those things will not be needed anymore because we will be with Jesus.

But Paul isn't referring to individual deaths here.

I think he's referring solely to Jesus' second coming in this verse, when those gifts will no longer be needed.

Now, we can't really address this passage without addressing a group called cessationists.

You know, they're a group that believes.

The miraculous gifts of the Spirit died with the apostles.

They died when Scripture was done being written.

Basically, that when Scripture was done being written and the apostles passed, then the miraculous gifts of the Spirit ceased.

And one of their go-to passages is this passage right here.

They take the perfect in verse 10 as referring to the writing and the completion of Scripture in the apostolic age.

Their argument is that we won't need prophecy or words of knowledge or tongues once the word, once the word of God was completed and done being written.

But that argument, I don't say that argument really working with the gifts of tongues specifically.

Because God's word is his communication to us.

But as we've already covered, tongues is our Spirit's communication to God, inspired by the Holy Spirit.

So scripture can't take the place of that because God's word is his communication to us.

And then also in Acts 2, you know, when we see the Holy Spirit fall on the disciples during Pentecost, you know, they're speaking in tongues.

You know, it's 9 o'clock in the morning, and people think that they're drunk, and Peter has to like clear all of that up.

But it says that the onlookers were hearing the magnificent acts of God in their own language.

And then Peter jumps in in Acts 2.14 to share the gospel with this crowd, and he quotes from the book of Joel.

And this is what Peter's response was to the crowd as he quotes from the book of Joel.

He says, And it will be in the last days.

So in the New Testament, that's the time between Jesus' resurrection and his second coming.

It says, And it will be in the last days.

So in that time period, says God, that I will pour out my spirit on all people.

Then your sons and your daughters will prophesy.

Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.

I will even pour out my spirit on my servants.

In those days, so in that time period, in the last days, from Jesus to Jesus, both men and women, and they will prophesy.

So the last days didn't end when Scripture was canonized, when Scripture was done being written.

Didn't end at the end of the apostolic age.

We're still in the last days, right now, all of us.

Therefore, we believe all of the gifts of the Spirit are still active.

And those are just some brief reasons that we hold this position of the gifts of the Spirit still being active and appropriate for us today.

And if we keep verse 8 in context, which we always try to do, it's always a good idea, with the verses that follow, what Paul is doing here is he's talking about the here and now and comparing that to eternity face to face with Christ.

And he's going to continue on doing that in verse 11.

It says, 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 put aside childish things.

So childish things are appropriate for a time.

But later, our interests change.

Our maturity changes, and we don't need those childish things anymore.

They're for a season, and nothing's wrong with childish things.

But like spiritual gifts, they're fine for a season here on earth.

But something better and something clearer is waiting for us that will make the understanding we have now on earth seem childish.

He goes on in verse 12.

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror.

But then, speaking of eternity, face to face.

So we need to understand that back then mirrors weren't the mirrors we have now.

The mirrors we have now that are perfectly clear were invented in 1835.

So before that, they were finding all kinds of different things.

But in this time, it was usually polished bronze or a polished volcanic rock that they used for a mirror.

So they could only get it so clear.

You could see a reflection, but it was nothing like real life that we see in the mirrors that we have now.

So Paul is saying, right now we only see a somewhat clearer.

We only see a polished bronze reflection of what we're going to see in eternity.

We don't have the full picture.

So therefore, we still need prophecy and tongues and words of knowledge to help us along in those things.

But when we see God and Jesus face to face, we're not going to need those things anymore.

Because everything's going to clear up for us, like it would from going from a bronze polished mirror to the mirrors that we have today.

He goes on to finish verse 12.

He says, Now I know in part, but then I will know fully as I am fully known.

When we are with Jesus in perfection, we will have the full picture.

We will see things clearly, and we'll know fully as we are fully known by God.

Like I said in verses 9 through 12, Paul is comparing and contrasting the here and now, the earthly with eternity.

What we're looking forward to, where our hope lies ahead.

So just to show you the comparing and the contrasting, I want to read verses nine all the way down through twelve once again.

He says, For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, so earthly.

But when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end.

Eternal.

Verse 11.

When I was a child, I spoke like a child.

I thought like a child.

I reasoned like a child.

Again, earthly.

When I became a man, I put aside childish things.

Eternal.

Verse 12.

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror, earthly, but then face to face, eternal.

Now I know in part earthly, but then I will know fully as I am fully known to be eternal.

The things we're talking about regarding spiritual gifts, they're gonna pass away.

But do you know what is eternal and does last?

Look at verse 13 with me.

Now these three remain faith, hope, and love.

But the greatest of these is love.

These three, faith, hope, and love, we see them grouped together many times throughout the New Testament.

I want to give you just a couple examples.

Like Colossians 3, 1, verses 3 through 5 says, We always thank God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you.

For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints because of the hope reserved for you in heaven.

And then 1 Thessalonians 1 3 says, We recall in the presence of our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor motivated by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

When Jesus comes back, the gifts of the Spirit will no longer be needed.

But our faith will be realized when we're face to face with Jesus.

Our hope that we have for eternity in perfection with Christ will be fulfilled.

But love will continue on forever.

Love does not end.

God's love for us and our love for Him and our love for each other will remain forever.

So Paul says the greatest thing to pursue, the best place to put our focus is on loving God and loving each other.

There's no greater pursuit.

You know, we should desire the greater gifts, as Pete talked about last week.

We should pursue faith and hope.

But the greatest pursuit in all of this is love.

You know, if you've been here for any amount of time, you've heard us talk a lot about abiding in Christ.

You've heard us talk a lot about surrendering and loving God.

You've also heard us talk about loving others through the power of the Holy Spirit.

You know, if we keep our focus on these things, if we keep the focus off of ourselves, everything else falls into place.

You know, a healthy body looks like a bunch of people that are doing this.

A bunch of people that are surrendered to God and loving Him, that are abiding in Christ and are loving each other.

Again, as we talked about earlier, how will we be known as disciples of Christ?

It's by the love that we have for one another.

And I want to end with this.

Um, Ephesians chapter 4, verses 15 through 16.

Ephesians 4:15–16

If you want to turn there, it's a couple books to the right from where you are right there in 1 Corinthians, but Ephesians chapter 4, verses 15 through 16.

Ephesians 4:15–16

And think about, before we read this, what it means when it says that Christ is our head.

We've been talking a lot about that at the end of Corinthians here.

He is the head of the body of Christ, of the church.

I don't know about you, but my head controls my whole body.

You know, my index finger has never acted out on its own.

Wouldn't that be ridiculous if it did?

You know, when I tell it to point, it points.

When I tell it to clinch, it clinches.

When I tell it to relax, you know, it relaxes because it abides by my head.

You know, it's never revolted and said, I'm gonna do this.

And I was looking at it like, stop it, you know, and I can't control it.

It's always going like that.

We need to listen to our head in the church, just like our body parts listen to our head in our own bodies.

Abiding so closely that when Jesus says point, we say how straight.

When he says clinch, we say how hard.

You know, but so often Jesus asks us to do something and we just dig in our heels, don't we?

He says, you know, pick up the knife.

We say, Well, you know, Jesus, I've been thinking, you know.

I think it maybe we should pick up the knife from the other end this time.

And Jesus is saying, No, you're gonna hurt yourself if you pick up the knife by the blade.

And we just sit there like, no, Jesus, I'm pretty sure I got this one figured out.

Let's just pick it up from the opposite end.

You know, it's just ridiculous to have that internal conversation when we're thinking of our head and our finger, right?

But we so often do that within the body of Christ.

We second guess and we try to revolt against what Jesus has for the body as a whole.

So Ephesians 4, verses 15 through 16 sums this up way better than I can.

Ephesians 4:15–16

So I'm just gonna read it to you.

It says, but speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head, Christ.

From him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part.

It's really when we put ourselves aside.

It's when we abide in Christ, the head, and simply say yes to him and simply trust him.

You know, it's when we love God and each other more than we love ourselves.

That's when we become what God desires for us as a church.

When we're completely surrendered.

When Jesus says point, we say how straight.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you for this passage.

I thank you for the perfect example of love.

Not that you show, but God, that you are.

I pray, God, that you would show us how to love like you have loved us.

That we would place ourselves aside.

That the ways that you have gifted us, that we would use those to bless the people that are in front of us and behind us and on each side of us.

Lord, that we would use it for your glory and for your honor.

And Jesus, when you say to do something that we don't dig our heels in or think that we know better, but we would love sacrificially, both to you and to the body, that we would love God and love others the way that you want us to.

Lord, pray that you would grow us as a body in this way, that we would learn how to love each other like you love us.

That we love you so much and desire to be more like you.

Would you strengthen us?

Would you move through the power of the Holy Spirit inside of each one of us to do the things that you've created us to do, to work in the giftings that that the Holy Spirit has gifted to each one of us and to use those for your kingdom, for the growth of your kingdom, for the for loving you and loving others.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.