Love Is And Is Not - 1 Corinthians 13 - ALIGNED - Pastor Jason Fritz

we are this morning in first Corinthians chapter 13 the famous love chapter every minute somewhere around the world there are at least four weddings taking place over the last 25 years I have officiated figured somewhere between 60 and 70 weddings in a lot of those weddings first Corinthians chapter 13 is quoted love is patient love is kind love is not rude it's not arrogant love does not boast and we we quote this to our future spouses in hopes that they'll live up to it it's kind of like the ultimate romantic fulfillment of what love is but it might surprise you to know that first Corinthians chapter 13 actually has nothing to do with romantic love has everything to do with the way Christians treat those inside the church and outside the church when Jesus was asked in Matthew 20 to boil it down strip everything away what is the greatest commandment he says the greatest commandment is to love God and the second commandment which actually flows from the first you see if you get the first one right pretty much everything else falls into place the second commandment is to love others as you love yourself in John chapter 13 Jesus says you know the world will know who my followers are they're gonna know by the way they treat each other by the love that they have for one another so this being the case it is absolutely essential for us to understand what Christian love is all about and and and here's the reality of our situation in this day and age Christians are seen as narrow-minded and judgmental so what does us really well to focus in on what is most important so by way of reminder here's where we're at Paul writes this letter to a struggling dysfunctional young church the 1st century AD the church is only about three or four years old it's founded in a city court the city Corinth which we as we discussed a few months ago not too dissimilar from Scottsdale in many ways it was a very wealthy City it was the kind of place where people went to make the our fortunes and if you could make it in Corinth you could make it anywhere full of very influential people with great capacity and potential and God tells Paul I'm gonna start a new work there so I want you to take the gospel to this city he does people respond in faith shortly thereafter the church becomes Paul's problem child filled with a lot of potential but filled with a lot of dysfunction the core problem is this they don't understand the virtue of Christian love as we saw last week Paul in a very pastoral and corrective way says here's the thing the body of Christ is kind of like a physical body we all have different parts different members that come together and make up a well-functioning healthy physical body the church is kind of like that every single person here has some part to play and unnecessary part the problem for the Corinthians is that they were elevating themselves they were using their spiritual gifts as points of pride and Paul says no one gift is any more important than another in the same way that no one body part is any more important than another but the Corinthians were interpreting it like this well you're just an ear but I'm an eye and eyes are more beautiful than ears or hands are more glamorous than feeding and I'm a hand you're a foot well the hands aren't going anywhere unless the feet take them there and so Paul just kind of to bring this corrective measure and say the very things that God is giving you you're using to separate yourselves and this is the first time they've done this he starts chapter 1 by saying Paul gives gifted teachers not as points of division people were saying well who do you follow Paul who do you follow Peter who do you follow Apollo's and the church was divided so much dysfunction even don't were taking communions we're gonna do at the end of the service some people were getting drunk off communion wine they they brought so much wine they were getting drunk off of it meanwhile other brothers and sisters didn't have any some were overeating while others were going hungry at the king and feast and they had this complete and total misunderstanding of what Christian love is about and so what Paul is about to say is this in fact he ends chapter 12 by saying I'm going to show you a better way no we had this discussion about spiritual gifts but I'm gonna show you a better way chapter 13 verse 1 he says and if I have sue me if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love I'm just like a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal so what does he mean if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels what exactly is he talking about so there's a lot of controversy surrounding just this one verse so what let's straighten it out a bit we mentioned last week that the gift of tongues most clearly demonstrated in the New Testament the clearest example we have is found in Acts chapter 2 and what's happening is the church is essentially being born and the birth of the church comes on the heels of the gift of tongues that falls upon the Apostles let me read it to you Acts chapter 2 verse 5 now that we're dwelling in Jerusalem Jews devout men from every nation under heaven and these different nations represent different languages keep that in mind verse 6 and at this sound that's the sound of the Holy Spirit coming upon the Apostles and the Apostles begin to speak in tongues we mentioned last week there are two interchangeable words used throughout this text one is the Greek word is dialect DOS from which we get our English word dialect a dialect is a known language the other word is glossolalia these two words are used interchangeably to describe what's happening so what this sound the multitudes came together so this crowd forms and they're like bewildered what because each one was hearing them the Apostles speak in his own language and they were amazed and astonished saying are not all these who are speaking galilaeans if you remember there's a point when Jesus popularity is rising and he's becoming known and it's discovered that he's from Nazareth and Galilee and then they start asking can anything good come from Nazareth can anything good come from Galilee Galilee not essentially some of these little backwater places uneducated places unsophisticated places and yet they're hearing these men who haven't been trained in a language they hearing them they're hearing them speak their languages these people from Jews from all different places in fact per se and how is it that we hear each one each of us in his own native language for example parthians and medes and elamites and residents of Mesopotamia Judea and Cappadocia Pontus and Asia Phrygia and Pamphylia Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene and visitors from Rome both Jews and proselytes cretins and Arabians we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God this is an amazing gift if you want to capture someone's attention begin speaking their language the foreign languages you've never studied before they're probably gonna listen to what you have to say and what are they hearing they're hearing about the mighty works of God I have a strong sense what they're hearing about is the Old Testament revelation of the Messiah fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ and you're in the crowd and you're listening you're going okay there's something supernatural happening right here I might want to pay attention to what they're saying so Paul says if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels now what does he mean the tongues of angels well again if the New Testament is going to be our guide every example we have of angels speaking they use human language remember according to Psalm chapter 8 verse 5 it says that God created men a little lower than the Angels meaning we angels are a higher order of created being and we see this all throughout the old and new testaments angels are extraordinaire really powerful far more powerful far more capable than humans it only took a couple of angels to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah I mean angels are very capable angels are faster they are in many ways more capable intellectually than humans and so I think what Paul is simply saying is this if I could speak with the clarity if I could be as articulate if I could use the language of the Angels in perfect communication if I was that good at communicating but I don't have love I'm like this instrument that nobody wants to hear I am a nuisance and I am annoying this is Paul's way of accentuating his argument by saying if I could speak with the clarity of angels yet I don't have love what good is it no offense to the gong players in the room but I'm not super interested in a gong solo cymbals in a marching band are cool once you know you see Paul's point this is where it gets really interesting because chapter 12 he says I'm gonna show you a better way you all are elevating yourself to these spiritual if some of you are thinking that you don't really have anything to contribute because you're just a foot and not a hand you're just an ear not an eye no every single one of you is important but the motivation behind the use of the gift must be love he goes on verse 2 if I have prophetic powers if I can understand all mysteries now have all knowledge if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but I don't have love then I'm nothing prophecy knowledge faith all really good yes again Paul is not bashing the gifts he's simply reminding us of the purpose really he begins the conversation about this abuse of spiritual gifts back in 1st Corinthians chapter 12 verse 7 when he says it's for the common good and in this sense any gift that is self-directed that's a problem we said it like this I need you your name is written on my heart my name is written on your heart we need each other and it's possible if you believe this it's actually possible to exercise a gift the skill and ability that is divorced from love and that always leads to selfish dysfunction that's exactly what was happening in this church I'll give you an example of it gifted communicators divorced from love become tremendous manipulators some Christians are gifted in understanding the Word of God they have this ability to take abstract spiritual concepts and bring them to God's people in a way that they receive it and accept it and understand it that gift used apart from love makes one proud and arrogant you can have faith to accomplish incredible things but if you do it apart from love you will be building your kingdom and not God's kingdom so why Paul says I'm showing you a better way not bashing the gifts but I'm helping you understand that gifts operate in the sphere of love and when that happens the church is made healthy you have gifts that we need so when the gifts meet the need the church grows and it benefits at the common good Jonathan Edwards said this a spiritual gift of miracles or speaking does not change a person's inherent nature it's a really good point what he's saying is just because you have a spiritual gift doesn't mean that you're automatically sinless that spiritual gift can actually is actually open to abuse if it's not tempered by love a gift ability he says does not require a change of heart as love or holiness does now when I read this quote it made me think of the pastor who admitted to his congregation that an atheist could do his job you don't need to know God in order to understand the author's original intent and relay that to people he said you know I can motivate and inspire people and rally people around a compelling vision and you don't need to know God to do that and then he admitted that his world had become undone because what he failed to do was depend upon God and to exercise those gifts for the blessing of the congregation done through love Edward said a gift ability does not require a change of heart as love or holiness does and so the problem for these early believers is the problem that many of us have today we don't really understand what love is and in our cultures especially in the West we use love in a variety of the word love in a variety of ways on one hand we say we love ice cream and on the other hand we say we love our children are we really talking about the same thing some days maybe yes but we need help and so there there's this one verse in 1st John chapter 4 that is so crystal clear it's so helpful in describing what godly love what Christian love looks like Paul's gonna paint or morph more fully full picture here but first John chapter 4 verse 10 says this in this is love you want a definition of Christian love of God's love this is it not that we have loved God but that he loved us okay so the first thing we learn is that God initiates godly love doesn't wait the healthiest relationships do not wait for another person to initiate they initiate that person initiation they step into that space and they just act not that we love God it's not like humanity was crying out for a savior we were sinners lost and God sent his son this tells us that love involves sacrifice Jill and I have been married now for almost 30 years our love is deeper and stronger today than it has ever been and here's why because I can look at this beautiful woman and reflect over the last almost 30 years and be reminded of the deep sacrifices she has made for me and for our family the greater the sacrifice the greater the love I've told you guys how much I love you but I'm not willing to sacrifice the life of any of my kids for any of you why because I don't love you that much good news God does and God did so love initiates love sacrifices but Jesus was sent for a reason to be the propitiation for our sins propitiation as well it was a big Christian polysyllabic words that simply means payment here's how it works Bible's very clear every man woman and child is born a sinner come on now you know it to be true what happens when you take a baby's bottle away from it oh okay I'll just wait here patiently you must have a good reason for that it screams screams and and that little creature would be murderous if it was big enough and it's that way from the start that's in you it's in me and as we get older we just get better at masking it but we're all guilty of it and here's the thing God is holy God is a God of love yes but all of God's attributes work in perfect harmony with each other God is love but he's also just and he's holy and a just and holy God cannot turn a blind eye to sin otherwise he would not be holy he would not be just he has to deal with it so there was payment to be made the wages of sin is death that's how serious our sin is but the payment fell upon Jesus and the wrath of a holy God was satisfied and a lot of preachers don't preach hell why because people don't want to hear it it's important to preach help and here's why you'll never fully appreciate your salvation unless you understand what you've been saved from you'll never fully appreciate your salvation unless you understand what you've been saved from so we preach hell because it's in the Bible Jesus preached hell a lot why because he cared so we preach hell but we do so with a tear in our eye and with gratefulness in our hearts knowing what it costs Jesus to secure our salvation so to put it all together to say this love doesn't wait a season need it meets that need and it's willing to make a sacrifice and all of this the sphere in which all of this these spiritual gifts operate is love john 3:16 the motivation for sending Jesus is love verse 3 so if I give away all I have I can deliver up my body to be burned but have no love then I gain nothing this is pretty radical this is this is really insightful so if you were to see somebody give away all everything they had chances are you look at that person go wow that person is super loving I have seen people give away vast resources for no other reason than to gain attention for themselves or to make themselves feel better about who they are what about delivering up your body to be burned I mean isn't suffering for Jesus the ultimate thing doesn't that prove that we are spiritually mature Paul says actually no love does love is a greater measure of your spiritual maturity than delivering yourself up as a martyr so the Corinthians are now asking ok well Paul can you paint the picture can you just paint it for us exactly what does this love look like that you're talking about verse 4 love is patient second Peter 3:9 God is patient and desires that none would perish so if God's love towards us is this way we ought to express the same love towards those around us love is kind you know who's really good at spotting kindness and others children you ever noticed that kids are really good intuitively at warming up to kindness and what is kindness it's it's consideration its thoughtfulness this is why they're such a beautiful pictures so much going on when Jesus is surrounded by little children what does he say you see adult men and little children it was like you know no hey leave Jesus alone right Jesus is a rabbi kids rabbis don't like having kids around and Jesus is like stop and what are the kids do they flock to Jesus what kids are really good at spotting kindness love is patient love is kind then you get the picture of what love is not it doesn't envy so this is all about jealousy jealousy is no small thing we tend to minimize it according to matthew jealousy is what sent Jesus to the cross jealousy is what caused Satan to fall jealousy is the first crime of murder between Cain and Abel I often have to ask myself Jason what is your jealousy doing how is it helping you how is it helping others love doesn't boast so when love seeks the limelight it turns into pride in this sense love is anonymous it doesn't draw attention to itself it's not arrogant or rude love has really good manners I have a few few pet peeves in life and one of them is rudeness and oftentimes a person's pet peeve will actually be the thing that they struggle with that they see in others so love is not rude there's a man by the name of William Carey who is widely known as one of the most influential sort of the father of modern day missions and came from very humble beginnings but became Sir to become very popular and well known for his his work in spreading the gospel and so as his popularity rose he found himself at a dinner party with some pretty prestigious people some of the social elite well someone at this dinner party asked Carey what was meant to be a derogatory question asked him weren't you a shoemaker now shoemakers are very simple common people weren't you a shoemaker and Carrie replies no sir not a shoemaker just a cobbler well a shoemaker tells a cobbler what to do how does someone gain that kind of humility I'll tell you how security in God's love I don't have to impress you I don't I don't have to allow your thoughts of me to dictate about how I feel about myself I'm already loved love does not insist on its own way in Philippians chapter 2 Paul elaborates by saying don't look merely look out for your own interest but also the interests of others and so love is constantly asking this question what do other people need from me it is not irritable or resentful love doesn't get irritated with annoying people you know sometimes I can stand up here and I can preach on a topic and I can say hey guys I got this one down other times I'm like hey I'm a work in progress I'm a work in progress on this one because annoying people annoy me and there's a lot of annoying people in this world am i right and then I'm reminded of Jesus and this guy Judas there's a reason why we don't name our kids Judas Judas stole from the disciples Treasury Jesus knew it and then he in the very end Jesus what a fake what a phony he betrays Jesus with a kiss but you know Jesus would not allow himself to act in a way that was unbecoming toward Judas he wasn't provoked to act in a way that was unloving he wasn't resentful toward Judas in fact he would go on to love Judas like the rest of us sinners by dying on the cross for his sins it doesn't rejoice at wrongdoing so this is a really heavy one right think of that person in your life and you've just heard some bad news right you've just heard something awful that happened to the person and inside you're kind of like it kind of makes you happy that something bad happened to him you don't love that person it rejoices with the truth truth and love go hand-in-hand love is what makes truth acceptable and so to withhold truth is to withhold love and the question I've been wrestling with even this week is the Spirit of God has been pressing upon my heart Jason can you really say that you love those with whom you are not willing to share the gospel love bears all things believes all things hopes all things endures all things see the key word there is repeated it's the word all there's nothing that love doesn't cover and that's the reason why as Paul says love is supreme because it never ends we'll talk more about this in a second when we hit verse 13 but for now let's do this you want to understand who Jesus is then insert the name Jesus where you read the word love you ready Jesus is patient Jesus is kind Jesus doesn't get jealous Jesus doesn't boast he's not arrogant I'm certainly not rude Jesus doesn't insist on his own way Jesus is not irritable or resentful he doesn't get happy at the wrongdoings of others Jesus rejoices with the truth Jesus bears all things believes all things hopes all things endures all things now let's pause here and remember there's a reason why Paul delivers these words in 1st Corinthians chapter 13 we read them and we think how this is so beautiful we get warm feelings inside you know about what love is and what love isn't but if you're sitting in the audience you're in the Corinthian church and you're listening to this being read it is a scathing rebuke of all that you are not and Paul is pressing in on the problem and it's one of love so Paul wants the Corinthian Christians to remember the giftedness is not the measure of maturity but rather love is so he turns his attention back to spiritual gifts that's four 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 again Paul says look you think your gifts make you mature but there's gonna come a time when gifts cease question when do gifts cease he tells you it's when the perfect comes that's the theological question right that's the big question what or who is the perfect when the perfect comes these gifts cease let me give you two major thoughts first thought is this some believe that the perfect refers to the completion of the New Testament the maturity of the church now that we have the Canon of the new Old and New Testaments we have the Bible there's no reason there's no need for spiritual gifts to operate in support of this is the idea that Paul uses this analogy when I was young and immature I did immature things but now that I'm older I'm more mature I did away with childish things I'm very hesitant to say that God no longer works supernaturally through his people and their spiritual giftedness second thought is this the perfect refers to the return of Jesus Christ in support of this is the language that reads we're gonna see Jesus face-to-face hey face to face now we're kind of known apart but that will be will be fully known when does that happen that does happen when Jesus returns I think there is merit to this therefore I'm of the opinion and belief that the gifts are operable for today as defined by the scriptures but then Paul adds this in verse 13 so now faith hope and love abide all three of these things remain but the greatest of these is love what does that mean aren't faith and hope really important how can love be greater I'll explain it this way what is faith faith is trust what is the great trust that we have that when Jesus returned we will be raised from the dead one day that faith will be fully realized and in that sense that faith will be completed what about hope what is the great hope that Christians have that one day we will see Jesus face-to-face we will be with God forever all eternity in heaven that's the hope that we have one day that hope will be fulfilled there's no longer than need for that hope anymore but what will we be doing for all eternity we will be loving each other and God faith hope and love earlier Paul says love never ends our faith in our hope will come to a completion so will spiritual gifts but what will we be doing for all eternity brothers and sisters loving were you out on this one what's the priority for you here's my desire that as a church as we become known in the community more known there will be those who disagree with what we believe and that's okay but here's what we want to have said about us I don't agree with everything those Christians believe but I'll tell you this I wish there are more of them around because they love they love and because of their love kind of indicates they belong to someone else followers of Jesus Christ you know what the motivation for all this is you know here's the deal doesn't it all come back to Jesus we love because He first loved you function out of identity and security brothers and sisters you are free to love unlike any other because you have been loved and really that's what communion is about it's a reminder of the love of Christ is displayed on the cross so father as we enter into this time together I pray that by the power of your Holy Spirit you would be impressing upon our hearts the importance of loving each other and those who are yeah not yet with us we know that love was the motivating factor in sending Jesus Christ now we are motivated by that as well we extend that love to others so father as we enter into this time of reflection and remembrance we asked again that you would impress upon our hearts the love that you have shown us through the death of Jesus Christ it's in his name that we pray amen

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Keywords: 1 corinthians 13, first epistle to the corinthians, 1 corinthians, pauline epistles, love is patient, love is kind, sermon on 1 corinthians 13, 1 corinthians 13 preaching, bible study, love, bible verses about love, what the bible says about love, preaching, gospel, new testament, bible, bible teaching, corinthains, daily bible study, letters of paul, 1 corinthians 13 love

Id: DdWCsIvcsE8

Length: 32min 44sec (1964 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 26 2019