God's Love Never Fails!

1 CORINTHIANS 13 LOVE NEVER FAILS!

13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

PRAY

1. The Word LOVE

a. Inspiration for many songs, poems, and even life-changing events

b. The world has taken the precious meaning of the word and reduce it’s meaning to beer commercials, or slang terminology

c. It has lost it’s purpose

2. Reminder of what LOVE really is

a. Paul reminds the Corinth church that the greatest gift to us is LOVE!

b. The only way to understand this is to know God because God is LOVE!

“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us, God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us.” (I John 4:16-17)

c. That is what I want to look at this evening (Making God’s love more complete among us.)

God’s Greatest Gift is Love:

I. Everything Fails

II. God’s Love Never Fails.

Context:

Ch 11 & 12 Paul has told the early believers that they were different—different parts in the body of Christ, but they were one body. They were united by faith.

· They were reminded that they should not concentrate on their gifts so much as to underestimate God’s Love.

· It had become a problem; they thought that their gifts were more important than anything else.

· Read the last verse of Chapter 12 “Eagerly desire the greater gifts and now I will show you the most excellent way” (That is going to be LOVE, because Gods love never fails)

I. Everything Fails (The Example)

a. Comparison of gifts to God’s LOVE

VS. 1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. (Paul is just an empty noise if he is without love) 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing .(If I have mountain-moving faith but am without love, I amount to nothing. I am a zero.) 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. (Without love, all good intended actions amount to nothing. Without love, a person’s life means nothing. Without love, a person cannot do the things that a Christian ought to do.)

b. Paul reminds these believers that all these things will FAIL!

VS 8 But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. (it will all be gone. But LOVE never fails.)

c. Paul is focusing them on what is really important—God’s LOVE!

i. He tells them to grow-up and not just in years, but in knowledge and wisdom and in their Faith.

VS11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.(The Lord caused him to grow-up in his faith—to see the only thing that was important in his life and that was the love of God)