Love is The Way
A Love Like God’s
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
13 If I could speak in any language in heaven or on earth but didn’t love others, I would only be making meaningless noise like a loud gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I knew all the mysteries of the future and knew everything about everything, but didn’t love others, what good would I be? And if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move, without love I would be no good to anybody. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would be of no value whatsoever.
1st Corinthians 12, 13, 14 has to do with Spiritual gifts.
12-Gods endowment of the gifts
13-Gods power
14-Instructions for the use of gifts
The only way to use the gifts is to use them in the love of God.
The church at Corinth founded by Paul did not fall short in any of the gifts. They were however lacking in love. They were the most carnal church.
Greek words having to do with love
“Philia”-love, friendship, affection for others, based on emotions
“Agape”-absorption of every part of our being into one great passion(agony) not based on emotion.
Agape love-by the act of love, chooses it’s object, regardless of the condition of the object
It goes on loving continually. It is a love of complete self denial, never thinking of itself.
It is God’s choice to love us-Agape Love-Unconditional
Agape love is used when the will is involved rather than emotions. You make the choice to love.
When we experience unconditional love…we live in the light of God’s love, we have hope. Life is about learning how to love. His love for you is unconditional.
James Van Tholen in his book “Where All Hope Lies”
Writes: From the human perspective, when you compare (God ) to the other gods of the other religions in the world, you have to say our God is really sort of odd. He uses the most common of people, people that aren’t any different from any of us here; he comes in the most common of ways, when by his Spirit an anonymous young woman is found to be with child. And the strangest thing is that he comes at all…he’s not the Above-Us-God, too holy to come down. This God’s love is so immense that he wants to come down. And he has proven his love by the fact that he did come down and touch our ground.”
Stop talking about God’s love, stop studying about God’s love, just get out there and do Christianity. (Douglas Gresham stepson of C.S. Lewis)
Love is the only word used in the Bible without any qualification or explanation.
“God is Love”
All of the traits of love are the same traits as God in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Max Lucado: "If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If he had a wallet, your photo would be in it. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning. Whenever you want to talk, he’ll listen."...
Love is the 1 thing that is indestructible. Love is not Dependant on the worthiness of the one it loves(Family, children, regardless of situation you love, husbands/wives)
When you become a Christian, Agape love is born in you. It may take time to mature and develop, but it is there. You can overcome the rift between you and family or your enemies.
Description of Love
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 Premise of Love
13 If I could speak in any language in heaven or on earth but didn’t love others, I would only be making meaningless noise like a loud gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I knew all the mysteries of the future and knew everything about everything, but didn’t love others, what good would I be? And if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move, without love I would be no good to anybody. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would be of no value whatsoever.
Without love you can be irritating. What good is it to give prophecy if you cant love?
What good is it to be a great preacher without love? No matter what you sacrifice it’s nothing without love.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Prerogative of Love
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. 6 It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Traits of God. Keys to marriage
1 Corinthians 13:8-13 Permanence of Love
8 Love will last forever, but prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will all disappear. 9 Now we know only a little, and even the gift of prophecy reveals little! 10 But when the end comes, these special gifts will all disappear.
11 It’s like this: When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child does. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly as in a poor mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God knows me now. 13 There are three things that will endure—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
We may never understand faith or our hope, to understand how to love is the greatest accomplishment. As a child you have “kiddy” love. When you grow up it also matures.
3 Principles of Love
1 Corinthians 13:1 Love must be sovereign in the heart
It is where your love needs to come from. If it is from emotions, that love can fade and wain back and forth.
1 Corinthians 13:2 Love must be sovereign in our intellect
Prophecy-Bringing God’s word from heaven to earth, announcing God’s plan
Mystery-understanding the ways of God
Knowledge-understanding of the truth from God
Faith-Understanding and furthering our relationship with God
1 Corinthians 13:3 Love must be sovereign in our will
We must choose to love, otherwise we accomplish nothing.
We must put love into action, otherwise we accomplish nothing
Jesus’ words to the church at Ephesus
Revelation 2:2-4
The Message to the Church in Ephesus
2 “I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don’t tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars. 3 You have patiently suffered for me without quitting. 4 But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first!
John 3:16
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
Martin Luther in regard to John 3:16 says “Here we have the Bible in Miniature”
John Stott said about this in his book “The Cross of Christ” that “only one act of pure love, unsullied by any taint of ulterior motive, has ever been performed in the history of the world, namely the self-giving of God in Christ on the cross for undeserving sinners. That is why, if we are looking for a definition of love, we should look not in a dictionary, but at Calvary.”
There is no greater example of Gods love for us than in Jesus Christ himself
