(Slide 1) James Choung tells of a conversation he recently had with a friend that came around to the topic of spirituality and faith and as they began to discuss that topic, Choung discovered that his friend had attended church at one time. When he discovered this, he asked his friend why he had left the church. This is what the friend said.
“He started to rattle off a list: “I’m happy. I love what I do. I’m enjoying my life. What else do I need?” His church had explained that life without Jesus is miserable and glum, and life with Jesus is joyful and peaceful. It seemed a bit of an oversimplification to me, but I kept on listening.
As a result, he said, he gave Jesus a try. But he didn’t find himself feeling that much more fulfilled or even happy. He actually felt worse: he felt like a fraud. And when he left the church, he wasn’t particularly miserable at all. So he decided he didn’t need Christianity; he was happy enough as he was. Then he shrugged his shoulders.”
How would you respond to Choung’s friend? What would you say?
Choung said to him, “If that’s your vision of faith…then your vision of faith is too small.”
He went on to say, “I’m thankful that God gave me words to say in that moment. And it’s true: a vision of faith has to be larger than what it can do for us. It has to be more than an incantation that can make us healthy, rich, fulfilled, or in my friend’s case, happy. The Christianity worth believing in is about more than what we can get out of it; it’s inherently about what God is doing in us and in the world.” One of the things in life that we cannot live without is faith. We are hard wired to believe in something or someone.
Two other things we also cannot live without is hope and love. (Slide 2) All three things are mentioned in the concluding verse of 1 Corinthians 13, verse 13: ‘There are three things that will endure—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.’ Let’s spend sometime understanding this verse in its context. Then we will make some applications for everyday living.
First, it comes at the end of a very famous (if you will) chapter in the Bible. The middle section of this verse is often quoted at weddings (which I did a few weeks ago), and given the realities of human nature are probably quoted during arguments trying to prove a point or to get someone to change!
In fact, stepping back a bit more, we notice that this chapter comes in the midst of trying to settle down a group of Christians who had been arguing, in a nutshell, as to who was the most spiritual. Chapter 12 contains the crux of the matter as Paul argues that the gifts given by God through the Holy Spirit are used to serve others and not one’s own personal agenda. He then concludes his argument with these words, ‘First, however, let me tell you about something else that is better than any of them!’ and then launches into a very important statement about love.
(Slide 3) He first speaks of love in the context of what we would call ministry. ‘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. 2If 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. 3If 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.’
Motive is a very important word in understanding this segment because Paul addresses the motivation for ministry. What he is saying is ‘you can be the most gifted and sacrificial Christian in the world but if you don’t love others, it will be worthless.’
In the next segment of chapter 13, Paul speaks of love in the context of personal attitudes and relationships. Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. 6It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Attitude, I think, is the operative word in this segment as well. Moreover, I would remind us that everything that Paul describes love as being in this segment is what the Lord expected but was not seeing from the believers in Corinth. God expects the same from us as well.
Now in the next segment, verses 8 through 12, Paul’s perspective changes. It moves from up close to wide angle. It moves from the past and present to the future. It is a corrective view that is needed to help the believers then and the believers of every age develop a very important long view.
Love will last forever, but prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will all disappear. 9Now we know only a little, and even the gift of prophecy reveals little! 10But when the end comes, these special gifts will all disappear.
11It’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. 12Now 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.
I think that two words are operative in this segment, maturity and perspective. Paul switches from past (when I was a child) to present (now we see things imperfectly) to future (then I will know everything completely). And in the changing lens of time, love is a constant of eternal and spiritual significance because it is rooted in the eternal and spiritual character of God. This brings us back to our main text that is a very succinct and important summary of three important spiritual qualities that we cannot live without.
I think that it is correct to view chapter 13 as a bridge between to key chapters (12 and 14) which are about motivation for service and worship. Service, through spiritual gifts is the main subject in chapter 12 and worship, through understandable language for those who are seeking God is the main subject in chapter 14. Love then is a bond and a requirement for spiritual growth and effectiveness.
Yet while love is the greatest of the three, faith and hope is likewise very essential for us as followers of Jesus.
(Slide 4) What then does all of this mean for us today?
What we have faith in is what we give our love to. This is the issue of values.
The situation we read of in 1 Corinthians is evidence of having a misplaced faith. To use a modern phrase, ‘It was all about me.’
In chapters, 3 and 4 of 1 Corinthians Paul takes the Corinthian believers to task for focusing on style instead of substance and for being more concerned about appearance than character. That is what they loved – themselves and their ‘giftedness.’
We read of this in chapter 4 beginning at verse 6: Dear brothers and sisters, I have used Apollos and myself to illustrate what I’ve been saying. If you pay attention to the Scriptures, you won’t brag about one of your leaders at the expense of another. 7What makes you better than anyone else? What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if all you have is from God, why boast as though you have accomplished something on your own?
I encourage us this morning to refocus our faith in Christ and in turn refocus our love for Him.
In an article titled, ‘The Anatomy of a Pastor Take Down,’ Kenny Luck, dissects the dynamics when a pastor, especially an effective pastor, ends up falling and losing his ministry, his reputation, his family, and even his freedom. Among the dynamics that Luck has noticed are these:
• Growing pressures connected to their responsibilities
• Character issues magnified by stress and exploited by evil
• Increasing isolation and openness to small spiritual compromises
• Establishment of spiritual footholds in private sin
• Satanic assault on relationships with God and people (i.e., wife, children, elders, members)
• Loss of openness and accountability with respect to personal battles
• Private struggles continuing despite public “success”
These are character issues that, if not strengthened by an intentional faith that is rooted in God and not self, will be like the seawalls that have been taking a pounding along the Gulf Coast with the very certain reality of being overrun.
We read in 2 Peter 1 beginning with verse 3: As we know Jesus better, his divine power gives us everything we need for living a godly life. He has called us to receive his own glory and goodness! 4And by that same mighty power, he has given us all of his rich and wonderful promises. He has promised that you will escape the decadence all around you caused by evil desires and that you will share in his divine nature.
5 So make every effort to apply the benefits of these promises to your life. Then your faith will produce a life of moral excellence. A life of moral excellence leads to knowing God better. 6 Knowing God leads to self-control. Self-control leads to patient endurance, and patient endurance leads to godliness. 7Godliness leads to love for other Christians, and finally you will grow to have genuine love for everyone. 8The more you grow like this, the more you will become productive and useful in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
A life of moral excellence is what is needed in us. If we say we are Christians, then our character must be one of moral excellence. We are to act, speak, and live differently than those whose faith is in either themselves or something or someone else.
How is this life of moral excellence possible? Verse 5, So make every effort to apply the benefits of these promises to your life. Then your faith will produce a life of moral excellence. A life of moral excellence leads to knowing God better. We begin to have a life of moral excellence when our life of faith is given, rooted, chosen (whatever word works) in Christ.
The right kind of faith creates stability of attitude and action and hence character. This is the issue of maturity.
In James 1 we read when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything.
Have you ever looked into the face of a friend or a family member who looked lost? How did they look?
I well remember a funeral I did several years ago that was attended by a large group of young adults. They were there for a friend, of their same age, who had died. In addition to the look of grief, I saw the look of bewilderment, of being lost, on their faces. My heart went out to them.
Have you ever felt lost? I have… many times. ‘Now what?’ ‘Where do I go from here?’ are questions that we ask during moments like this.
In those moments, faith becomes very important. It serves as an inner compass to re-orient us when we are disoriented.
We cannot live without faith. But, what or who is our faith in?
While we need to have an appropriate amount of faith in ourselves we need to have faith in someone or something greater in us because the demands of life and of human nature, require it.
God is at work in the world and in us. Faith is part of that great work.
(Slide 5) As I conclude I leave us with the image of faith as an inner compass that keeps point us toward ‘true north’ toward God, no matter what and no matter where we are. We may choose to ignore, as the lost son did. We may choose to follow it sometimes, as King Saul did. We may choose to follow it, no matter the consequences we face, as Joseph did.
But faith is always there and always available for us because God knows that without faith our lives are not whole and not even, fully human.
Let us pay attention to the compass of faith that comes through the Bible and through the work of the Holy Spirit. It points us in a certain direction, the ultimate destination known, but in the mean time, it requires, well faith, not in us but in a God who is much, much bigger than us because the faith that we cannot live without points… to Him. Amen.
