CALLED TO LOVE
I Corinthians 13:1-13
"Love is the medicine for the sickness of the world.” So said noted psychiatrist Dr. Karl Meninger. He summarized his therapeutic approach this way: “Love cures. It cures those who give it and it cures those who receive it.” We have been called by God to love Him, to love one another, and with Christian love to serve others with the intent of sharing the good news of God’s love with them. Paul’s treatise on love in 1 Corinthians 13 gives us insight as to how we are to love.
I. The Primacy of Love
A. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.”
B. Galatians 5:22-24 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
C. People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you love them.
D. Christ’s mission was a mission of love. Everything that Christ did during His earthly ministry was driven by agape love. It was love that moved God to send His Son to the cross on our behalf. It is love that gave the church its marching orders.
E. John 20:19-21 “Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, ‘Peace be unto you’. And when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again, ‘Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.’”
F. The importance or primacy of love is that agape love is a natural outflow of genuine faith in Christ.
G. Galatians 5:6 “For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love.”
H. Everything in the believer’s life ought to be prompted by and permeated with Agape love. Love for God; love for other believers; love for the lost.
I. 1 Peter 4:8 (NASB)“Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another...”
J. Christian love means that we treat others the way God treats us.
II. The Patience of Love
A. 1 Corinthians 13:4 “Love is patient and kind…”
B. The root of the Greek word translated as patience or as in the KJV as suffers long is makrothumia, which is comprised of two shorter words: “macros”, which means “long”; and “thumia”, which means “passion” or “wrath.” Thus a very literal translation of the word might be something like: “long wrath.”
C. We have all heard the expression that a person has “a short fuse” or that a person is “thin skinned”. When that is spoken about someone, it means that it doesn’t take much to get them upset. Say a word, and they get angry, upset or hurt. Do something, and they quickly get offended. They often get mad and go off in a huff or just shut down. We say that these individuals “have a short fuse” or they’re “thin skinned”. Agape love is the antithesis of that. Love has a “macro thumia”; it has a “long fuse”. It is not easily angered or upset. – adapted from Shawne Thomas, The Real Thing: Love is Patient
D. 1 Thessalonians 5:14 “Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all.”
E. Adam Clarke in his Commentary on the New Testament on 1 Corinthians 13:4 wrote concerning the words “charity suffers long” that love “has a long mind; to the end of which neither trials, adversities, persecutions, nor provocations, can reach. The love of God, and of our neighbor for God's sake, is patient towards all men: it suffers all the weakness, ignorance, errors, and infirmities of the children of God; and all the malice and wickedness of the children of this world; and all this, not merely for a time, but long, without end; for it is still a mind or disposition, to the end of which trials, difficulties, etc., can never reach. It also waits God's time of accomplishing his gracious or providential purposes, without murmuring or repining; and bears its own infirmities, as well as those of others, with humble submission to the will of God.”
F. One of Abraham Lincoln's most outspoken enemies was a man named Edwin Stanton. No one treated Lincoln with more contempt than he did. Stanton called Lincoln a "low cunning clown" and the "original gorilla." He said, that explorer Paul Du Chailu was a fool to wander about in Africa trying to capture a gorilla, when he could have found one so easily in Springfield, Illinois. To Lincoln's credit, he never responded to these insults. Yet, when he was elected President, Lincoln chose Stanton to be his Secretary of War. When asked why, Lincoln said, "Because he is the best man." Lincoln treated Stanton with every courtesy. The years went on. The night came when an assassin’s bullet struck down Lincoln in a theatre. In a room off to the side where Lincoln’s body was taken, stood Stanton that night. As he looked down on the silent, rugged face of the President, Stanton said through his tears, "There lies the greatest ruler of men the world has ever seen." Patient love in action won out in the end. - copied
G. James 1:4 “But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”
III. The Persistence of Love
A. Closely tied to the patience of love is its persistence.
B. 1 Corinthians 13:7-8a Love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”
C. Love refuses to accept failure. Love always holds out hope that things will work out right in the end. Love just does not give up! Love is persistent: with love, quitting is never an option.
D. We all need to be reminded regularly how long God patiently worked on us without giving up on us in bringing us to His saving grace. And He continues to work with us molding us into the image of Christ and does not give up on us.
E. Love endures the worst. Lasting love is persistent. It is determined. It is diligent. It is resolute. Whether it be in your marriage, your family, your church family, your service to others, your desire to see someone saved agape love will not give up on that relationship.
F. A young woman, who had left home because her father was a drunkard, afterward became a Christian, and announced her intention of returning and doing what she could to reclaim him.
"But what will you do when he finds fault with all your efforts to please him?" someone asked.
"Try a little harder," she answered with a soft light in her eyes.
"Yes, but when he is unreasonable and unkind you will be tempted to lose your temper, and answer him angrily. What will you do then?"
"Pray a little harder," came the answer with a fearless ring in the words.
The discourager had one more arrow: "Suppose he should strike you, as he did before. What could you do but leave him again?"
"Love him a little harder," said the young Christian steadily.
Her splendid perseverance conquered. Through love and prayer and patient effort, her father was not only reclaimed from his besetting sin, but proved Christ's power to save.—New Illustrator.
G. Luke 11:9-10 “And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking...)
H. Love just doesn't give up. If you have loved ones who are not saved, don't give up! Keep praying. If your friend is out of God's will, don't give up, keep praying and hoping and trusting. If you've been offended, don't give up, or give in. Be persistent in love.
I. “Don't ever give up.
Don't ever give in.
Don't ever stop trying.
Don't ever sell out.
And if you find yourself succumbing to one of the above for a brief moment, pick yourself up, brush yourself off, whisper a prayer, and start where you left off.
But never, ever, ever give up.” - Richelle E. Goodrich, Eena, The Tempter's Snare
J. The ministry of reconciliation which we have been called to is one of persistent love. “I can’t make you love me, but you can’t stop me from loving you.”
IV. The Permanence of Love
A. 1 Corinthians 13:8a, 13 “Love never ends…So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
B. When everything else in this world has passed away. When everything that is held by us with such high esteem is gone. When knowledge and spiritual gifts no longer matter, love will still exist. It is the greatest constant throughout eternity.
C. Agape love endures because agape love is unconditional.
D. Song of Solomon 8:6-7 “…love is strong as death…Many waters cannot quench love, nor can the floods drown it.”
E. Just as death is permanent so is Agape love. Adversity will not extinguish agape love.
F. Love never fails or ceases in the sense that it functions both now and in eternity. It will never outlive its usefulness or cease to be valuable. It will never be abolished. Love can't fail because God is love, and God can't fail. Love has a divine quality about it. God's very nature is love, and eternity is God's sphere of existence.
G. 1 John 4:7-8 “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loves is born of God, and knows God. 8 He that loves not knows not God; for God is love.”
H. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, not for our benefit only, but that we would be a demonstration of the never failing love of God to the world.
V. The Price of Love
A. John 13:34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”
B. Love is costly - John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” The price of God’s love was His Son, Jesus. The cross was the price God paid because of His love for us.
C. The price of love will differ in form for each one of us, but God will always bring us opportunities to display His love to others. But remember, the price will always be costly—it will always involve saying “no” to self in some way. It could be quietly suffering and not defending yourself. It could be going the extra mile and taking the slack when somebody else didn’t do the job. But whatever it is, God has brought these situations into your life to make you more like His Son, enabling you to display His love through your life. - K.P. Yohannan : Love Is Costly
D. Ephesians 5:1-2 “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.”
E. Imitating our Lord means that you and I, in love, must be willing to pay the cost that involves surrendering our own will in order to advance the gospel, to reach the lost and to edify others.
Conclusion: The Power that love has is seen in a story related by George Truett. One of the most heart-moving conversions that I have ever known, I witnessed in my city, during the holiday period in mid-winter. There reached me the message that a little Sunday school boy in one of our mission Sunday schools had been accidentally shot by his little neighbor friend. I hurried to the humble home as fast as I could go. I found the unconscious little fellow in the hands of two skillful doctors. They said, "He will not live. The shot is unto death." I went back the next day and the boy's father was in the stupor of a terrible drunk. I went back the next day, and the father was sobering up. He would walk the floor as tears fell from his face, while he looked on that little suffering boy, nine or ten years of age. Bending over his boy, he would say, "My little man is better, and he will soon be well!" The little face was clouded as he feebly whispered, saying, "No, papa; I will not get well." And then the father protested, as he said, "You will get well, and I will be a good man and change my ways!" The little fellow's face was clouded, and he kept trying to say something, and I reached for the man to bend over to catch it, and this is what we did catch, after awhile: "When I am gone, papa, I want you to remember that I loved you, even if you did get drunk!" That sentence broke the father's heart. He left that room, unable to tarry any longer. A few minutes later, I found him lying prone upon his face, there upon the ground, behind the little cottage, sobbing with brokenness of heart. Said he, "Sir, after my child loves me like that, oughtn't I to straighten up and be the right kind of man?" I said, "I have a story ten thousand times sweeter than that to tell you. God's' only begotten Son loved you well enough to come down from heaven and die for you, Himself the just, for the unjust, that He might bring you to God. Won't you yield your wasting, sinful life to Him, and let Him save you?" Then and there he made the great surrender. You should slip into one of our prayer meetings, when the men and women talk about what Christ has done for them, and one of the most appealing and powerful testimonies you would hear is the testimony of this harness workman, as he stands up, with tears on his face, to tell you that love brought him home when everything else had failed. They criticized him; they scolded him; they railed at him; they pelted him with harsh words because he drank. Then a little boy said, "Papa, I love you, even if you do get drunk," and love won the day when everything else failed!—George W. Truett. This is the love that Christ has for you.
