NOTHING
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
I don’t know if you get to church and open your bulletin to see what the preacher is preaching on today, but if you do, you may have been surprised by today’s sermon title. You may be surprised that I will be preaching about NOTHING.
Then again, some of you may have thought, “That is what he preaches about most weeks, nothing.”
And others may have chuckled to yourself, “I guess the preacher has nothing to say.”
It reminds me of the new preacher, at his first service had a pitcher of water and a glass on the pulpit. As he preached, he drank until the pitcher of water was completely empty.
After the service someone asked an elderly church member,
"How did you like the new pastor?"
She said, "He's the first windmill I ever saw that was run by water."
While I’m at it allow me one more…
One Sunday morning, a Minister announced to his congregation,
"I have here in my hands three sermons...a $1,000 sermon that lasts five minutes, a $500 sermon that lasts fifteen minutes, and a $100 sermon that lasts a full hour. Now, we'll take the collection and see which one I'll deliver."
They raised $5,000
Well, I am preaching on nothing, but it is not “much ado about nothing.”
I am going to answer a question that Paul, unknowingly asked in 1 Cor. 13… “What is more important than love?”
Paul makes a very strong case that love is THE most important thing in the world.
He didn’t even bother to compare it to things like silver, gold, or precious stones.
Those things are like rubbish compared to love.
No, Paul went right past those things and compared love with 5 things that most Christians would have considered to be THE most important things in Christendom… the most important things to God.
In verse 1 Paul says, “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”
Why would Paul start here? Who would think tongues of men and angels was more valuable than love?
MANY people!!!!!
Ever since God has sent manifestations of His Holy Spirit, referred to as gifts of the Spirit… there have been people who have latched onto “tongues” the gift of being able to speak in a language you do not know in order to give glory to God”
Paul lists the gifts in Romans, Ephesians and two places in 1 Cor.
7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,[a] and to still another the interpretation of tongues.[b] 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.
I guess it is because it is one of the more visible and impressive of the gifts.
But it was quickly, even in Paul’s day, elevated to the top of the list and held to be the most important of the gifts
And a person with this most important gift was thought to be the greatest of the believers
Paul discounts this belief in other places but here he chooses to use it to make his argument…
You think the gift of tongues is great, well I tell you that compared to love, tongues is as valuable as a broken musical instrument
We need to talk about the sounding gong that Paul mentioned. In his day, some religions used gongs in their worship. They rang them at certain times when they had something they thought was important, because they thought they had to wake up their gods.
Paul laughed at the idea of having to wake up their gods because our God never has to be woken up, He is all-knowing and all-seeing.
Paul thought it was ludicrous that they would need to use gongs to influence their pathetic little gods
Paul tells his readers, thinking you can impress God with your gift of tongues is a ludicrous as the pagans thinking they can impress their gods with gongs.
The gift of tongues may impress some Christians, and they may think it makes them more important than others and may make them think they impress God with their gift.
LISTEN: GODS NOT IMPRESS WITH YOUR GIFT…IF YOU HAVE A GIFT OF THE SPIRIT… GOD GAVE IT TO YOU SO IT IS NOT ABOUT YOU… AND GOD IS NOT IMPRESSED
Imagine that a millionaire comes up to you, wearing lots of expensive jewelry, and takes off one of his rings and gives it to you.
You put on your new ring and strut around like a peacock, impressed with yourself and impressing your friends.
Then the rich man comes back and you strut up to him flashing your ring and thinking you can impress him. Do you think he is impressed… favorably?
Paul is saying, “God is not impressed because you have a gift He gave you, but when He sees love in you… love for Him or love for your neighbor… that thrills God, pleases Him and makes His day.
What is more important than love? Tongues??? NO
Then Paul moves on to say, “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge… but do not have love, I am nothing.”
OK we know Paul used tongues because many people placed it at the pinnacle of important things, but why does he use prophecy and knowledge?
Well, because this was a double-whammy. It spoke to Christians and pagans.
Among Christians there was a dispute about the greatest gift (and thus the greatest among the believers) between those on the “tongues” side and those on the other side… the “prophets.”
We already discussed the “tongues” group who believed the greatest spiritual gift was tongues. The “prophets” side believed the gift of prophecy was the greatest.
Paul was telling them, just as he did the “tongues” group… you place this at the top of the heap, best of the best, but I tell you that love is so much superior to prophecy that prophecy without love = ZERO… just a flat NOTHING.
And for the pagans, they prized knowledge above all things. It made them feel erudite, scholarly and superior.
For many of the pagans education and knowledge were the highest pearl of society, and the more educated and knowledgeable one was, the more important he was.
Paul was telling them if you had all the knowledge in the world, knew science, math, philosophy, theology… and stacked them all up they would not come close to love.
If you have the gift of prophecy, where did you get it? From God!!
From God who has all knowledge and knows all things. If God has shared with you this little bit of knowledge or prophecy that you have, just a small piece of his great knowledge, do you think he is impressed with your gift?
Remember the rich man with the ring… he has a thousand rings and gives you one of the smallest ones… do you think you impress him with your ring?
Is prophecy or worldly knowledge as important as love? NO!!!
Next Paul moves to say, “and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.”
We understand why Paul used tongues and prophecy to show the superiority of love, but why faith?
It would be very easy to make a case that faith is the most important thing because
Faith is what it takes to be saved, and what could possibly be more important than being saved?
Without faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God
I think Paul was taking on “the big three”, the three things that if you took a poll of all people and asked “What is the most important thing?” these three would be at the top of the list… in some order…
Faith, Hope and Love
There would be many in the “Faith” group lobbying for faith, giving their reasons why faith is the greatest
And like I said, it would be easy to make that case.
Then there would be the “Hope” group lobbying for their favorite
In verse 13 of this chapter Paul makes it clear that Faith, Hope and Love are definitely at the top of the heap… but there is a clear winner… LOVE
But why? Why is love greater than faith if faith is the way to salvation?
I believe it is because faith is private, between us and God. And faith does not do other people any good unless we share our faith. And what motivates us to share our faith? Faith? NO!!!
We are motivated by love to share our faith.
Without love we would still have faith… but we would not share it with others…
SO…. Love is superior to faith
Boy, Paul has delivered some real “hay-makers”
But he is not done
There are still two more groups out there who believe they know something that is greater than love
Paul moves on to the next one of these groups… the “” group by saying,
“If I give all I possess to the poor… but do not have love, I have nothing.”
You have always had the “feeders” who believe that feeding the hungry and clothing the naked and helping the down and out is the greatest good in the world.
In fact, there are “feeders” that even believe that “feeding” is the way to salvation… they think that because they “feed” they will win or merit their way to salvation.
Sadly, it is not true, but they believe it.
For the “feeders” nothing is greater, higher, more worthy, and more spiritual than feeding.
Paul did not for one minute put down feeding, helping the needy.
In fact Paul would have placed it high on the list of things Christians should do
Now the feeders would say feeding is love… it is proof of love, it is love in action.
Maybe
But “Feeding” is not necessarily love
Sometimes it is guilt
Sometimes it is pride (trying to impress others)
Sometimes it is selfish (hoping to get in return)
If it is guilt – love = 0
Pride – love = 0
Selfishness – love = 0
ONLY if giving is motivated by love generosity + love
Is it of value
Love is greater because love cannot be alone
Love gives… vv4f
And finally, there is one group left… the “Myrtyrs”
Those who believe that the greatest are those who offer their life for their faith
Paul has no desire to put down martyrs or say anything bad about them,
Just as he does not for those who speak in tongues
Or those who prophesy
Or those who have great faith
Or those who care for the needy
But Paul knows it is ridiculous to talk about martyrs without talking about love
It is impossible to be a martyr without love, it cannot happen
No one dies for a cause they do not dearly love
Patriots, terrorists, tree-huggers
No one dies for a person they do not dearly love
Hand-grenade, rescuers, martyrs
Jesus made it clear that you could not separate martyrdom from love, in fact he said martyrdom is the greatest form of love…
NO GREATER LOVE……..
BUT… love is greater than martyrdom because …
Love will inspire to martyrdom
While
Martyrdom will not inspire to love
So, Paul has finished his argument. He has taken on the big five… the five things people valued most highly or thought most important
And he has shown how love is greater than any or all of them
And so I return to the original question of this sermon, “What is more important than Love?”
Are spiritual gifts greater than love? NO
Is faith that can do miracles greater? NO
Is extreme generosity greater? NO
Is giving even your life greater? NO
What is greater than love? NOTHING
