Warning Signs of Spiritual Bankruptcy
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
Ptr. Michael Cariño
The dictionary defines the word “bankrupt” as a state of financial ruin. It is linked to terms such as impoverished, insolvency, poverty, or financial failure. It is closely related to words like destitute, deficient, devoid, barren, destitute, void, empty, or without value.
In terms of our spiritual lives, becoming “spiritually bankrupt” is like being a Christian whose life does not reflect the life of Christ. In a sense, it is a type of Christianity without Christ – devoid, empty, deficient, barren, and bankrupt. It is a Christian life that is reduced to a spirituality without the power, the presence, the character, and the reality of Christ.
The opposite of spiritual bankruptcy is “spiritual abundance” – this is the full life that Jesus promised to every believer. This is the flourishing life of believers that is rooted in the reality of Christ within them.
“So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.” (I Corinthians 13:3, MSG)
The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the church in Corinth, seems to suggest that the mark of spiritual abundance is not great intelligence, not excellent ministry, and not impressive skills. Rather, the mark of a flourishing life in Christ is the believer’s ability to relate well – to listen to those who hurt, to forgive those who sinned, to care for those who despair, to comfort those who are broken, to show grace to those who are hurtful, and to encourage those who are feeling down.
While the mark of spiritual abundance is a life filled with love, on the other hand, the mark of spiritual bankruptcy is giftedness without love, knowledge without love, ministry without love, and life without love.
You can sense that you are experiencing spiritual bankruptcy when you can say the right words, gain the right knowledge, and do the right things with the wrong heart.
“If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 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 have gained nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:1-4 (NLT)
During the time of the Apostle Paul, the City of Corinth, which has 400,000 inhabitants, was the chief city of Greece filled with merchants, tourists, migrants, refugees, slaves, prostitutes, priests, politicians, and philosophers. The Corinthian culture was predominantly shaped by the Greek and Roman worldviews.
The church at Corinth have many problems. It must be remembered that Corinth was one of the most wicked cities of ancient times and that the church was surrounded by pagan customs and practices. Many of the Corinthian believers were recent converts from paganism to Christianity.
In “First Corinthians”, the Apostle Paul’s letter instructs the believers to give up their sinful practices. We learn the many concerns within the Christian Church in Corinth:
(1) that there were four factions among the believers (Ch.1);
(2) that there was gross immorality in the church (Ch.5);
(3) that the believers have legal battles among themselves and they bring each other to court (Ch.6);
(4) that many matters troubled the church such as debates on marriage and celibacy (Ch.7), questions concerning food offered to idols (Ch.8), issues concerning spiritual gifts (Ch.12-14), disputes about the resurrection (Ch. 15), etc.
The Apostle Paul wrote to address all these problems within the Corinthian church.
In chapters 12-14, the Apostle Paul deals with debates regarding the issue of spiritual gifts. Many Corinthian believers were highly influenced by the Greek and Roman culture, in which eloquence, intelligence, knowledge, and giftedness are so much valued more than anything else.
In chapter 13, the Apostle Paul seems to rebuke believers about the emptiness and the bankruptcy spiritual gifts without love. He argues that spiritual gifts, such as the gift of tongues, the gift of prophesy, the gift of knowledge, the gift of doing miracles, the gift of helping others, while they are important, they are less significant compared with love. In other words, our “ability to relate well” is far greater than any spiritual gift. All these spiritual gifts are temporary, but love lasts forever. Love is the greatest of them all. Love should be your highest goal.
1. Impressive Eloquence Without Love is Nothing but Empty Noise.
“If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” 1 Corinthians 13:1 (NLT)
The Apostle Paul probably began with the gift of “speaking tongues” because of the Corinthian believers’ fascination with this gift. This is the heart of the problem: they are fascinated with getting the impressive spiritual gifts, but their relationships are filled with fighting, arguing, conflicts, and hurting each other.
The “tongues of men” probably refer to languages humans speak. The “tongues of angels” probably refer to the more exalted and expressive language with which angels communicate with one another. They may refer to languages unknown to humans, namely, ecstatic utterance. Of course, humans do not know the language of the angels, but it is an exalted language because angels are superior beings.
Some writers have concluded that "tongues of angels" or “language of angels” is part of the hyperbole (figure of speech) that appears in verse 2 – “faith that can move mountains.”
The Apostle Paul seems to say that even if one could speak in this exalted language but did not act lovingly, his speech would be hollow and empty. To act lovingly, of course, means to seek actively the benefit of someone else. Gongs and cymbals were common in some of the popular pagan cults of the time. They made much noise but made no sense.
You may be a very gifted speaker, an eloquent preacher, but when you are unable to relate in a loving way to your spouse, to your children, to your family, to your friends, to your classmates, to your subordinates, to other Christians, and to other human beings, then your impressive speech is mere empty talk.
You can sense that you may be experiencing spiritual bankruptcy when you can speak the right words with the wrong heart.
2. Impressive Knowledge Without Love is Nothing but Empty Arrogance.
“If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge… but didn’t love others, I would be nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:2 (NLT)
The Apostle Paul showed that love is superior to the spiritual gifts he listed in chapter 12.
The “gift of prophecy” (knowing the future) was a higher gift than the “gift of speaking in tongues” (glossolalia), but it was still inferior to love. Even the “gift of understanding mysteries” and the “gift of grasping the divine truths or knowledge” revealed by God are inferior to love.
Having truth and knowledge, without love, are nothing. “Knowledge puffs up (makes us feel important), but it is love that builds up and strengthens the church.” 1 Corinthians 8:1-2 (NLT)
Possession of knowledge, understanding, and wisdom is not the sign of the Spirit-filled life, rather, it is loving behavior that is the sign of a Spirit-filled life.
It seems that Apostle Paul is implying that are two opposing views as to what it means to be "spiritual."
For the Corinthians, being “spiritual” meant having all these impressive gifts like speaking in language of the angels, having wisdom and knowledge, having faith to do miracles, sacrificial service.
For the Apostle Paul being “spiritual” meant that we “walk in the Spirit” or “walk in Christ”, or that we "walk in love." To be spiritual is to live a life of compassion, kindness, gentleness, humility. To live a life of love.
For the Corinthians, an “A+ Christian” is one who probably has a mastery of Greek and Hebrew, excellent understanding of theology and bible knowledge, good grades in preaching, impressive results in ministry, active church involvement, amazing sets of skills and credentials.
For the Apostle Paul, an “A+ Christian” is one who is patient with others, one who is kind with others, one who is not envious, one who is not boastful, one who never gives up on others.
It is interesting to note that the Bible did not say that, “the fruit of the Spirit is correct beliefs, true doctrines, biblical knowledge, and theological understanding…”
It is interesting to note that Jesus did not say that “the world will know that you are my disciples when you have correct doctrines, when you have right theology, or when you have true beliefs…”
While these things are important to our hope and our faith as Christians, they are not the most important. The Bible says that “love” is the greatest.
You can sense that you may be experiencing spiritual bankruptcy when you can know and understand the right beliefs with the wrong heart.
3. Impressive Faith Without Love is Nothing but Empty Confidence.
“If I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:2 (NLT)
Even faith great enough to move mountains is not as important as love. A mountain is a universal symbol of something immovable. This is hyperbole. The moving or rooting up of mountains, signified the removing of the greatest difficulties. This is considered an impressive achievement. Faith is important, yet love is greater than faith.
When we accomplish difficult, impossible, and miraculous things in ministry because of our faith in God, that is very inspiring. But when we cannot live in harmony with our fellow believers or our family members or our fellow leaders, even our greatest achievements of faith are nothing but empty ministry activities because we failed to love. Impressive ministries filled with hurtful, unloving relationships are empty ministries for God.
4. Impressive Sacrifice Without Love is Nothing but Empty Service.
“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 have gained nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:3 (NLT)
Our self-sacrifice for others, is not the same as real love. Self-sacrifice is important, yet it is inferior to love. Even the Apostle Paul’s personal sufferings for the salvation of others were also worthless without love (2 Corinthians 11:23-29; 2 Corinthians 12:10). Even one’s sacrifice through martyrdom is valueless in the sight of God if it was not done out of love.
You can sense that you are experiencing spiritual bankruptcy when you can say the right words, gain the right knowledge, and do the right things with the wrong heart.
The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the church in Corinth, seems to suggest that the mark of spiritual abundance is not great intelligence, not excellent ministry, and not impressive skills. Rather, the mark of a flourishing life in Christ is the believer’s ability to relate well – to listen to those who hurt, to forgive those who sinned, to care for those who despair, to comfort those who are broken, to show grace to those who are hurtful, and to encourage those who are feeling down.
While the mark of spiritual abundance is a life filled with love, on the other hand, the mark of spiritual bankruptcy is giftedness without love, knowledge without love, ministry without love, and life without love.
Warning Signs of Spiritual Bankruptcy:
• Impressive Eloquence Without Love is Nothing but Empty Noise.
• Impressive Knowledge Without Love is Nothing but Empty Arrogance.
• Impressive Faith Without Love is Nothing but Empty Confidence.
• Impressive Sacrifice Without Love is Nothing but Empty Service.
