“Surrounded By His Love”
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
& David P. Nolte
We are surrounded by many things of which we many not be aware. There are unseen bacteria, virus, and allergens that make us sick. There are invisible rays of light and unheard sound and radio waves all around us. Angels, both holy and hellish, occupy the unseen spirit world all around us.
But one of the best things to surround us is God, His presence, His power and His permanent love. Linda sang the song by Charly McClain
“Surround me with love, I need you beside me
I want you to hold and hide me,
When this world is closin' in on me.
Surround me with love, Lord and I can make it
What ever comes you, know I can take it
Just as long as you surround me with love.”
But what kind of love? Not the Valentine-ish card, flowers and candy love. Not the carnal, sensuous, erotic love. Not the warm, fuzzy love we may have for a pet.
It is Agape – the intelligent, deliberate, intentional, self-sacrificing good will kind of love; the “God is love” kind of love.
It is best described in this well known and well loved chapter: “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (NASB).
Let us consider that the love that surrounds us is
I. A SUPPLEMENTAL LOVE:
A. Note the goods things Paul listed in verses 1-3. They need supplemental love to be of real value, and any good thing we do apart from love is just going through the motions.
1. Ability to speak languages is just noise unless supplemented by love.
2. Prophetic knowledge of mysteries is nothing without love.
3. Mountain moving faith without love is nothing.
4. Benevolent sacrifice of goods is vain without love.
5. Loveless martyrdom is profitless.
B. God’s love motivates and supplements everything He does.
1. When He disciplines or chastens us it is in love
2. When He withholds from us what we ask for, it is in love.
3. When He delays it is in love
4. When it seems He hides His face it is in love.
C. Unlike God, though, we might do good thing without love
1. To gain men’s praise
2. To put someone under obligation.
3. To show off our pious goodness.
4. To earn salvation.
5. To ease our consience.
D. When it is true that our actions are not supplemented by love, we are like actors in a drama, going through the motions, acting out our role, following a script but all in pretense however well we enact the part. Observe
1. Paul wrote to the Roman church, “Let love be without hypocrisy.” Romans 12:9 (NASB).
2. John wrote, “Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.” 1 John 3:18 (NASB).
3. Peter wrote, “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. 1 Peter 1:22 (NIV).
E. Love added to action means blessing and significance. Suppose a child took a gift to a birthday party but really wanted to keep it for himself. He might say, “Here’s your stupid present. I really wanted to keep it for myself!” Wouldn’t that warm the cockles of Birthday Boy’s heart? But another child gives a gift saying, “I hope you like this because I want you to have a really happy birthday.” Love supplementing the gift makes it special!
God’s Supplemental Love makes His Gift wonderful. It is also
II. A SELFLESS LOVE:
A. Notice in the text:
1. Love is patient and longsuffering..
2. Love is kind, that is gentle and mild mannered
3. Love is not jealous or envious which means love does not covet for self what the other person has.
4. Love does not seek, demand or strive for its own way or good or profit.
5. Love gives up the right to be provoked or short tempered or irritable when annoying stuff happens.
6. Love does not take into account wrongs it suffers and does not keep a list of offenses against self.
7. Love is not conceited or arrogant or boastful, seeking the spotlight for self.
B. The Bible records several examples of selflessness that are worth noting:
1. The boy who gave up his 5 loaves and 2 f ish with which Jesus fed more than 5,000 people.
2. The widow who gave 2 copper coins which was all she had in this world.
3. The woman who broke the jar of costly perfume with which to anoint Jesus’ feet.
4. Zacchaeus, the converted tax collector who said, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount." Luke 19:8 (NIV).
5. The Macedonian Christians who were impoverished, yet begged for the favor of giving to the needs of Judean Christians whom they had never met!
C. God does not measure the selflessness, or generosity, of our giving by how large the gift is, but
1. By attitude: are we willing to give?
2. By our temperament: do we give joyfully?
3. By how much we keep: is what we give from our surplus?
D. Many approach life like this by an unknown author:
TODDLER’S RULES
1.1- If I want it, it's mine
2- If it's in my hand, it's mine
3- If I can take it away from
you, it's mine
4- If I had it a little while ago, it's mine
5- If it's mine, it must never appear
to be yours in any way
6- If we are building something together,
all the pieces are mine
7- If it just looks like mine, it's mine
8- If I think it's mine, it's mine
9- If I give it to you and change
my mind later, it's mine
10- Once it's mine it will never belong
to anyone else, no matter what.
(But if it’s broke, it’s yours!)
E. Contra that, Marlene and I have frequently been blessed by someone’s selflessness. We went to pay for our pizza and the waitress said the couple in the adjacent booth had paid for it. We didn’t even know them but figured they saw us pray and must have been people of faith. The same thing happened in a restaurant in Florence when we celebrated our 53 anniversary. People at the next table heard us talking and inconspicuously paid for the meal.
This next week, do at least one thing like that; something that is a spontaneous act of unselfish love. Pay for that old lady’s groceries; pay for that homeless guy’s lunch; Pay for the gas of the car behind you at the pumps; offer to babysit for free so mom and dad can have a free evening or a free Saturday; take a meal to someone who is having a hard time coping with problems.
We are surrounded by His Selfless Love let us also love selflessly. But His is also
III. A STEADFAST LOVE:
A. Look at the text:
1. Love bears all things when love is most severely tested and is hardest to do.
2. Love believes all things, not in gullible way but in a faith in God’s word way even in the faith testing trials.
3. Hopes all things, not in a wishful thinking manner, but in a confident expectation of everything promised by God.
4. Endures all things, Satan’s fiery darts, the world’s opposition, our own moments of doubt and confusion.
5. Gifts of prophecy will be done away; tongues will cease; knowledge will be done away. When the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. but love never fails.
B. Some people believe the lie that “the only sure things are death and taxes.” Even more sure is God’s Steadfast Love.
C. People may stop loving us when
1. Someone better comes along.
2. We fail or let them down.
3. We are an embarrassment to them because of some disease or disfigurement..
4. We lose our financial security.
5. We get some disability that is a weight to them to bear.
D. God’s love is not based on any contingency or situation or lovely thing in our lives. His love is not just what He does – it is what He is – and His love is as steadfast as He is. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Hebrews 13:8 (NIV).
E. A man was driving drunk when he lost control of his car. He was thrown out but his wife was pinned in the wreck until the rescue team showed up to use the jaws of life. The man suffered minor injuries but the wife suffered the loss of one leg. When she woke up in the CCU her husband was standing by her bed, weeping. He kept saying, over and over how sorry he was and that he would never drink again and how he wished it had been him that lost a leg and how she ought to hate him. She was just alert enough to squeeze the hand that held hers and to say, “I just want you to know and to remember that no matter what, I still love you!”
As her love continued to surround her husband even through the pain he caused her, God’s love surrounds us and that is our hope! “And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.” Romans 5:5 (NIV).
If we want to experience that love we mus have faith – faith is belief that trusts and obeys.
