- Facing the Challenges -
THE CHALLENGE TO LOVE
1 Corinthians 12-14
Introduction
There are many challenges to living the Jesus Life. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians reminds us that we serve a living Savior but we also have our human brokenness to deal with. This can bring many challenges.
Paul identifies several problems in the Corinthian church. Among them he names quarreling, jealousy, sexual immorality, strife, lawsuits, inconsiderateness, and division. This seems like a church no one would want to go to. In modern times they would be scandalized, cancelled, FB Blocked and memed.
Paul doesn’t do that. He begins his letter by calling them the Church of God, Sanctified, Saints, Recipients of Grace, not lacking any gifts, and affirms in 1:8 NIV “He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The kinds of problems that the Corinthians have are seen in our world today - and we cannot claim that they are never seen in our churches - and that is Paul’s main concern. These kinds of problems make it hard to love others. The challenge to love is always present in the church. The differences among us can be a source of struggle, whether backgrounds, ideas, convictions, attitudes, and actions.
Thus Paul reaches the highlight of his message in chapter 13 - the love chapter. This is the message for us today.
Chapters 12-14 contain principles that will help us grow in love - which is what the world needs now more than ever - the love of Christ in the people of Christ. Today we notice three qualities of the love that Christ calls us toward.
1. EMPATHY (1 Corinthians 12)
Paul teaches us that in Christ we become one body. (12:12-14)
1 Corinthians 12:12-14 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. 14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many.
This directly applies to the divisions in the church at Corinth. It reminds us today that there is something that rises above our own thoughts, convictions, attitudes - and that is the way to love.
1 Corinthians 12:26 “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.”
Empathy is not always easy to understand. We get sympathy easier - we are sorry someone else is hurting. Empathy seeks to join the person who is struggling so they are not alone.
Brene Brown wrote about attributes of empathy:
-To be able to see the world as others see it. This requires putting your own "stuff" aside to see the situation through your loved one's eyes. Paul was a master of reading the room and speaking in such a way as to empathize with his listeners. In 1 Corinthians 9:20-23 Paul relates the need to understand where another person is coming from. "To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings."
-To be nonjudgmental. Judgement of another person's situation discounts the experience and is an attempt to protect ourselves from the pain of the situation. Luke 6:37 “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned…”
-To communicate your understanding. Rather than saying, "At least you..." or "It could be worse..." try, "I've been there, and that really hurts," or "It sounds like you are in a hard place now. Tell me more about it. Galatians 6:2 "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ."
It’s easy to dismiss or turn away, but Christ calls us to enter in. Paul declares in 8:13 “Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.” He didn’t agree that eating meat sacrificed to idols was sin. But he empathized with his brother who did think of it as sin and joined him in his perspective. Challenging? Yes! This is the power of empathy.
2. ENDURANCE (1 Corinthians 13)
There have been many lessons, songs, weddings built around 1 Corinthians 13 - and rightly so. The feature of this chapter I want to focus on is the challenge to endure.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends..."
1 Corinthians 13:8b-12 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
1 Corinthians 13:13 “So now faith, hope, and love above, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
Max Lucado envisions the times when Jesus could have given up, but love moved him to continue onward. “Love goes the distance…and Christ traveled from limitless eternity to be confined by time in order to become one of us. He didn’t have to. He could have given up. At any step along the way he
could have called it quits. He didn’t, because he is love. And love ‘endures all things’ …”
To have a love that is enduring, make the choice to love.
3. ENCOURAGEMENT (1 Cor 14)
Chapter 14 is a challenging chapter. It discusses some things of past - the miraculous tongues ? and prophecies that were a part of the earliest church life. Some of these instructions seem specifically for Corinth, some seem to deal with issues we no longer face, some seem to be culturally related. A principle emerges throughout, though. The challenge to be people of encouragement.
Encouragement…
-Speak to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation (14:3b the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.) The gift of prophecy had this goal, and so should we. All things should be done for building up (14:26). Speaking in tongues created an environment of confusion. Paul gives guidelines that tell what should be done for the building up of those who gather for the assembly. “For God is not a God of confusion but of peace” (33).
One clear guideline in this chapter is that we should seek to be sources of encouragement and building up of others. This is a consistent message of Paul, and not just connected to miraculous spiritual gifts.
-1 Thessalonians 5:11 “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up…”
-Romans 15:2 “Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up.”
-Ephesians 4:16 “From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”
Conclusion: The Challenge to Love is a challenge to be empathetic, endure, and encourage.
Five Commitments to Embrace the Challenge to Love:
1. Commit to view the other person as Jesus does. ‘The Christ in me sees the Christ in you.’
2. Commit to choose peace over conflict. 1 Corinthians 7:15 “…God has called you to peace.”
3. Commit to create an atmosphere of grace. You cannot ‘out grace’ God! So give lots of it. 1 Corinthians 15:10 “But by the grace of God I am what I am…”
4. Pray when challenges to love come your way. 1 Corinthians 8:1 NIV “But knowledge puffs up while love builds up.”
5. When a conversation needs to be had, commit to a humble approach. 1 Cor 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
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Discussion Questions
1. The challenges to serve and love are prominent in the ending chapters of 1 Corinthians. Why do we need these reminders?
2. Talk about the differences between empathy and sympathy. Why is it hard to be empathetic? Why is it so important?
3. For Love to have the quality of “endurance” (1 Cor 13:8a), what kind of mindset do we have to cultivate?
4. When Paul writes “Let all things be done for building up” (1 Cor 14:26), what does that mean for personal preferences in the church? What does it mean for communicating with one another? Why do you think this same teaching shows up in at least four of Paul’s letters?
5. How can we view the other person as Jesus does? What does this statement mean to you: “The Christ in me sees the Christ in you”?
6. Why do we struggle to give grace to one another at times?
7. Does love and grace for others mean that we never address an issue that is causing a problem?
8. Is there anything else you wanted to talk about today?
Next Week: The Challenge to Believe 1 Corinthians 15
