THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS LOVE…
I CORINTHIANS 13:1-8
Introduction: This chapter is among the most famous chapters in the Bible. It has been used extensively at weddings and as an exposition of romantic love. The reality of this passage is that is part of a message by Paul to the church at Corinth about spiritual gifts. It has direct reference to the demonstration of love as the fruit of the spirit in the treatment of fellow believers within the community of faith. Paul describes in these verses the qualities of true Christian charity that the Corinthians lacked. Let us consider these qualities.
I. LOVE IS PATIENT AND KIND
A. Verse 4a "Charity suffers long, and is kind;
B. 1 Corinthians 1:10-11 "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you."
C. Love is patient with people. The word used for patience always refers to being patient with people not with circumstances. – Barclay
D. Love is courteous and sensitive to those who have offended.
E. True Christian love is demonstrated by not harboring resentment, anger, or the desire for revenge no matter the evil and injury done by a person or the neglect and ignoring done by a fellow believer.
F. Ephesians 4:32 "And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you."
G. "Forgiveness is the fragrance that the flower leaves on the heel of the one who crushed it." - Mark Twain.
H. Disturbers are to be rebuked, the low-spirited to be encouraged, the infirm to be supported, objectors confuted, the treacherous guarded against, the unskilled taught, the lazy aroused, the contentious restrained, the haughty repressed, litigants pacified, the poor relieved, the oppressed liberated, the good approved, the evil borne with, and all are to be loved. - Aurelius Augustine, Leadership, v. 10, # 4
II. LOVE IS NOT SELF-CENTERED OR EGOTISTICAL
A. Verse 4b “Charity envies not; charity vaunts not itself, is not puffed up,"
B. Christian love is not jealous, is not restful toward others because of what they have in the way of talents, gifts, abilities, possessions, positions or popularity.
C. Likewise Christian love is not boastful bragging, seeking recognition, or act as though one is better than others. Rather it is humble and modest.
D. 1 Corinthians 5:1-2 "It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife. [2] And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you."
E. Romans 12:3 "For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith."
F. Philippians 2:3 "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves."
G. An admirer once asked Leonard Bernstein, celebrated orchestra conductor, what was the hardest instrument to play. He replied without hesitation: "Second fiddle. I can always get plenty of first violinists, but to find one who plays second violin with as much enthusiasm or second French horn or second flute, now that’s a problem. And yet if no one plays second, we have no harmony.” – copied
H. Envy is a symptom of lack of appreciation of our own uniqueness and self worth. Each of us has something to give that no one else has. – Elizabeth O’Conner
III. LOVE CONDUCTS ITSELF PROPERLY
A. Verse 5a "Does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked…”
B. Christian love is not rude, unmannerly, or indecent. It does not act in a disgraceful manner or insist on its own way. It is not easily angered or exasperated when it does not get its own way.
C. 1 Corinthians 3:3-4 "For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?"
D. The secret of every discord in Christian homes and communities and churches is that we seek our own way and our own glory. - Alan Redpath, Leadership, Vol. 3, no. 2.
E. If I am an atheist in my heart, making myself sovereign in place of God, and therefore arranging thing in accordance with my appetites and needs and fantasies, I become a pirate in society. I relentlessly look for ways in which I can get what is there for my own uses with no regard for what anyone else gets. If I am an atheist in my heart, it is not long before I have become a cancer in the gut of the country. - Eugene Peterson, Earth and Altar. Christianity Today, Vol. 30, no. 6.
F. 1 Corinthians 10:24 (NKJV) "Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well being.”
IV. LOVE KEEPS SHORT ACCOUNTS
A. Verses 5b-6 "… thinks no evil; rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;"
B. Christian love does not consider the wrong it has suffered. Nor does it feed upon the sin and failures of others.
C. 1 Corinthians 6:1-2, 7 “Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? [2] Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? And if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?” “Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? Why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?”
D. A man lay dying in a hospital bed. But as he lay there, he suddenly remembered an old enemy he once held a grudge against. Calling a nurse to his bedside, he whispered, "Nurse, please summon my old enemy." The enemy arrived, and the man opened one eye, and said to him, "My enemy, I have called you here today to say I’m sorry for all the wrong I’ve done to you." Then he paused, and added, "But mind you, if I ever get BETTER, you be sure that the old grudge still holds good!"
E. When missionaries first came to Labrador, they found no word for forgiveness in the Eskimo language. So they had to make one which meant, "not being able to think about it anymore."
F. 1 Peter 4:8 "And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins."
V. LOVE DOES NOT GIVE UP
A. Verses 7-8 "Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Charity never fails..."
B. Love is a fruit of the Spirit and is superior to spiritual gifts. Love is permanent. Our talents and gifts may cease but love is to endure.
C. When Eliot, the untiring missionary to the Indians, was an old man, it was observed that the energy by which he acted never sustained the slightest abatement, but, on the contrary, evinced a steady and vigorous increase. As his bodily strength decayed, the energy of his being seemed to retreat into his soul, and at length all his faculties seemed absorbed in holy love. Being asked shortly before his departure how he did, he replied, " I have lost everything; my understanding leaves me, my memory fails me; my utterance fails me; but I thank God, my charity holds out still; I find that rather grows than fails." – Hinton
D. 1 John 4:8 "He that loves not knows not God; for God is love."
CONCLUSION: “Six humans were trapped by chance in bleak and bitter cold, each possessed a stick of wood, or so the story goes. Their dying fire was in need of logs.
The first man held his back, for on the faces around the fire He noticed one was black.
The next man looking across the way saw one not from his church. And couldn’t bring himself to give the first his stick of birch.
The third one sat in tattered clothes He gave his coat a hitch. Why should his log be put to use to warm the idle rich?
The rich man just sat and thought of the wealth he had to store, And how to keep what he had earned from the lazy, shiftless poor.
The black man’s face bespoke revenge as the fire passed from his sight, for all he saw in his stick of wood was a chance to spite the white.
The last man of this forlorn group did naught except for gain. Giving only to those who gave was how he played the game.
Their logs held tight in death’s still hand was proof of human sin. They didn’t die from the cold without they died from the cold within.” - copied
Luke 6:44 "For every tree is known by his own fruit…” The Fruit of the Spirit is love. Only love can generate healing fire. Without it the church will die from the cold within. With it the church can warm the coldest heart and melt it. No one can be apathetic in the face of Agape love--it is the most powerful force there is. No gift or talent, no deed or action is of any true or lasting worth unless it is permeated by love. Matthew 7:20 "Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them."
