“The Power of Love”
I Corinthians 13:8-13
March 23, 2003
Love of Another Kind – I Corinthians 13
Theme Intro
“Kids say the darnedest things”, they say, and so Art Linkletter, and more recently, Bill Cosby, made a TV show out of the concept! When Anthony was little, we got a kick out of the fact that he brought us a household tool, proclaiming that he had fetched for us a “scroover”. To this day, my mother calls that big household appliance a “pidgipator”, a term I coined as a youngster. When Brent was smaller, he pronounced names and words pretty well, but for some reason, as he went around the list of each person’s name, when he got to Anthony, he would confidently announce that his name was “Duh”. Perhaps he was prescient; from time to time, his mother and I still look at Anthony and say, “Duh!”
But sometimes they think the darnedest things as well. I asked some friends in our church this week about things they remembered getting wrong as kids. One said that, for the longest time, he couldn’t understand how to dial a telephone, because he couldn’t figure out how, when looking at a phone number, how to dial the dash! Another said that in kindergarten, as he’d recite the Pledge of Allegiance, he would say, "and to the republic, for witches stand”, figuring that the flag must be pretty important if even a witch would stand in honor! One mother said of her kids that she overheard them doing a wedding between two dolls. One asked, “do you take this man to be your awfully wed husband?” Another said that, as a little girl on a snowy, cloudy Christmas Eve, she’d been told by a mischievous uncle that he’d heard on the radio that Santa might not be able to get through, because the batteries which powered Rudolph’s nose were quickly running out! Sent into a panic, she insisted that that evening, in addition to the requisite milk and cookies to be set out for Santa, a large variety of batteries of all shapes and sizes be set out for Rudolph—after all, does a reindeer’s nose take AAA, or 9-volt, or what? It became a family tradition, she said, to set out batteries every Christmas Eve—hey, you just never know, do you?
Often pulled out of context and used to illustrate a variety of things, we come to the passage today wherein Paul says to us, “when I was a child, I spoke, thought, and reasoned like a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” Paul is speaking to a church filled with people whose understanding of spirituality centered on the spectacular manifestation of certain flashy spiritual gifts. Paul spends, of course, an entire chapter focusing them on that which is far more important: love. Today, we close out our study of this subject by taking a look at the Power of Love—God’s kind of love, and how it never fails! In a moment, we’ll sing about that love; let’s extend a little of that to each other now!
We have been looking now at the subject of love since September, and as I said, we conclude today. We began by focusing on Jesus’ words that remind us that priority one in our lives is love. Jesus said, in response to a question from a religious leader, that the most important commandments centered on love, that we love God with everything we have, our hearts, souls, minds, and strength, and that we love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Then we began taking a look at I Corinthians 13, which details for us some of the practical manifestations of that love as it works itself out in our lives. And so we come to our text one last time today, but I’d like to arrest your attention with a question: “Are you living a life of love, as described by Paul?”
Or did you just listen to a sermon series to which you nodded mental assent, maybe even tossed out a loud “Amen” (or in the context of this far-too-reticent congregation, a muted under-your-breath kind of “Amen”)? Perhaps your response to the teaching was to critique the series, “boy, that was a great series” or, just as likely, “Harvey’s done better before!” Sometimes, I wonder if Christians are disciples or critics, like ecclesiastical versions of the Muppets’ Statler and Waldorf, tossing out sharp one-liners from their balcony/pews. Guess what? Listen carefully as I say something I mean to be taken in the most loving way I can imagine: I don’t care what you think of this series! I’ve heard a lot of good things from people—that’s fine, thanks. But I don’t care where it ranks among other series I’ve preached in your mind. What I care about is one thing: are you living a life characterized by Christ-like, agape love as described in I Corinthians 13? Has God convicted you about aspects of this love that aren’t really functioning in your life—and have you responded with repentance and renewed obedience as a result? That’s what matters to me. Today, our subject is The Power of Love—and I’m not sure that Huey Lewis has a clue! Stand with me as we read!
Five weddings and maybe six in the space of twelve weeks; that’s how my summer is shaping up! It must be in the water around here, I don’t know! And when I stand at weddings and often read this Scripture passage, it is painfully true that there is no guarantee that the couple in front of me has a real understanding of what agape love looks like. You’ll remember that there are four Greek words which are translated “love”: one is eros, from which we get the word “erotic”, referring to sexual love. How many couples stand at marriage altars understanding love primarily as eros? Phileo is another Greek word, referring to brotherly love—hence “Philadelphia”, the “City of Brotherly Love”. Storge, “instinctual affection” is another word—how many of these couples have some sort of affection which brings them together, but which is not willing to love with God’s kind of love, agape? This is the love Paul is describing; this is the kind of love for which we as believers must be striving. This is what God desires to produce in our lives as fruit of the Spirit number one! And notice that our final main point about this agape—not said to be true of eros, phileo, or storge—is that it “endures all things.”
Now remember we said that Paul sets this passage in the context of a discussion of spiritual gifts, gifts endowed by the Spirit upon individuals for the purpose of building up the body of Jesus Christ, the church. And so we ought not be surprised, spoken to a church that was abusing these gifts, that Paul contrasts love with the gifts. Notice that Paul, in verses 8-12, says to the Corinthians and to us that
I. Our spiritual gifts and understanding
are incomplete:
This is the primary point that he makes in the contrast: spiritual gifts are in and of themselves incomplete. Love forms the context for the living of the Christian life and the exercise of the spiritual gifts. Paul doesn’t diminish their importance at all; he goes to great lengths to teach on such gifts. But he here emphasizes the fact that love far supercedes the gifts themselves. Notice he says in both verses 8 and 10 that gifts are
A. Impermanent (vv. 8,10)
Paul says that the gifts will pass away. There will be no need for them in eternity. No matter what one believes about the gift of tongues, one will not need such in eternity. He says of prophecy, a gift primarily involving the anointed forth-telling of God’s truth, and of knowledge, which referred to a God-given supernatural ability to perceive truth, that these would katargeo, a Greek word which means “to reduce to inactivity”. At some point, these gifts would be reduced to inactivity. Of the gift of tongues, Paul uses a different Greek word, one which brings to mind the image of a clock running down. He says that there is, if you will, a built-in stopping point for the gift of tongues; many believe that this has already taken place, while other believers, of course, dispute that interpretation. Verse 10 builds upon this, saying that these gifts, since they are incomplete, partial, will be done away. It ought to be said as well that these gifts are meant by Paul as being representative of all others; all spiritual gifts fit this description—they will be done away with! Without getting into the argument about the timing of the cessation of certain gifts, let’s all agree that Paul is here emphasizing the temporary nature of all gifts!
He says that “when the perfect comes”. There has been some conjecture about this, but it seems clear that he refers to the ultimate, eternal state in saying that prophecy and knowledge will be done away at this time. We won’t have a need for such gifts in Heaven! At the coming of Christ to usher in the “beginning of the end”, as it were, the final purpose of God’s redeeming work will be accomplished. Spiritual gifts, used for the building up of the body of Christ, will disappear, because we won’t need to be built up any longer; the “complete” will have come.
B. Imperfect (v. 9)
Our knowledge is only, Paul says, “in part”. Even a lifetime’s usage of the spiritual gift of knowledge doesn’t give to us the understanding of God’s truth that we will have instantaneously when we see Him face-to-face. I think I’ve shared this with you before, but in a little book titled The Trivialization of God, Donald McCullough coined a term I have learned to appreciate; he wrote of “Christian agnosticism”. What he meant by that was simply this: the word “agnostic” refers to one who does not know, and his point was that far too many of us are far too cocksure that we have far more of God figured out than we actually do. Most of us think we know more of God and His ways than we really do. We’ve got God, as it were, in our “God-box”, and those who don’t understand God as we do are unquestionably wrong. Our version of God is the version, don’t you know? Please understand: I say what I say in the context of my unwavering belief in the God of the Bible described in His perfect Word—I doubt that anyone who attends here regularly will have that question! I’m only arguing for humility based upon the fact that our knowledge is imperfect; there is much of God that we cannot possibly fathom, including some truth that I believe He has purposely chosen not to reveal to us. The Psalmist says as much.
Similarly, the gift of prophecy, the supernaturally-bestowed ability to proclaim the truth of God in a way that others can easily grasp, is practiced imperfectly. No good preacher tries to mislead his hearers, but at our best, we miss the point from time to time, sometimes by a little and, more often than we probably care to admit it, by more than a little.
C. Immature (v. 11)
For children to think, speak, and behave as children is a perfectly natural thing; we laugh at the funny things children do because they are children! For an adult, however, to act as a child in certain respects is a tragedy. For an adult to persist in kindergarten-level thought processes is evidence of mental deficiency. For an adult to say some of the things our children say is not funny at all.
Paul says all of this to simply point out the fact that we are children now in our understanding of God, of spiritual things. Spiritual gifts are the domain of children, by comparison to the fullness and richness of our understanding and practice in eternity. The gift of tongues, such a flashy demonstration that the Corinthians were greatly enamored with it, is by comparison to the delights and experiences of Heaven mere child’s play.
D. Indirect (v.12)
The old KJV says, “through a glass darkly”; my NAS renders it, “in a mirror dimly”. Corinth was known for its fine bronze mirrors, and it’s certain that Paul had this in mind as he wrote. I originally thought of an old army mirror that I have from decades ago; it is a piece of metal that yields a fairly imprecise image when looked at, but it’s doubtful that Paul would have meant such; Corinthians might have been needlessly offended had they perceived a jab at the quality of their mirrors! Rather, a mirror, even the best mirror, is a reflected image—and that, a reverse image! I know that I have a mole, for instance, on the right side of my face, but in the mirror, it looks like it is on the left side. We do not even now know God directly in the same sense we will when we see Him, as Paul says, face-to-face.
And so he wraps up his case that spiritual gifts and knowledge that we currently possess are incomplete, having shown them to be impermanent, imperfect, immature, and indirect. Now the piece de resistance:
II. Love is indestructible:
We said that when couples build their marriages on eros or some other kind of love, there was little reassurance that theirs would be a love that would last. But the descriptions that Paul uses here are that love “endures all things” and that it “never fails”. That’s the kind of stuff I want! What does he mean by these things? First, agape love is
A. Persevering (v. 7d)
The verb here, translated “endures”, is the Greek verb hupomeno, which is a military term (fitting these days, I guess) used of an army holding a vital position at all costs. Love holds fast, despite the cost. Love doesn’t stop loving; the verb connotes perseverance, tenacity in all circumstances. This is why when people talk of “love” these days, many of them have no idea what they’re talking about. God’s kind of love endures. It doesn’t lose interest and leave. It doesn’t fall for another when things get dull. Young people, marriage isn’t always seashells and balloons! Love lasts, period, because it is based upon commitment, not circumstances. Agape, God’s kind of love, is not something that a person “falls into” or “falls out of”.
They stoned Stephen—but he didn’t stop loving. They beat Peter and Paul, but they didn’t stop loving. And the disciples did all manner of stupid and rude things—but “having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the fullest extent” (John 13:1), the Bible says of Jesus. Love endures.
B. Permanent (v. 8a)
This is similar, of course. “Love never fails”, Paul says, but what does this mean? What does it mean to say that “love never fails”? Pipto (Gk.) has the basic meaning of “falling”; it was used of a leaf or flower that falls to the ground, then withers and decays. Love is permanent; it will never wither or decay away.
“Love never fails” does not mean that love is some kind of magical key that always unlocks success as we want to define it. Love is not a genie that guarantees that we get our way. Some of the so-called “faith teachers” define faith in this way, effectively; if we just plant our seed-faith, we’ll get some kind of magical benefits. No, neither faith nor love nor hope can serve in this way (whatever we hope for may not come true; hope doesn’t contain some kind of power that acts in this fashion either). Love doesn’t always “win” in the usual sense. Jesus embodied love perfectly, and yet he was rejected; ditto Paul. Acting in love will sometimes get people mad at us and will sometimes get us stoned!
What else can you think of that “never fails”? This is the stuff that can’t be touched by a market collapse, that can’t be bombed out of existence by a terrorist, that will never go out of fashion or make the New York Times “out” list, that will never become obsolete or yellowed around the edges. Love never fails!
C. Pre-eminent (v. 13)
Paul speaks of the abiding nature of faith, hope, and love. Faith will be realized when we see Christ by sight; hope will be rewarded. Love, though, will still exist in Heaven. Love is eternal, and love is first among equals, if you will. Sure, without faith it is impossible to please God; hope is necessary as well. But love tops the list.
Love covers a multitude of sins, but lovelessness causes a multitude! Take any talent and subtract love, and it is worth little. Love, as we said, is the necessary context for spiritual gifts and Christ-like living.
Love is also the greatest virtue by virtue of the fact that it is the most God-like; God needs not faith nor hope, but He is a God of love! Love is the life God imparts, because love is what God is. Paul reminds us “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).
And because I am loved by God with an everlasting love, I can love you. In fact, I must love you. Because without love—regardless of whatever else I have and am—I am nothing. Absolute zero. Love, in the life of the believer, is Priority One!
