That’s What Love is 1 Cor 13:1-8
Where does Love come from?
This time of year we might think the florist is where love comes from in the form of a dozen red roses.
Why I was talking to Sean Smith (one of our teenage boys in the church) just yesterday and he said a friend of his had paid 75.00 for a dozen roses for a certain girl.
I said that must be quite a special girlfriend your friend has.
Sean said
" Oh no...it’s not even his girlfriend ..he’s just hoping." Now some would say that is either love.... or insanity.
(But that’s not really love)
Some might think that love comes in a heart shaped box and in the flavors of caramel or sweet chocolate.
But that’s not really love.
I think we are just beginning to understand love...when we agree that REAL LOVE comes from a Holy God to Man.
God helps us to understand love in the great love chapter of 1 Corinthians 13.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails....
In a day and age where promiscuity seems to rein in many lives and where casual affairs have become common place. There is a great need for understanding the definition of REAL LOVE.
Tragedy comes to marriages....so it came to one after 15 years of marriage where a woman was shocked, saddened and her whole life seemed shattered as she found out that her husband had been unfaithful to her with another woman.
Her life suddenly seemed to be the picture of a terrible train derailment.....a scattering a debris of emotion here and there.
.
At first there was the anger of..... how could he.
Then there was the sadness of..... how could he.
Then there was the inadequacy she felt of :... how could he.
She was a Christian woman and loved her husband with God’s kind of love.
Because she knew that she truly loved her husband her question changed from How could he to ....How can I....
How can we....
How can I..... keep this marriage together
The first thing I would have us to consider about love today is this:
I. Love keeps no record of wrong and love seeks to be strong.
Look again with me at the end of verse 5...there at the end of verse 5 there is something that we need to understand about love.
It says about love that ...IT KEEPS NO RECORD OF WRONGS.
How many of you have a spouse out there that keeps reminding you about that "thing" you did last week...last month....last year...or all those years ago?
Some are saying wait a minute preacher you just stick to preaching and don’t start medaling.
Well I am just trying to say what the word of God says and it says that when there is REAL LOVE and there is forgiveness...there needs to be a clean slate, and empty file in the folder of wrongs.
Keep your place in 1 Cor 13 but peek back over into Ps103 with me for just a moment....
Who knows love better than anyone? God .....right!
Now when you have wronged God what happens...?
Does He stop loving you?
So what happens when we sin....
Well if we ask forgiveness for our sin ...then 1 John says that He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.
Now that is wonderful news to know that Jesus forgives but I like what Psalm 103:12 says:
look at verse 12
as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. (Psa 103:12 NIV)
It is the picture of God saying I have forgiven you for your sin and it is no more. The record clear, clean not to be brought up again.
Love does not keep a record of wrong...
Let’s go back to that marriage of 15 years that beached against the jagged rocks of an unfaithfulness. What can repair the hole in that marriage what can make it whole again?
It will take a love that holds no record of wrong.
I don’t care if it was something your spouse did to you.
Something a friend or neighbor did.
Perhaps something a fellow church member did to you...
there has to be a place in your heart where CHRIST as the ruler of your heart helps you to expunge the record of wrongs.
Now turn back to 1 Cor 13 which is our main text.
So love without question if it is real love...the it is love that does not hold a record of wrongs..... but also it must be a love that fights to stay strong.
Is the devil alive today?
He most certainly is.
Wednesday at Bible study we saw how the Bible calls Satan the prince of the power of the air.
Calls him the little (g) god of this world.
The devil is the worker of iniquity and he is working hard to get his evil work done in you and me and in marriages, and in friendships and relationships.
The devil in on the hunt and he wants to:
wreck marriages
cause family fights
cause church fights
cause friction amongst friends
If there is any hope for us to defeat his attacks we must determine to have a love that fights to stay strong.
Look at the end of verse 7 of 1 Cor 13 with me
The end of verse 7 says this about love....
It says that it "Always perseveres."
Perseverance- What comes to your mind when you think about persevering in love.
Perseverance is defined by one dictionary this way:
Perseverance - To persist in or remain constant to a purpose, idea, or task in the face of obstacles or discouragement.
I want to tell you that love in the world today takes perseverance...Why because the devil is throwing up obstacles and discouragement to destroy love.
How do you persevere in love.
By being consistent in the spirit of love.
Don’t raise your hands but who lives with someone that can be happy and bubbly and cheerful but then all the sudden almost without warning that person can turn into a growling bear.
Love and perseverance means a determination to be constant in your spirit of love.
Aren’t you glad that Jesus doesn’t have quote"moodiness."
Aren’t you glad that his spirit of love is the same.
There is something in here that is very closely connected to what we are already talking about in 1 Cor 13 and that is anger.
Look again at 1 Cor 13: 5 and look smack dab in the middle of that verse...what does it say love is?
Is says this about love it says...."it is not easily angered, "
Did you ever realize right in the moment of your conversation that your spirit was all together wrong and that it was not a spirit of love you were in?
You know I admire parents that when their kids have just done something very disobedient, disappointing and frustrating in their presence ...and that parent who can respond with a cool and level head.
I remember many years ago being with my aunt and when I was about probably 5 years old and my cousin Joe who was 4 were in a K-mart store and that was back when they had the long goose-neck microphone at the end of the check out counter and one day as aunt Ruth was checking out my 4yr old cousin Joe grabbed the microphone and began to sing...
He was singing another tune all the way across the parking lot out to the car as my aunt whipped his fanny half way across the parking lot.
But those parents who can always be cool and calm and not fly off the handle...because their love is not easily angered.
Now I am all for discipline...discipline happens because of love but not out of a spirit of anger.
Are there little things that people do that just set you off?
Should that be the case?
How many of you know someone that before you talk to them you need to inquire of what sort of mood they are in?
Usually because it is a person that is easily angered and generally that means that person struggles with having a loving spirit.
You see the point I am making here is the one that Paul made in verse 7 that love ought not to be easily angered.
Regardless if it is about holding our temper with our children, our spouse, our neighbor or fellow church member we need to look for the caution light and not fly off the handle and remember love is not easily angered.
So Real Love
Does not keep a record of wrongs
Love fights to stay strong
Love is not easily angered and.....
1 Cor 13 says love is not self seeking
Remember when you first started dating your spouse and they said where do you want to eat and you said oh wherever you want to eat...well wherever you want is fine.
Whatever happened to that...?
No its well I dont want to eat there...no not there either...
What about in churches? This matter of being self seeking
What if when churches went to buy new furniture they had people saying what sort of pews should we get and someone says well pews or if you want chairs we could get chairs or what do you want.....but no it is this sort of thing.....
Seems there is always someone who says
"Well my grandpappy sat in pews and my pappy sat in pews and I ’ll be if I am going to sit in anything but a pew"
We have always has red carpet and here you people want to have blue carpet...
The point is that the Bible said love does not seek it’s own...
A lot of fighting that goes on in decision making of families and of church family is because people want THEIR WAY.
Jesus said in MT chapter 20
whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,
27and whoever wants to be first... must be your slave-- 28just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
It is a word about giving preference to others and not having to have our own way about things.
Love asks the question of others what is your desire?
Love does not seek it’s own but the good and happiness of others...
Did Jesus leave the glories of heaven and come to earth for His own...No He did it for those He loves.
1 John says this
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
Do you know LOVE.....I mean REAL LOVE!
Do you know Jesus Christ...you can’t know love unless you know Jesus and have trusted in that love.
Are you living that love..... through you....toward others...
Not keeping a record of wrongs
Fighting to keep love strong
Living in the spirit of love ..and avoiding anger
preferring others before yourself....
Thinking of others...
Think of Jesus this morning what is He saying to you?
