WHAT WE DO IS NOTHING WITHOUT LOVE
1 CORINTHIANS 13
INTRODUCTION: You will remember that our overriding theme has been, “Its All About God”. As we have dealt with public worship, we have seen that every aspect of public worship is al about God, and not about us. Here at the beginning of a new year, I challenged each of you to ask God to give you a burden for Him, a burden to be more like Christ, and a burden to be a witness for Him. In order for us to succeed as believers we must have more than a desire, we need a burden. These two thoughts are essential for Christian living and activity. Today, I would like to introduce a third essential factor of our Christian living – “What We Do Is Nothing Without Love”. This is the point Paul makes here in the 13th chapter of First Corinthians.
I THE PRE-EMINANCE OF LOVE – 13:1-3
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (NIV) 1 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. 2 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. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
A Lack of Love Reduces My Worship
1 Without love my ability to worship is compared to a resounding gong
2 Without love my ability to worship is compared to a clanging cymbal
a Worship without love is simply noise
b Items referred to were those used in pagan worship
c My worship without love has as much value as worshipping a false idol
3 Spiritual gifts lose their value when love is not behind their use
a Gifts are the activity of my Christianity
b Love is the character of my Christianity
c We cannot exalt activity over character in our Christian Life
d We cannot exalt Christian Activity over Christian Character in our lives
REAL CHRISTIANITY IS BEING NOT DOING!
B Lack of Love Reduces My Value
1 Great gifts – prophecy was one of them
a Declare the truth of God’s Word to a needy world
2 Great Work – Knowledge
1 A spiritual intellect to understand the great truths of Scripture
3 Great Faith – move mountains
a God given ability to really believe what God is going to do, and act towards that end
4 Without love – “I am nothing”
a Having no value
1 No value to the gifts I have
2 No value to the church that needs the gifts that I have
3 No value to the God who gave me the gifts that I have
5 Renouncing my possessions matters nothing without love behind them – Gains me nothing
6 To be burned, rather than renounce my faith without love gains me nothing
IF WE ARE NOT LOVING BELIEVERS, WE NOT COMPLETE BELIEVERS
• But pastor, you do not know what they said about me
o Was it true?
Yes, but. Then confess it, make it right, and tell them what you did.
No. Then approach them in love and find out why.
WE DO NOT HAVE THE BIBLICAL RIGHT TO TREAT OTHERS THE SAME WAY THEY TREATED US. GOD INSTRUCTS US TO TREAT OTHERS AS WE WOULD WANT TO BE TREATED, NOW HOW WE WERE TREATED.
James 2:8 (NIV) 8 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, "Love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing right.
II THE PREOGATIVE OF LOVE – 13:4-7
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NIV) 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
A Defined By Its Positives
1 Love is patient – not short-tempered
2 Love is kind – taking the initiative in responding to the needs of others
3 When asking yourself if you are a loving person, ask yourself if you are a patient and a kind person
a How the Bible describes a loving person
b You cannot be a biblically loving person if you are not patient or kind
B Refined By Its Negatives – Patience and kindness is refined by
1 Not being envious
a First refinement is important – envy is what brought murder into the world (Cain and Able)
1 Envy desires what another has – material or spiritual
a) Both can be earned
(1) Can save for the material
(1) Can grow for the spiritual
b) When we are envying others, we are not using what God gave us
b Second refinement – love does not boast
1 Take credit for what God gave
2 In actuality, love humbles or should humble us
c Third refinement – love is not proud
1 Love does not travel on air
When we lived in New York, every year there was a Balloon Festival. Not those little balloons, but the real big ones. The ones that could carry lots of people at a time. I kind of thought it would be neat to try and go up in one of them, but after finding out the cost, I determined that it was more than I wanted to pay. Well, we set back and watched as these balloons were laid out, and the filled with hot air. The “captains” instructed those who would be flying with them to wait until they called them and then run over, hop in the basket, and they were off. Well, I found out why they had to run. As soon as the balloon took off, it went up like a shot, and then really went only a few miles until it had to be set down in a field. It was a high cost for a little ride!
2 Pride is like that balloon ride – it is not worth the cost for so little time in the air
a) Pride puffs us up for a little, but we eventually come down.
b) The ride is not worth the cost – we lose more than we gain
(1) With our friends
(1) With our church
(1) With our God
d Fourth refinement – love is not rude
1 Does not act in a way improper to our calling as children of God
e Fifth refinement – love is not self-seeking
1 We understand that we are servants first – “other seekers”
f Sixth refinement – love is not easily angered
1 Let’s things get on our nerves
2 Word literally means “irritated”
g Seventh Refinement – Love keeps no record of wrongs
1 Records breed resentment
2 Resentment breeds all the other stuff
h Eight refinement – directed delight
1 What brings joy to your heart
2 Love seeks truth to win out
3 Love desires truth to win out
4 Love protects truth
5 Love proclaims truth
i Final refinement – Love protects
1 Literally – covering with a barrier
III THE PERMANENCE OF LOVE – 13:8-13
1 Corinthians 13:8-13 (NIV) 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
A Everything But Love Has A End
1 Declaring for the Lord is going to end
2 Spiritual gifts are going to end
3 Knowledge is always ending even now
B Love Has a Forever Purpose
1 We can have faith in something, but not love it
2 We can have hope in something and not love it
3 Love does not originate in the nature of man, but in the nature of God
a Man would not be here apart from the love of God
4 Hope and faith come out of me, but love alone comes to me from God
5 We can have faith and put ourselves above others
6 We can have hope and put ourselves above others
7 We cannot have love and put ourselves above others
8 Everything we have from God provides a poor reflection of our lives as believers when viewed without love.
Think of it like this, every spiritual gift is like a zero, one after another. To this add every ability you have as a believer, more zero’s. Now to these add Christian experiences, friendships, activities, etc. more and more zeros on the paper. Now add love, a one at the beginning of the zeros. Now each and every zero has meaning.
The ability of the believer to love gives meaning to everything else we do. And love is all about God, not about me.
We love because He first loved us.
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