The Remaining Three
A Sermon on Love
1 Corinthians 13:13
Once a young man proposed to his girl as they sat looking over the beautiful lake. “Darling, I want you to know that I love you more than anything else in the world. I want you to marry me. I’m not wealthy; I’m not rich. I don’t have a yacht or a Rolls Royce like Jimmy Brown, but I do love with all my heart.”
She thought for a minute and then replied, “I love you with all my heart, too, but tell me more about Jimmy Brown.”
Over the years, many people have been “inspired” when it came to the topic of love. Poems and songs have been dedicated to what love is. Some of the best songs are about the great aspects of love. According to the Beatles “All you need is love.”
People flock to weddings because they are, in one sense, a celebration of love. We enjoy seeing the woman in white pledges her undying devotion to the man in the tuxedo. We swoon when the “I do’s” are said, the rings are exchanged, and they stand before us as husband and wife.
On the other hand, we use the word “love” is some of the oddest fashions. The late 60’s and early 70’s were known as the “Free Love Era.” Bell bottoms, flowered vans, and sex with as many people as possible was considered love.
Even in innocent ways, we use the word love in obscure ways. We love our spouses and our children. We love our sports teams. We love our food. We love our clothes. There are a lot of different ways to say that we love something or someone, but that is never on the same level. You do not love a friend like you do a turkey dinner at Christmas, unless you’re a cannibal.
Many languages, other than the English language, use different words for the word love. In the passage we are looking at today, the word AGAPE is found for this type of love. This is an everlasting love, the love of God Himself.
1 Corinthians 13 is often read at weddings because love is so abounding that day. While everything here is applicable to a newly wed couple, or for a husband and wife celebrating 50 years of marriage, it was not Paul’s intent for this passage.
This so-called hymn to love was Paul’s prescription for solving the sickness in the church body in Corinth. The believers had spiritual gifts, but they lacked spiritual graces and needed to be reminded why love is so important in the Christian life.
It is from that point of view that we look at it this morning. If love is the greatest of the three graces, we need to know why.
Read 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Love puts quality into service (vv. 1–3).
“God hates the great things in which love is not the motive power; but He delights in the little things that are prompted by a feeling of love.”
D. L. Moody
It’s rather ironic in a sense. This section of Paul’s letter comes directly after his discourse on what it means to be a part of the body of Christ. Moreover it deals with the topic about speaking in tongues. This message is not about whether I believe in tongues or not. I’m neither condoning nor condemning the practice. That is not the issue. What is the issue is what Paul has to say about the whole thing.
Read 1Corinthians 12:27-31
For years, the Evangelical Church has been ripped apart by one very prominent issue and that is the gift of tongues. Some people have condemned certain “charismatic” and people because of their staunch beliefs attached with the issue. A war of words and attitudes has been fought because of an issue that really wasn’t an issue to Paul.
In a round about way, Paul was looking at this church and Corinth and saying, “Guys! You are the body of Christ! Forget your differences, and reach towards the greater things, the things that unite you... Faith, hope and love!”
Paul would go onto to say that it didn’t matter if I speak in tongues, or prophesy and preach until I am blue in the face. That all counts for nothing if LOVE is not in the picture. If they would act in love toward one another, the problem would be largely solved. It is not a problem that calls for excommunication or division; it calls for love. When you have love, your words and actions amount to something and help other people.
The same goes for us today. Some people may complain that I introduced two songs that were not found in the hymnbook. So what? I do not preach from the King James Bible, so what?
It’s not about who I am, and what I do. What matters is why I do it. We are not the same people. We have different tastes. We like different things. We have different gifts, but we are still the body of God. It’s not about the differences; it’s about the similarities. We are not here to rip each other apart, but to build each other up in love.
It’s about doing things to add to the church and each other, not because we love the spotlight, but because we love God and each other. Even though Paul would compare the Christian walk as a race, we are not racing against each other. It’s not a competition. It’s not about whom finishes the line first. What should matter to each of us here is that we each do our part to see that our neighbour finishes. To day that, it needs to be done in love!
Love puts maturity into character (vv. 4–7).
The Corinthians were impatient with each other, suing each other, tolerating sin in the church, and creating problems because they did not have love. These people would just let it all fly out, and this was found within the church.
I stated earlier that we are not in competition with each other. The people in Corinth never it saw it that way. Each person would do their best, or worst, to out-do their brothers and sisters. Love was not present.
If we take time to look at each thing that Paul attributes to a loving character, better yet, a Christian’s character, we’ll not only see the plight of the Corinthian church, but also the solutions to the answers on how we deal with each other. “Lord, let me live long enough to see those fellows saved who killed our boys, that I may throw my arms around them and tell them I love them because they love my Christ.” T.E. McCully.
Love is patient - Love puts up with people that is easy to give up on
Love Is kind - Love helps us to treat others according to Luke 6:27 “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”, especially showing love to those who mistreat you.
Love does not envy - Love is pleased when others are honoured and exalted.
Love is not boastful or proud - Love realizes that whatever gifts one has are from God, and there is nothing in man for which to be proud.
Love is not rude - Love enables a person to act in a courteous and considerate manner.
Love is not self-seeking - Love has the interests of others at heart, even if that comes before your own goals and ambitions.
Love is not easily angered - Love lives about the slights and insults of this world.
Love keeps not records of wrong - Love is not about getting even.
Love does not rejoice delight in evil but rejoices with truth - Love does not delight in evil in any form, including the fall of a brother or sister. Instead, love delights in all that expresses the gospel, both in word and deed.
Love bears/ believes/ hope/ endures all things - Love is the foundation for all acts that please God. Love believes all things in that love never gives up and never loses hope. Love endures any hardship or rejection, revealing its superior strength.
A Sunday school teacher asked the five-year-olds in her class to bring in “something green that you love.” The next Sunday, they brought in the usual green hats, green sweaters, and green books. One boy entered with an especially big grin on his face. Behind him, wearing a green dress came his four-year-old sister.
Whatever qualities you may have, they are nothing without love.
Love puts eternity into life (vv. 8–13).
Love lasts, and what love does will last. Having described the qualities that characterize those who exercise their gift in love, the apostle now takes up the permanence of love, as contrasted with the temporary character of gifts. Love never fails. Throughout eternity, love will go on in the sense that we will still love the Lord and love one another. These gifts, on the other hand, are of temporary duration.
Paul wants the Corinthians to know that all the gifts, especially tongues, which attracted their attention so much, would one day no longer be needed. But love would continue forever. One day prophecies will cease, and tongues will be no more, but love will last forever.
The next part of his letter, even when he addresses spiritual gifts once more, Paul would encourage the people to “Pursue love.” Love is the one thing that will remain forever. Nothing can ever change the way that God has loved us. In eternity, the love that brought salvation to our lives, the love that we show to Him and each other, will be a centre focus of why we have inhabited such a glorious eternity.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote a poem entitled “I Loved Once,” in which she writes, “They never loved who dreamed that they loved once,” and “Love looks beyond the bounds of time and space, Love takes eternity in its embrace.” Love is deathless. It is never defeated, never disillusioned, never disappointed. Love that is a passion burns like a straw stack and is soon consumed. Love is eternal. It is permanent. God’s love is that kind of love.
How wonderful that is! His love looks beyond the bounds of time and space and takes eternity in its embrace. Christ never ceased loving. You can’t do anything to keep Him from loving. No sinner has committed an unpardonable sin. You may be in the state of unbelief, but He still loves you. You may have committed ever so great a sin, but He still loves you. You cannot keep Him from loving you. You can put up an umbrella to keep yourself out of the rain, but you cannot stop the rain from falling. Neither can you stop God from loving you—regardless of the umbrella of sin or unbelief that you are under.
Prophecies shall fail—that is, they will be fulfilled. They will then be history, not prophecy. Tongues are going to stop. Knowledge will vanish away. But love will last forever
Conclusion:
When we sing the great hymn “The Love of God,” most of us do not know that the author found the last verse inscribed on the wall of an insane asylum next to the bed of a man who had evidently found the love of God before he died. Here are two verses of the hymn:
The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star,
And reaches to the lowest hell.
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled,
And rescued from His sin.
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
Why is love the greatest of the graces that we have talked about over the last few weeks? Faith enables to come and see God. Hope gives us the reason to keep on going with God when days are at their darkest. Love, however, enables us to imitate God. Love is the greatest and does the greatest because “God is love” (1 John 4:8).
The object of our faith will be fulfilled. All our hopes will be realized. There will be nothing left to hope for; so hope will disappear. There will be no need for faith. However, love is going to abide. The greatest of these is love. Faith, hope, and love are the high words of the Christian vocabulary.
