The Love Of God-2

The LOVE Of GOD-II—1Corinthians 13:1-13

Attention:

Perfect Spouse:

A young lady visited a computer dating service & requested, "I'm looking for a spouse. Can you please help me to find a suitable one?"

The matchmaker said, "What exactly are you looking for?"

"Well, let me see. Needs to be good looking, polite, humorous, sporty, knowledgeable, good at singing & dancing. Willing to accompany me the whole day at home during my leisure hours if I don't go out. Be able to tell me interesting stories when I need a companion for conversation & be silent when I want to rest."

The matchmaker entered the information into the computer &, in a matter of moments, handed the results to the woman:

“Buy a television.”

People are generally confused about the meaning of love.

Need:

To know & apply God’s self-giving love, so as to prevent anything less from taking it’s place in our lives.

•“Self-giving”—Giving of yourself for the sake of another or others, rather than for yourself alone.

Paul highlighted the necessity of self-giving, sacrificial love to the proper outworking of Christian living.

Self-giving, sacrificial love is essential to true Christianity.

How is that kind of love essential to the Christian faith?

*Without Self-giving, sacrificial love, the ‘living out’ of Christian faith becomes mere/empty social reform....Which the world at large, jealously & ravenously devours!

1Pet. 4:8—“And above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins.”

1Tim. 1:5—“Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, & from sincere faith,”

*This entire chapter actually describes & defines agaph love with it’s results.

The supreme example of agaph love is God’s agaph love toward humanity & the world, all for the sake of their betterment.

God’s love is agaph love, & it is always a self-giving &/or sacrificial love. It is best understood through God’s exercise of it. God’s Love cannot be accomplished by any of humanity, apart from their approaching it thru God in Christ.

Previously we found that:

As A Christian, the Love of God must Humble My...

1. SPEECH(:1)

Today we’ll also find that:

2—As A Christian, the Love of God must Humble My...

ABILITY(:2)

Explanation:(:2)Knowledge

:2—“And though I have the gift of prophecy, & understand all mysteries & all knowledge, & though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

“And”—That is, in a similar manner—as with speaking with the tongues of men & of angels in verse :1. The same conclusion will result IF our God-given abilities are accomplished/lived out WITHOUT “love.”

“Prophecy” involving fore-telling or forth-telling WITHOUT ‘agape love’, becomes prideful arrogance & intimidation.

“Prophecy” involving fore-telling or forth-telling WITH ‘agape love’, becomes edifying & salvific.

“Understand all Mysteries”—That which, having been previously hidden to others & to other generations, is readily explained by the particular ‘prophet’ of God. It is a gracious blessing of God, to grasp the wisdom of the ages that He has for us.

“And though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains,”

Without “love”, a person exercising “all faith” in God, so as to bring about the miraculous, becomes ‘selfish entertainment’ & a display of personal pride.

•The devil does & will do the same thing during the Tribulation thru his Antichrist’s false prophet(Rev. 13:13). He will bring about his miracles with the intent of calling attention to himself & thus deceiving the whole world.

Rev. 13:13-14—“He[the Antichrist’s false prophet] performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword & lived.”

So great ability—even ability given by God’s graciousness—CAN become a means of subtle deception, when employed without ‘agape love.’ God’s love calls us to share truth in love. And God’s love calls us to point to to Him rather than to ourselves.

Mat. 17:20—Jesus to the disciples when they could not cast out a demon—“So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ & it will move; & nothing will be impossible for you.”

•It is not so much that the ‘degree’ of faith is the point here, but rather that real faith—full faith, ‘agape love’ faith, saving faith, faith that pleases God—is the point!

So IF(“though”) a child of God were to “have” been graced by God with the gift of “prophecy”—that is, be gifted with that ability—& further in that discipline to be able to “understand all mysteries” as well as “all knowledge,” AND be able to exercise it in the fullness of(“all”) the commitment of “faith,”—so that even “mountains” were moved from their place(Mat. 17:20; 21:21), that is quite an ability!...