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1 Corinthians 13:1-13 Why is Love So Important? Madi Shover and John King August 20, 2017 JK

• We are continuing in our series of messages on the book of 1 Corinthians, and today Madi Shover is here with me to team preach with me on Chapter 13 - the “Love” chapter.

• In a day and age of overt racism, anger, political backbiting and posturing; in a day and age of polarization, fear, and disintegration of our American culture, what is the answer? As we read the Bible, it becomes more and more apparent that the right question to ask is not “What is the answer?” but “Who is the answer?” It is Christ, who loved his enemies and who called us to do the same. It is Christ who prayed for his enemies. It is Christ who overcame evil with good. Jesus Christ is the embodiment of love in action. The timing of today's message on 1 Corinthians 13 is uncanny, and as we look for an answer to the dilemma our nation is in, and as we look for an answer to the dilemmas that we find ourselves in personally, love is the way through it.

• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. understood that a non-violent approach to injustice is the most effective way to allow the Kingdom of God to expand. Fighting hate - with hate and anger - only brings about more hate and anger.

• But overcoming evil with good, and understanding that love does not delight in any form of evil, but that love rejoices in the truth - that is the way to resolve and solve many problems our country is facing these days… and it is also the answer to many individual conflicts that people have.

• 1 Corinthians 13 is often read at weddings to talk about the love between a husband and a wife. But read in context, we understand that Paul wrote these words, inspired by God, to challenge people to come to unity in the Church first. Our hope and prayer is that we will unite under the banner of the love of Jesus Christ, and that we will respond in that same love of Jesus Christ to others in our community. The words to an old camp song really rings true: “And they’ll know we are Christians by our Love.”

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• Tina Turner sang, “What’s love got to do with it? • The Apostle Paul says: “EVERYTHING.” • Tina Turner in her famous R&B song said, “What’s love got to do

with it?” • The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 says “Love has EVERYTHING

TO do with it.”

Madi When was the last time you used the word love? For me, it was about 15 times yesterday to describe the chips at juice and java, I literally bought an entire pound bag of them.

• Like my use of the word love for potato chips, we have become so casual, almost careless in the way we use the word love now days.

• Middle schoolers use the phrase ‘I love you’ after two weeks of “dating”

But the word wasn’t always used so freely, in fact the biblical authors were strategic in their use of the word. There are actually over 15 different words in the bible that all english translations translate simply to the word Love. 9 of those are greek and found in the new testament

• In the original text each different word implied something a little different, so to better understand the word love as it is used in this passage, we have to go back and see which specific word in the greek Paul used

• The word used is agape is used 114 times in the new testament

Agapē : The ACTIVE love of God for his son and for his people and the active love his people are to have for God, each other, and even enemies

That’s a different description of love than we are used too huh? - That’s because the world often confuses love and lust.

- Merriam Webster dictionary defines lust as “Pleasure, or delight. With personal inclinations”

• Lust looks out for self • Lust is a feeling that comes and goes

So if what we usually think of as love is actually lust, What is love actually, and why is it important?

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- Love is meant to be an active thing, it says it right there in the Agape definition “The ACTIVE love” It is a dying to oneself and one's own desires. This is in a romantic relationship and other relationships! Love is selfless! What role does love play in your faith?

• Faith is a verb, not a noun. For those of you bad at english like myself, that means that faith is an activity, not something we possess for our own personal use

o You hear people say ‘my faith is personal, between me and God’. While yes, it can be a personal thing, I don’t personally believe it was ever meant to end there

o If our faith is an active part of us, and love is an active part of our faith, then love plays a key role in how we show our faith to others

o Love shows us how to make investments in things that will last a lifetime vs. things that are temporary

o It is a long term thing! When we invest in loving others, you are investing in people and things that will remain forever, on earth and in eternity

JK

• So let’s read this passage of Scripture from 1 Corinthians 13, and in order to do that, I am actually going to ask you to look up on the screen or in your electronic devices, and I am going to read from the New Living Translation (NLT)

• Why? Sometimes it is good to read another translation of a passage that you might be familiar with.

Madi - Read the passage 1 Corinthians 13 - If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

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4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. 8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture!10 But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless. 11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely 13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. MADI: Transition from this passage to the question: “Why is love so important”

Love is important because:

1. Without love, everything else is pointless JK:

• This past year, I presided at the funeral of a godly man named Henry Goshow. He was a retired pastor from a little town in Sullivan County, PA called Estella, right close to World’s End State Park. For 30 years, Henry and his wife lived in that community, raised their family, and worked among the people. Henry’s wife, Irene, battled Chronic arthritis and other medical issues which rendered her unable to do many of the household chores. Henry lovingly cared for her for about 3 decades until she passed away. Henry started coming to my previous church soon after his wife died, and he was one of those godly men that everyone

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listened to. And there is one thing he said that I will take with me for the rest of my life:

• “I would much rather have the Fruit of the Spirit than the Gifts of the Spirit.”

• What was he getting at here? • Last week, Layne spoke about spiritual gifts and how God uses

people and their gifts to build up the body of Christ, until we all can become mature and complete.

• Spiritual gifts. • But what is the fruit of the Spirit? • • When you plant an apple tree, when you water it, make sure it is

protected from disease and insects, when you fertilize it, what would you expect that the apple tree would look like about this time of year?

• • It’s going to look like about that. • Fruit is the result. • So what about a new believer who trusts the Holy Spirit to lead

them and guide them, and they plant their roots deeply in good soil. If they regularly drink from God’s word, and they develop habits of godliness to help them grow, what is the result?

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• The result is Spiritual Fruit: • But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness,

goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

• Galatians 5:22-23 • Paul is saying here that if we live and walk by the Spirit of God, we

will have these things in increasing measure. And when we are doing that, we won’t have to worry at all about following a set of rules. We will just naturally do that.

• So when my friend, Henry Goshow said, • “I would much rather have the Fruit of the Spirit than the Gifts of

the Spirit.” • What he was saying is that instead of a preoccupation with having

the best spiritual gifts, which are given by God anyway, how about we focus on the fruit of the Spirit instead and let the Lord give us the gifts He wants to give us?

• Paul writes this in the first part of Chapter 13: • If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels (spiritual

gift of speaking in tongues), but didn’t love others (spiritual fruit), I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the (spiritual) gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge (spiritual gift of knowledge), and if I had such faith that I could move mountains (spiritual gift of faith), but didn’t love others (fruit), I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor (spiritual gift of giving) and even sacrificed my body (spiritual gift of martyrdom), I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others (spiritual fruit), I would have gained nothing.

• Our nation these days could use a little lesson from Paul on this one.

• It’s as if Paul could rewrite 1 Corinthians 13 for us with a few little twists:

• If I could speak eloquently and decisively and win every argument against racism and injustice, but I did not truly love others, my speaking would only be like a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

• If I had the gift of knowledge and could fathom all the problems in our world, and if I had a faith that could change the minds of

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people, but didn’t have love to back it up, then it would mean nothing, because their hearts would not follow.

• If I understand everything about who God is. If I am always on the right side of truth, but I am meaner than a junkyard dog, I lose. Every. Time.

• There’s great wisdom in what Henry told me that day many years ago.

• Why is love so important? Because everything else is pointless without love.

• And Secondly, love shows us what eternity is really like 2. It shows us what eternity is like. Madi:

• How many of you have heard things, or said them yourselves, like “I tried to be patient with ________ but you can only try so many times.” or “okay but what’s in it for me?”

o These are common expressions in our culture today - self promoting society -

o Also saw this quote: “Don’t kill people with kindness, because not everyone deserves your kindness. Kill people with silence, because not everyone deserves your attention. -unkown

• Our culture is defined by being self made; success measured by how many people know your name or how many possessions you can accumulate.

o The world notices nothing wrong with this, in fact it is celebrated!

o So why then does that raise flags to us as christians ? (or it should, if it doesn’t see one of us after service, lol)

o This is because earth is not our home. ▪ As Christians our home is in heaven. You’ve

heard the term ‘citizens of heaven’ ▪ Just like there is a culture here on earth there is

a ‘culture’ if you will in heaven. o The ‘culture’ of heaven is opposite from everything

about our natural human culture

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▪ Like Cody talked about a few weeks ago, heaven is an upside down kingdom

• Verses 8-10 says, • 8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special

knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture!10 But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.

• We have a hard time grasping the culture of heaven and eternity because right now we see only in part

• The culture of heaven doesn’t make sense to our fallen human brains

o No selfishness in heaven o No hatred o No anger, etc.

• Jesus operated from heaven’s culture not earth’s, hence why people didn’t understand why he did things

o The Messiah that they had always pictured rode in with triumph and violence on a horse to save his people, while Jesus did not encourage violence, he prayed for his enemies instead of killing them and, on many occasions, he didn’t want people to tell others that he was the messiah

• So what is heaven’s culture? o To see heaven’s culture look at Jesus

▪ sees the big picture - eternity • Like in Matthew 5 when Jesus raised the

synagogue leader’s daughter to life ▪ values the individual and their heart over self ▪ Heaven’s culture is described by love

o Love bridges the gap between heaven’s culture and

earth’s culture o When we understand love in the truest sense of the

word, we can better understand heaven’s culture • List out the attributes of love from 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7 • Love is Patient, Love is kind, it does not envy, it does not

boast, it is not proud, it does not dishonor others, it is not

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self seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs, love does not delight in evil but it rejoices in truth.

o This is heaven’s culture • If we are citizens of heaven, and love is the culture of

heaven, we should be operating out of these characteristics o How do we do that?

▪ Work on living out those qualities! • I’m going to read the passage again, but

this time insert my name. I want to encourage yall to insert your name into this verse while I read it, and ask the Lord to show you which of these characteristics you need to work on. And if you don’t feel like you need to work on any of these, I challenge you to as the Lord to search your heart for pride, because none of us are perfect humans. We always have something to work on.

▪ Madi is Patient, Madi is Kind, Madi does not envy, Madi does not boast, Madi is not proud, Madi does not dishonor others, Madi is not self seeking, Madi is not easily angered, Madi keeps no record of wrongs, Madi does not delight in evil but she rejoices in truth.

• Are you all of these things? • Does the way you react in EVERY

situation look like these things? o Imagine what your marriages, friendships etc. could

be like if both people operated out of these characteristics

▪ Students! This goes for your relationship with your parents as well!

• The Bottom Line is that God is Love, and Love is these qualities, and we as christians are supposed to be a reflection of God. Therefore we need to exude these qualities in our everyday life.

• Check it: Paul says, “If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of

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prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.”

• In other words church, you can do all the ‘spiritual things’ and all the right things, but if you aren’t living out these qualities, to EVERYONE then it’s all for nothing

• Think about it, this is such a counter cultural concept, that if we all walked out of this building and started living this out with everyone we came in contact with, it would catch their attention!

o That is something people will remember their whole life,

So why is love so important? Without love, everything else is pointless It shows us what eternity is like, and third… It helps us see things clearly

3. It Helps us See Things Clearly JK:

• The images that we have seen in the news recently are disheartening and confusing. Hatred of the Jews, hatred of people of color. People carrying images that have stood for the subjugation of people of color for centuries in our nation.

• How could these people do that? I’m angry. I need to do something. My blood pressure is boiling because of these people. I need to fight back. I need to #Resist.

• Instead, maybe a better response is to ask the WWJD question. How did Jesus respond to injustice?

• Answer: He responded with adult love. With mature love: • 11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a

child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

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• As I have walked with the Lord for a number of years, I’m so glad

that he was gracious to me through my immaturity. I am realizing as I grow older… that responding to evil the way Jesus did was much more effective in the end. I don’t know about you, but I’m beginning to see things with a little more clarity than I did.

• And you know what? There is coming a day when I will see God face to face and clearly understand what love really looks like.

• I don’t have it all together as a follower of Jesus, but I’m looking forward to the day when I can see what true perfection looks like.

• And do you know what I will see? I will see love. • It’s kinda like a teenager who doesn’t see things quite clearly. And

then they hit their mid twenties and have to live on their own. Isn’t that right, Madi?

Closing: Madi: Story time with madz (segway into unity in the church begins with unity in the home)

I mentioned briefly a few minutes ago about how this love should affect all relationships, including the ones between parents and children. I want to share a little bit about how as a teenager I failed at this.

• I butted heads with my parents, I didn’t respect them as the Lord called me to.

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• Students, you should treat everyone with this kind of love, and your parents even MORE so because you are called to give them a higher level of respect.

• Not respect if they respect you • Not respect if you think they deserve it • Respect period. Because God told you to. • Believe it or not, they DO happen to know what they are

talking about • They have lived longer than you and have walked through

what you’re walking through all ready • If they say no, they have a reason you will understand later

in life. • I’m only 21 and I still have a lot of growing and learning to

do • I’m not always perfect at respecting my parents still, and I’m

figuring out what this new relationship with them looks like now that I’m an adult

• But I had to call them, on multiple occasions, over the years since I moved out and apologize for the way I treated them while I was growing up.

• I get it now, it makes sense, I am so sorry for my disrespect and sass, lol

• If children are treating their parents with this kind of love relationship, and parents are treating their kids with this kind of love relationship, imagine the unity that will take place

• Satan’s biggest goal in the church and families today is to break the unity, starting with marriage and moving into the family unit as a whole

• There is a reason for that! Unity is SO important, and Love is the base for unity

• Love is the glue that holds it all together

o When everyone is putting each other above themselves, and taking care of each other’s needs, there is a strength and unity that can be formed.

o Strongly united families build a strongly united church and when the church is strong and united together, it will be a powerhouse in the community for the kingdom of God! But it all starts with this agape love.

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JK 1 Corinthians 13:13 (NLT) - Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. Colossians 3 12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. 15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.