I invite you to turn in the Scriptures tonight to the book of 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter 13, the well-known passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. And if you're a visitor tonight, we have been working through this book, and tonight we come to chapter 13, which is on page 1220 in your pew Bible if you're looking for that. I'm only going to really consider up to verse 8. The latter part of chapter 13 is important enough to have another sermon. So, we will consider tonight the first eight verses and there's a lot here. You'll see. Let's give our attention tonight to the word of the Lord. 1 Corinthians chapter 13. if i speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love i am a noisy gong or a clanging symbol and if i have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and if i have all faith so as to remove mountains but have not love i am nothing if i give away all that I have and if I deliver up my body to be burned but have not love I gain nothing love is patient and kind love does not envy or boast it is not arrogant or rude it does not insist on its own way it is not irritable or resentful it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. We'll end the reading of God's Word there. We come tonight to one of the most beautiful passages in the New Testament. In fact, it's such a masterpiece in the midst of what has been a book of conflict after conflict after conflict, it is regarded from a literary perspective as one of the greatest passages that Paul ever penned. I mean, the beauty of what I just read, which makes a pastor feel like if you say anything by way of explanation, you might wreck its beauty. One writer once said, too much analysis will detract from its beauty and its power. I believe that's right. If you listen to it, you really do feel that this is the key passage having to do with sanctification. Remember, this was said at the beginning of the book that he emphasized the need for sanctification in the church of Corinth, and you really do come to sort of the great passage of sanctification here that deals with that subject tonight in 1 Corinthians 13. The challenge is, and I assume this because this is what I've experienced most of my life in hearing this passage, it's a wedding passage, it's a love passage for a wedding, is that generally it's ripped out of its context and the applications are abused so that it loses its real effect that should really be there in our hearts and our lives as we think about this text and apply this great text. It's only appreciated and rightly understood in the context to which God gave it. And I hope by now you've understood the problem in Corinth. It's a big problem. In the last chapter, chapter 12, Paul has been dealing with gifts. And you'll remember he said something in verse 31 of the last chapter. he said, but earnestly desire the best gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way. The difficult there is to read it as an imperative or an indicative. The forms aren't so clear. It could read, but you desire the higher gifts. You desire the best gifts. but i've got a more excellent way for you and that sure captures the context doesn't it this is where all your desire is you guys want to be something you want to be great but let me show you a far more excellent way your hearts are set on this but let me show you something that's actually far greater let me show you something that pales in comparison to everything that you are after now, let me show you something so much greater, everything else pales in comparison. Let all of your activity and your service be controlled by this, by this. What has Paul been dealing with in this church? Well, he's been dealing with a lot of division. He's been dealing with problem after problem. He's been dealing with what they saw as super pastors, great pastors. They were after the pastor that gave them the greatest experience. They had a worldly view of ministry. It was all about feelings dominated. It wasn't about the truth. It wasn't about the foolishness of the message preached. It was about the show. They wanted to show. They wouldn't discipline. There was no discipline in this church. They refused to do it. There were abuses at the Lord's table. There were nothing but divisions. In chapter 8, he introduced a real problem that their knowledge was puffing them up. All of their understanding and convictions were being used to wound the consciences of others. And then we looked at the gifts. Their eyes were all on those who could speak in tongues. Wow. Those who could do the miracles. Those who could do the real wow gifts. The extraordinary gifts were being used to promote them. Those who could do the greatest gifts received the greatest approbation and praise from men. And everybody wanted to be like that. Everybody secretly envied that. And the whole body was suffering. We've looked at this. The whole body was suffering from this because they didn't understand that God fits together a body. God fits together a church, and He gives everyone specific gifts, and they are important for the whole. When gifts are treated, as we do in our world, like a rock star mentality, the whole body suffers as the lesser gifts, in their eyes, are undervalued and not used. What a tragedy. Paul kept saying, Paul was making the point that gifts should be used for the common good of the body. I can't emphasize that enough. Common good. And last time we looked at those supernatural gifts, those extraordinary gifts, he tied to extraordinary offices of the apostles and the prophets. And then he says, but now since you are all desiring those things, I actually have a better and more excellent way for you. Here's the question. What was, in all of our study in these past months of Corinthians, what was the real problem in this church? I believe you can answer that by chapter 13. In many ways, the real problem exposed in the life of Corinth could be addressed right here. What was it? A church without love. A church without love. they had turned inward and everything was about their own interests and their attitude that dominated corinth what this all exposed was a very selfish attitude and there was no love being promoted for one another and that's what paul's explaining paul's explaining that without love nothing we do in the life of the church nothing in our service is having the right effect it doesn't really matter. This passage is designed to function as a test of our motivations in our service and convictions in the body. It's a test chapter. And so it really does help us tonight to look at this from these two sort of angles, what conduct without love looks like and what conduct with love looks like that seems to be the simplest outline tonight conduct what conduct without love looks like and what conduct with love looks like the passage really does provide for us a biblical definition and understanding of true love and i suppose it's important always to clear away all the baggage that surrounds this word love how many times have we heard the beetle song all we need is love. And that's not the kind of love the Bible's talking about, let me tell you. It seems to be the principal subject of all songs today you turn on the radio that we just need love. Love is what we had. If we just had love, society would function correctly. To which I answer, well, it depends on how you understand and define love. From a biblical view, love has nothing to do with the sort of way that the world applies the use of love. When people talk about love today, we know this. We know this. It's sentimental and it's completely feeling driven. It really is just sheer emotion and feeling when we talk about love. In most cases, love is used as a romantic way and that has even been pushed into the church in many of our songs that Jesus is spoken of as we love him romantically, which is totally improper. But that's the way it's typically used, unfortunately. That kind of word in the scriptures is found, that word for love, when it talks about sexual love or intimate love in that kind of way, is the word eros, where we get this understanding of sexual love. You have other uses of the word love. Of course, you've probably heard all this at a wedding. Philos, which means a sharing love and it expresses a sort of affection that we have for one another as brothers and sisters and family. Family. Common attractions. That kind of love. The word that we're running up against tonight is the word you all know a lot and have heard about. It's the word agape. A giving love. A love which promotes, really, the best way to define it is a sacrificial love for the benefit of the other person. It doesn't have your own interests in mind. This love is giving rather than getting. It's emphasized all over the Scriptures. 1 John 4 even speaks of it here and says, God is love, using that very word, agape. The one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in Him. true Christian character evidenced by this kind of love why well 1st Thessalonians 4 says for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another he taught you this you didn't learn it anywhere else you've not come to to understand love apart in this way from him it's what Jesus spoke of by this you will all know and this is the gems tonight what we what we read you'll all know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another what jesus was saying is a new commandment i give you that you love one another in other words he was making it very clear that i have come now and given this command because i've shown you ultimately what the love of god looks like i've demonstrated that love i've taught you that love how did he teach us that love the father did not spare His own Son, and the Son gave up His life for us. John 16, the Father Himself loves you. I've always been amazed by that. The Father Himself loves you because you have loved me. We all know it's one thing to say we love, but to demonstrate that love looks a lot like the kind of sacrificial love. We have been taught when we read in the Scriptures, while you were enemies, Christ died for you. That's love. Or, John 13, having loved His own, He loved them to completion. He loved them to the end. And what did He do right after that? He gets up and He drops, He transforms Himself, if you will, by girding himself and putting on a towel and gets on his feet and washes his knees and washes his disciples' feet. A slave did that. The Lord of glory got on his knees and did that. You've been taught it. You know it. It satisfies your souls. That's why we come to worship, to hear about that love. Christ's love was a selfless love. He denied himself. He promoted others' interests. He put the lives of others before his. He loved when he was hated. He gave when he was scorned. He provided when he was despised. He sacrificed when no one asked. That's your God. You're taught by God to love. That's not sentimental. It's not an armchair love. It's a love in action. Now back to Corinth. What does Paul use here as the greatest manner of exaggeration? What he does is use the greatest manner of exaggeration to emphasize the value of love in the body of Christ. Greatest amount of exaggeration. And he uses, I came up with three categories here you could summarize from the text. The greatest voice, the greatest mind, and the greatest giver. The greatest voice, the greatest mind, and the greatest giver. Look at it. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, i am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal if i have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and have all faith so as to remove mountains but have not love i am nothing keep in mind in corinth that tongue speaking was seen as the pinnacle the real height of all the best gifts. Paul starts, if I was able to use the tongues of angels when I spoke, if I had the greatest preaching voice, if I had the greatest communicative abilities ever given to a man. Remember, Paul was criticized for not being able to speak very well. The church was caught up in all the excellency of speech as the place where God was really communicating in the oratory skills of the speaker. If I had all that, if I was the greatest orator that ever existed, if I was Golden Mouth Chrysostom, that's what he was called, the great preacher in the early church, they called him Golden Mouth because he was so effective. If I was so eloquent that I sounded like the best piece of musical instrumentation you have ever heard. But have not love. I'm nothing. You ever heard a gong? You ever heard a clanging cymbal? He uses something here to describe the worst sound that could ever come out. I won't try to make the worst sound ever tonight. That's what you are. You have no effect in people's lives at all. All of your eloquence, all of your fine speaking, you have no effect. You are no prophet even if you have the greatest golden mouth. Then Paul does something else. The greatest mind. A beautiful mind. If I could prophesy, in other words, if I have the ability to put together the scriptures so that everyone says, wow, that guy can really bring it home. Then Paul kicks the sacred cow, as one pastor called it, knowledge. In the early church, knowledge was everything. If you have read all the fathers in Latin, if you've collected the best of the best and put them in there, You've done so much reading, oh man. You've got so much understanding, let me tell you. You can understand all the mysteries of the faith. You can put it all together for people. If you've got faith itself, this is talking about the great strength of being able to communicate all this and demonstrate that kind of confidence. If you've obtained being the best theologian ever to exist, if you appear strong to everyone so as to move mountains, you say, what a pillar in the faith. A fountain of wisdom and faith and knowledge. A beautiful mind. But have not love. You're worthless. what about the greatest giver ever? If you gave all your goods to feed the poor, you stepped up to martyrdom. You offered your body to go to martyrdom and to be burned by the fire. You said, I'm willing to give my life for this. I'll be a martyr. but have not love. You're nothing. Greatest voice, greatest mind, greatest giver. Are you getting the point? You had all these people in Corinth. Remember, context is so important here. You had all these people in Corinth doing marvelous things, speaking in tongues, trying to value all the greatest, what they thought highest gifts. The church was all caught up with this stuff. To their own hurt. Why? There was no love in it. Gifts are for the common good, says Paul. But what's demonstrated in Corinth is, and think about the massive problem in the church today. What's demonstrated in Corinth is It was all about them. Their speech, their knowledge, their service, it was selfish. These sad fruits had the sad effects and it proved of no love in the life of the body, but nothing but schism and fighting and hatred and jealousies and contentions. Look at the fruit we've been studying in this church over and over and over and over. And the basic point here being that when the church is functioning as it should with gifts, When things are happening and a church is a well-oiled machine, love is being promoted in that place. When it's not, you get all this stuff. This is the sad fruit of no love. Factions, pride, people puffed up, spiritual superheroes, no love. And you see, all of this, Paul is explaining to them to say, whatever you're given is for somebody else. that's the key to this whole thing whatever you are given in the body is for it's designed for someone else so what was the problem it was not and i have to say this tonight because because i i typically hear this passage abused as if knowledge is wrong as if giving is wrong typically knowledge is the one that's hit as if knowledge is some bad thing it's not knowledge that's a bad thing you all should be reading out of the library a lot should be checking out a lot more than we are that's not the problem it's understanding the application and why we have that and it's in the application if you have the ability to be a great orator and and and you're a great speaker and and you're trying to promote the greatness of that gift among the body and the people are all caught up in that, you know something terribly tragic has happened? It's no longer about you. It's about me or about any preacher up here. It's not about that. Whatever gift he gives a preacher or whatever gift he gives an orator is for you. It's for you. The ministry is about the people. there's no love when we're focused on men's abilities if we have perfect doctrine if we're puritan precisionists if we can parse to a t if we know all the hebrew and greek with knowledge why do you think you have that that's wonderful you've got it to be a blessing to everyone else around you It was a gift given for you to help others not prove your correctness. But when it becomes about the rightness of it all, divorced from the blessing of that beautiful mind to help others in the struggle, it has profited you nothing. You're puffed up. You could give your body to martyrdom. Muslims do this. All the time. Even followers of Jesus. They do it with a martyr complex. You know what a martyr complex is? They do it in pride. I'm the last one standing and I'll go right to it. Amazing. You can give your body to be burned in pride. It's so important for us to hear. I want to quote another URC minister at this point. I think it's just vital to hear another pastor in our church say what he says, and I'm going to fully support it. Here's what he says. In my estimation, the primary sin of Christians in our Reformed tradition is pride. We are convinced we're right about doctrine, so everyone else is looked down upon condescendingly. We may be right about our doctrine, but we cannot forget Paul's words, also a doctrine, to the effect that if we have not, have not love for our brothers and sisters, even when we think them wrong, we are nothing but windbags and noisy gongs. Kim Riddlebarger. Great comment. When I went into ministry, I thought I would be fighting all the terrible doctrines of the megachurches, and all the practices of the megachurches. And you know, I have to admit, I was stunned by what I never thought I would have to deal with. So much sectarian behavior and fighting and fighting over things that Christians should not fight over in our own tradition. I'm always nervous preaching a sermon like this because people use love at this point to justify anything, and I'm not doing that. Nor am I ever saying that we don't take stands or stand for what's right and at times have to separate. That's not what I'm saying. Those things have to happen. But I have seen, let me give you an example. Years ago, I remember a man coming up to me and saying, you know, my father, when we were leaving, because of all the bad things happening in a certain Reformed church. He got up in the middle of the worship service and made a scene. And he stormed out. And with such belligerence and anger in front of everyone, and he says, I've never been able to get over that scene. When we fight over certain things, and this becomes a way of life, you train your mind to be a fighter. You train your mind to be a fighter. And this becomes a way of life. So that I've always been nervous that the fighters that came out of certain Reformed churches are just looking for new things to fight for in their true Reformed churches. And in all of that, I watched the next generation of young people bolt out of the church, wanting nothing to do with that junk. It was bitter. There was a martyr complex that was developed only about being what we're against, never what we're for. And the stance was, well, we're just the elect. It's the bad times in which we live. We're the last ones standing who have not bowed down the knee to bail. There's the martyr complex right there. There's the, I could give my body to be burned and still have pride. Fighters. It's not the convictions themselves that are wrong. It's the lack of love behind it. I am reformed tonight because with all of my heart, I believe the doctrine's right. But I know that it could happen, that what Paul describes here as the greatest mind, I could have it all and it could be without love. Do we realize what we have is for others? I didn't know what to make of this. One pastor said, a well-respected pastor, and I still have to ponder it. It's easier to be orthodox than loving. Right theology is not a substitute for love. There is a regulative principle here, you know. The Holy Spirit commands us to love. And that means I don't look at a church and say, well, those people are to this, or those people are to this, or those people are this. Instead, God gave you a gift so that you would encourage those people and help those people who are very hard to love because they probably think the same thing about you. How does it show itself? Well, that's where Paul takes us. God taught us love. That's the beauty of this. God taught us love. And our actions and uses of the gifts in the body have to be controlled by it. So Paul describes love as it should function in the life of the body. Verse four, love is, And here's just this beautiful statement. Where do you begin to preach this? And I admit, I fall short of this everywhere. Everywhere. Love is patient and kind. Does not envy or boast. It's not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It's not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. Hesitate. These are so beautiful. How do you explain those, right? The whole thing, the whole description here is how love should function in the body. That's the intention. And Paul uses verbs to describe it all. You could sum up by saying, love has as its defining characteristic an absolute denial of yourself. And putting the interests and even the consciences, oftentimes, of others before your own. Designed here to change how we think and how we live in the body and how we function in the body. I fully agree, and it's been rightly said, that what is often described here, that in many ways love is personified here and we see Christ. I have no doubt about that. One pastor said it's a portrait here put before us of him sitting before us in this description on a portrait. It's beautiful. This is how he's treated us. This is how he's loved us. Love's patient. It doesn't get upset or frustrated when people are not seeing or do things the way you think it should be done. It doesn't get angry. never avenges itself. Instead, this love is kind. It's concerned about the well-being and the interests of others. It's not envious or boastful. It's not arrogant or rude. You see the spirit behind that? Attitude. Attitude. It means a lot. Arrogance is mentioned and jealousy, being rude, all that comes from pride. It's an attitude of the heart. Sometimes when people have convictions, the entire persona is one of looking down upon somebody else for not seeing or doing things the way that they do. The arrogance is what dominates the behavior and the application of the conviction. Love doesn't insist on its own way. There's a characteristic of a Christian that's willing to yield, willing to yield, willing to give way that the Lord loves, loves it. I'm a firm believer in conscience issues. We have to respect conscience issues. But there are times where conscience issues are way too easily appealed to, which is actually a segue and a way of not denying yourself. There are conscience issues you should stand on the law of God. Absolutely. Martin Luther had to stand on his conscience. But oftentimes, a conscience issue can simply be a way to insist upon your own way with irritability. Love absolutely despises when people do wrong. It's ready to rejoice and celebrate when there's truth. It bears everything. It has a disposition in the midst of interactions with others of believing the best about somebody, which is the thing I never seem to do. Ready to hear the worst. It hopes and it looks for the best in the person. It's willing to stay the course with people and endure and not run the other way. That way never ends, Paul says. There's no end to that. That's the excellent way, brothers and sisters. That's where you'll shine as Christians. You say, I'm so thankful God has loved me like that in Christ. Can you imagine if Christ said, I'm tired of how these people act? I can't imagine if he began to give me what I deserve. I can't imagine if he rejoiced in my wrongdoings. Can you? I can't imagine if he went and told everyone about it. I'd be devastated if I thought he's not going to bear with me. I wouldn't endure. You know, we would not endure. What if he were not patient or kind to us? Think about what you enjoy on a daily basis. I can't imagine if when I broke his law, he said, I'm tired of that. I'm angry. Do you call me teacher? And Lord, you're right, for I am. If I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I've given you an example. Having loved my own, I've loved them to the end. That you should do just as I've done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, it's there. Blessed are you if you do them. God has blessed you. That's an excellent way. It removes all burden from you and you can live as a servant of others. When the gifts of the Spirit are functioning in the body as they should in church life, oh man, that's a place I want to be. I want everyone to ask tonight, are the fruits that have been consistent in your life, have they demonstrated this fruit of love or division, separation? if you are led by the spirit you're not under the law the works of the flesh are evident sexual immorality impurity sensuality idolatry sorcery enmity strife jealousy fits of anger rivalries dissensions divisions envy drunkenness orgies and things like these i warn you as i warned you before those who do such things are not going to inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit. Let us walk by the Spirit. Let us not be conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. That is God's will for us as a church. And since Christ has loved you with an everlasting love all the way to completion, it's not going to be taken, we should ask then Him to help us that this same kind of agape sacrificial love would characterize the Escondido United Reformed Church. I've seen it be a part of that. It makes for a healthy church. And I close with the gems tonight who had us read that in their little litany, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you. You ought also to love one another by this. All people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. Let's pray. thank You, Lord, for Your love for us that's enduring, that's never taken, that completes the work it starts. We're so moved and it drives our whole lives and it softens our hearts and takes away a fighting spirit so that we would begin to love the way we've been taught to love. But we fully confess, Lord, that when we go through 1 Corinthians 13, No one's waving the hand and saying, I've done it. In fact, it drops us to our knees looking to the One who did love and who this is ultimately a portrait of. Nonetheless, being joined to Him, a servant is not greater than his Master. And this is Your will for us. And so give us a taste and help to love fervently with a pure heart since we have been taught to love by You in the cross of Christ. We pray this week that we would be loving. In Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen.