TEACHING BRIEF
Date Written: August 22, 2012
Date Taught: August 22, 2012
Church: OPBC (Wed Night)
FOUNDATIONAL ELEMENTS
Series Title: A Study of 1 Cor 13 [LOVE]
Sermon Title: What is Love - Introduction
Text: 1 Cor 13 NIV (read ALL passage here)
Introduction:
What is love? What does it mean to say that we ‘love’ someone? Our world has its own meanings and we know that it twists this word to places that God did NOT intend…
Love in today’s world is all about a physical attraction and personal happiness. Love is used in just about every case in today’s world as a noun… like it is something we can HOLD or TOUCH or SMELL!
We hear people say things like “I fell in love with him!” or the opposite of that “we have drifted apart and we have fallen out of love” as if love was a place where we can park our hearts and dwell for a lifetime!
I believe it is safe to say that our world’s view of love is far removed from the love God describes in His word. We can study all throughout the Bible on love and we can come to a good knowledge of what God reveals to us as TRUE love…
Let’s take a look at some of the words for love in Scripture:
In the OT there is…
There is the Hebrew word aw-hab’ which represents wide myriad of things: It can represent God’s love for humanity, humanity’s love for God, humanity’s familial love or love of another human OR it can mean human affection for some other thing such as food or a pet…
There is also the Hebrew word khaw-shak’ which is a word that means to come alongside and attach yourself to… a reference to God ‘choosing’ Israel b/c He loved them!
Another Hebrew word for love is Racham which means to love deeply, to have mercy, to be compassionate or have tender affection, to have compassion upon someone.
In the NT there is…
There are the Greek words:
Philadelphi’a which is a brotherly love for those around you
Philathanpi’a which is a general love of humanity; a benevolent love wishing to meet the needs of others
Eros which is the erotic and romantic love between husband and wife
Agape which is a love that comes without conditions or strings attached… it is a love that loves for love sake… this is a picture of God’s love for us!
There are many other words from Scripture, both in the OT and the NT that are translated into our ONE English word we call love…
But what does the word love mean in our society today? According to Wikipedia on the internet, in English, the word love refers to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes of the human condition. Love is described as an emotion of a strong affection and personal attachment.
However, what Wikipedia says and what our common culture reveals are two different things. Our society places so much emphasis on what I would call the ‘Hollywood’ culture or ‘Hollywood bias’ when it comes to almost any subject.
Today when ‘love’ is mentioned in Hollywood it generally means that 2 people have come together in what Hollywood would consider a meaningful sexual relationship.
In our society today things are quite backward from what God has set forth in His word about love and companionship. In God’s plan a person would commit in love to another person thru a cultural ceremony and then a sexual relationship would begin.
However, today, that commitment and ‘love’ is NOT a prerequisite to a sexual relationship… but society actually believes that a sexual relationship leads to a loving relationship.
But I don’t want to get too far off what we are talking about here and that is LOVE and what LOVE really is for the believer! I am NOT here to talk about sex, but about love. I want to further condense our study on love to a particular focus on love and that is the love believers are called to have for those around them and for the world.
We know that, as believers, we are called by God to love those in the world, those who are fellow believers and those in our lives that God has placed there… we are called to love ALL people regardless of who they are, what they do, or how they treat us… and this is a really difficult job!
Have you ever thought about what that command from God means? God has told us to love Him with all our hearts, soul, body, mind and strength AND to love our neighbor as we love ourselves! Or if we boil it down to a phrase… we are called to Love God and Love people!
But what does that LOVE consist of? It is surely NOT the romantic love between a husband and a wife… It is also not the yearning love that we express for a good steak or a juicy piece of fruit… this love is different…
God used the pen of the Apostle Paul to paint a picture of this sort of love… Paul wrote it in his letter to the church in Corinth…a church that had love all screwed up… a church that had lost the meaning of love and had begun to accept the world’s view about love!
Paul paints God’s picture of what love is supposed to look like and in 1 Cor 13 we find Paul giving us the basic/foundational meaning of love, the meaningful characteristics of this godly love and finally he shares with us an understanding of this love!
The foundational significance of love:
1If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
2If 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 do not have love, I am nothing.
3If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
We will be coming back to this section to get a closer look… but tonight I want us to see that Paul gives us 3 specific examples that illustrate the fundamental importance of love for the believer.
1st regarding a spiritual nature… I can be the most spiritual person and even speak with a heavenly language, but if I don’t have love in me… it is all just empty noise!
2nd is regarding a intellectual nature… Hey I can be the smartest most well read believer…knowing all of what the Bible says and all of the Greek and Hebrew languages… I can even put my intellect to faith and believe that God can do anything, but if I don’t have love in my life… it is all useless knowledge!
3rd Paul speaks to the societal or inter-community part of who we are as humans (how we relate to other humans) He says that I can be the most giving man and sacrifice ALL of who I am for others, but if I don’t have love in my heart, it is all for naught… it is an empty gesture and God will not take it into account!
Basically what Paul is saying here is that LOVE is the foundation for life… when we become believers, love is our foundation. This makes perfect sense… John tells us in 1 John that God is love… that we did not know love until God loved us… and when God thru His Son Jesus enters into our hearts…
LOVE COMES IN! That love is the love Paul is speaking about… a godly love that enters in the believer upon receiving Jesus as Lord and Savior of their life! That love that comes with Jesus MUST be the foundation of our life… we must be transformed by God’s spirit… transformed by HIS LOVE!
What Paul is saying here is that it doesn’t matter how spiritual we act, or how much we know or even how much we do or accomplish in our lives… that all means NOTHING if we don’t have love! Without love we are empty and our lives are meaningless!
The love Paul is speaking about here is not a human love for his brother, although that can be part of it, but it is the love that comes with knowing the Savior… a transforming love that brings a soul from death to life and shines the light of God’s grace and mercy upon it!
The word Paul uses for love here is the Greek word agape’ which is the godly love that comes without conditions…
When you think about it… our love for others is very often based upon conditions and situations that we have set… it could be as simple as we love because that love is returned to us… or we love because of what people DO for us or GIVE TO us… rarely is love given without conditions… one human example of this is a mother’s love!
We hear that a mother’s love can cover a multitude of sins… but there can come a point and time when Mom will stop loving her child… we are human and we all have our breaking point.
But the agape’ love of God goes beyond all boundaries and we are called to love others with this agape’type love… we cannot do it on our own, but it can only be accomplished thru our faith and trust in Jesus Christ! But in Christ we are able to love as Paul lays out here in these first few verses…
Paul lays out the foundational importance of love and then he begins to expound on the beautiful characteristics of TRUE godly love (Christian love)
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
Patient - able to endure waiting, delay, or provocation calmly without becoming annoyed or upset.
Kind – having generosity toward and showing generosity toward others
Not Envy – does NOT have resentful or unhappy feelings toward somebody else’s success, good fortune, qualities, or possessions, but rather is happy for them and wishes them well.
Not Boast – means to NOT refer immodestly to our possessions or achievements… is NOT prideful, does not bring attention to itself!
Not Proud – means to NOT be arrogant or have an exaggerated opinion or inflated self worth.
5It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Does NOT Dishonor – means it is never the cause of shame or loss of respect for another. It never brings shame upon itself or those associated with you…
NOT Self-Seeking – love is NOT concerned with its own interests, needs, and wishes… it does NOT ignore those of others
NOT Easily Angered – this does not mean that those with love cannot be angry, but what it DOES mean is that they don’t get there quickly… they do not have a strong feeling of grievance and displeasure about something very easily… this goes back to being patient with others!
Keeps NO record of wrongs – this one characteristic is probably the back breaker for most believers! We all love to keep score, don’t we? We may say that people are forgiven and we have moved on, but in our minds we are thinking, “…that’s ONE…” or “…he we go again…”
TRUE Christian love is able, because of Christ, to forgive, reconcile and put behind them the things of the past and focus on the relationship and the things of NOW and the future.
6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. Does NOT Delight in Evil- I don’t think there are any of us here who believes that we delight in evil, but the problem is what we consider ‘evil’. What is evil? Most of us think about Hitler, Stalin or some other despot who dominated over people with an iron fist and a bloody hand!
HOWEVER, this goes so much further than this… is a very strong feeling toward ANYTHING immoral or unjust… regardless of how it may look to the world… right is right and wrong is wrong…
BUT Rejoices in the Truth- this means just the opposite… that love rejoices in TRUTH… This is two fold:
a) first and foremost the TRUTH here is Christ Jesus the person… He says I am the way the TRUTH and the life! TRUE love rejoices in the epitome of TRUE love and that is JESUS Christ!
B) also love rejoices in the truth when justice prevails! When righteousness is elevated and unrighteousness is taken down.
7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love always protects… other translations read love ‘bears’ all things. The word Paul uses here is the Greek word steg’oh which is a word that means to protect by covering. It is a picture of a protective shield… True love always seeks IN LOVE to protect and shield… it ‘bears’ the weight of protection for those it loves!
This verse also states that love always trusts… WOW! Now that is a hard one! ALWAYS?? It reminds me of Peter’s question for Jesus about forgiveness… ‘how many times do I need to forgive those who have hurt me Jesus? Seven times?’
Peter’s mind was not the mind of a horrible person, but the mind of a human who simply gets frustrated when it seems as if they are being taken advantage of… that is what this is all about as well…
Love always TRUSTS… but preacher what about those who have broken that trust, how can I continue to trust them. Well the actual word used here is the same word used in John 3:16 that says whoever ‘believes’ in Jesus shall not die but have eternal life…
That is the Greek word piss-tay-you-oh which means to have faith in… to believe in… to have confidence in…
This means that even when someone has broken our trust that we are to be quick to restore that trust and we are to show confidence in that person to enable them to rebuild that trust once again… this is a hard thing, but this is what LOVE does!!
Love always hopes and always perseveres… Have you ever had a child that was a problem child? One that always seemed to make the bad choices? I’m sure that we ALL have had to deal with that, but as parents we NEVER gave up on them… we always hope for the best and we persevere in loving them!
This is what this means! To persevere means to hold on… to wait patiently… to endure thru… When we love someone with this type of love, we can ride thru the hard times with them because we are willing to persevere and we never give up hope!
8Love 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.
Love NEVER fails… in other words love is never wasted! We may not see the result WE want, but it is NOT because of the love we had or showed! Love when done properly… like this type of love… is NEVER wasted or does it ever fail! Jesus IS love and He did not fail and His love will not fail either…
Paul goes on to say, there are many things in this world that we may THINK are lasting, but that they ALL will eventually fail us and fade away… things like the gifts of prophecy and tongues (which was actually what he was writing about in the chapter before this and in the chapter after this…) Those things are temporary is what Paul is saying… they are NOT permanent.
Our Understanding of Love
9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.
Here Paul uses the illustration of Prophecy… he says here that even with all the great prophecy out there, we will NEVER understand it completely… and that we will never even KNOW all things completely… but that there will be a time when all things will be revealed to us… and when that happens we will have full knowledge and when that happens all doubt will disappear, but up to then we will be in the dark about some things…
11When 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 the ways of childhood behind me. 12For now we see only a 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.
In v.11-12 Paul is speaking about understanding… he says that when we are young and immature we understand like young, immature people… but when we mature, we place those immature thoughts and actions behind us and move forward to maturity!
We don’t see everything clearly… Paul says FOR NOW we see only a reflection. Did you know that your reflection is actually you looking into the past? It is nano-seconds, but it takes time for the image from the mirror to be seen and translated by your brain… so what you are seeing is actually NOT what is standing in front of the mirror (not technically anyway)
We see things like that… just a bit out of sync with complete TRUTH, but Paul tells us that THEN… speaking of the day when we are all called home to be with the Lord… THEN we shall see all things clearly!
What we did NOT understand here will be discovered there… What we do not know NOW will be revealed THEN… Here Paul is stressing that the church in Corinth strive toward maturity as believers, but to understand that they are NOT going to understand all things while here…
Why would Paul speak about Christian maturity in these verses? Wasn’t he just speaking about LOVE… what happened? Well actually NOTHING happened…
Paul was merely sharing that truly mature believers reveal this type love and they are NOT always going to understand WHY they have to… or WHY God is calling them to love like this…
BUT if they are truly mature believers… they won’t whine and complain about having to love when they don’t think they should… if they are truly mature believers they are going to move on to loving as God has called them to love!
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Finally Paul ends this chapter with a statement that clarifies his point… but also serves as a guidepost for ALL believers on what is important in the life of a believer!
Here Paul emphasizes three very important aspects to the Christian life… FAITH, HOPE and LOVE! Faith being our path to salvation through Jesus Christ. Hope being our future with God in Heaven… BOTH of these things are great, but ONE DAY both will be MOOT!
One day our salvation will be fulfilled and our hope will be realized as we step into God’s heaven and our eternal reward… BUT, Paul says… LOVE will never go out of style… never be passé… LOVE will always endure! Even when we get to heaven… love will reign supreme!
So what does this mean for us? What does this say about the Christian faith? Well… this says that we should LOVE at all costs! That LOVE is our foundation and LOVE should be our action! LOVE is not something we ‘fall into’ but is something we DO…
Love is NOT a noun… LOVE is a verb! We must be active in our Christian walk to SHOW love… its not about what we say, its about how we love in our actions!
There is an old proverb…it’s NOT in the Bible but it carries with it a great biblical truth and that is this:
They don’t care how much you know… until they know how much you care! People we have to LOVE our city, we have to love our community…
Loving them, means reaching out TO them and for them… Loving them means getting involved in community affairs with them… Loving them requires us to stop whining about how it affects us, but for us to be mature believers who understand that it is NOT all about me and although I may not understand it…
God has called me TO IT… to love Him and to love others! Where are you this evening?
