THE GREATEST OF THESE
Scripture: I Corinthians 13
INTRODUCTION:
This chapter of the Bible is recognized as one of the most beautiful literary pieces ever written. It is so spectacular that the preacher often hesitates to touch it lest he or she should impair its splendor by handling it. It certainly is a gem to be held up and admired as it gleams with beauty.
The word “charity” is used in the Bible in a different way than we use it in everyday language. Charity in our sense is lending a helping hand to the needy. However, the word “charity” in the Bible comes from the Greek word “agape” which is defined as love. It may not be love in the sense that we use the word love either.
For many years in American culture, love has been portrayed as a feeling that overcomes you. It includes weak knees, unexplainable head-in-the-clouds and that goofy look other people see on your face. That is not really love, but rather it is romance - a kind of lust-driven drunkenness. Russell Brownworth
Love in the “agape” sense goes beyond most of our ideas of love and can only be expressed fully in us by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. This is because God is love.
26 agape {ag-ah'-pay} from 25; TDNT- 1:21,5; n f
AV- love 86, charity 27, dear 1, charitably+2596 1, feast of charity 1; 116
1) brotherly love, affection, good will, love, benevolence
2) love feasts
Three Divisions -- While meditating over the chapter, I began to see three clear divisions. First, the writing centers on the individual and the possessing or lacking of charity. Second, charity is defined in terms of what it is and what it is not. Third, there is the comparison of the temporal to the eternal. Only what lasts will be important in the end.
I. INDIVIDUALITY --What the individual accomplishes versus charity. (v. 1 – 3)
A. Personal Ability and Achievement (v. 1)
1. Speaking Naturally (Tongues of men.)
a. We communicate in the spoken word.
b. Type of speech changes from scene to scene, situation to
situation. Ex: Business vs. casual
c. Speaking with fluency and eloquency.
Remember Apollos: Acts 18:24 “And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus.”
d. Speaking with the command of various languages.
2. Speaking Spiritually (Tongues of angels.)
a. Higher than men, and therefore, it is to be supposed, speaking
a more exalted language. J. F. B.
b. Perhaps speaking with tongues which is referred to in chapters
12 and 14 in which chapter 13 is sandwiched between.
Paul said “I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than
ye all:” I Cor. 14:18
B. Action In Spiritual Matters (v. 2)
1. Possessing numerous spiritual gifts.
a. Prophecy.
b. Knowledge.
c. Faith.
2. Doing many wondrous works.
a. Understanding mysteries.
b. Moving mountains.
C. Action In Natural Matters (v. 3)
1. Giving of one’s money -- “bestow all my goods”
There may even be, and there is, a great deal of charity without love. It is a very easy thing to toss a coin to a beggar on the street; it is generally an easier thing than not to do it. Henry Drummond
2. Giving of one’s self -- “give my body to be burned”
Evidently as a martyr, or a witness to the truth of religion. Barnes
D. Results if done without charity.
1. Sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. (v. 1)
without soul or feeling J. F. B.
2. I am nothing. (v. 2)
3. It profiteth me nothing. (v. 3)
How often we would look at individuals who possess any or all that is spoken of above and yet lack the love of God, yet we give them great reverence?
The most obvious lesson in Christ’s teaching is that there is no happiness in having or getting anything, but only in giving. Half the world is on the wrong scent in pursuit of happiness. They think it consists in having and getting and in being served by others. It really consists in giving and in serving others. Henry Drummond
II. CHARITY (v. 4 – 7 )
A. What Charity Is
Whenever you attempt a good work you will find other men doing the same kind of work, and probably doing it better. Envy them not. Envy is a feeling of ill-will to those who are in the same line as ourselves, a spirit of covetousness and detraction. Even Christian work is little protection against unchristian feeling. Henry Drummond
Humility -- After you have been kind, after love has stolen forth into the world and done its beautiful work, go back into the shade again and say nothing about it. Love hides even from itself. Love waives even self-satisfaction. Henry Drummond
B. What Charity Does
7. Beareth all things--without speaking of what it has to bear. The same Greek verb as in 1Cr 9:12 . It endures without divulging (covering) to the world personal distress. Literally said of holding fast like a watertight vessel; so the charitable man contains himself in silence from giving vent to what selfishness would prompt under personal hardship.
believeth all things--unsuspiciously believes all that is not palpably false, all that it can with a good conscience believe to the credit of another. Compare Jam 3:17 , "easy to be entreated"; Greek, "easily persuaded."
hopeth--what is good of another, even when others have ceased to hope.
endureth--persecutions in a patient and loving spirit.
thinketh no evil--imputeth not evil (ALFORD); literally, "the evil" which actually is there ( Pro 10:12 1Pe 4:8 ). Love makes allowances for the falls of others, and is ready to put on them a charitable construction. Love, so far from devising evil against another, excuses "the evil" which another inflicts on her (ESTIUS); doth not meditate upon evil inflicted by another (BENGEL); and in doubtful cases, takes the more charitable view (GROTIUS).
It is a wonderful thing that here and there in this hard, uncharitable world there should still be left a few rare souls who think no evil. This is the great unworldliness. Love “thinketh no evil,” imputes no motive, sees the bright side, put the best construction on every action. What a delightful state of mind to live in!!!! Henry Drummond
C. Charity In Us?
1. If we should substitute our name into verses 4 through 7, how many
statements could we read truthfully.
2. Would it be safe to say that few, if any, live in love continuously,
but that love is exhibited in us at times, but at other times the contrary is exhibited.
3. However, it has been said by others that we can substitute the name
of Jesus in verses 4 – 7, there is an even flow and clear example of what Jesus Christ was and is to us.
4. Everything that makes a believer act unselfishly, truthfully,
compassionately and above-and-beyond is motivated by the Master’s love. We love because he first loved us (1 John 4.19). Russell Brownworth
III. ETERNITY (v. 8 – 13)
A. What Now Is
1. As a child.
Though gifts are great to us, they may seem childish in eternity.
2. Through a glass; darkly -- Looking and being known.
Ancient mirrors were made of polished brass or other metals. The contrast is between the inadequate knowledge of an object gained by seeing it reflected in a dim mirror (such as ancient mirrors were), compared with the perfect idea we have of it by seeing itself directly.
3. Needing assistance on life’s journey.
The Gifts of the Spirit.
B. What Then Shall Be
1. As a man.
No more growth necessary. A complete, mature, individual in the
strictest sense.
2. Face to face in the light -- Seeing and knowing
We shall see Him as He is and we shall be like Him.
Knowledge passeth away -- You put yesterday’s newspaper in the fire; it’s knowledge has vanished away. You buy the old editions of the great encyclopedias for a few cents; their knowledge has vanished away. Knowledge does not last. Henry Drummond
3. Laying down all assistance. Journey complete.
CONCLUSION
I. COMPARISON OF THE THREE “GREATS”
Faith and hope are temporal, needed only in this present life. They will disappear when we get to heaven. Jason Duncan
Some think the time will come when two of these three will also pass away – faith into sight, hope into fruition. What is certain is that love must last. God, the Eternal God, is love. Henry Drummond
II. EXALTATION OF THE GREATEST
The immortal soul must give itself to something that is immortal. Henry Drummond
According to Paul, the true measure was the degree of Christian agape. Ed Wood
1. Love is eternal. (vv. 8-13).
2. Love is indispensable.
3. Everything minus love equals nothing.
The world is not a playground; it is a schoolroom. Life is not a holiday, but an education. And the one eternal lesson for us all is how can we love better. Henry Drummond
8. never faileth--never is to be out of use; it always holds its place.
shall fail . . . vanish away--The same Greek verb is used for both; and that different from the Greek verb for "faileth." Translate, "Shall be done away with," that is, shall be dispensed with at the Lord's coming, being superseded by their more perfect heavenly analogues; for instance, knowledge by intuition. Of "tongues," which are still more temporary, the verb is "shall cease." A primary fulfilment of Paul's statement took place when the Church attained its maturity; then "tongues" entirely "ceased," and "prophesyings" and "knowledge," so far as they were supernatural gifts of the Spirit, were superseded as no longer required when the ordinary preaching of the word, and the Scriptures of the New Testament collected together, had become established institutions.
I spake--alluding to "tongues."
understood--or, "had the sentiments of." Alluding to "prophecy."
I thought--Greek "reasoned" or "judged"; alluding to "knowledge."
when I became . . . I put away--rather, "now that I am become a man, I have done away with the things of the child."
darkly--literally, "in enigma." As a "mirror" conveys an image to the eye, so an "enigma" to the ear. But neither "eye nor ear" can fully represent (though the believer's soul gets a small revelation now of) "the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him" ( 1Cr 2:9 ). Paul alludes to Num 12:8 , "not in dark speeches"; the Septuagint, "not in enigmas." Compared with the visions and dreams vouchsafed to other prophets, God's communications with Moses were "not in enigmas." But compared with the intuitive and direct vision of God hereafter, even the revealed word now is "a dark discourse," or a shadowing forth by enigma of God's reflected likeness. Compare 2Pe 1:19 , where the "light" or candle in a dark place stands in contrast with the "day" dawning. God's word is called a glass or mirror also in 2Cr 3:18 .
13. And now--Translate, "But now." "In this present state" (HENDERSON). Or, "now" does not express time, but opposition, as in 1Cr 5:11 , "the case being so" (GROTIUS); whereas it is the case that the three gifts, "prophecy," "tongues," and "knowledge" (cited as specimens of the whole class of gifts) "fail" ( 1Cr 13:8 ), there abide permanently only these three--faith, hope, charity. In one sense faith and hope shall be done away, faith being superseded by sight, and hope by actual fruition ( Rom 8:24 2Cr 5:7 ); and charity, or love, alone never faileth ( 1Cr 13:8 ). But in another sense, "faith and hope," as well as "charity," ABIDE; namely, after the extraordinary gifts have ceased; for those three are necessary and sufficient for salvation at all times, whereas the extraordinary gifts are not at all so; compare the use of "abide," 1Cr 3:14 . Charity, or love, is connected specially with the Holy Spirit, who is the bond of the loving union between the brethren ( Rom 15:30 Col 1:8 ). Faith is towards God. Hope is in behalf of ourselves. Charity is love to God creating in us love towards our neighbor. In an unbeliever there is more or less of the three opposites--unbelief, despair, hatred. Even hereafter faith in the sense of trust in God "abideth"; also "hope," in relation to ever new joys in prospect, and at the anticipation of ever increasing blessedness, sure never to be disappointed. But love alone in every sense "abideth"; it is therefore "the greatest" of the three, as also because it presupposes "faith," which without "love" and its consequent "works" is dead ( Gal 5:6 Jam 2:17, 20 ).
