BE092202
Playing on God’s Team
3. TEAM SPIRIT
(SLIDE) The passage of Scripture we’re looking at this morning, is one of the most popular and read passages of scripture in the Bible by Christian and non-Christian alike. The LOVE CHAPTER. I see a problem though. This chapter has become cliché to us because we almost never read it in context. We hear it at weddings, funerals, banquets, lovers use it for romantic notes.
Which is fine, but when Paul wrote it he wasn’t thinking about speeches at graduation ceremonies, or Billie Bob Thornton and Angelina Jolie, that modern embodiment of delicate romance and true love. No, what was on Paul’s mind was not romantic love, it was the church.
A specific church, the Corinthian church; which had lost it’s team spirit. Like Terry in our drama, it had lost sight, not what it was supposed to do, but how it was supposed to do it. And in Christ’s church, the HOW becomes the WHAT. Think about it:
- WHAT we’re supposed to do is give glory to God and
- WHAT we’re supposed to do is build up each other and
- WHAT we’re supposed to do is reach a lost world.
HOW? Through love. Love is it. We love God to give him glory, we love each other to build each other up and we love a lost world in order to reach them. (SLIDE) This is how Jesus set it up! John 13:34-35
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. John 17:23 …to let the world know that [the Father] sent me…
That puts a pretty fine point on it, doesn’t it? Love is it. Love will be our calling card and our measurement of success. Love is not only HOW we are to do it, LOVE is WHAT we are to do… Jesus is saying:
- (BULLET) Love is the way that we the church will be recognized by the world as the community that truly belongs to Jesus Christ, and…
- (BULLET) Love is also the ONLY way the world will recognize HIM as the Son of God and the Savior of the world.
A lot is riding on how well we love. Imagine we were to give glory to God without love, or try to build each other up without love, or reach a lost world without love. The Corinthian church was trying to do just that! So really Chapter 13 cannot be fully appreciated out of it’s context and especially not without it’s introductory verse (SLIDE), which comes at the end of chapter 12:31
But eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way.
To end chapter 12 Paul asks a series of questions which all have the same answer:
- is every Christian a leader?
- Is every Christian a teacher?
- Is every Christian a worker of miracles?
- Is every Christian gifted to speak in unknown languages?
The answer is obviously NO. His point has been to highlight the Corinthians desire for what they considered the best gifts, the superstar gifts. So we might be surprised that Paul then says, “eagerly desire the greater gifts…” Hasn’t he just told them to stop wanting the greater gifts? Yes!
So this is one of those verses that makes scholars scratch their heads. Why would he instruct them now to go after the status gifts? Doesn’t that run counter to his whole point and argument? Well, scholars solve this in a couple of ways..
- (SLIDE BULLET) One is to look at the definition of “Greater”. Perhaps he means, the better gifts, or the helpful gifts. IE the gifts that don’t just build you up but others. The problem with this is that word “greater” usually indicates a sense of “status” rather than helpfulness.
- (SLIDE BULLET)The second solution is best. The verb translated, “eagerly desire,” may not be not imperative, but rather just a normal verb. An imperative verb is a command verb. “PUSH the cart,” But if I say, “YOU push the cart,” the verb is no longer imperative, it’s just describing an action.
If it’s true that this verb is not imperative, here’s how we might understand 12:31:
Paul has asked, “does everyone have the same gifts? Does everyone have the spectacular gifts? No… and yet you still want them so badly. THEREFORE, because you can’t seem to get it out of your head that some gifts are more needed and important and because you are thinking selfishly about gifts, I’m going to go deeper than your obsession with spiritual gifts and spiritual experiences.
Thus he introduces Chapter 13 about LOVE. It’s only in that context that the following lofty words make sense. Paul’s point: under-girding God’s Team, must always be the team spirit of love. So in the following verses
- he makes it clear that without Love the body is worse than nothing,
- he describes what love is, and then
- he describes the superiority of love in eternity.
1. (SLIDE) WITHOUT LOVE
1 Cor 13:1-3
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If 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 have not love, I am nothing.
3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Each of these verses describes something that happens when no love permeates the Body of Christ.
Verse 1: (SLIDE) WITHOUT LOVE I OFFEND
Notice the metaphor here, without love, I am a resounding gong. A clanging cymbal. These are loud, monotone instruments that on their own cannot create melody or harmony. Music soothes the soul, music moves you, it builds you up, you welcome it but a gong is made to grate on you, to offend you.
Paul listeners would be intimately aware of this because daily on the streets of Corinth, the clanging gongs would call the people to worship at the pagan temples. One person says these gongs were to
“drive away demons or rouse the worshippers, but they created as much tranquility of spirit as a constantly barking dog.”
Paul is here specifically referring to the gift of tongues, but his word could be applied to any speaking that one may do to God, to another believer, to an outsider: without love, it’s offensive. Your words just wind up grating in people’s ears. You could speak the nicest most spiritual sounding words to someone, flatter them all you want, but if you don’t love thru respect, care, truth, your words are just noise.
Verse 2: (SLIDE) WITHOUT LOVE MY GIFTS MEAN NOTHING
This is even more pointed. If I am gifted to speak words from God, if I have insight into spiritual mysteries, if I have great faith in God, but not love, I am nothing. And again, friends, apply it to the exercise of ANY spiritual gift you have.
If you have great discernment such that you can see just the right way God wants your small group to go, if you have leadership ability that can direct an organization well, if you have administrative ability that increases efficiency and excellence, but HAVE NOT LOVE, God says you are nothing.
Hear that. If I have gifts, but not love, I AM NOTHING he says. The NLT says, I would be no good to anybody. Do we get this Allen Creek? He’s not saying that the impact of your gift will be diminished if there is no love. He says, I am NOTHING.
- I may get results,
- I may be appreciated,
- I may get applauded but as far as God and eternity are concerned:
- I am nothing.
Verse 3: (SLIDE) WITHOUT LOVE I GAIN NOTHING
Paul now talks about something that we think should have merit and value in and of itself: sacrifice. We think, personal sacrifice, giving everything you have, service whereby you relinquish huge amounts of your time and energies to the kingdom, isn’t there inherent value in that?
Paul says, “uh, no.” Why not? Because you can do all that, you can lay down your life in sacrifice and it’s all about you, about ticking off some score sheet in your own head, about building your own sense of self worth, your own sense of honor and not someone else’s benefit.
It reminds me of a scenario given to me by a friend when we talked about how deep our selfishness runs. We could see a woman with a baby about to be hit by a bus, and at the last second, dive to save them, while we ourselves were hit. And as the crowd gathers around our dying bodies, with our last breath we would probably say something like:
Name’s Rick Thiessen… that’s: T-H-I-E-S-S-E-N
Can you sacrifice without love? You bet. If you do, you gain nothing. No brownie points are awarded for sacrifice without love. No merit is given, a bigger mansion in heaven is not assured.
Love is just that important to the functioning of the gifts. And so we’ve reached bedrock. We’re past just talking about gifts, which is important, we’re past talking about personal value which is also important. We’ve cut to the chase: Is there love? The gifts are just the machine, love is the fuel!
Now, having dug to bedrock, we need a bedrock description of love so we know clearly what TEAM SPIRIT really is:
2. (SLIDE) WHAT LOVE DOES
1 Cor 13:4-7
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Christians sometimes define love in terms of feelings like our culture does.
- I feel good about you, I love you.
- I feel sexually attracted to you, I love you.
- I feel secure, happy, strong around you, I love you.
Do you see what all those definitions revolve around? ME! God’s love is so counter cultural and revolutionary that the Bible writers had to take a word that was seldom used: AGAPE. A word for love for the unworthy, a love that puts the onus on what the Lover does for the Beloved. Reminds me of 1 John 3:18,
Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
As a sort to title to this section, Paul says that Love is PATIENT and KIND. Which sets up love as action. So the following action verbs flesh out what KINDNESS and PATIENCE look like. Karl Barth breaks down these verses according to how love confronts the darkness… check this out… First
(SLIDE) Verse 4b-5a: LOVE AND OUR DARKNESS
Love first of all confronts the darkness in us,
- envy
- boastfulness
- pride
- rudeness
- self-seeking
To define love in the negative says, if you ever try to convince yourself that any of this stuff is loving, stop now because it isn’t. There is no loving way to be envious, boastful, proud or rude. Yet, we’re tempted to do just that aren’t we? Our culture teaches us to excuse our behavior and always attribute it to inner goodness.
- I’m envious of you because I really love who you are
- I’m prideful of my position because I really love who I am
- I’m rude to you because I really love to help you and I sometimes get overexcited when giving you advice
- I’m self-seeking because really I love others and if I have what I want, I can get them what they want.
The Corinthians were all over this kind of thinking. Time and time again, they resented each others’ gifts and successes; they were dissatisfied with their own place or opportunities in the church, they competed for more honor, recognition, knowledge.
And they thought this was being spiritual! Godly. Loving!
Just looking at this list chases me to God’s love, to say, like we heard in the song, “I need love.” Love confronts the darkness in me and I know I need a bigger love, a better love than I can muster on my own. I need God’s power alive in me to love, because only in his love can I have the confidence to say:
- I give up my rights
- I will be content with my gifts
- I will rejoice with my sister’s success
- I will treat my brother sensitively.
(SLIDE)Verse 5b-6: LOVE AND OTHER’S DARKNESS
Now the verbs switch to confront the darkness in others. First, LOVE is not easily angered. When I say to myself, those other people are responsible for my anger, love says, no, friend, you are responsible for your anger. Some people are just going to provoke you and push all your buttons and we’re going to be tempted to say, look at what you do to me!
We can’t lash out in anger, and then talk about how concerned you were for the person’s well being. They aren’t feeling cared for and you’re really reacting out of your own insecurity and feelings of being out of control. God says… that’s not love.
Second, when others really do wrong to me, love says it keeps no record of wrongs. Wow! Is God serious about this? I’m afraid he is men and women. And here’s why: he forgives us. If we hold on to the offenses of others we’re saying,
“God please forgive me, but as you can see I really shouldn’t have to forgive them because you see how big their sin is. Of course Lord, I regret my sins toward you, but you see what a little pile that is compared to what they’ve racked up with me.”
That’s what you saying when you keep a record of wrongs. Jesus came against nothing stronger than he did empty religion and unforgiveness! He said,
- Pray for God to forgive you in the same way you’ve forgiven others
- forgive 70x7
- if a man sins against you and repents 7 times in the same day, forgive him
- God will reject you in eternity if you don’t forgive your brother from your heart. Wow!
And then what about actual evil that happens in general? Love doesn’t get happy about it. There is a perverse streak in human nature that gets a jolt out of evil when it happens to others. That sometimes appeals to our limited sense of justice. When evil in others makes us feel better about us, when gossip is indulged, that’s the opposite of love.
(SLIDE) VERSE 7: APPARENT DARKNESS IN GOD
This is what this means: when things turn bleak in our lives it looks like God is not there, or he is extending a very dark hand towards us. It is in this context that Paul says, the love that comes from God, is a love that no matter the circumstances, protects (or carries), trusts, hopes and perseveres.
When there is little to encourage your faith, when things are turning sour on you, what is it that maintains our trust in God, that keeps us going through the tunnel of doubt till we get to the other side? Paul is saying love sacrifices the right to rebel against God in hard times. Love says I will trust, I will hope, I will carry on.
And if you haven’t caught it yet, men and women this love for God can only be released in us by God’s love for us. If I could underline anything about love that ties all these descriptors together, I would draw out John’s word:
I Jn 4:18 There is no fear in love. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
People who are afraid cannot love. Because they cannot afford to stop protecting and looking at themselves. But the person
- who is loved, by God, absolutely and truly,
- who has their sins covered over, all their secret and ugly stains gone,
- who knows that despite them they enjoy the unconditional acceptance of God who’s not mad anymore…
- only that person can afford to really love.
And so Paul concludes by saying
3. (SLIDE) LOVE LASTS
1 Cor 13:8
8 Love 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
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears….
12 Now we see but a poor 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.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
There was a hierarchy of spiritual gifts in the Corinthian mind. They all played on their love of the spectacular and showy supernatural. At the top of that list was TONGUES, PROPHECY and KNOWLEDGE… and Paul says that all these things, good things all, will pass away.
Friends, when we see Jesus we’ll finally be made perfect. So the arrangement of the body with it’s gifts and shared strengths… is a temporal arrangement to help us know Christ more. They are required because of the inherent weaknesses of a fallen race:
- we have gaps in our knowledge,
- we have gaps in our character,
- we have gaps in our maturity,
- we have gaps in our strength.
BUT, there will come a day that those gaps are going away… when we will know Christ fully even as we are fully know. Then, what will remain? FAITH, HOPE and LOVE. And the greatest of these is love. For God IS love as John says, it is his primary defining characteristic. Therefore while many things from this life will fade away, love will increase until Christ is all and is in all.
That’s team spirit. The time to begin to focus on it is not in eternity, it’s now.
