Fifteen years ago Don Carson published a book called The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God.1 The title was obviously meant to provoke response because as Carson mentioned, you might anticipate a book title that begins The Difficult Doctrine of … to end with the Trinity or Predestination but not the Love of God. However, once you dive into the doctrine of God’s love, it’s a lot more complex than we might think.
I was, likewise, tempted to title this sermon “The Difficult and Battered Reality of Christian Love.” After all, Christian love has been the subject of great abuse in our day. For some, the exhortation for Christians to be loving signals a call for believers to deny the reality of hell, condone a homosexual lifestyle, or refuse to confront the professing believer who is walking away from the faith. Love has been reduced in many contexts to a label put on a shallow sentimentality that doesn’t care about holiness, salvation, or the glory of God.
Because of that, maybe we’ve wanted to distance ourselves a bit from focusing on the topic of Christian love. Maybe we’ve thought we should just put a moratorium on talking about love for a while in light of how so many unbiblical thoughts and practices are paraded under the banner of being loving. But the Bible won’t allow us to ignore the call to love, will it?
The reality is that it’s hard to overestimate how important love is in the Christian life, according to Scripture. The two greatest commandments are focused on love. When Paul mentions the fruit of the Spirit, love is the first mentioned. Jesus tells us that men will know we are his disciples by our love for one another. It is simply no overstatement to say that all of our responsibilities before the Lord as believers revolve around love. I think it may be fair to say that for us to take time to meditate on the call to love in the Scripture in our day may be more necessary precisely because so many perversions of Christian practice are paraded under the banner of love. Therefore, this morning we turn our attention to a text focuses more explicitly on love than any other chapter in the Bible, to the point that this is known as the “love chapter,” 1 Corinthians 13.
Now, oftentimes we hear 1 Corinthians 13 out of its context within the book. And I’m not even disparaging that. If you want to be reminded of what characterizes love, you should read verses 4-7. We looked at verses 8-13 in the adult Sunday school class last semester when I argued that I don’t think there’s good scriptural argument that the spiritual gifts of 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 have ceased but suggested that these verses in chapter 13 give us indication that the gifts will only cease at the return of Christ. So I’m not disparaging looking at 1 Corinthians 13 out of its context within the book. But I do want us to turn to the text now with its full context in mind.
You’ll remember that starting in chapter 7 of the book, Paul has started taking up topics that the Corinthians had written to him about. So Paul began that chapter, writing, “Now concerning the matters about which you wrote.” Then, after writing about issues related to singleness and marriage in that chapter, he began a discussion in chapter 8 that would continue through chapter 10 “concerning food offered to idols” before dealing with head coverings and the practice of the Lord’s Supper in chapter 11. Then, beginning in chapter 12, Paul switches topics to focus on the issue of spiritual gifts. Thus, he writes at the beginning of chapter 12, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed.”
And in some ways, he dove right into the topic in that chapter. I say “in some ways” he dove right into the topic because he didn’t exactly dive into the practice of spiritual gifts like tongues and prophecy. In fact, he won’t get deep into that topic until chapter 14. But he did lay the groundwork for discussing those specifics in chapter 12 by focusing on how the Lord has constructed the local church. In short, Paul argues in chapter 12 that since the Spirit has gifted each believer, hasn’t gifted any believer with every gift, and hasn’t given any one gift to every believer, he has made each of us necessary in a local church and needy for the local church. We are interdependent, only having what we need as a people collectively. This should have been sufficient to show the Corinthians’ their need to love one another, but Paul wants to leave no room for missing this crucial need.
Therefore, his last sentence in chapter 12 is: “And I will show you a still more excellent way.” He says this as an introduction to chapter 13. Chapter 13 is Paul’s way of life that he wants to shape the Corinthians as they consider and practice spiritual gifts. I think a thesis statement for how chapter 13 functions within this discussion of spiritual gifts in chapters 12-14 would be something like this: We must desire spiritual gifts because of love, exercise our spiritual gifts in love, and serve others through our spiritual gifts for the sake of love. By that I mean that we are indeed to desire spiritual gifts (we are told to desire them in 12:31, 14:1, and 14:39), but our desire should be motivated by love. We should find ourselves loving our brothers and sisters so much that we cry out to the Lord to equip us through his Spirit to minister to them. Then, when we do indeed exercise our spiritual gifts in ministry, it should be done in love. There is no room to exercise our spiritual gifts so that we can draw attention to our giftedness or be motivated by making much of ourselves. We must exercise our gifts in love. And finally, we must serve, using our spiritual gifts, for the sake of love. That is, we serve to the end of looking out for the good of others, to edify them, and to seek their conformity to Christ. That is, we must serve for the sake of love, or for the sake of what love demands. I think that’s what Paul wants us to see in 1 Corinthians 13. But let’s see this in the text itself, which easily divides into three sections (1-3, 4-7, and 8-13). First, in these first three verses we see that:
I think when I made this point in Sunday school I said that everything we do without love amounts to nothing. I think that is precisely what Paul is showing us in verses 1-3. Paul’s strategy is to take spiritual gifts and acts of service, elevate them to their most impressive status (even using hyperbole), and then show that without love that gift or act of service is worthless.
He first starts with the gift of tongues, writing, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” Now it seems that tongues were specifically a big deal with the church at Corinth with some perhaps suggesting they were more spiritual because they could exercise this specific gift. But Paul wants them to know that even if their speaking in tongues were speaking in the language of angels but it was not driven by love, done in love, and for the sake of loving others, then they might as well just be clanging cymbals together. Then, he expands to the gifts of prophecy, knowledge, and faith. I think this shows that he’s not just isolating tongues in his examples, but what he’s saying is true of other gifts. If he has all prophetic powers, understands all mysteries and knowledge, and has a gift of faith whereby he can move mountains, but doesn’t love, then he is nothing. What should be a very valuable person, you’d think, with those kinds of gifts, is a worthless person who does the church no good if he doesn’t have love.
Nor does Paul want us to think that these statements are true only in regard to practicing impressive, even miraculous, spiritual gifts. He takes acts of service, even the greatest acts of service one could do for another, and he says the same thing. He writes, “If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing” (v. 3).
These should be acts of great eternal reward, shouldn’t they? Jesus holds up giving one’s life for another as the greatest demonstration of love. And giving away all you have surely means reward of treasure in eternity. But Paul says that even these things, if devoid of love, produce no gain. Again, in short, Paul’s point is that everything done without love amounts to nothing. Love absolutely must be the motivation and content of everything we do.
Now, it’s good for us as a church to pause and consider this for a second. There are all kinds of things we can do that are good that simply might not be driven by love. As a church, we want to do things to be biblical. That is good. But if you can give your body to be burned and not have lot, then we certainly can be motivated to do good things by something other than love. And if we do those things and don’t have love, as Paul says, it counts for nothing. If my preaching of the Word explained the text perfectly this morning, and it isn’t driven by love, then it’s not God-honoring preaching. If our drive to have meaningful membership, teach biblical content in classes and from the pulpit, and exercise church discipline isn’t love, then we might look good on the outside, but we’ll not be a church that’s pleasing to the Lord.
So, let us ask ourselves, what is our drive to be good parents? What is driving us to do our job well? What drives us to come to church on Sundays? I’m not asking these questions so that we might stop trying to be good parents, do our jobs well, or show up on Sundays. But I am asking because the Bible demands that we’re driven by love and exercising love in all we do.
And I know this is hard, but isn’t this then informative for how we should pray. Perhaps more than asking you all to pray for my circumstances at work to change, I might ask you to pray for me to be driven by and exhibit love in my circumstances at work. If we really believe what Paul writes here in verses 1-3, then much of our focus in prayer should be pleading for the Spirit to enable us to bear the fruit of love in our lives. Everything, if it is without love, counts as nothing.
If I must be gripped by love in all things, then, what does love look like. Paul answers that question in verses 4-7. There we see that:
Paul gives a long list, but this is the best way I knew to pull all of these characteristics together. As I read these verses, it just seems to me that the opposite of love is what we do when we are self-centered and self-absorbed. When I’m self-absorbed, I’m not kind to you, I envy and boast, I’m arrogant and rude, I insist on my own way, resent you, rejoice at your wrongdoing because it props me up, and I expect you to be as selfish as me. Paul, however, says that love looks utterly unlike my description there.
Let’s take these in sections. Love is patient and kind. Love is willing to endure injury and attack from another not only by not returning attack but by returning kindness. Is that how we respond to attack and injury from others? Love does not envy or boast. When we are self-centered and self-absorbed, it creates in us inferiority and superiority complexes, depending on where we are in life. If my life is about me, and I am doing well, you need to know about it. Perhaps that’s in a tweet that lets you know my life is a bit better than yours. Regardless of the medium, we’ve always found ways to boast in our self-centeredness. And if we are doing poorly and another is doing well, then self-centeredness demands that I envy you, for you are getting something I want. But love doesn’t envy others’ success or boast of my own. For love is looking for anther’s good.
Love is not rude. It does not insist on its own way. Nor is it irritable, keeping count of a record of wrongdoings. Rather, we should seek to be gentle and kind, building up others. We should look out for others’ good, not just our own. We should be willing to forgive quickly, not always looking to be easily offended.
And when we hear of another doing wrong, we don’t rejoice as an opportunity to look better than another. Rather, we rejoice when there is something good and true and mourn at wrongdoing. If we’re loving, you don’t prod us and easily get complaining. We don’t put down our church, our employer, our professor, or the like.
Love demands that we think well of others, anticipating the grace of God in others’ lives. Even when continually disappointed and sinned again, love still bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. If we’re loving, we’re not first cynical but trusting.
So, let us ask ourselves if this description of love is a description of us. If not, then let us repent. And then recognize that we have content to our prayers in these verses. I need not only pray, “Lord, help me to love,” but I can pray. Help me to be patient and kind toward my obnoxious students or employer (while not telling others of my obnoxious employer or students). Help me not to envy the person in my field who is succeeding more than me so that I’m waiting to pounce with rejoicing if they stumble. But let me rejoice in all that person is doing that is good, right, and true. Help me to not be resentful. When I’ve done well, let me be content knowing that you see in secret and are pleased so that I might not be boastful. And when I’m tempted to think that this person who has failed me so many times is going to fail me again, help me not to keep a record of wrongdoings but to hope and believe the best until proven otherwise. That’s how we can pray. And these verses area measuring stick to make sure we are truly characterized by love.
So, we’ve seen that everything without love is nothing and that love is characterized by a desire for others’ good, not self-centeredness and self-absorption. And in verses 8-13 we see one other thing about love, namely, that:
In verses 8-12, Paul makes an argument that love is going to continue on into eternity, whereas others things (like spiritual gifts) will not. His point, it seems, is to show that love lasts forever, and if it lasts forever, then we should ensure that our lives are characterized by love now, in this age. After all, the believer determines his practice in the temporary in light of what is true in eternity.
Paul makes this point, writing, “Love never ends.” That’s straightforward enough, but then he contrasts that with the gifts of the Spirit, writing, “As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away” (v. 8). Paul is showing that love cannot be looked at as just one gift among many.
No one can say, “I’m just not gifted in love. My gift is teaching (or the like)” because love must characterize us in everything we do. And one thing that shows love’s superiority to the gifts is that it will never pass away, whereas they will.
Now, it is not the main point of the text, but let’s ask when and why exactly Paul is telling us the gifts will pass away. After all, we do know that some in the church have suggested that the gifts of the Spirit (especially those of a more seeming supernatural nature) have already passed away and did so at the end of the apostolic age. Paul writes in verses 9-10, “For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.”
If we start with the when question, it seems that the answer is that the gifts will pass away when this “perfect” comes. What then is the perfect? Well different suggestions have been thrown out, but at this point most scholars agree that this is a reference to the return of Christ, or maybe more specifically to the perfect “state of affairs” brought about by the return of Christ.2 So, in these verses Paul tells us that the gifts of the Spirit will pass away at the return of Christ. But why? That answer in given to us as well.
Paul knots that right now the gifts provide partial insight or partial knowledge. Let me show you what is meant by this by using the gift of prophecy. As I argued in Sunday school last semester,3 I think that the gift of prophecy referenced here in 1 Corinthians 12-14 is not the same kind of infallible, authoritative speech that we see from Jeremiah and Isaiah, for example. Rather, I think it is simply sharing something the Spirit brings to mind for one’s upbuilding, encouragement, and consolation (14:3). And I’ll argue more about why I think we have to understand the gift of prophecy in these chapters differently than what Isaiah or Jeremiah was doing when we look at chapter 14 over the next few weeks.
So, if you take that understanding of prophecy, then prophecy looks pretty normal. Sometimes we might say that we felt the Spirit prompting us in conversation to provide some insight or word of encouragement, and it goes straight to the heart of the person we’re talking to, doesn’t it? But it’s still partial. The Lord might use someone in your life to confirm a decision you think you should make, but never do they walk you through what the next twenty years of your life decisions should be, do they? That’s because the gifts are partial or imperfect.
But one day, when Christ returns, we won’t need partial things any more. There was a day when I was late in my teenage years, doubting again whether or not I should pursue pastoral ministry. So, I got down on my face and prayed again for the Lord to confirm that I was making the right decision. Within minutes, a godly lady (the mom of one of my friends) called and said, “I was just praying for my son and his friends, and I want to tell you that I’m so thankful the Lord is leading you to pastoral ministry” (or something to that effect). That was incredibly powerful and encouraging in my life. But when Christ returns, I won’t need those kinds of phone calls any more. The perfect will have come.
The illustration has been used repeatedly of having a candle outside. In the dark, a candle is immensely helpful. But once the sun comes up, lighting up everything around you, that candle isn’t needed. It doesn’t mean it wasn’t helpful at the time you were using it in the dark. It was. It’s just not needed when a light rises in the sky that dwarfs that candle in its ability to put off light.
That’s the very kind of description Paul makes in verse 11, saying, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I become a man, I gave up childish ways.” Paul’s point is not that we should mock and belittle our children for speaking and thinking like children. No, that’s good for them when they’re children. But when they become men and women, those things that were good during that specific age of time are no longer helpful. Therefore, Paul concludes again with his reasoning as to why these impartial gifts will pass away at the return of Christ, writing in verse 12, “For now we see in a mirror dimly [and therefore need these gifts], but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”
So, Paul’s first point in verses 8-12 is that unlike the gifts of the Spirit which will not be needed and will pass away at the return of Christ, love never ends. Therefore, love must be our drive as we desire and exercise our spiritual gifts. In fact, Paul says (and this is his second point in this final section of the chapter), love is even superior to faith and hope. He writes, “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (v. 13).
We’ve seen, then, that love is superior to any gift of the Spirit because it alone will last throughout eternity. But faith and hope will also remain. Throughout eternity, we will continue to hope in Christ and have faith in his finished work. But why then can Paul say that love is the greatest of these?
I think the answer is probably something like this:4 You can exercise a certain kind of faith without love. We’ve seen that in verse 2. But if you truly love, you’ll have faith. Also, I would assume you can hope in some sense without loving, but hope is part of what characterizes love (as we saw in verse 7), so you can’t love without having hope. Therefore, I think Paul is telling us that though all three of these – faith, hope, and love – will remain throughout eternity, love is even foundational to these two.
So, if that’s true, that love is foundational to the Christian life and will last forever, then it means that it is more important, urgent, and crucial that you and are characterized by love than that we get that job that we want, or succeed with our academic work as much as we desire, or get that person’s praise, or make that certain amount of money, or whatever else it is that we spend so much of our time chasing, fretting about, and pouring ourselves into more than we long to be characterized by love.
So, let me make this challenge to us all this morning. Let’s make being characterized by love our priority. Let it become an increased focus of our prayers for ourselves and others. Let it be on the forefront of our minds, asking consistently, “What does love demand of me as I relate to this person, go to work, deal with my employees or students, etc.?” After all, if we achieve the greatest of things and impress everyone with our giftedness and sacrifice but don’t have love, it is all worthless.
And in addition to praying for God to fill us with love through his Holy Spirit, there is one other thing we must discipline ourselves continually to do. We must meditate on what Christ has done for us in the gospel. We must continually discipline ourselves to remember that Christ lived, died, and was raised for us and that we are declared righteous before our God if indeed our faith is in the crucified and risen Lord. And I’m not just saying that because somehow in the next few moments, I’ve got to find a way to build a bridge between this sermon and coming to the table. I say this because the Bible teaches that we love because he first loved us, and we love much when we know we’ve been forgiven much. Therefore, let us remember what Christ has done for us through his redeeming work for us, and then let us pray that God would give us love for himself, for our brothers and sisters, and for our neighbors. May that be our prayer as we now come to the table. Amen.