1 Corinthians 13:1-8

If 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. 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 do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If 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. ⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, 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. 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.

It’s here after Paul reveals the power and priority of love that he reveals the:

3. Picture of Love – Vs 4-7

Paul provides us with something more powerful than just principles in Verses 4-7 he provides us with a picture of love, so that we will know what love looks like. It’s in this picture that we see two contrasting practices, one that we are called to put on and the other we are called to put off.

• Practices to Put on

1. Patient – some versions use the word Suffers longs. Real love endures slights and wrongs patiently just like God Himself as revealed in Psalm 103:8: “The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.” Paul here reminds us of a both a painful truth and a powerful promise, that when it comes to people we will encounter problems but when it comes to patience there is incredible power. Without patience, we tend to take matters into our own hands and instead of walking by faith we engage in the works of the flesh. Your patience with people will be in proportion to your trust in God’s promises. Patience is believing God enough that you give Him the room to be the Ruler. Instead of meddling and making a mess of things you trust the problems and the people to God. Because you recognize that He is the only one who can change people’s hearts. Patience doesn’t react with hurt it responds with healing knowing that God is in control. Trusting God with people and with the problems and pain that they can cause means trusting His timetable. Are you patiently trusting in God’s truth or in our timetable? Are you living according to Christ’s calendar or clinging to yours? Not only is love patient but it:

2. Is kind – Kindness is active good will that moves us to help others. It’s not just kind thoughts but acts of kindness. Kindness is love in action, it’s the characteristic that led God to provide salvation for us as Titus 3:4-5 says: “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, ⁵ he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit” The kindness of God is also seen in Psalm 23:2-3, in God’s provision of green pastures, peaceful still waters, and the restoration of our souls in a wicked and weary world. The kindness of God is displayed in our lives when we tenderly and compassionately care for others. Our every action, attitude and word is flavored with grace when we walk in kindness. But this is not just a kindness reserved for those we love but also for those who hate us. But in order to express kindness toward those who are against us requires the work of God seen in 2 Corinthians 6:4-6: “⁴ but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way:  by great endurance,  in afflictions,  hardships, calamities, ⁵ beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; ⁶ by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love” Today we marvel at random acts of kindness, but when we are walking with the Lord kindness should become a regular everyday occurrence in our lives not a random one.

3. Rejoices in the truth – When love sees truth manifested in the lives of others, love responds with rejoicing. True love rejoices in what is right and good, it doesn’t seek to cover up sin and justify wrongdoing. Real love deals with sin it doesn’t sweep sin under the rug or look for ways to get by with bad behavior. Instead, it treasures truth, celebrates good behavior, and promotes virtue. True love has nothing to hide, and everything to rejoice in. What about you, are you rejoicing in truth or trash?

4. Bears all things – Love provides protection. The Greek word for “protects” here means “to cover” and includes the idea of protecting and preserving. It reminds us of God’s love, a love that provides protection. When we display the character of Christ we love with a love that watches out for others and is willing to withstand difficulty. When there is a shortcoming or fault in the one being loved, love has the ability to cover it like Proverbs 10:12 states, “Hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers over all wrongs.” When it comes to the sins and the failings of other people love is willing to suffer as it bears with them patiently. Love is not based on selfish desire or even mutual benefit; rather, it seeks the benefit of the other person. Love aims to give rather than receive.

5. Believes all things – A person with God’s type of love will “always trust.” That is, they will not be suspicious of the one they love. They will be slow to believe any damaging news concerning the one being loved and will always give the benefit of the doubt. Trusting means that you are always ready to believe the best about that person. Why do we need trust, because trust is the foundation of our relationships and without a foundation anything you try to build, is built on unstable ground. Mistrust, and suspicion are not only at odds with Godly love but they undermine and ruin our relationships.

6. Hopes all things – Love believes that all will work out well. This doesn’t just refer to circumstances but also to the conduct of others, meaning that however dark things may appear love holds onto this hope that things are not what they seem. It extends to “all things” to both words and deeds, and both public and private as well as that done and said in our own presence as well as in our absence. Love will never credit anything to the contrary unless compelled to do so.

7. Perseveres – it endures all things by bearing up under, meaning it sustains and does not complain. It bears up under all persecutions whether to person, property, or personal reputation. Paul starts with what to put on because he wants us to realize that part of the removing process is in replacing. The mistake we often make is to try and remove but never replace and it isn’t long before the sin we removed is replaced by another.What about you are you is your love patient, kind, rejoicing in truth, bearing, believing, hoping, and persevering? Are you living in God’s love, or is there something missing in your life?

1 Corinthians 13:1-8

If 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. 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 do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poorand give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. ⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, 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. 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.

As we think about the Character of Christ one of the driving forces of His life was love, which is the first virtue listed in 1 Corinthians 13. It’s here in the famous “love passage” that is read at most weddings, that Paul helps us to understand what real love is and what it looks like in daily living. The first thing that we discover, contrary to Hollywood propaganda is that love is not just a feeling but an action. Now we need to realize that when Paul wrote this chapter, he was not thinking about weddings or romance. Chapter 13 is slap bang in the middle of a lengthy discussion on the use of spiritual gifts found in chapters 12 and 14, where we discover that all sorts of disputes and divisions plagued the Corinthian church. They were caught up in arguing over which spiritual gift was the greatest; they were selfish and impatient with each other and were even suing and taking each other to court. This was a church caught up in reflecting the carnal instead of reflecting Christ. As the writers of the New Testament looked out on the world of their day they saw plenty of people who preached about love but very few practicing love. The common communication of the day, Greek, did not have adequate words to describe the kind of love that the Holy Spirit was revealing to them. While they had several words for love none of them fully reflected the kind of love that came from the leading of the Holy Spirit. The love that Paul wrote about here in 1  Corinthians 13 was a stranger to this planet because it was supernatural love, an all-encompassing agape love. It’s a selfless and unconditional commitment to imperfect people. Agape is a love for the utterly unworthy, a love lavished upon others without a thought of whether they are worthy to receive it or not. It proceeds from the nature of the lover, rather than from the merits of the beloved. This is the word that Paul uses to describe the fruit laidened with love. D.L. Moody once said “some men occasionally take a journey into 1 Corinthians 13 but very few people actually live there.” The fruit of the Spirit is not some sporadic endeavor that we periodically undertake like a once a year vacation but something we live out all year long. God’s goal if for us to live in love not vacation there. As we look at learning to love Paul reminds us of 4 important truths about love. First he tells us about the:

1. Power of Love – Vs 1-3

In the first 3 verses Paul points to some great gifts, all the languages of the earth, prophecy and possessing all the knowledge, as well as faith that move mountains. But as great as these gifts are the real powerhouse that levels the playing field is love. Touching people for the kingdom of God is not found in ability, talent, skill or giftedness. The power that touches people is love. You don’t need to speak all the languages of the earth we just need to learn to love. The power of love is that it is universal, for it has the power to transcend peoples, nations, culture and religions. Love is truly the universal language of this world, because people from all different walks of life don’t just recognize it they run to it. People that are loved don’t care about the language they listen because love has the ability to bypasses the ears and touches the heart. Who has God placed in your life to love?  You want to be a powerful person then unleash the love of the Lord and lavish it on others. Second we see the:

2. Priority of Love – Vs 1-3

We need to learn to put love first. This is where we make loving people a priority. Look the first few verses remind us to express love first even before the exercise of spiritual gifts or even great sacrifice. Without love, such things are of little value. Without love, any ability you have is of limited. Teaching without love isn’t tough love it’s tough without the love, and preaching without love is just principles. Some of my greatest teachers are the ones who didn’t just lecture me with truth but they touch me with lessons of love. Without love, any knowledge we obtain will hurt instead of help. Without love, any service rendered will never be pleasing to God. Whatever I do and say is useless without love. Leadership without love is just an annoying noise, like a clanging cymbal. In Paul’s day outside pagan temples there would be a big gong or cymbal hanging at the entrance. And when people came to worship, they would hit this gong in the hope that it would awaken the pagan gods so they would listen to their prayers. What Paul was saying is that even if we had all of the greatest gifts if we don’t lead with love it will be as useless as the ridiculous act of pounding on a piece of metal to wake up a non-existent god. Without love, instead of touching the heart we will just hurt the hearing. Parents when we lecture without love our kids will stop paying attention because they will get tired of the pounding gong of criticism. It’s the difference between just pounding on a drum and actually playing a beat on it. Instead of wanting to cover your ears and scream stop you find your foot tapping and then your whole body moving to the beat. You can hear because your heart is open. Instead of dreading the gong you are dancing to the song. So, what about you are you living in the power of love and making love a priority? Is your life reflecting the character of Christ’s love or is your life lacking when it comes to love?