Please open your Bibles to First Corinthians 13. My lesson tonight
is drawn from what the Bible commentary writer, R.C. Linsky, calls The Song of
Love, The Song of Love. Paul's 13th chapter in the first epistle of the
Corinthians. The title of my sermon, The Most Excellent Way, is a quote from,
actually, not chapter 13, but chapter 12, verse 31, of that letter. And in that
letter up to this point, Paul the Apostle has been providing a series of
instructions to these brethren, concerning the many problems and
challenges that were affecting the church at that time. From issues of unity
and sexual immorality, to instruction on marriage, the proper use of Christian
liberty and order, maintaining order in the public worship. He's been writing
about all these things up until this point. So Paul is kind of running down a
checklist of issues that have cropped up among these brethren. He finishes
discussing the proper function and the use of spiritual gifts in the church in
Chapter 12, and he ends this section with the proposal that they follow a more
excellent way: the way of love. Now Paul is not suggesting that the following
description of love, in chapter 13, was something in itself to be pursued
to the exclusion of other things. Sometimes people reach after 13 and they,
that's the be-all and end-all of Christian life, and they forget, well, what
about unity among leaders and teachers? That's important; personal sexual
purity, that's important; peace in one's marriage; enlightened Christian living;
proper worship; the proper use of our gifts. Those are all important things. His
point in directing them to a more excellent way
was to encourage them to pursue these things: unity and peace in
marriage. To pursue all of these other things with the character of love,
that he will so eloquently described in chapter 13. So before we go to the text, I
need to tell you something very important about the Mazzalongo spaghetti
and meatball recipe. I digress here, but I guarantee you, I will find my way back to
my sermon. Just be patient with me. You see, Italian families each have their
own special formula for the traditional spaghetti and meatball, tomato
sauce and meatball recipe. Every Italian family has their own particular
recipe. Our family's recipe didn't taste like anybody else's recipe. We didn't say
that such and such, the deLudo family, for example, their recipe was
no good. No. It was just different. It was different than our recipe. The other
thing about family recipes for spaghetti and meatball is that it was always a
secret. You didn't share that. That was yours. You didn't give that away.
So after Lise and I were married, my
mother only gave my wife the recipe after our second child was born. She
wanted to make sure it would last. But the strange thing was that even when we
followed the instructions that she had given us to the letter, the meatballs
never quite tasted exactly like the original recipe. We just couldn't - we
knew what it tasted like. And when Lise would make it with the recipe that my
mom gave her, it wasn't the same thing. So one day I was over at my mother's as she
was preparing our family pasta and meatballs, when I noticed that she
combined another type of meat with the ground beef to make the meatballs. And I
asked her about it. And she told me, oh yeah, she used the combination of ground
pork and ground beef to create those succulent meat balls in the Mazzalongo
recipe. And then she says, oh, oops, I guess I forgot to tell you.
So when Lise and I prepared the dish the next time, we added this missing
ingredient, and to our delight, we were able to duplicate and perpetuate for
another generation the family recipe that I had grown up loving. And of course,
by the number of grandchildren we have, you know that the kids really wanted
that recipe. So now you may be wondering what Italian spaghetti and meatballs has
to do with First Corinthians 13. Well, here's the connection: for several
chapters, Paul has been providing teaching and encouragement to these
brethren concerning their many problems. In chapter 13, verses one to three, he
summarizes what, for the most part, has been their solutions, their approaches,
their spiritual recipes for successful Christian living and growth in the
church. And he points out to them, however, that without the more excellent
ingredient of Christian love, their approaches and their solutions and their
recipes will not work. And so in verses one to three, Paul
refers to three recipes - if I can use that word - that the Corinthians were
using without success, and why they failed. So the first recipe, if you wish,
for success was miraculous signs. He says, "If I speak with the tongues of men and
"of angels, but do not have love, I've become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal."
you see, in their quest to grow spiritually and establish leadership, the
Corinthians had abused their gifts by using them to elevate themselves over
one another. This led to disorder in their assemblies and
a lessening of their spirituality in general. Paul says that without love,
without that ingredient - you get the connection? Without love, they're show-y
signs of heightened spirituality are nothing more than noisy exhibitionism,
annoying both God and man. Another approach that they had was to search for
spiritual wisdom and knowledge. He says, "If I have the gift of prophecy
"and I know all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith, so as
"to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing."
And so, another recipe for the knowledge of God was the great wisdom and insight
given to many, concerning God's Word and the revelation of Christ, to know about
godly things, to handle with competence the word of the Almighty, surely this
would enable them to deal with the ignorant, the disbelievers, and the weak.
Again, their misuse of these abilities pitted one teacher against another in
the battle for a leadership position in the church. Paul declares that knowledge
without love accomplishes nothing. Of course, we know why this is so. In First
Timothy chapter 1:5, Paul says that the goal of our knowledge or our instruction
in the church, is love. The goal of our instruction is love. What we're shooting for
with our teaching of the brethren, is that they grow in love. And so, if love
isn't factored into the knowledge and wisdom, then no amount of knowledge and
wisdom will accomplish anything that is worthwhile. And then the third recipe
that they were playing with was benevolence and self-sacrifice. He says,
"And if I give all of my possessions to feed the poor and if I surrender my body
"to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing."
Although it was not an issue in this letter, there were many in the church who
promoted a way to righteousness through personal asceticism and the doing of
good works. This recipe had only produced pride and division wherever it had been
tried before. And Paul preempts any drift in this direction by establishing the
virtue of love as the only legitimate motive for self-denial and benevolent
work, not the pursuit of righteousness. In other words, no amount of self-sacrifice
or benevolent effort advances one in the kingdom, unless the basis for it is love.
And so in his opening comments, Paul states that the three common
avenues, the three common recipes for enlightenment and spiritual elevation
and godliness, the recipes of signs and wisdom and self-denial are in themselves
worthless, unless they are exercised in the context of love. Now this is not to
say that they are without merit altogether.
I mean, signs point to God's truth; and wisdom articulates God's truth; and
self-denial witnesses God's truth. But only love embodies God's truth. And so,
you can manage some expression of signs, some measure of wisdom, some level of
self-denial without truth, many people do. But you cannot love without truth,
because love is the source of truth. It gives life to truth. It reveals essential
truth. And so, true signs point to love. True wisdom speaks of love. True
self-denial is motivated by love. Now, if you were a Corinthian reading
this letter, you might ask yourself at this point, well, what kind of love is
this, that does all of this? Is Paul speaking of the sensuous kind of love
that the Corinthians, in their sexually immoral city, were all too aware of? Was
it the love of family and culture, so familiar among the Jews? Was it the high
calling of friendship, so dear to the Greek philosophers of the day? No. Paul
goes on to describe a kind of love far removed from these familiar notions
common to his readers. In the following verses he's going to describe the kind
of love that God has for man, and the quality of love that God wants each
person to have for another. He doesn't spell it out, but the inference is that
with the practice of this kind of love, their problems regarding unity and
marriage and holy living and acceptable worship, will be solved. With this kind of
love. Their gifts will produce an effective witness. With this kind of love,
their knowledge will truly edify, and with this kind of love their good works
will bring honor to God and themselves. This agape, as he calls it, is the
ingredient that will bring to life their Christian experience, and peace to
their fractured relationships. Now in verses four to 12, Paul will go from
explaining love's central role in the Christian experience, to a description of
love's character. This list of features describing God's love can be divided
into three main characteristics. First, Christian love is visible. Let's read
verses four to seven. He says, "Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous. Love
"does not brag, is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly. It does not seek its
"own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not
"rejoice in a righteousness, but rejoices with the
"truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all
"things." Now we don't have time to do a word study over every single term here,
but I do believe that the English words are fairly clear. We know what patient
means. We know what kind means. We know not being arrogant, we know what that
means. We know what these things are. For the purpose of my lesson tonight, I just
want to point out that all of these characteristics that he describes here,
this God's love, this agape, all of these things here are visible things, things
you can see. You can tell if a person has this kind of love, it's obvious to
everyone, because these things stand out in contrast to how others act. This would
have been especially obvious to the Corinthians, because despite their
vaunted spiritual gifts, very few, if any of them - very few, if any, of these
characteristics were present in their behavior. So God's love, when it is
expressed, is always clearly visible and easily recognized for what it is. You can
see patience. You can recognize kindness when you see it, and humility, and
goodness, and self-control, and the attributes he mentions. These are all
unmistakable visible things that are easily recognized. Another characteristic
about Christian love that he talks about, is that Christian love is eternal.
Let's read that section beginning in verse eight, he says, "Love never fails, but if
"there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away, if there are tongues, they will
"cease, if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we
"prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When
"I was a child I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a
"child. When I became a man, I did away with childish things.
"For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but
"then, I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known."
Well, this passage here raises many questions as to the meaning
and the reference to the word, when the perfect comes, verse 10. Some say
this refers to the completion of the New Testament Canon. Others say this refers
to the return of Christ. But when we focus on this particular verse
to the exclusion of the passage as a whole, we kind of lose sense of what Paul
is saying here. Paul has been describing the character of Christian love. And in
this final section he makes the point that love is eternal, and this is its
most important feature. What does he say? Love never fails, love never falls away,
love is always present. This is just another way of translating this passage.
Of course, the reason for this is that love is from God. Love is God. It's His
essential nature. This is why it's always there. It will always exist. The
Corinthians have been focusing their attention on the temporary things, those
things that will pass away in time, which Paul mentions here. They have put the
emphasis on the means rather than on the end, which is the goal, which is love. The
spiritual gifts and abilities were there only to enable them to get started in
the faith. They were not a goal in themselves. He urges them to grow up and
recognize what the true objective is. And that objective is the character of love
that he has been describing. Their true maturation will come when they recognize
that love is the objective. And it is the objective because it is the essence of
their experience with God. He encouraged them to - he encourages them to realize
that love will be the everlasting experience of Christianity, not the
temporary gifts of prophecy or tongues and the
like. And then he finishes the passage with an extraordinary statement
concerning the third characteristic of love.
He says, Christian love is the greatest. First Corinthians, right? He says, "But now
"faith, hope, love abide, these three, but the greatest of these is love."
So after describing the character of love, Paul places this virtue, this
experience at the pinnacle of spiritual values. This is his conclusion after
stating the various qualities of love, but Paul doesn't answer the question why.
He just said, love is the greatest. You've got faith, you've got hope, but love is the
greatest. Why? Why is love the greatest? How is it greater than faith or hope?
What is it about love that exalted it above these qualities necessary for
Christian life? He doesn't answer it. In Galatians chapter five, verse 22 he does
mention love as the first and preeminent quality and result that comes from
walking in the Spirit. In Corinthians he goes one step further by exalting
Christian love above the already precious attributes of faith and hope.
So as I closed up my lesson tonight, I'd like to tell you in my own opinion, my
own humble opinion, why love is the greatest. Love is the greatest because
love lasts forever. Faith and hope are necessary to bring us to salvation and
maintain our spiritual lives while we are here on earth. Obedient faith puts us
into Christ, Galatians 3:26. Constant hope maintains our faith, Galatians five, verse
five. Once we reach heaven, however, faith and hope will no longer be necessary.
Do you ever think of that? Because once we reach heaven, we will see
God face to face, Revelation 22, verse four. No need to believe as true,
we will actually be in His presence. We will also experience the glorified body,
the body without sin or death. We will no longer hope for it, we will have it.
In heaven, only love will remain. Only the context and experience of love will be
true. In heaven, we will love God perfectly, because we will know Him and
do His will perfectly. We will love ourselves perfectly, because we will be
sinless. There will be no shame, no regret, nothing to dislike about ourselves. We
will love others perfectly, because Satan will no longer divide us. We will all be
together in Christ perfectly suited and united in perfect peace and love. So love
is the greatest, because there will be nothing left to respond to in faith,
nothing left to hope for, only love will remain to experience and to rejoice in
forever. And so love is the greatest because love
is forever. Another reason why love is the greatest: it's the greatest because
God is love. John didn't say, God is faith or
God is hope. No, he said God is love, First John 4:8. The essence of God's
character is love. People say, well yes, but He's also a God of
justice. Absolutely. He is the God of justice. And He's also the God
of righteousness. Absolutely he's the God - And don't forget He's a holy
God. Yes, holy, holy, holy, the angels say.
But the Holy Spirit through John, when called upon to simply compress
everything together to communicate to man the essence of who God is,
three words: God is love.
Love is what motivates His actions. Love is what defines His being. Love is the
greatest virtue, because to love is to know God intimately, and to do His
ultimate will. Faith believes what God says. And hope expects what God
promises. But love does what God does. Faith and hope are the best
characteristics of the human heart, but when a person loves, they become
spiritual people and the true children of God, First John chapter four, verse 16.
All religious people believe in something, they hope
for something, but only godly people love as God loves. Love is the greatest
because it is the defining characteristic of a spirit-filled man or
woman. The true faith and a genuine hope are expressed in Christian love. Without
love, faith and hope are worthless. And finally, love is the greatest because
love is the power of life. It isn't our faith that has the power to save us, it's
God's love that saves us. Faith is our response to that love. What does it say?
"For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son."
Love is what motivated God to set the entire plan of salvation into motion. It
isn't our faith or hope that draws people to Christ, it's the love of Christ
we show them that brings them to faith and hope and eventually their own love
for Christ. The disciples had favor with all of the people, Acts 2:47,
largely due to the love that others witnessed among themselves.
You didn't hear them say, man look at those disciples, do they ever have
a lot of Bible knowledge. That wasn't what impressed them. What does Jesus say?
"By this all men will know that you are My disciples: if you have love for one
"another." He didn't say, if you have faith or if you have hope. He says, if you have
love for one another. Not love for the lost or love for the poor, which is an
important element of our Christian life. But how will you convince people that
you're genuine sons and daughters of God? By the way you treat one another. That's
why when you have a church split or something like that, it's
devastating not only to the church, but it's devastating for people who are
watching what the church is doing. There would be no faith or hope if
it wasn't for love. Love was there first and love will be there last and forever.
Love was the power that created us. Love was the power that saved us. Love is the
power that sustains us. Love is the power that identifies us. And love will be the
power that resurrects, glorifies, and exalts us to the right hand of a loving
God. The most excellent way begins with faith in what God has done,
continues with a hope for what God has promised, and will be consummated when
Christ's love will be perfectly formed in us. I'm looking forward to the day
when God finally perfects love within me, because the thing that discourages me
about me are all the times when I do not love. If I'm critical about a person, that
isn't love. I don't like that about myself. Sometimes I don't love me. What I
look forward to in heaven is being able to love you without reservation and
loving myself without criticism. So in finishing this lesson, please let
me invite each of you to remember one important thing in connection with this
lesson and our position in the world as a people attempting to restore New
Testament Christianity, remember, we will never truly become the church of Christ
unless we first become the church of love. Unless we become more famous for
our loving than our fighting, unless we become more known for our loving acts
than our position on this doctrine or that doctrine, we will not effectively
restore the church of the New Testament. It's not just about how we do things in
public worship, that is important. And it is biblical, but it's also how we do
things with one another. God looks at both. I leave you with the words of John,
another apostle who knew something about the most excellent way, a way we must
follow to become the church of the Bible. In First John 4:7-8, he said, "Beloved,
"let us love one another, for love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of
"God and knows God. The one who does not love, does not know God, for God is love."
So if you are in need of God's love tonight, the love that He has to forgive
you, or to restore you back to a faithful service to Him, whatever part of His love
you need, then we encourage you to come forward and express that now as we stand
and as we sing our song of invitation.