04-22-18, 1 Corinthians 13;1-13, Understanding Love

1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Understanding Love
April 22, 2018
First Baptist Church
Jackson, Mississippi
USA

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What’s the number one thing?

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The Glory of God!

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1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV
31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you
do, do all to the glory of God.

April MemoryVerse
1 John 4:7-8 NASB
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is
from God; and everyone who loves is born of
God and knows God. 8 The one who does not
love does not know God, for God is love.

Understanding Love

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Ray Stedman 1917-1992

The Bible Knowledge Commentary:
An Exposition of the Scriptures by Dallas
Seminary Faculty.

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Jon Courson’s Application Commentary
NewTestamentVolume 1

Suppose, living centuries ago in Israel, you
journey to Jerusalem in order to worship in the
Temple.
Upon your arrival, you ask the whereabouts of
the high priest and are told he's ministering in
the holy place—the area in theTemple
containing the golden candlestick, table of
showbread, and the ark of the covenant.

"How do you know he's in there?" you ask.
"Listen carefully," you're told.
As you do, you hear the unmistakable sound of
bells ringing inside the holy place.
The Book of Exodus tells us that golden bells
hung from the hem of the high priest's robe.

Exodus 28:33-35 NASB
33You shall make on its hem pomegranates of
blue and purple and scarlet material, all around
on its hem, and bells of gold between them all
around: 34 a golden bell and a pomegranate, a
golden bell and a pomegranate, all around on
the hem of the robe.

35 It shall be on Aaron when he ministers; and its
tinkling shall be heard when he enters and
leaves the holy place before the Lord, so that he
will not die.
Exodus 28:33-35 NASB

We know from Alfred Edersheim and other
Bible scholars that these bells were made in
such a way that they rang in harmony.

When we talk about our great High Priest, Jesus
Christ, people sometimes ask how we know
He's alive, how we know He's truly in Heaven
interceding on our behalf.
We should be able to say to them, "Listen
carefully, and you will hear the harmonious
ringing of the bells as He works through His
body, the church.” (unity/love)

The golden bells in Biblical typology are a
picture of the manifestations, the gifts of the
Spirit (fruit of the Spirit).

As people see the working of the Holy Spirit
through words of wisdom, knowledge, and
prophecy; through gifts of healing, faith and
miracles; through tongues and interpretation—
as they begin to see the reality of the Spirit of
Jesus sounding forth through His body, they
will know that He is indeed alive.

According to Exodus 39:25, between each of
the bells on the high priest's robe was a
pomegranate - a fruit uniquely related to the
Promised Land.

When the spies returned from the Promised Land,
they came carrying grapes and pomegranates as a
sign of the land's productivity (Numbers 13:23).
In the Song of Solomon, the pomegranate speaks of
peace and certainty, beauty and romance (4:3; 6:7).
Joel refers to the pomegranate in connection with
joy (Joel 1:12).

The NewTestament equivalent is the fruit of
the Spirit, which is love—defined as joy, peace,
longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, and self-control.

Without the pomegranate between the bells on
the robe of the high priest, there would be
nothing but clanging.
This was the case in the church at Corinth.

Although Paul says they possessed every gift of the
Spirit, they lacked the fruit of the Spirit.
This led to all kinds of noise, irritation, and
confusion.
This is why, between his discussion of the
manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit in chapters 12
and 14, here in chapter 13, Paul inserts a
pomegranate—the fruit of love.

1 Corinthians 13:1 NASB
1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of
angels, but do not have love, I have become a
noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

William Barclay says:
A characteristic of heathen worship, especially
the worship of Dionysus and Cybele, was the
clanging of cymbals and the braying of
trumpets.

Even the gift of tongues was no better than the
uproar of heathen worship if love was absent
and if void of love it might be momentarily
electrifying like a clash of gong or cymbal but
then vanished just as quickly.

Love on the other hand produces eternal
effects (v. 13).

2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and 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.

Every gift is linked in some way to building up
the church to maturity—some (prophecy,
knowledge, tongues) functioning in the early
years of the Church Age and others continuing
on till the church is perfected.

When that perfection is achieved, the gifts will
have served their purposes and will be rendered
obsolete.
But this will not happen to love.

1 Corinthians 13:3-7 NASB
3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the
poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned,
but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous;
love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does
not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own,
is not provoked, does not take into account a
wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in
unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all
things, endures all things.

Some translations say “is not easily provoked”
in 13:5c.
The word "easily" does not appear in any of the
Greek manuscripts.
Thus, love is simply not provoked.

Phileo, eros and storgi forms of love can
become irritated, provoked, aggravated but not
agape love.

Some have seen in verses 4-6 the fruit of the
Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23); others have seen here
a description of Christ Himself.
Both perspectives are different sides of the
same coin, both are applicable.

According to Ephesians 4:11-16, the gifts were
to be used to bring the church from a state of
infancy to adulthood.

The word translated "mature" in that passage
(Ephesians 4:13) is the word translated
"perfection" (teleion) in 1 Corinthians 13:10.
In the Ephesians passage, maturity is defined as
"attaining to the whole measure of the fullness
of Christ."

Such a state will obviously not exist until
Christ’s second coming.

"If you abide in Me," Jesus said, "you shall bring
forth much fruit" (see John 15:5).
What fruit?
Love!
He told us we're branches, and that He is the
Vine.

What do branches do?
Just hang in there, close to theVine.
Therefore, as I stay connected to theVine by
getting to know Him and enjoying Him, the
fruit will come.

Fruit comes when you continue doing
just what you're doing now—spending
time with Him, hanging in there week
after week, month after month, year
after year.

Slowly, but surely, as you stay connected to
Jesus, more and more of His agape love will
seep through you.You watch; you wait; you'll
see.

8 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.

There are three aspects of love which Paul
considers in this brief chapter:
First, the preeminence of love over everything
else; then the practice of love (in a very
forthright and helpful way); and then the
permanence of love, the enduring quality of it.

We should remember that this chapter on love,
though it is often read separately from the rest
of the content, really fits beautifully with what
the apostle has been talking about in the
previous section.

Paul speaks about the preeminence of love,
how it is of more value than everything else;
and he also talks about the practice of love,
how it comes out in practical ways.

Now, inVerse 8, we have Paul's amplifying of
the persistence of love, the permanence of it.
It is all put in the opening words ofVerse 8.
1 Corinthians 13:8a NASB
8a Love never fails;

The various versions translate that in many
ways.The reason is that the apostle has
employed a very unusual Greek word here that
is translated "ends" in the RSV.
It really means, "to fall."
It says love never "falls."

Now that sounds strange to our ears, but it is
meant in the sense that love never falls away
and disappears; it never quits; it is never used
up; love keeps on coming; the more you use it
the more there is.
That is the point Paul is making here.

Many of you have discovered this.
You begin to exercise this kind of love and you
find yourself enabled to exercise it even more
all the time; the more you give it away the more
you seem to have.

Love is like bailing out a boat with a hole in it --
the more water you throw out, the more there
is; it just keeps coming in all the time.
That is the thought behind this, "love never
quits"; it never stops coming on.

Love will not quit, despite all the obstacles that
stand in the way.
Love refuses to give heed to what would turn
off anything less, but keeps right on.
God's love is like that.

This is surely what Paul is describing here as he
contrasts this quality of love with the things
that will not last, the things that do quit, the
things that pass away, inVerse 8.
1 Corinthians 13:8 RSV
Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will
pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as
for knowledge, it will pass away.

Obviously, he is comparing this now to the
spiritual gifts.
This is not knowledge in general or prophecy in
general; this is the specific "gift of knowledge,"
the "gift of prophecy," the "gift of tongues" that
he is talking about.
These were the three favorite gifts at Corinth.

They were making much of them in the church
there, as many in the church today make much
of them.
Paul was telling them that, important and God-
given as these gifts are, they were never
intended to last in contrast to love.

1 Corinthians13:9-10 NASB
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part;
10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will
be done away.

The gift of tongues will cease and the gifts of
prophesying and knowledge, will fade away
gradually.

They are gradually being replaced by something
else, which he calls the "perfect" thing.
We see how clear this is inVerses 9 and 10.
1 Corinthians 13:9-10 RSV
9 For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy
is imperfect; 10 but when the perfect comes, the
imperfect will pass away.

Clearly this is a gradual process.
Now, the question that it raises in our minds, of
course, is, "What is this perfect thing which,
gradually increasing in our life, replaces our
concern about gifts?"
It is interesting to see the many guesses the
commentaries make about this.

Some of them suggest that the "perfect" thing
here is the writtenWord of God.
In the 1st century, they did not have the New
Testament as we have it.

They relied upon the teaching of prophets,
evangelists, apostles and others who spoke bits
and pieces of the mind of God, but as the
complete, written account of that mind of God
took shape and form in the NewTestament, all
the need for these gifts would pass away.

It is the claim of those who teach this that as
theWord of God, as we think of it, came into
being in the written NewTestament, these gifts
began to fade, so that all the gifts of
prophesying and of tongues and of knowledge
have all long since ceased and we are now shut
up to theWord of God.

There are elements of truth in that, but that is
not what this is referring to at all; that is to
totally ignore the context in which this word
"perfect" appears.

Others have suggested that what Paul is talking
about is Heaven.
Heaven is the perfect place.
Life is imperfect, and one of these days we will
all fold our earthly tents, the wheels of earthly
life will cease their turning, and we will go to
Heaven and then the "perfect" comes.

There are also strong elements of truth in that.
In fact, Paul is going to return to that theme a
little bit later in the paragraph.
But, again, that is not what he means by the
word "perfect" here at all.

If we take the passage in its full context, in
relationship to all that he has said here and in
the surrounding passages, it is clear that the
word "perfect" refers to love.

Love is that "perfect" thing, which, as it grows
in our life, replaces our need for and concern
with the gifts of the Spirit. We find ourselves
growing up into that to which the gifts are
designed to lead us, so, when the end begins to
be accomplished, the means to that end are no
longer as fully required.

11When 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
(matured).

Back in verse 6, Paul says that love rejoices with
the truth.
It is very difficult to combine love and truth but
there is an intriguing passage in the letter to the
Ephesians that addresses this combination of
truth and love.

Ephesians 4:15 NASB
15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow
up in all aspects into HimWho is the head, even
Christ,

There is a connection between the Ephesians 4
passage and our text today.

Ephesians 4:14a, 15 NASB
14a As a result, we are no longer to be children,
15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow
up (mature) in all aspects into HimWho is the
head, even Christ,

This speaking the truth in love constitutes the
simplest, briefest, and yet the most profound
definition of Christian maturity.
We should seek to measure ourselves against
this, and measure others as to whether they are
mature or not in the degree to which we
manifest this quality.

Now it is hard to combine those two.
It is easy to speak the truth sometimes, to be
blunt and caustic and even embittered, and you
can speak truth, but there is no love in it.

Or you can be loving, as we think of it, and
refuse to hurt another and never tell him
anything that is unpleasant or distasteful.
But that is a quality that really reveals a lack of
courage; it is a form of deception. (Preaching
only love)

It is the man or woman who can learn to speak
the truth in love who is growing up in Christ.
That is what this chapter is describing for us.

Paul says:
1 Corinthians 13:11a RSV
11aWhen I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought
like a child, I reasoned like a child;
There is nothing wrong with that.
Children are supposed to act like children;
everybody expects them to, and it would be folly
and a shame if they did not.

Paul also says:
1 Corinthians 13:11b RSV
11b but, when I became a man, I gave up childish
ways.
Why?Well, because he had become a man.
That is the end toward which a child always moves -
- maturity -- and therefore these things were no
longer needed.

Now, what Paul is saying, of course, to these
Corinthians (and to us), is that the mark of maturity
is the ability to love, to love the unlovely, the selfish,
the distasteful, the ungrateful, and to not let that
change your attitude or your actions toward them
but to keep on working fully for their best interests
(agape love).
The gifts were designed to lead to love.

The quality of Christianity lies in its ability to
love, to love the hurting, the weak and the
foolish.
Love then is the "perfect" thing, and, Paul says,
one day it will be perfectly ours.

12 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.
13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three;
but the greatest of these is love.

A city like Corinth, famous for its bronze
mirrors, would have particularly appreciated
Paul's final illustration.
The perfection and imperfection mentioned in
verse 10 were deftly likened to the contrasting
images obtained by the indirect reflection of
one's face viewed in a bronze mirror and the
same face when viewed directly.

Such, Paul said, was the contrast between the
imperfect time in which he then wrote and the
perfect time which awaited him and the church
when the partial reflection of the present would
give way to the splendor of perfect vision.

Then Paul would see God (1 John 3:2) as God
now saw Paul.

Clearly here he is anticipating the end of life,
the dawning of a new day when the morning
will break and every shadow will flee away; all
the imperfection of life will come to an end, and
love will stand face to face with love.

Now, he says, it is like looking in a mirror dimly.
He is talking about the way we are able to love.
These ancient mirrors were not like the silvered
glass ones we have today that give a clear and
beautiful image, as they did not understand
that process then.

Their mirrors were simply highly polished metal, so
that, when you looked in them, all you got was a
rather indistinct, blurred image.
This is a beautiful symbol for life: Paul says that is
the way we love today.
We sometimes try to visualize the face of Jesus, but
it is instructive that the Spirit of God has never given
us a physical description of Him.

Some folks do not like pictures of Jesus because
they distract from what the Spirit is trying to
impart, which is the true beauty of His being,
His life, His character.
Others may be helped by pictures and they
cannot be faulted for that.

Paul says our efforts to visualize and to sense
the personality and the glory of Jesus are
imperfect now, as we do not see Him very
clearly.

But one of these days all those barriers will fade
away, the mist will be dissolved, and we will
suddenly find ourselves face to face with the
Lord Jesus!

The disciples experienced a little of this on the
Day of Pentecost.
In the Upper Room, the Lord had said to them,
"It is to your advantage that I go away," (John
16:7 RSV).
They looked at Him with unbelieving eyes.

They must have been thinking in their hearts.
"How could that be?To loseYou, to lose our
chief treasure is to leave life empty and
meaningless, dull and dreary. We can hardly
stand the thought of it. AreYou telling us that it
is to our advantage thatYou go away? How
could that be?"

But on the Day of Pentecost when the Spirit
came to reveal Christ to them, they understood
what He meant because suddenly all the
questions they had been asking, all the doubts
they had felt were resolved.
An inner confidence sprang up within them that
He is alive, and not only with them - inside of
them!

They understood what He had said; words that
they had been puzzling over, that had raised
endless doubts and misconceptions in their
minds, were suddenly clear and striking and
startling.

Now, that was just a foretaste of what is going
to happen on the day when we stand in the
presence of Jesus.
Paul says that will happen with our knowledge
as well.

We try to grasp the way God works in history.
We try to understand what He is doing with the
events that fill our newspapers.
We ask ourselves, not what economic impact a
certain event will have, but, "Why did God allow
it to happen?"

As we face those questions, we find ourselves
able to see only very dimly, only to get blurred
and incomplete images of what God is doing;
little glimpses, fragments of insight perhaps,
but nothing very clear.

But, one of these days, Paul says, we shall
understand; we shall know Him as fully as He
now knows us.
All our questions will be answered; all our
problems will be resolved.

So, in his final summary, Paul gathers it all up in
the things that abide.
1 Corinthians 13:13 RSV
13 So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but
the greatest of these is love.

Faith abides because faith is a human response
to a divine provision.
Faith is doing something with what God has
given you, and that is going to go on through all
eternity.

We lack everything; we human beings have
nothing in ourselves.
We are constantly taking wisdom, power,
instruction and ability from the hand of God.
Everyone is, whether he knows it or not.

There is no ability to function as a human being
without the gift of God to you first.
Faith is a simple, deliberate response to the
provision of God, therefore it abides, because
we will go on doing that throughout eternity.

Hope abides because hope is the expectation of
yet more to come.
There is a phrase earlier in this letter where Paul
speaks of "the things God has prepared for
those who love Him," (1 Corinthians 2:9b RSV).

We are beginning to dabble in the shallows of
that now; we have found a few of those things
already, but that is an infinite number, and
finiteness can never encompass infinity.

God, therefore, is going to keep on opening our
eyes to new vistas, opening our spirits to new
opportunities, to new adventures of faith.
It will never grow old; it will never get less; it will
go on forever and ever because He is infinite.

Hope, therefore, abides.
But love abides too, and the reason love is the
greatest is because God is love.
God is not faith; God is not hope; God is love!

Therefore, to learn to love is to achieve the
absolute, paramount value of the entire
universe -- to become like God.
That is what it is all about, isn't it?

The lie of the devil in the Garden of Eden was, if
you disobey God you will be like God; you will
learn how to have a fulfilled life.
That lie, and its sad results are visible all around
us, in our own lives and in the world today.

But theWord of God says to trust Him, to follow
Him.
To use what He gives you is one day to discover
that the clouds pass away, the mists all melt
and the morning breaks, the shadows flee, and
you are face to face with Him and you are like
Him.

When we see Him "we shall be like Him, for we
shall see Him as He is," (1 John 3:2).
Therefore, love abides -- and "the greatest of
these is love."

Paul really concludes this section with the
opening words of Chapter 14.
1 Corinthians 14:1a RSV
1a Make love your aim,
The word is pursue it; set your heart on it; make
it your chief goal; work at it; think about it; aim
toward it; follow it; pursue it.

That is the idea; that is what life is all about.
To become a loving, compassionate, patient,
kind, truthful person that brings glory to God is
the reason we exist.

Everything else must either minister to us to
that end or be regarded as useless and wasted
time.
May God help us to hold this clearly in our
minds and understand the reality of these
words, "the greatest of these is love."

Prayer
Lord, we feel so incapable of manifesting this
quality of life, and yet your Word assures us that this
is what was intended. We do not have this ability in
ourselves, but we have it supplied to us in unending
quantity if we but choose to use it. Help us to make
that our goal. Beginning the rest of today, and all of
next week, and for the rest of our lives, we will "owe
no man anything, but to love one another."
In Jesus' name, Amen.

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Sunday

Enjoying God’s Comfort
April 29, 2018
First Baptist Church
Jackson, Mississippi
USA

The Plan of Hope & Salvation
John 3:16 NASB
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not
perish, but have eternal life.”
John 14:6 NASB
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the
life. No one comes to the Father but through me.”

Romans 3:23 NASB
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Romans 6:23a NASB
23a For the wages of sin is death,
• Death in this life (the first death) is 100%.
• Even Jesus, the only one who doesn’t deserve death,
died in this life to pay the penalty for our sins.
• The death referred to in Romans 6:23a is the second
death explained in Revelation 21:8.

Revelation 21:8 NASB
8 “But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable
and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and
idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that
burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second
death.”
Romans 6:23b NASB
23b but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our
Lord.

Romans 5:8 NASB
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Revelation 21:7 NASB
7 “He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will
be his God and he will be My son.”
• Romans 10:9-10 explains to us how to be overcomers.

Romans 10:9-10 NASB
9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and
believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead,
you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes,
resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he
confesses, resulting in salvation.
Romans 10:13 NASB
13 for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE
SAVED.”

Have questions or would like to know more?
Please, contact First Baptist Church Jackson at
601-949-1900 or http://firstbaptistjackson.org/contact/

04-22-18, 1 Corinthians 13;1-13, Understanding Love

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04-22-18, 1 Corinthians 13;1-13, Understanding Love