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1 Corinthians 13:4-8
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Today we begin a new series on
sayings in Scripture that seem backwards or upside down from common sense.
Sometimes people have said that when Jesus came in to the world, his surprising
teachings turned the world upside down. The reality of course is that the world
has already been upside down because of sin for a long time and that Jesus’
contrary sounding teachings actually would turn the world right side up. It is
the sinners who have been contrary to God’s wisdom that try to keep the world
in its upside down, alienated from God condition.
We begin the series with a message about God’s love. I saw a cartoon strip recently in which a young man prays for God’s protection, and as he gets up off his knees a pebble hits him in the back of the head. He cries out in pain, “Hey, God, why?” Then he turns around and sees a gigantic Jesus, arm out stretched, standing there taking a barrage of boulders and rocks that would otherwise have killed the man. And Jesus says, “Did I miss one? Oh I’m sorry. Are you okay?” It’s a good thing that God is so great and loving. I probably would have said something more like, “What are you complaining about?”
Love is the true foundation for the world in which we live. That is what God intended anyway. We draw this conclusion from the fact that the three persons of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit must all love each other because God IS love. God exists in eternal loving relationship between the three persons of the Trinity. He is a relational being. This is shown to be true when Jesus says that the first and greatest command is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
And yet there is a surprise in this because obedience can be commanded or forced, but love can really only be requested, as in, “Will you marry me?” Even God can’t force anyone to love him, and he won’t either, because that would violate his own definition of love which is that it is freely offered. He doesn’t want a world full of scared robots. He wants a world full of loving relationships. And yet we are commanded to love him! Why is this? How can it be? The answer is that God gives it as a command because it really is the only way to live.
Anything other than loving God leads to death because only God is the true source of life. We need to be told this plainly and as a command because we are all by sinful nature so stiff necked and hard hearted that even after we believe the gospel and are saved by that grace we will tend to stop loving God and are easily led away to other sins, just as the children of Israel were, of whom we read so much in the Old Testament concerning their rebellion and forgetfulness of all God’s goodness.
But God epitomizes the actions of love we read about in 1 Cor. 13. God is patient. Oh, he is so patient, isn’t he? God is kind. He is such a gentleman. He tells us all the truth we need to know and then he lets us go the way we choose. He makes it clear as possible that choosing to love him blesses us most, but if we choose a different love, He does not envy, He does not boast, He is not proud. He does not dishonor others, He is not self-seeking. You’ll never hear him shouting, “YOU”D BETTER LOVE ME!” For God is not easily angered, He keeps no record of wrongs. (At least for those who have asked forgiveness. Their sins are thrown into the sea of forgetfulness.) God does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. And when we are wise enough to love him back He always protects us, always trusts us to do the things he asks of us, always hopes we will stay with him, and always perseveres in staying with us no matter what.
God 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.” Prophecies will come to an end one day. When we see God face to face we will know everything we need to know without being told by a prophet. Tongues will be stilled when there is only one universal heavenly language that we all use in common. And the knowledge of today, as limited as it is by our existence in this broken world, will be seen for all the foolishness it really is and will be discarded as refuse when we come into the full experiential knowledge of God. We will see him as he is!
You may have heard people say, “The God of the Old Testament is a God of wrath while the God of the New Testament is a God of love.” The word love is used 686 times in the Bible! And more than half of them, 425 verses, or about 2/3s of the love in the Bible is in the OT! Throughout the Old Testament, God is declared to be a “compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.” That sounds a little like 1 Cor. 13 right there.
Truly, the Bible is God’s love letter to mankind. God’s love for His creation, especially for mankind, is evident all through Scripture. Throughout the Bible we see God lovingly and mercifully calling people into a special relationship with Himself, not because they deserve it, but because He is a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness and truth. Yet we also see a holy and righteous God who is the Judge of all those who disobey His Word and refuse to worship Him, turning instead to worship gods of their own creation. If that foolishness makes him angry is not because of what he loses, it is because he hates to see us lose everything through chasing after a lie. (Romans chapter 1)1
Love is a big deal in the Bible. I was tempted to quote all of the verses about love in this message because God IS love. That is the primary definition of his character and being. It is the only motivation that drives all his actions. It is what makes him gracious, compassionate and merciful, long suffering and slow to anger.
Love wins! That’s not a Bible verse but it is the Truth because God is the victor, triumphing over evil and sin and death. Love conquers all! That’s not a Bible verse either, but it is a true saying. God is love and love wins! You can even think of the Exodus story as a chapter in the great love story of God wooing us back to himself. In this chapter there is an epic battle between the one True God, and all the false gods of Egypt. Each of the ten plagues is a direct attack on the gods of Egypt. For example, they had the Nile God of water. God turned the water into blood. And the God of water couldn’t do a thing about it. God, who is love, wins every time!
And why did God do all those signs and wonders in Egypt? It wasn’t just a “my God’s bigger than your God” contest. It was because he wanted to show his love for an unlovely, unlovable people. God’s love is great because he doesn’t love us because we are good. He loves us because he is good.
Once we say a thing like that though, our modern culture wants to think of God as loving and accepting of all our faults and foibles, even overlooking sins. And then there are those who are now redefining what God calls sin so they can say that they are not sinning and they would even add that since God is love he would approve of their new definitions because he is not judging anybody anymore. The true love of God overturns those namby-pamby ideas with a courageous, even ferocious, concern for the lowly and down trodden and deceived. God does love you so much that he will accept you in whatever broken condition you are in when you come to him. But he loves you too much to leave you that way.
To get a better picture of real active love, I especially like Song of Solomon 8:6-7 where it says, “For love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If one were to give all the wealth of one’s house for love, it would be utterly scorned.”
It is good for us to know that God’s love is as strong as death, stronger actually. He gave his life for all of us and conquered death. He rose again, standing in victory over sin and death and hell! We get to live forever because God loves us!
God’s jealousy is a good protective kind. He loves us so much he will never let any competition stand between us and him. As long as we want God’s love, nothing can stop us from having it. God removes every obstacle. It is a kind of jealousy we can appreciate because it is not directed at us, but only at everything that stands between us and him, unless we ourselves put something between us. If we do that kind of foolish thing, turn our backs on God and make “non-gods” more important, the way idol worshippers did in the old days, well, God will let us have what we want. He has warned us though that it always leads to death to walk away from the source of life.
God’s love does burn like blazing fire, like a mighty flame! But it only consumes that which God does not love, or, at the final judgment, anyone who does not love him. The waters mentioned here make me think of the waters of Baptism and the waters of Noah’s flood. Those two things go together because Noah’s flood brought death to the world of sin and the waters of baptism bring death to the world of sin in each heart that takes it.
Let me tell you how important it is to understand this and what a powerful effect it can have in your life when you know and believe the true gospel. Last Monday night I had dinner at the First Baptist church. They were sharing a taste of India. We had Indian food for dinner and then we heard about the missionary work being done by the Indian Rural Evangelical Fellowship.2 They are working in a certain northeastern section of that country. There it is said that new believers “take” baptism. In America we “get” baptized. But in India new believers “take” baptism. I found that word very significant because it immediately made me think of the question, “Can you take it?” You know that means, “Can you bear it?” Can you endure the hardships required to have what you want?
That is really the right word in India because when a person raised as a Hindu believes the gospel and decides to take baptism he or she is literally risking everything. There is a question of whether they can take it. Jesus said, “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.” These former Hindus live that out because when they take baptism their families often respond by cutting ties and expelling the believers from their biological Hindu families. But also, new believers in Hindu culture will lose their jobs, lose their homes and maybe even lose their lives because of their new faith in Jesus.
When a Hindu takes Christian baptism, he truly does die to his past. He can’t go back. His life is changed forever, even his name is changed because many of them were named after Hindu Gods, so they take on Christian names to renounce everything connected with that false faith. Then all he has after that is what God provides through the church, the body of Christ. Do you see how much a person must love Jesus to give up all that for the sake of Christ? That’s true love!
It made me think about ways for us to proclaim anew our whole hearted commitment to this cause of Christ and to life in the Body and in the fellowship. It put me in mind to think that most American congregations need to start over. I would draw a line right down the middle of this sanctuary, perhaps the center aisle would serve the purpose. And I would ask everyone to go to the left side of the sanctuary and consider what it means to give up everything for Christ. How much do you love him? Would you cross to the right side, knowing that it means you are leaving everything else about your life behind you forever? Is God worthy of all that?
In Acts 2: 42- 47 we read, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.”
Do you love Jesus enough to commit to that? Would you cross the line in the center aisle and openly declare your radical allegiance to the God who loves you enough to die for you? Would you be willing to die for Him? It’s more than pledging allegiance. That’s falling in love!
Now we are invited to the communion table, the love feast in which Jesus gave us his own body and blood as a wedding gift. Can you take communion and not be aware of how underserving we are of such great love and grace? Can you eat, unmoved by how great a price was paid so God could have you for his very own? I pray not. I pray that we will all, like our Hindu brothers and sisters be ready and willing to die to everything that is not of Christ. It is a solemn commitment that comes with a resulting great joy!
I rest in God's love. It is not that I will be forgiven one day. It is the knowledge that I am already forgiven that moves me with gratitude so that I do not want to sin. God's grace does not encourage me to sin, as if being forgiven means that now I can do whatever I want and God won’t mind. No, God's grace moves us to live obedient lives that bring him honor and glory. This pleases God, not that we behave so well that we earn his pardon or believe he must grant us pardon for the inevitable failures that come along with trying to live.
What pleases God is our gratitude and love for him because he DOES love us even though we know we don't deserve it. This glorifies God, that his love is so great, and that our love is freely offered in return for his. Our obedience and submission to His will then is not forced so that we might get a blessing. Our submission is loving God BECAUSE he first loved us, not SO THAT he MIGHT love us back. In all other religions with moral requirements you MUST obey, but I WANT to. That’s the right side up kind of love. There is a significant difference in motivation. And I thank God for the difference. Amen.
1Read more: http://www.gotquestions.org/God-different.html#ixzz3cDS2zq3c
2Read More about IREF: http://irefusa.org/
We begin the series with a message about God’s love. I saw a cartoon strip recently in which a young man prays for God’s protection, and as he gets up off his knees a pebble hits him in the back of the head. He cries out in pain, “Hey, God, why?” Then he turns around and sees a gigantic Jesus, arm out stretched, standing there taking a barrage of boulders and rocks that would otherwise have killed the man. And Jesus says, “Did I miss one? Oh I’m sorry. Are you okay?” It’s a good thing that God is so great and loving. I probably would have said something more like, “What are you complaining about?”
Love is the true foundation for the world in which we live. That is what God intended anyway. We draw this conclusion from the fact that the three persons of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit must all love each other because God IS love. God exists in eternal loving relationship between the three persons of the Trinity. He is a relational being. This is shown to be true when Jesus says that the first and greatest command is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
And yet there is a surprise in this because obedience can be commanded or forced, but love can really only be requested, as in, “Will you marry me?” Even God can’t force anyone to love him, and he won’t either, because that would violate his own definition of love which is that it is freely offered. He doesn’t want a world full of scared robots. He wants a world full of loving relationships. And yet we are commanded to love him! Why is this? How can it be? The answer is that God gives it as a command because it really is the only way to live.
Anything other than loving God leads to death because only God is the true source of life. We need to be told this plainly and as a command because we are all by sinful nature so stiff necked and hard hearted that even after we believe the gospel and are saved by that grace we will tend to stop loving God and are easily led away to other sins, just as the children of Israel were, of whom we read so much in the Old Testament concerning their rebellion and forgetfulness of all God’s goodness.
But God epitomizes the actions of love we read about in 1 Cor. 13. God is patient. Oh, he is so patient, isn’t he? God is kind. He is such a gentleman. He tells us all the truth we need to know and then he lets us go the way we choose. He makes it clear as possible that choosing to love him blesses us most, but if we choose a different love, He does not envy, He does not boast, He is not proud. He does not dishonor others, He is not self-seeking. You’ll never hear him shouting, “YOU”D BETTER LOVE ME!” For God is not easily angered, He keeps no record of wrongs. (At least for those who have asked forgiveness. Their sins are thrown into the sea of forgetfulness.) God does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. And when we are wise enough to love him back He always protects us, always trusts us to do the things he asks of us, always hopes we will stay with him, and always perseveres in staying with us no matter what.
God 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.” Prophecies will come to an end one day. When we see God face to face we will know everything we need to know without being told by a prophet. Tongues will be stilled when there is only one universal heavenly language that we all use in common. And the knowledge of today, as limited as it is by our existence in this broken world, will be seen for all the foolishness it really is and will be discarded as refuse when we come into the full experiential knowledge of God. We will see him as he is!
You may have heard people say, “The God of the Old Testament is a God of wrath while the God of the New Testament is a God of love.” The word love is used 686 times in the Bible! And more than half of them, 425 verses, or about 2/3s of the love in the Bible is in the OT! Throughout the Old Testament, God is declared to be a “compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.” That sounds a little like 1 Cor. 13 right there.
Truly, the Bible is God’s love letter to mankind. God’s love for His creation, especially for mankind, is evident all through Scripture. Throughout the Bible we see God lovingly and mercifully calling people into a special relationship with Himself, not because they deserve it, but because He is a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness and truth. Yet we also see a holy and righteous God who is the Judge of all those who disobey His Word and refuse to worship Him, turning instead to worship gods of their own creation. If that foolishness makes him angry is not because of what he loses, it is because he hates to see us lose everything through chasing after a lie. (Romans chapter 1)1
Love is a big deal in the Bible. I was tempted to quote all of the verses about love in this message because God IS love. That is the primary definition of his character and being. It is the only motivation that drives all his actions. It is what makes him gracious, compassionate and merciful, long suffering and slow to anger.
Love wins! That’s not a Bible verse but it is the Truth because God is the victor, triumphing over evil and sin and death. Love conquers all! That’s not a Bible verse either, but it is a true saying. God is love and love wins! You can even think of the Exodus story as a chapter in the great love story of God wooing us back to himself. In this chapter there is an epic battle between the one True God, and all the false gods of Egypt. Each of the ten plagues is a direct attack on the gods of Egypt. For example, they had the Nile God of water. God turned the water into blood. And the God of water couldn’t do a thing about it. God, who is love, wins every time!
And why did God do all those signs and wonders in Egypt? It wasn’t just a “my God’s bigger than your God” contest. It was because he wanted to show his love for an unlovely, unlovable people. God’s love is great because he doesn’t love us because we are good. He loves us because he is good.
Once we say a thing like that though, our modern culture wants to think of God as loving and accepting of all our faults and foibles, even overlooking sins. And then there are those who are now redefining what God calls sin so they can say that they are not sinning and they would even add that since God is love he would approve of their new definitions because he is not judging anybody anymore. The true love of God overturns those namby-pamby ideas with a courageous, even ferocious, concern for the lowly and down trodden and deceived. God does love you so much that he will accept you in whatever broken condition you are in when you come to him. But he loves you too much to leave you that way.
To get a better picture of real active love, I especially like Song of Solomon 8:6-7 where it says, “For love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If one were to give all the wealth of one’s house for love, it would be utterly scorned.”
It is good for us to know that God’s love is as strong as death, stronger actually. He gave his life for all of us and conquered death. He rose again, standing in victory over sin and death and hell! We get to live forever because God loves us!
God’s jealousy is a good protective kind. He loves us so much he will never let any competition stand between us and him. As long as we want God’s love, nothing can stop us from having it. God removes every obstacle. It is a kind of jealousy we can appreciate because it is not directed at us, but only at everything that stands between us and him, unless we ourselves put something between us. If we do that kind of foolish thing, turn our backs on God and make “non-gods” more important, the way idol worshippers did in the old days, well, God will let us have what we want. He has warned us though that it always leads to death to walk away from the source of life.
God’s love does burn like blazing fire, like a mighty flame! But it only consumes that which God does not love, or, at the final judgment, anyone who does not love him. The waters mentioned here make me think of the waters of Baptism and the waters of Noah’s flood. Those two things go together because Noah’s flood brought death to the world of sin and the waters of baptism bring death to the world of sin in each heart that takes it.
Let me tell you how important it is to understand this and what a powerful effect it can have in your life when you know and believe the true gospel. Last Monday night I had dinner at the First Baptist church. They were sharing a taste of India. We had Indian food for dinner and then we heard about the missionary work being done by the Indian Rural Evangelical Fellowship.2 They are working in a certain northeastern section of that country. There it is said that new believers “take” baptism. In America we “get” baptized. But in India new believers “take” baptism. I found that word very significant because it immediately made me think of the question, “Can you take it?” You know that means, “Can you bear it?” Can you endure the hardships required to have what you want?
That is really the right word in India because when a person raised as a Hindu believes the gospel and decides to take baptism he or she is literally risking everything. There is a question of whether they can take it. Jesus said, “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.” These former Hindus live that out because when they take baptism their families often respond by cutting ties and expelling the believers from their biological Hindu families. But also, new believers in Hindu culture will lose their jobs, lose their homes and maybe even lose their lives because of their new faith in Jesus.
When a Hindu takes Christian baptism, he truly does die to his past. He can’t go back. His life is changed forever, even his name is changed because many of them were named after Hindu Gods, so they take on Christian names to renounce everything connected with that false faith. Then all he has after that is what God provides through the church, the body of Christ. Do you see how much a person must love Jesus to give up all that for the sake of Christ? That’s true love!
It made me think about ways for us to proclaim anew our whole hearted commitment to this cause of Christ and to life in the Body and in the fellowship. It put me in mind to think that most American congregations need to start over. I would draw a line right down the middle of this sanctuary, perhaps the center aisle would serve the purpose. And I would ask everyone to go to the left side of the sanctuary and consider what it means to give up everything for Christ. How much do you love him? Would you cross to the right side, knowing that it means you are leaving everything else about your life behind you forever? Is God worthy of all that?
In Acts 2: 42- 47 we read, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.”
Do you love Jesus enough to commit to that? Would you cross the line in the center aisle and openly declare your radical allegiance to the God who loves you enough to die for you? Would you be willing to die for Him? It’s more than pledging allegiance. That’s falling in love!
Now we are invited to the communion table, the love feast in which Jesus gave us his own body and blood as a wedding gift. Can you take communion and not be aware of how underserving we are of such great love and grace? Can you eat, unmoved by how great a price was paid so God could have you for his very own? I pray not. I pray that we will all, like our Hindu brothers and sisters be ready and willing to die to everything that is not of Christ. It is a solemn commitment that comes with a resulting great joy!
I rest in God's love. It is not that I will be forgiven one day. It is the knowledge that I am already forgiven that moves me with gratitude so that I do not want to sin. God's grace does not encourage me to sin, as if being forgiven means that now I can do whatever I want and God won’t mind. No, God's grace moves us to live obedient lives that bring him honor and glory. This pleases God, not that we behave so well that we earn his pardon or believe he must grant us pardon for the inevitable failures that come along with trying to live.
What pleases God is our gratitude and love for him because he DOES love us even though we know we don't deserve it. This glorifies God, that his love is so great, and that our love is freely offered in return for his. Our obedience and submission to His will then is not forced so that we might get a blessing. Our submission is loving God BECAUSE he first loved us, not SO THAT he MIGHT love us back. In all other religions with moral requirements you MUST obey, but I WANT to. That’s the right side up kind of love. There is a significant difference in motivation. And I thank God for the difference. Amen.
1Read more: http://www.gotquestions.org/God-different.html#ixzz3cDS2zq3c
2Read More about IREF: http://irefusa.org/
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