1 Corinthians 13-14v1

Let Love be your highest goal.

Love is not an emotion.

This love that Paul is talking about is a patiently kind posture of being actively or actionably loving towards others.

Restated:

Let the way you love others be the defining aspect of your every day life.

What does that look like?

Am I meaningless noise…?

1. My Love matters more than my gifting.

I may want to be known for many skills and gifts that I add to the world around me, but my love towards others is more valuable. It is actually worth more.

2. Love is what makes my life substantial.

I may be inclined to chase many skills / gifts, but in the economy of God, only loving others, following His love example towards them, makes our days on earth matter.

3. Love is my choice.

I may want to blame others for my lack of love, but in the end, it is my choice and only my choice.

When I was a child…

How does a child think and reason?

If it matters to me, I will take it.

I want what I want.

I won’t be happy unless I get what I want.

When I grew up, I put away…

Maturity is not an accident.

Age does not create spiritual and emotional maturity.

There is an intentional choice to, “put away…”

Paul is talking about maturing in the Kingdom. That is the process of allowing the Holy Spirit to take up more and more room in our hearts. It is a process we call, “becoming like Jesus.”

Paul gives two lists here:

a. The childish list (when I live in alignment with my SIN nature)

b. That grown up list (when I live in alignment with the Holy Spirit)

The Childish List:

boastful- a self display, employing rhetorical embellishments in extolling one’s self excessively

proud- to puff up

rude- indecent, to act unbecomingly

demanding – self-seeking or self-focused

irritable – to be harsh or sharp

record keeping of wrong – to calculate into memory (ledger) an action that hurts or brings

Vintage City Church | Stop Believing In The God That You Believe In: Genesis 22 • David Mitchell

Vintage Sermon // David Mitchell // Genesis 22

Vintage City Church | Love Is Patiently Kind

First, however, let me tell you about something else that is better than any of them!…

1 Corinthians 13-

If I could speak in any language in heaven or on earth but didn’t love others, I would only be making meaningless noise like a loud gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I knew all the mysteries of the future and knew everything about everything, but didn’t love others, what good would I be? And if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move, without love I would be no good to anybody. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would be of no value whatsoever.

Love is patient and kind.

I want to go back to Love.

Paul shares in 1 Corinthians 13 that Love is Patiently Kind.

We considered 3 truths out of these first few verses:

1. My Love matters more than my gifting.

2. Love is what makes my life substantial.

3. Love is my choice.

We considered what love is-

patient – “makrothumeo,” a long holding of temper

kind –  to show oneself useful, mild or pleasant, (as opposed to harsh)

In 1 John 4v8, we realize that God is Love.

In essence,

Paul states Love, as a reality, not just an action.

He states love as an action, not just a reality.

Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.

jealous – an envious or contentious rival

boastful– a self display, employing rhetorical embellishments in extolling one’s self excessively

proud– to puff up

rude– indecent, to act unbecomingly

demanding – self-seeking or self-focused

irritable – to be harsh or sharp

record keeping of wrong – to calculate into memory (ledger) an action that hurts or brings injury

excited about injustice – legal or moral wrongness

neutral on truth – it is opposite. It celebrates and rejoices in what is true.

So, I would like to look again at this passage from two lenses.

1. What does it reveal about the reality of God as Love?

2. What does it reveal about the actions of love in me?

Vintage City Church | Love Is Patient: 1 Corinthians 13 • Greg Sanders

For God, who was so deeply in love with the world, that He determined to give. He gave his very own Son’s life. He offered His very own Son to purchase humanity. 

Vintage Sermons // Greg Sanders // 1 Corinthians 13

For God, who was so deeply in love with the world, that He determined to give. He gave his very own Son’s life. He offered His very own Son to purchase humanity. Anyone who accepts and believes His Son is part of the family. paraphrase of: (John 3)

Love. His love is why we celebrate this day.

What is love? (Get reactions)

In our study of 1 Corinthians, we are in a passage where Paul speaks into this idea of Love.

1 Corinthians 13

If I could speak in any language in heaven or on earth but didn’t love others, I would only be making meaningless noise like a loud gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I knew all the mysteries of the future and knew everything about everything, but didn’t love others, what good would I be? And if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move, without love I would be no good to anybody. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would be of no value whatsoever.

My Love matters more than my gifting.

What we are good at, what we can do well, is secondary to our ability to love others.

Pretty simple.

Love is what makes my life substantial.

According to Paul, without love, we are wasting energy.

That tells me there may be a natural tendency in us to believe what we contribute to the world around us justifies a lack of love. It tells me I may naturally want to offer my skills more than my love. 

Love is my choice.

No one can make me love. Neither are others responsible for my lack of love.

So, What is love?

Here is where the dilemma begins.

We, like this Corinthian culture, have a variety of definitions for love, and we use them interchangeably.

When it comes to living out the Kingdom, this leads us to confusion.

How so?

The vast majority of our love conversations function on exchange or love relationships that benefit us.

I love pizza.

I love my wife.

I love my freedom…

I love my kids

These are not wrong. But we must have a moment where we understand that Paul, under the authority of Jesus, is commanding us to walk in something different.

So, what is the Love Paul is talking about?

Sacrificial Love.

Paul is speaking of the willingness to live for the benefit of others.

So, Paul essentially says, “without sacrificial love, you will stand before Jesus at the final day and be tragically sad. You will discover you missed the point.”

Vintage City Church | The Upside Down Kingdom: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 • Greg Sanders

Greg Sanders // Vintage Sermons // 1 Corinthians 12:12-31