What's Love Got To Do With It? - [1 Corinthians 13:1-7]

I've never been startled. I was super startled last night. Went on a long hike yesterday with Ken, took almost all day to hike.

And when I got home, I quickly washed the dog because I brought the dog on this 7 -hour hike.

I thought, you know what, I want to get rid of the poison ivy off the dog and stuff like that. I washed myself to get the poison ivy off of me.

And then did some things around the house. And then at 1 o 'clock last night, I thought to myself,

I forgot to check for ticks. Since Kim and the kids are gone, I now let

Jetty sleep up on this one little corner of the bed. Cordoned off, yes, but she's up there. And I thought, oh no.

So I brought her over into the light, got the flashlight out. 27 ticks.

That was startling. Makes you kind of want to itch, doesn't it? So it was hard to go back to sleep after that.

In light of what this passage says today, in light of what people say about this passage today, in light of how much this passage just yanked out of context in a startling way, let's turn to 1

Corinthians 13 as we go verse by verse. Some time ago, someone said to me that I said every time someone cast out a demon in the

Bible, it went out. And then they showed me Matthew 17 where, because of the disciples' lack of faith, it didn't.

And I said to this person, yes, you're correct, and I need to stand corrected in that. But nonetheless, after Pentecost, when

God gave the gift of miracles, every time someone who had the gift cast out a demon, it left.

So just an update on that. I wanted to make a correction. 1 Corinthians 13. We'll get through verse 7 this morning as we march verse by verse through this book.

Now remember, just think big picture for a second. I'm standing back from the pulpit in the sense to get you to stand back and look at the passage before you dive into it.

Paul is trying to correct the church. They've got all kinds of issues, and now they've got an issue with spiritual gifts.

And there's a division going on in the church. Can you imagine the church of Christ Jesus? He bought with his blood, purchased by God.

And the bride should be won, yet because of sin and because of pride and ego, the

Corinthian church is becoming divisive. And now they're starting to divide about tongues, speaking another language that they never learned as a sign gift, that people with tongues are saying, look at us, we're at the top of the totem pole at the pecking order, and look at you, poor thing, you don't have tongues.

And so there's a division, and Paul is trying to correct that in chapter 12. Then along comes chapter 13, and we tend to think of chapter 13 as something that we hang on our wall, some embroidered pillow, the love chapter, what man has brought together, let no man call asunder, and we do it for weddings.

Now, if I come to your house and I see the Ten Commandments, I'm glad. If I see the fruit of the

Spirit as a little throw pillow, the fruit of the Spirit, it usually is a typo, and it's got the fruits of the

Spirit. I'm glad for that, and I'm glad if I come to your house and you have some wedding vows, and you have 1

Corinthians 13. I'd be glad because it's still the Bible. But when

Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 13 to Corinth, it wasn't for weddings, it wasn't for marriage, it wasn't for embroidered facial towels for husbands and wives, his and hers.

It was to correct them. It was to rebuke them. No wonder the world loves 1

Corinthians 13, because by itself, ripped out of context, it has nothing to do with Christianity at all.

It has nothing to do with substitution and atonement, the death of Christ, what self -sacrificial love is. Mormons could subscribe to it.

Atheists could say, yeah, love, that's probably what you should do. Buddhists would like it. Moralists would like it.

So what we want to do as Christians is when we parachute into chapter 13, to know what comes before it, and know what comes what?

After it, because context is king. So what is the context? Let's go back to chapter 12, verse 31, and it gives us a little idea.

He says in chapter 12, verse 31 of 1 Corinthians, But earnestly desire the higher gifts.

Now before the smoke starts coming out of your ears and you say, how do I desire a gift if God sovereignly gives me a gift at salvation?

1 Corinthians 12 has already taught that. You can't desire to have a gift of teaching if God saved you and you don't have the gift.

You get what you get. So how could Paul say, desire these gifts earnestly and zealously?

Well, but the answer is because he's talking to the church and their plural pronouns.

Church at large. Don't you want to have people who have the top of the list gifts?

And he says you should desire that. You guys, the Corinthians, are desiring tongue speakers. I'm telling you,

Paul said there's something at the top of the list. What is at the top of the list? Verse 28 of chapter 12.

You want a list of gifts and how they're ranked? Paul ranks them in chapter 12, verse 28, which we saw last

Sunday night. And God has appointed in the church the highest gift of all.

First, apostles. Corinth, you want tongue speakers? Desire apostles.

If you want to desire something as a collective body, go for apostles. Second, prophets.

Third, teachers. Then comes the showy stuff that you guys,

Corinthians, are desiring but you shouldn't because there are three things more important than that. Apostles, prophets, and teachers.

Then miracles. Then gift of healing. Helping. Administration.

Or administrating. And then, like Paul always does, puts tongues that the Corinthians had at the top of the list, he puts at the bottom of the list for de -emphasis.

And various kinds of tongues. Now back to verse 31, but earnestly desire the higher gifts.

Apostles, prophets, teachers, you want tongue speakers? You as a church should desire apostles.

But there's a way to go about using your gifts, and he leads into that at the end of verse 31. And I will show you a still more, what, excellent way.

I'm going to show you a way of life so that when you use your gifts, you do it with the right motives and in the right manner.

And if you don't do it with love as a motive or love as the manner, it doesn't matter who you are.

So big picture. Chapter 12, Paul is trying to correct what they think about the gifts. And then 13, supposed to be there.

It's so odd. Some commentators, the liberals, say, Paul didn't write it. Add it in later.

No, it's supposed to be there because he's trying to show you that if you use your spiritual gift of teaching, here you,

Bethlehem Bible Church, teaching helps, encouragement, administration. If you use your gifts in a way that's not thinking about the other person and what's best for them, you're just like the

Corinthians. So as we analyze the passage, it will be good for us to see what Paul says to the church of Corinth.

But this is good for us too. Everyone here needs to operate more in love.

And agape love, which is 1 Corinthians 13, is an other -oriented love.

Think about our society today. When I say love, if I was playing a word association game with the media or the entertainment societies, and I said love, their response back is going to be some kind of sensual, sexual, selfish kind of love.

Now that is a biblical word, eros, that in marriage it's fine and healthy and God -glorifying.

There's another Greek word for love, it's Philadelphia love, the city of what? Brotherly love.

Phileo, that's a good love. There's many instances in the Bible that it's used of with commendation.

There's family love. You should have a good dose of family love today for your dad. Right? Family love, storge.

But this is different. This is agape love. And the world doesn't know what it's like, and Corinth didn't know what it was like, so Paul wants to make sure they know.

It's like three years ago, driving down the street with my son and two other men in the back, two other young boys, they were probably 14, 15 years old, taking them to a skate park, and we drove past a church.

Now when I used to drive past churches when I was younger, I never even really paid attention. But now I'm in ministry, and I just want to see

Unitarians universally accepted for unity. You know, and I look at them, or this particular

Baptist church, Free Will Baptist, and I just kind of like to look at churches. So we drove past this one, and my son said,

Look it, it's in Taunton, agape fellowship. And my son's friend said,

It's agape, you idiot. And, of course,

I was the pastor and wanted to make sure I was loving and everything, so I turned my head over my shoulder and I said,

It's agape. I said something else after that. We think of love as I get.

Paul says, love is going to be based on what God does. For God so loved the world he gave.

It's a giving love. When you say in counseling, I don't love my wife anymore, then my response is, then repent and get going.

You're saying the words, I don't feel romantically inclined towards my wife anymore, and I'm saying the biblical word is, do things for her benefit.

It's a command, love your wife. And it is a command to not only love the

Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, but love your neighbor as yourself. This is an other -oriented love.

This is, I want what's best for you. At my cost many times, and think about Calvary, at the cost of God, at the cost of his own son, the

Father's son, he gives his son for us. Now this agape love, before we look at it any closer, is not a love that says, you're lovable, therefore

I'll do it. Oh, you know what, you've got so much value, so much worth.

I will love you because you're lovable. Now think about how God loves us. While we were yet dead in our trespasses and sins.

Right? We are hostile to God, unable to serve God. Loving our sins would kill

God if our arms were long enough and powerful enough. And yet God, based on his own sacrificial love, gave himself for us.

Not because we were lovable, never fall for that trap. God don't make no junk. You know,

I'm somehow this lovable person. That demeans God. By saying, you know what, you've got love in you, that's why

God loves you. You've got nothing in you that's good, but since he is love incarnate, since he is the excellent one who loves, he loves not because of you, he loves you in spite of you.

That's the kind of love. You can't offer me anything, but I'm going to love you anyway. So that's what agape love is.

And so let's read this more excellent way for Corinth and for our church as well. And I'll read verses 1 through 7 for our passage today.

If I speak in the tongues of men, notice how Paul is talking. Lots of singular first person.

I, men of angels, men of, because of, let me start over. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love,

I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love,

I'm nothing. I didn't say I'm next to nothing, I'm nothing. If I give away all

I have and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude.

It does not insist on its own way. By the way, as I read these, this is exactly what

Corinth was, but the opposite. Right, so if it's love is patient, they weren't patient.

And here it says it does not insist on their own way. They are insisting on their own way. The context is

Corinth. There's more to be said about love, a lot more, but Corinth needed to hear this. There's a checklist, 15 things about love that they weren't doing that they need to check off by the

Spirit's power. Because after all, the fruit of the Spirit is, you know how

Corinth would answer that question? The fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5 .22, is, you know how they'd answer that question?

Tongues. But the fruit of the Spirit is love.

Verse 5, are rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoings, but rejoices with the truth.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.

If the title of the message today is, what's love got to do with it? It's got to do everything with using your spiritual gifts for other people with the motive and method and manner of love.

Having an interest for one another. How many people have the word charity is?

Anybody have the word charity is? Some have charity. I know what kind of translation you use.

And charity was used by Wycliffe originally because when he looked at Jerome's Vulgate, Jerome knew not to put a more in because it was more like eros.

So he put keratos in, which was more like agape. But he was going from Latin to Greek.

And so if you see charity and its fruits, the Jonathan Edwards book, you'll know it's talking about love.

Leon Morris, the great scholar, said, Agape is a love lavished on others without a thought whether they are worthy or not.

It proceeds from the nature of the lover, not from any attractiveness in the beloved.

Forget the sensual love of the world and think about the sacrificial love of Christ Jesus on Calvary.

Then you've got the idea of what love is. It is a reflection of the love of God.

Ephesians 5, Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. And what's the next word?

And what's the word after that? Gave himself up for her. 1 Timothy 2,

Jesus gave himself as a ransom for all. Titus 2, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness.

And so when you have spiritual gifts, because you're a Christian, you do have them, your gifts are for other people.

And you want what's best for them. By the way, before I get into this any further, this kind of thinking, love, will forever set our minds straight so we don't say, you know,

I serve at the church but nobody ever notices. Nobody's ever thanked me. I've never got a gift certificate.

I've never got a card. Not even, you know, thanks a lot, I notice you. I didn't get any of those things.

Now, should we encourage one another? Yes. But that's not love if you do it wanting that in return.

Say, well, you know, I just don't know about church anymore. I run into people like this all the time.

I don't know about church anymore. You know, a lot of people let me down. There's a lot of people that they just let me down.

Here's what this beacon is telling me right now. You're not thinking biblically and according to love because you're going there because you're getting something.

And when people don't measure up, and by the way, nobody measures up, people are going to let you down.

And if we want to talk fleshly, I've got more people who have let me down than I've let you down. It's a long line of list of people.

But friends, I don't do ministry, when I'm thinking rightly, for ultimately you.

Ultimately, it's for the glory of God, and then it trickles down into your good. And if you respond, I'm happy.

I like to be encouraged. But I don't say to myself, I've really been burned by church.

How about have you burnt yourself out loving other people? Because if you say, I've been burned by church, and then you have one of two options, three options.

Stay where you are and be bitter. That's not love. Go someplace else, and it'll all happen again to you because there are sinners at that other church too.

And there's a third one, but I can't think of it right now. It's not good. Oh, or you stay at home and you do

TV church, which is the antithetical of love, because how do you serve other people there?

If you're sick and you can't get out, and you want to watch John MacArthur on satellite

TV, I don't care about that. But I'm saying for Sunday after Sunday after Sunday, no, no,

I won't go. And by the way, for people who say, I'll go to church once every eight weeks, that's unloving.

You think you're only going to go because once in a while you've got to throw in a chip to God or something. But it's for other people.

God, you love them. You gave your Son for them. But I'll go when I want to go. I've got other things to do.

I met with somebody this week, and they said to me, my life is full of frustration.

And as we got talking, I found out that this particular person is not prioritizing things rightly.

And then they said, well, you know what? But I have some commitments on Sunday that aren't church -related and aren't

I'm an emergency doctor at a trauma center kind of commitment or in the military. And I said, well, if you want to keep having your own personal priorities, trump the worship of Jesus Christ the

Almighty God, enjoy your continued frustration. Because you're built to serve others.

And when you do, you feel good. And when you pour yourself out for other people and reflect the love of Christ in you, you feel good.

And when you don't feel good, you ought to recheck yourself and say, the more I turn inwardly in the black hole of myself, the worse

I feel. It's the goodness of God to give you nerves so when you touch the oven, you go, ow!

And when you feel bad, then you can say, you know what? I want to make sure I pour myself out in an agape way for other people.

Because when I act like a pagan, I feel like a pagan. So Paul's argument in 1

Corinthians 13 is essential. This is not some digression. It's essential for the argument of Paul.

And the way you do things is more important than what you do. So let's take a look at verses 1 to 3 to start.

And he gives three hyperbolic statements so you understand that love is necessary.

If I were to put this in preaching terms, your love for the body is necessary.

Loving other people is needful for you to do at Bethlehem Bible Church. What we're after is not power like the

Romans or intellect like the Greeks. We're after love like Christians. Three hypothetical illustrations.

The first one is found in verse 1. Now again, it's hypothetical.

He says, if I speak in the tongues of man, a language of man, and of angels, there's no such thing as angelic language that we know of in the

Bible, but that's not Paul's point. Paul says, you speak in tongues. What if I speak in tongues of men and angels?

What if I can do more than you? What if you're here at K2 and I'm up here at Mount Everest?

I can do more than you, but if I don't have love, what's he say? I'm a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

Don't waste your time. What's angelic language? When you're in heaven, you'll figure it out.

And my guess is it's going to sound pretty much like the language that you're talking up there. If the angels say around Isaiah 6,

Holy, Holy, Holy, it's the Lord God Almighty. The whole earth is full of His glory. My guess is you'll probably understand what the angels are saying in heaven.

Now notice what Paul does here in verse 1, if I speak in the tongues of men. Oh, finally,

Paul put tongues at the top of the list. Finally, it's up there. And he puts it at the top of the list so he can take the rug and go like that.

I always admire those people that can set the kitchen table and then pull the table top off and everything's still sitting there.

Finally, they're mentioned first, but he brings them back down to their own area code by saying, you know what?

If you don't have love, you're nothing. He uses himself as an illustration. The point is not what's an angel sound like.

The point is if you don't have love, no matter what you're doing here at this church, you sound like a noisy gong.

See the text there? A noisy gong. Corinth was famous for their bronze gongs.

Noisy gongs. Reverberating gongs. The gong show.

Some of you who are old enough to watch the gong show. Or a clanging cimbalon.

It sounds just like our English word, cimbalon. No tune, one note.

Hit it over and over and over and over and over and over the dog across the street that will not stop barking.

Bugs you. You want to put some kind of white noise fan on in your room and some earplugs to boot because it is bugging you.

And so, for our church, we say, oh, someone has the gift of teaching, but they're not looking out for other people in love and want what's best for them.

Clashing, cacophonous, bang on the drum and on the gong. It's torture, isn't it, after an hour or two of that?

Gong. So Paul is using this illustration because he knows the love of God in Christ Jesus, 1

John 4, 10. This is love. Not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice or propitiation for our sins.

He gives another hypothetical found in verse 2. Again, trying to show us and them love is needed.

And if I have prophetic powers, oh, isn't that interesting? It's all about tongues and prophecy for the Corinthians.

So he starts off with tongues. Now he's talking about prophecy. And I understand all mysteries.

I mean, Paul understood a lot of mysteries, but even if he knew more than what he does. A mystery is not mysterious like an island.

It is you can't figure something out unless God tells you. So now God tells Paul a lot, but what if God told

Paul more than what he did? But if he didn't have love, he says, I am nothing.

He says, I could even have all faith as to remove mountains, but if I don't have love, I am nothing. Again, trying to get the people to think through with this hyperbolic statement.

Hypothetical statement is probably what I should say. I've got the best prophetic gift. I've got faith to move the proverbial mountains, but I don't have love.

I'm nothing. The third hypothetical is found in verse 3.

Love is needed. We need love here at our church. Why? Because it is the more excellent way.

Okay, verse 3. If I give away all I have, by the way, that is an ongoing giving.

Jesus said to the rich young ruler, pretty much give everything that you've got. That would have been a lump sum one -time giving.

This is an ongoing tense. If you just keep on giving and keep on giving in your whole life, you just give and give and give and give and give and give and give.

That's just what you do is you give. And if you deliver up your body to be burned but have not love, you think you're gaining it all, but you're really losing it.

Other people might be gaining in spite of you, but you're losing. Now, if I give away all

I have, that's easy to interpret. But the textual apparatus we use to study

Greek manuscripts in this second part says, if I deliver up my body to be burned, that's not the best translation.

That's not the best manuscript. That's not the oldest manuscript that's closest to the New Testament. The best translation is, give over my body that I may boast.

That I may boast. NAS doesn't have boast. ESV doesn't have boast. And it's really a one -letter difference if we transliterate it.

Kalkesamai is to be burned. Kalkesamai is to boast. Catch the difference? It wasn't really much of a difference.

I could have just used a little more guttural spitting sound and you would have got that to burn word.

Now, certainly burning Christians, martyring Christians was something that happened, but it didn't happen until later on.

They crucify Christians. Then a little bit later on, past the New Testament, then they'd end up burning

Christians. So certainly it would be true if you give your body to be burned, but you didn't have love.

You have nothing. That's true. But what Paul is really saying is, if I give over my body that I may boast.

What do you mean give over your body? Do you know what they would do back in those days? Do you know what people at Corinth did 30 years after this letter was written?

They gave themselves into slavery and the money that they got from selling themselves into slavery, they gave to their family for food.

Listen to Clement writing to the church at Corinth towards the end of the first century. We know many among ourselves who have given themselves up to bonds in order that they might ransom others.

Many too have surrendered themselves to slavery that with the price which they receive for themselves they might provide food for others.

Both are true. The textual evidence is clearly, if I'm going to give myself up to slavery and then boast about it, oh, you might have benefited from the money for food, but I didn't benefit anything because it wasn't done for your good.

It was done for me to look good. They were wrong side up.

The Corinthians were. One scholar said the totality of the gift, giving yourself, contrasts dramatically with the nothingness of the result.

I can even give my entire being for slavery or for martyrdom and then my return is, if it's selfish, is zero.

That's worse than Facebook stock for sure. Dedicate my life to seeking gain for others is the right way to go about it.

Paul says love is necessary and then he describes what love is. Let's go to verses four through seven.

You've got to have love if you want to minister effectively here based on what Jesus, the risen Savior, has done for you.

You've also got to know what it's like and how to define it. And that's what we have here. Maybe not a definition, but more of a description of what it does.

Fifteen descriptions of agape love. Action -oriented, much more than feelings.

Fifteen descriptions. So, guess what our outline is going to be today? How many points are we going to have? Well, it's

Baptist Church, so three points and a poem. No, fifteen points. Fifteen descriptions of love.

Some negative, some positive. Don't forget this. Specifically for Corinth, we could learn, husbands and wives can learn, our church can learn, but it's because Corinth did the exact opposite.

There's more to be said about love in the Bible. Much more. But for the Corinthians, this is what they needed.

They didn't need some kind of, well, love your neighbors yourself and the Corinthians are like, well, that's a little too vague.

Could you define it more? Could you describe it more? And Paul does that very thing. An other regard.

If God is for us, we ought to be for other people. Now, one of the things you'll notice as we start going through this list is it's going to be hard to live up to this list.

It's a demanding list. And you're going to start noticing right away that Corinth needs this and God is just like this.

If they would have done these things, their problems would have been solved. The unity problem would have been solved.

The immorality problem would have been solved. Civil ligations would have been, they would have been solved.

Everything would have been solved if they would have loved one another like Christ loves

His church. There's something rotten in Denmark, except here it's rotten in Corinth and so this is the solution.

By the way, if your life here in the church is bad towards other people, if your marriage is bad towards your spouse,

God loves repentance and today's the day that you can start loving your spouse. Today's the day.

Today's a good day to start. Self -originating love. Number one.

Let me put them in the form of questions so it's more effective for preaching. 1

Corinthians 13, 4 15 descriptions of love. Number one, love is patient in the form of a question.

Are you a patient person? Now this word has to do with not patient during circumstances but patient with other people.

Other people bug, provoke. They get under your skin and love is patient.

It waits well. God is forbearing, slow to anger,

Exodus 34. We are His children. We ought to be the same. Self -restraint.

Somebody's bugging you and you aren't going to fly off the handle being impatient.

Romans 2 talks about the patience of God. Do you think lightly of the riches of His patience not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?

And by the way, this is a bearing up without complaint. I know how to act in front of other people and so I can try to become patient but in my mind underneath it all it's the murmuring and the complaining and I can't believe

I have to do this with this person and I can't believe they're saying this and it's, no, love says

I want what's best for you and I'm just going to bear up. You aggravate me but I'm going to love you.

That didn't sound like I wanted it to come across. When people are aggravating then we need to love.

That's better. Number two, love is kind. Are you kind? Now patience is this,

I'm not going to retaliate when you're aggravating me. Kindness is, oh, you have a need in your life?

I'll meet that need. Where one is more passive this is more initiating.

You've got a need and I'll meet that need. That's what kindness is. Used of God in Psalm 24,

Psalm 30, Psalm 33. Lots of times kindness is used. How about Ephesians 4?

Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.

Luke 6, how about this? Love your enemies and do good and lend expecting nothing in return and your reward will be great and you will be sons of the

Most High. For God Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.

Helping. Do you help people? Do you seek out their needs? Paul Harvey had a story about a man named

Carl Coleman who was a kind man. Fender bender, both cars stopped.

Young woman was crying. She said it was her fault. It was a new car. Two days ago she bought it and drove it out of the showroom.

How could she face her husband? Mr. Coleman was sympathetic but explained he needed the driver's license number and registration.

She reached in the glove compartment for her registration and on the first page of paper written in heavy masculine scrawl the accountant says were these words,

In case of accident, remember honey, it's you I love, not the car. Isn't that kind of a nice moment here at the church?

That's like a Mother's Day moment on Father's Day. But that is kindness. That is kindness ahead of time.

I'm going to be kind ahead of time. Now Paul goes into some negative behaviors that Corinth had.

Number three, love is not jealous, are envious. Do you envy?

Do you see it in verse four? Love does not envy. If Corinth could have gotten this right, party strife would have been over.

They were envious. Cain envied Abel, killed him. Joseph's brothers, envious, tried to kill him, almost killed him.

Jews jealous of Paul and Barnabas. Somebody's got some success and instead of going, bless the

Lord for him doing that for you, you want what they've got. S. Lewis Johnson's right.

He said when people are weeping and they've lost a loved one, it's real easy to come alongside of them and weep with them.

But when they've just got some kind of great gift of money, they've won something, some great accomplishment, it's harder to come alongside and say

I rejoice with you. But love is supposed to do that. Be pleased with the success of others.

And if Jesus has died for them, if they are Christians, that would be a good thing because God wants their best.

We should want their best too. Paul goes on to say in number four, love does not brag or boast.

Are you a boaster? Are you a windbag? Now, boasting in 1

Corinthians 1, boast in the name of the Lord. Good.

We're boasters. I'm a boaster in the Lord. You're a boaster in the Lord. We've been made to boast in the

Lord. That's right. But when the boast is not with the object of our faith, when the boast is not of the object of our faith, it's of us, then that's not love because I'm supposed to want what's best for you, but I'm telling you how great

I am. And love doesn't boast. And that's exactly what the Corinthians did. Braggarts.

Boasting. Windbag -like. Jesus wouldn't commend this kind of behavior.

This isn't love. This reminds me of Muhammad Ali, the great boxer. I am the greatest.

He's on an airplane. The flight attendant says, sorry sir, you've got to put your seatbelt on. Mr.

Ali, you'll have to fix your seatbelt. Superman don't need no seatbelt. The flight attendant said,

Superman don't need no airplane either. How can

I want what's best for you and love you while I'm bragging about me? It doesn't go together.

These two, it doesn't fit. Number five, love is not arrogant.

Found in verse four. It is not arrogant. Pretty much related to the other one, but Paul sets it out here and I ask you the question, are you arrogant?

The word here is where we get the word Fusio, found in chapter four three times, found in chapter five and chapter eight.

Remember, it's the sound of blowing up a balloon. Just think about people, heads blown up by their own ego.

Love isn't arrogant. It's not inflated selfishness. Paul goes on and he says in verse five, number six for our descriptions of love, love does not behave indecently.

Our ESV says it's not rude. Now certainly love should not be rude, but the underlying key here is first Corinthians chapter seven talks about treating virgin betrothed ones in a decent manner.

In other words, there's a connotation here of sexual impropriety. Love doesn't do that.

And by the way, the Corinthians needed to know that because this letter is rife with Paul dealing, go back to chapter six, go back to chapter five, dealing with sexual sin and love doesn't act unbecomingly or sexually rudely taking something that isn't yours.

That's rude. And so there are overtones here of sexual sin, improper, inappropriate.

Rudeness is always wrong, but here there is a disgraceful sexual rudeness that Paul knows was unseemly and he talks to them.

Number seven found in verse five, it does not insist on its own way. Is it your way or the highway?

Is that the kind of person you are? As long as everybody does what you say, we're good to go. But when you are crossed and you don't get your way, and Paul says that's not love.

It does not insist on its own way. And you can think of the condescension of Jesus in Philippians chapter two, cloaking himself with humanity to die on our behalf.

He didn't grasp equality with God. He didn't say equality with God is something to be grasped.

He was a great example of selfless love, submitting to the Father. Yes, he willingly went, but he submitted to the

Father and went. If there's any other way to get rid of this cup, Father, would you let me get rid of this cup of temptation?

But no, I'll do what you say. Isaiah 53, the substantiate death of Christ, not seeking his own, not insisting on his own way.

Number eight found in verse five as well, love is not irritable, found in verse five. Are you cantankerous?

Are you grumpy? I didn't say this the first service because I had to preach this service, but I'll say it now because we're friends.

Are you a grumpy old New Englander? Maybe you've got a heart of gold on the inside.

And I've noticed that New Englanders are kind of grumpy on the outside, but once you win them over, they're kind on the inside, at least some of them are.

But enough of that New England talk. California people are just nice on the inside, but they don't really care on the... nice on the outside, but they don't care on the inside, so they're just hypocritical, right?

So, what's the difference? Irritable. The positive word,

I think, would be poise, grace. The word in Greek is where we get paroxysm, which just means a fit, a fit of anger, short -fused.

Some people actually brag that this is them. Don't cross with me, I've got a short fuse.

I say what's on my mind. That's not love. That's not godly.

That's not helpful for them. You mean to tell me that when I talk that way to anyone, that's actually good for them?

That's wanting the best for that person? No. Number nine, found in verse five, it's not resentful.

According to the ESV, the NASS does not keep a record of wrongs, found in verse five.

Now, if you keep a record of wrongs, you will become bitter and resentful. If God keeps no record of wrongs because they're already paid for by Christ Jesus, if God doesn't count our sins against us,

Psalm 32, because they've been counted against Christ to count on Calvary, if we count sins against people, we'll become resentful.

But if we've been forgiven for two million sins, Matthew 18, ought we not to forgive other people for their sins?

And that's what love does. I've sinned more against God than you've sinned against me. And if God has forgiven me, how can

I not forgive you? And if I forgive you, then I'm not going to be resentful. Sad story, but I had a loved one,

I can say her name now, but my grandmother, and she was the most resentful person

I ever met. Now, there are probably more people that were more resentful than she was, but I just didn't know them.

And something that happens to old people sometimes is they lose their... As children say things that they think, but there's no veneer of politeness.

Sometimes older people do the same thing and they just say what they think. And since my grandmother could not forgive people, she was resentful.

Friends, we should not resent anyone because we have been forgiven so many sins. If somebody comes to you, if your spouse comes to you and says, will you please forgive me?

I'm sorry I sinned against you and against God. I've asked God to forgive me. Do you think you could please forgive me?

Could anyone in their right mind thinking biblically say no?

I'll have to think about it. No, I'll let you see if you earn your repentance around the house and then

I'll give you my communication and my affection. Love is not resentful.

I just can't wait to show my spouse every time they sin, I'm going to write down what they do and one day just show them that entire big list.

Actually, that was an illustration that I read about. My spouse did that. You know what? Let's write down, if you do something that bugs me, let's write that down and at the end of the month let's all get together and talk about it.

And so the one spouse did all that and then the other spouse showed the little scraps of paper to the spouse and everyone said,

I love you on it. That is exactly right. This is cost accounting terminology.

I've got a little black book and every time you do something bad, I'm going to have a little mental deal. By the way, if somebody says to you, please forgive me, you can never bring it up to God, yourself or them ever, ever again.

The words of forgive me when granted I forgive you, you never bring it up again and then you don't have to replay,

I know what that person said to me on that day, Father's Day, 3 o 'clock in the afternoon, standing over the grill, smoking my eyes, there's the fillet, didn't even eat it because then we got in a big fight.

How do you remember all those details? I can't remember what happened last week. How do you remember the details?

Because you overplay them and replay them and memorize them so you know every single detail.

That's not love. That's what the Corinthians were doing, mental bookkeeping.

Number 10. Let's just go through these quickly. Number 10.

It does not rejoice at wrongdoing. Found in verse 6. You should love justice.

God does. You should hate injustice. God does. You should hate gay pride parades because God does.

You should hate Jerry Springer's show because God does. When something is up there and it's inappropriate, clapping is not the loving response.

Oh good, at least there's somebody who's worse off than I am. Yay! Number 11 found in verse 6.

Love rejoices with the truth. Do you? It doesn't suppress the truth.

It doesn't exchange truth for a lie. Romans 1. If Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, it affirms the truth.

It embraces the truth. It stands up by courage to preach the truth.

Number 12. Love bears all things. Or it covers all things is a good way to translate it.

Number 12 found in verse 7. Now when he says all things in verse 7, all things, all things, all things, all things,

Paul is exaggerating here because there are some things that we can't bear, that we can't hope, that we can't believe we're not these super gullible people and we bear falsehood or we bear blasphemy.

But he's just trying to say all roundedly love bears all things. And that word there to bear means to throw a cloak over, to cover.

And that's how you endure it. The picture is I throw a cloak over something that's displeasing to me and that's the way

I endure that. I bear it. I cover it.

Verse 7. Number 13. Love believes all things. This doesn't mean be tricked by Jehovah's Witnesses at your door.

This just means you give people the benefit of the doubt. When your kids say something to you and I'm going to do

X, Y, and Z at some stage of time and all that, I go okay. Believes all things. I'm going to just want what's best for you.

Number 14. Love hopes all things. Hopeful. Optimistic.

Yet not just the way the world does it but knowing Jesus is coming back and is going to make every wrong right.

Hoping all things. That's what biblical hope is. Not I hope so. But I hope so because Jesus is coming back.

1 Thessalonians 4. We just read it. Some people grieve like they don't have any hope. We grieve with hope because we know

Christ is going to come back. And then finally number 15. Love endures all things. With a tenacious steadfastness, love doesn't give up.

So now if we look big picture at chapter 13 verses 4 to 7. What if you put your name in there?

Many commentators have said to do that. But what if you just did? I'll tell you when I put my name in there, I am depressed.

Let's try. Mike is patient. Mike is kind. Mike does not envy. Mike does not boast.

Mike is not arrogant. Mike is not rude. Mike does not insist on his own way. Mike is not irritable.

Mike is not resentful. Mike does not rejoice at wrongdoing. Mike rejoices with the truth. Mike bears all things.

Mike believes all things. Mike hopes all things. Mike endures all things. Who could live up to that?

I mean really. If you live your life with all these imperatives and never then say, but there is a triumphant indicative as Machen would talk about, there is someone who is this.

Who was this for you. Who grants forgiveness because when God sees you, He sees you in Christ.

Then I read it and I think, Christ is patient. Christ is kind. Christ does not envy or boast.

Christ is not arrogant. Christ is not rude. Christ does not insist on his own way. Christ is not irritable.

Christ is not resentful. Christ does not rejoice at wrongdoing. Christ rejoices with the truth. Christ bears all things.

Christ believes all things. Christ hopes all things. Christ endures all things. Thank God I have a representative substitute.

That's what we say. And if there is anything wrong with these verses on your pillowcase, it's only wrong if you don't think of them in light of your representative substitute.

Because who could live like this? Jesus is the only one. Let's pray.

Father, thank You for Your Son, love incarnate, that You would want to dwell with us and that we would be

Your people and You would be our God. In spite of who we are and what we've done,

Father, I pray for those that are here today, would You encourage them to know that no matter what they've done, the love of Christ is adequate to save, is great to forgive.

And Father, in light of that great forgiveness that we have, that You see us perfectly loving people, would

You help us to put that into practice more? Would You help us to have conduct befitting an officer that's in Your army that we might love by giving what's best to others and for others?

And Father, when it comes to people here at the church, help us to serve them with our gifts. And when it comes to unbelievers outside, help us to give them what they need the most, the