Sunday Sermon: The Way of Love (1 Corinthians 13:1-13)

You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on this podcast we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a

New Testament book. On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday.

Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series. Here's Pastor Gabe. First Corinthians 13 is where we are today.

First Corinthians 13, the love chapter. Remember I said you got to say it just like that.

So we're in First Corinthians 13 verses 1 through 13. I'll read through our text and then we'll pray.

Hear the word of the Lord from the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love,

I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And 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 am 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. It is not irritable or resentful.

It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

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

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away.

As for tongues, they will cease. As for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

When I was a child, I spoke like a child. I thought like a child.

I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, then

I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three.

But the greatest of these is love. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we come to this text this morning, as we hear these poignant, sharp, direct instructions on what love is,

I pray these are things we will take to heart. Perhaps we don't feel like we would be sitting in the same place as the

Corinthians were in to have to hear these instructions as a matter of rebuke, but maybe for some of us it does need to be a rebuke.

Maybe the Holy Spirit needs to convict that we have not been walking in the way of love, that we have not exemplified this

Christian behavior that we are supposed to have in Christ, perhaps loving one another, the command that Christ gave to us.

And so I pray that you direct our steps, renew our minds, refreshen our hearts, that we may know in Christ the way of love and continue to live as Jesus has instructed us to live, walking as Jesus walked, as it says in 1

John 2. Guide us in these things, we pray, in Jesus' name, Amen.

So when you go to a Christian wedding and you sit in that Christian church and you listen to that Christian preacher exhort that Christian couple, what passage of scripture in that Christian wedding do you expect to hear?

First Corinthians 13. That's probably the one that you expect. By the way, I don't know that I've ever done a wedding where I didn't preach from First Corinthians 13.

It's just kind of natural to do. Even though I know the right context of everything that Paul is saying here,

I can't think of anything better to say to this couple joining in holy matrimony, but to remind them of the way of love.

It's all right to do that. There's nothing wrong with that. As long as we remember that Paul is not being lovey -dovey here.

This is not a romantic chapter. And unfortunately, most preachers are probably preaching it that way, taking it out of context and seeing it as some sort of element of romance.

This is, of course, the way not to understand or read this passage, to recognize in context that Paul has been rebuking the

Corinthians for 12 chapters. Now some of the things that we've seen in First Corinthians up to this point, it almost feels like Paul's been building to this.

There's part of me that wonders, did he always have this chapter in mind and then he wrote the rest of the letter around it?

I've written things like that before. I have a particular point that I want to make and I'll write one or two paragraphs.

Okay, this is what I want to say, but I feel like I need to build more around it than that. So then I come up with a whole blog article to go along with that.

I've done that before. So I just kind of wonder, this is Gabe's thinking.

We couldn't glean this from the text in any way. But there's so many other hints, breadcrumbs that Paul has been dropping along the way that indicate that he was getting to this.

Especially the way that we start, him talking about tongues of men and of angels, we were just talking about tongues in the previous chapter.

Talk about prophetic powers, talk about having all knowledge, he's been talking about wisdom and knowledge since the first chapter.

Telling them even to grow up and to stop acting like children, that's been from the very start of the letter. So we've seen things like foreshadowing this directive that he was going to be giving with regards to the way of love.

And then he gets to this and it's like he just drops the hammer. Now we've got other big things coming up in 1

Corinthians. It's not like this is the climax. We get to chapter 15 and it's one of the best apologetics with regards to the resurrection of Christ.

And it's a master class in apologetics altogether of giving an argument for why we believe what we believe.

So we still have some great things coming up here in 1 Corinthians. It's not like chapter 13 is the highlight.

But nonetheless, this is the chapter that 1 Corinthians is most known for. How many people can quote from 1

Corinthians, love is patient, love is kind. If I were to have asked you at the beginning of this study, quote me a verse from 1

Corinthians, that might have been the first one that came to mind for you. So it's a very popular chapter, very well known.

And it seems like Paul was kind of building up to this point of directing the

Corinthians to understand the way of love that they've not been walking in. So when we read that love is patient and kind, it does not envy or boast, it is not arrogant, it does not insist on its own way, it is not irritable or resentful.

How do we think the Corinthians were acting? What was their attitudes? Just the opposite.

Exactly. Whatever Paul's saying here, that love is, the Corinthians were doing the opposite of that.

And so it's really kind of rebuking. It is not romantic, it is not

Paul feeling the feels and then, oh hey, let me just muse about love in the middle of a letter here.

But he is directing the Corinthians in a way that is in agreement with Christ.

And the Corinthians in their infancy, still as, you know, still as of the flesh, infants in Christ, as Paul said in 1

Corinthians 3 .1, he was not able to speak to them in more mature ways, but he even has to lay out for them, do you not understand what love is?

Let's go through this again. And then lays it down for them here. Now this section, this chapter is pretty short.

We'll get through it just today. And we have it divided up into three parts. In your

English Standard Version, you probably recognize the three parts right away. It's broken into these three paragraphs.

You have verses 1 through 3. And verses 1 through 3, there's kind of an introduction to this, with Paul giving various arguments with regards to the way of love.

You could have all of these amazing things, all these amazing abilities, which the Corinthians wanted to have.

Remember how we closed out chapter 12. You earnestly desire the higher gifts. But if you were to even have all these high gifts and yet not have love, you would be nothing.

That's the way Paul begins to lay that out in verses 1 through 3. Then in verses 4 through 7,

Paul says exactly what love is and what it's not. And then in verses 8 through 13, talking about how love never ends and how the greatest of all of these is love.

So, let's come back to verses 1 through 3 here, where once again, being reminded that at the end of chapter 12, we've been going through spiritual gifts, or really spiritual things would probably be a more accurate way to title it.

And he says to the Corinthians that you earnestly desire the higher gifts, but I will show you still a more excellent way.

This is another one of those places where it would probably serve us better to ignore that there's chapters and verses here at all.

Because we're flowing right from chapter 12 of Paul saying, let me show you a more excellent way to then going into these same spiritual gifts that he had just been talking about.

Speaking in tongues, having prophetic powers, and understanding all mysteries and all knowledge.

If I gave away all I have, if I deliver my body up to be burned. Exactly those things that Paul had been talking about previously.

But if I don't have love, if I've got all of these, even supernatural gifts, some of the things that he mentions here, if I have these supernatural powers, but if I didn't have love,

I am nothing. I gain nothing. I speak nothing.

We are nothing without the love of God. It wasn't that long ago,

I guess it was just last week in fact, that Pastor Tom was in Romans 3 verses 10 through 20, and it's there in verse 12 that we're told that together we have become worthless.

We've all been made in the image of God. Every single one of us, man and woman, we all bear

His image. That's Genesis 1 .27. So God created man in His own image.

In the image of God, He created him. Male and female, He created them.

We bear the image of God. We're meant to glorify God. We're meant to represent Him even in our character, in our conduct.

But what have we done instead? Have we glorified God in all that we are?

Has anybody really done that? Does anybody by their nature come out of the womb going,

I'm here to glorify God? No, we know that from conception we are sinners.

We have inherited Adam's sin nature, and our natural inclination is to actually rebel against God.

And so though we were made in His image, we took that image and we desecrated it with our sin.

And that's what Romans 3 .12 means when it says, together we have become worthless.

But when we hear the gospel of Christ, the Holy Spirit regenerates our hearts to understand what it is that we have heard, we're convicted of our sin, we believe in Jesus, we repent and put faith in Him, and then we're being renewed.

We're being made new. As it says in 2 Corinthians 5 .17, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old has passed away and the new has come. And as we have read in Ephesians 2 .10,

we are His workmanship, created for good works in Christ Jesus.

These works which God prepared for us beforehand that we should walk in them. Now a lot of people will take that verse,

Ephesians 2 .10, and they will apply it to mean that everybody is God's workmanship, because after all we're made in God's image.

Well those are actually two different statements. In context, Ephesians 2 .10 means we who are in Christ are

God's workmanship, created for good works that we should walk in them. So it's as if we're being recreated, we're being conformed to the image of the

Son, which is actually a statement you find in Romans 8 .29. So we're made in the image of God, we desecrate that image with our sin, through the gospel we are reborn, we're born again, we're made a new creation, and now we're being remade into the image of Christ.

And so it is in Christ now that the way that we live and move and have our being should exemplify who

Christ is. We should be glorifying God in our bodies, as said in Romans 12 .1.

And part of that, exemplifying Christ, is that we must love one another as Christ has loved us.

Jesus loved even those who did not believe, and so we must love those who don't believe.

Jesus said, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. And my friends, the best way you love your enemy is to give them the gospel and pray that they would understand it.

Paul tells the Corinthians the way of love here, and he says at the very start, if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but I have not love.

Now again, we've just come from talking about spiritual things, so if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, this is one of those passages that has been taken to mean that there's languages that we can speak, some of men, and some are heavenly languages, some are languages that the angels speak, and there are languages that no earthly man knows, but the

Holy Spirit upon us will give us that ability to speak in the tongues of angels. That's not really what

Paul is talking about here. Again, with regards to a theology of speaking about tongues, I said we would get to that when we get to chapter 14, so you still have to hold on there.

We're going to get through Easter next week, and then we'll talk about that when we get to the next chapter.

But Paul is really speaking hyperbolically here, because he's just talked about speaking in tongues.

He didn't say anything about speaking in the tongues of angels. When he gets to chapter 13, he says, if I were to speak in the tongues of men,

I could speak in all the languages of men. I could even speak in the languages of angels. So he's saying, let's just say

I have that ability. Let's just say I have that power. Would you not be impressed and amazed by that? But, if I have not love,

I'm a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal. Guess what? I'm nothing.

I'm worthless. If I don't have the love of God, then

I'm back to being worthless, just like Romans 3 .12 described me as being. If I have prophetic powers,

I can tell you exactly what's going to happen to you today. I know how your week is going to go. I know what's going to be the state of the

United States of America a year from now, which seems like that's always changing. Who knows what the state of the

U .S. is going to be next week. If I have these prophetic powers, and I understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, that sounds familiar.

Who else have we heard talk about having faith to move mountains? Yeah, Jesus said that.

With faith, how big? The size of a mustard seed. You can say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will be done for you.

Now, that was a Hebrew idiom. It wasn't that Jesus was saying that you have the power of the force, and you can now move objects with your mind.

That wasn't what Jesus was saying at all. But Paul, speaking hyperbolically here, let's say

I have all faith, and I can remove mountains. But if I have not love, it doesn't matter.

I'm a Star Wars character, you know. I mean, what's redeeming about a

Star Wars character? It's entertaining. It's not going to save you.

I mean, I can remove mountains, but if I have not love, I'm nothing. Verse 3.

Now, this is the one that has been particularly convicting to me as well. If I give away all

I have. You know, you hear from this culture constantly, especially as the

U .S. is flirting more and more with Marxism and communism. But you'll hear people say that you need to give away all that you have.

I hear this constantly from, like, atheists and skeptics who want to accuse, who want to say of me that I don't actually believe everything the

Bible says. They'll say, have you given away all that you have to the poor? Because that's what

Jesus said you had to do. Sell all that you have to the poor, and then you'll have treasure in heaven and come follow me.

Which different context, but Jesus talking to the rich young ruler. But that's one of those accusing statements that they will say.

You don't really believe everything the Bible says because you yourself haven't given away everything that you have to the poor.

Would that actually save you if you were to do that? If you were to give everything that you have to the poor, would you be saved?

See there's another part of that they always want to ignore. Even those who profess to be

Christians and have that poverty mindset that you do need to give away everything that you have to the poor. There's another part to what

Jesus said to the rich young ruler. He said, give away all that you have and then follow me, right?

Actually also have to follow Christ, believe it or not, because he is the way of salvation. Not giving all that you have to the poor.

Give up all of those things that you love, that you're clinging to so closely, that's preventing you from following me, and then come follow me.

But if I were to do that, if I were to be the most charitable person on the planet and give away all that I have to the poor, does that make me anything?

Does that make me worthy? If I give away all I have, if I even deliver up my body to be burned,

I've been listening to Renewing Your Mind this past week, and they've been going through a series on the

Puritans. And it's really fascinating to hear the stories of all the different men that have given their lives just for the

Bible to be translated in English, so that we can read the Bible in our own language. They've given their lives for that.

And I've heard stories of men being burned at the stake because they opposed the king or the queen or whatever else.

Bloody Mary, who killed over 300 people during her reign because she wanted to impose

Catholicism. And the Protestants, of course, opposed that. If they were to have just died for the sake of having a

Bible in our own language, does that save them? Does that make them worthy?

I could deliver up my body to the flames. Does dying in and of itself, dying for what you believe in, does that in and of itself save a person or make a person great?

You could give up all that you have to the poor. You could even give your own life. But if I have not what?

Love. If I do not have love, I gain nothing.

We actually have to have the love of Christ to be saved.

And we're being reminded again here in these three verses, your works don't save you.

No matter how amazing or great the act or the deed you demonstrate, whether it's supernatural or sacrificial, it's not saving unless you have the love of God.

As we read in 1 John, we love because He first loved us and gave

His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Without the love of Christ, we're nothing.

And that is so critically important for every single one of us to remember.

Your titles don't save you, your deeds don't save you,

Christ saves you. And remember once again what we read in 1

Corinthians 1 .30, it is His doing that you are in Christ Jesus.

Now in the next section, verses four through seven, Paul talks about what love is and what it's not.

Before we get to that, any questions about that first part? All right.

I have you all. You're not going to sleep, right? Okay, good. Here we go. Here we get down to the nitty gritty of love.

Love is patient and love is kind. Now a lot of these things, with the exception of when we get to verse seven, a lot of this is negative.

So love is not this, it is not this. That's what I mean by negative. Only two positives, which are at the very beginning.

Love is patient and love is kind. And notice that both of those things that Paul describes love as being, they're also things that we have listed in the fruit of the

Spirit. Like there's three fruit of the Spirit in just that first statement, love, patience, and kindness.

Remember the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5? The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control.

Against such things there is no law. So we've already got three fruit of the Spirit right there at the very beginning.

Love is patient. And what do we mean by patient? Why would Paul say that, and why does he list it first?

Remember that being a question of mine when I was much younger and I was studying this section. So why does Paul list that one first as a description of love?

Love is patient, long -tempered, and who do we know?

Yeah, I didn't even get the question out, you were right there. Who do we know that was temperate and long -suffering with us?

God! Who has the right to just snuff us out right now because we've been unloving?

Yeah, God could just do it right now if He wanted to. But we're here and we know

God and we worship God because He is patient. And as we read in Romans, we haven't gotten to this yet, this is in chapter 5.

But while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And we're going to hear as we continue on in Romans chapter 3 that in His divine forbearance,

He passed over former sins. We read about God's patience with us all throughout the

Scriptures. So as God has been patient with us, so we must be patient with one another.

Love is patient. It is not just easily and immediately write people off.

And that is just such a great reminder for me. It's something I constantly need to be reminded of, especially in a time of social media because people are all ready to show you their fruit right away on social media.

I mean, show you whether I have good fruit or bad fruit, and it's usually bad fruit. So you'll see people post stupid things on social media and you'll just immediately go, how can that person be saved?

Well, that's not patient. That's not patient to respond, especially a professing brother or sister in the

Lord to respond in that way. So patient with them as the

Lord has been patient with us. And sometimes people are projects, right? Sometimes it takes a long time, a lot of work on a particular person.

I'm not necessarily that way now, but I was one of those persons back then. Somebody was long suffering with me because God was long suffering with me.

So as the Lord has been patient, we must be patient. Love is kind. What does it mean to be kind?

Useful, serving, and gracious. That's a good definition. Anybody else want to throw something else in there about kindness?

Don't be a jerk. Okay, that's good. Then we need to define jerk there.

So what does that mean? What else? What about kindness? Yet thinking of others more than yourself.

There's an intentionality there, right? To be kind to somebody doesn't mean don't be mean to them.

But that's often the way that we think of kindness. Just don't be mean to people. Being kind means there's a deliberate intentionality to it.

Like I'm going to seek out this person and I'm going to be encouraging to them. I'm going to admonish them if they need to be admonished.

I'm going to build them up if they need to be built up. We're going to love each other.

We're going to do this walk together. So yeah, a deliberateness in kindness.

Kindness is not haphazard. It's an attitude of the heart, first of all. Again, one of the fruit of the

Spirit. So the Spirit is producing it in us if the Spirit is dwelling in us. But we desire to show kindness.

We desire to show love to one another. So we have those two positives. Love is patient and love is kind.

And then right after that, we go to negatives. Love does not envy and it does not boast.

Those two kind of go right together. So what do we mean by love does not envy and it does not boast?

Right, yeah. Love is not conceited. So it's not being self -centered. It's not proud.

So it's not boasting in oneself over the other. Now, if we envy, like what do we do when we envy?

What are other words for envy? Covet, yep. Greed. We desire what somebody else has.

So if we see what someone else has and we desire that.

And what they have, it may not be material. It may be opportunity. Maybe health. Wish I had that person's health.

Boy, what I could do with that person's health. And they're wasting their health. It could be something like that.

So what's our attitude toward another person that we envy? Do we care about that person?

It's like they become the object of our bitterness. You're usually bitter towards someone that you're envious of.

Right. They have something to do with it.

Yeah, exactly, yeah. You don't even have to know the person to be envious of them, to have bitterness toward them. Absolutely.

If you've got those emotions that are deeply seeded in your heart, that are rooted in there.

You know, scripture talks about avoiding the root of bitterness. So if you have envy and boastfulness in there, self -conceit, then you're not being loving.

All of that being self -centered, envy and boasting, and arrogant being the next word.

Love is not arrogant. It is not puffing itself up. Remember, we've read this earlier in 1

Corinthians, where Paul said that knowledge, what? Puffs up, but love builds up.

Being puffed up is being self -centered, self -focused. Building up is considering others.

Love is not rude. It does not insist on its own way.

So what do you mean by rude? Anybody have another word there at verse 5 for rude? Love is not rude. What are some other translations saying there?

Unbecoming. Any other way we can define rudeness?

Unseemly. Having your own way. Okay. Ugly. Oh, there's a good word.

Love is not ugly. Yes, sir. Caustic with somebody.

The word covet is translated jealous.

So if I am jealous or covetousness in my heart toward another man, that's not a good thing.

So maybe that's jealousy personified. Right. Yeah, covetousness being jealousy.

Were you going to mention something else? Okay, I thought I saw your hand go up. So love is not rude.

It does not misbehave toward others. There is a politeness.

There's an etiquette. There's a consideration for others, really, that we can boil that down to.

Love does not insist on its own way. Insisting on its own way.

What do we mean by that? Love insisting on its own way. You're not a drill sergeant.

That's a great, yeah, great one for that. You have to do it this way. You know, I was thinking about this a moment ago, too, when we were talking about kindness.

So love being patient and kind. Remember that kindness is as the Bible defines kindness. It's as scripture calls kindness.

The world wants to tell us that there's a certain way. You have to be kind in this way.

You have to accept me for who I am. You have to let me do what I want to do. And if you don't let me do what

I want to do, then you're not being kind. Or probably what they're going to say is you're not being very loving.

So the world has their own definitions of these things. But we understand these definitions according to what scripture says.

Which is why as I'm asking these questions, it's great what you're responding with is the Bible also says this.

So we're looking for biblical definitions of what Paul is saying here with regards to love is this and it is not this.

Love does not insist on its own way. It's not my definition. It's not my way or the highway.

It is not irritable or resentful. Irritable makes sense.

And that's one is a dad that's convicting. How many of you parents pretty easily irritable with the kids?

Yeah, I'm raising my hand even if you're not raising yours. Easily irritable.

That's something I have to get over. And sometimes we try to rationalize our irritableness with other people.

Well, did you not see the way they were acting? Or I just didn't get enough sleep last night.

Or I'm Irish. You know, whatever. Whatever excuse a person has for being irritable with something else.

But usually those excuses for irritability are rooted in what? And our flesh.

Yeah, it's not rooted in who we're supposed to be in Christ. It's rooted in the flesh when we become irritable and resentful toward others.

Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing. But it rejoices with the truth.

Boy, there's a word our culture needs to hear. And define.

Yes. So there's all sorts of things that we'll see in the culture in worldly people.

I mean, we see it in the church as well. But that's when worldliness gets into the church. They'll rejoice in things that the

Bible says are wrong. That the Bible calls sin that God will judge.

Those are not the things that we should be rejoicing in. We rejoice in the truth.

What God says is good and pure to think about such things. Turn over to Philippians chapter 4.

Turn to Philippians 4. Philippians 4 .4. What is the first word that you see there?

Rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice.

There is always something to rejoice in. As I mentioned, I was listening to Renewing Your Mind. They've been going through the

Puritans. One of the definitions of the Puritans that they had in there was that the Puritans are always sour and like somebody's having fun somewhere and I need to do something about it.

Which isn't really a good definition of the Puritans. But that's the way some people had that idea or that thought about the

Puritans. And whenever we see the old paintings of the Puritans and how stoic they look and kind of expressionless in their faces.

Michael Reeves, who's doing the series, he said, well, the reason why they look that way is because everybody looked that way. Every painting looked that way.

So though we have that idea about the Puritans, everybody had to sit there for days on end keeping the same expression while they were being painted.

And holding a smile is pretty exhausting. So that's why everybody just looks, you know, kind of morose in all of those paintings.

But no, in fact, when you read from a lot of the Puritan writings, you find the

Puritans looking for reasons to rejoice. Like we have Christ.

So we should be, as R .C. Sproul has said, the happiest people on the planet.

We who have Christ Jesus should have cause every day to rejoice. Paul from prison saying, rejoice always,

I will say again, rejoice. And he says in verse five, let your reasonableness be known to everyone.

The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.

Let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Now look at verses eight through nine. Finally, brothers, whatever is what?

True. That's the first word we have there. Whatever is true.

Whatever is honorable. Whatever is just.

Whatever is pure. Whatever is lovely. Whatever is commendable.

If there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

And what did we have listed there? True, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, anything worthy of praise.

And remember all of those things as God defines them. Not because someone in this world said, well,

I think this is true. So we should celebrate it. Or I think this is pure.

So let's think about this. It's not what we want to define in our flesh as being those things.

It's what God has said is true, is good, is commendable.

These are the things that we should think about. And remember that Jesus prayed in John 17, 17. Father, sanctify them in your truth.

Your word is truth. The most true, the best true that we could ever have is what we have right here in the

Bible. What a blessed thing to have the word of Christ at our fingertips.

Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 13. So again, that's all just to say these things need to be defined by God.

They're defined by scripture, not defined by what we want them to be. Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing.

What God says is wrong, but it rejoices in the truth. What God says is true.

Verse 7, love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Now consider the context in which Paul is saying that. It doesn't mean believes all things.

So now I'm a Darwinist because I believe Darwinism. That's not the context. That's not what Paul is saying. What does it mean to bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, endure all things?

What's our context here? What are we talking about? Believe all what?

Bear all what? We just have things. It's pretty generic, but I mean, what else could go there?

There you go. That's great. So we're thinking about one another here. We bear with one another.

In Colossians 3, you can go there with me if you want, but I'm going to flip there real quick.

So we were just in Philippians. Colossians chapter 3, it says, put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.

This is verse 13, bearing with one another. And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the

Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. I think it's a pretty good parallel passage to go with this in 1

Corinthians 13. That we bear all things, we believe all things.

Believing all things means that you're going to give your brother or sister in the Lord the benefit of the doubt.

Because 1 Timothy 6 says that if we're going beyond the gospel and teaching things that are outside the doctrine that leads to godliness, this is something that Paul is instructing

Timothy in. He says the person that goes beyond the gospel and doctrine that builds a person according to godliness is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.

And he has an unhealthy craving for controversy and quarrels about words which do not build up but tear each other down and even suspect or even suspicious of one another.

That's what happens when we go beyond the gospel. We become feuding with each other over different things, words, and phrases.

And we become suspicious of one another, accusing each other of evil things though we don't have proof of it.

We see that going on in the culture now where you're being either accused or exonerated by the color of your skin.

Or intersectionality, how many different points of intersecting oppression that you have could determine whether or not you are pure or guilty.

That's the way the culture judges. But that's not how we in the church are to judge one another. We bear all things, we believe all things, we hope the best for each other, we endure with each other.

And so there Paul gives that list in verses 4 through 7 of the things that love is and that which love is not.

And when we get to verses 8 through 13 we're kind of beginning this section and ending this section the exact same way.

Notice that verse 8 says love never ends and that verse 13 ends with the greatest of these is love.

We have kind of the same statement on opposite ends of this particular paragraph. Love never ends, it is the greatest.

As for prophecies, they will pass away. Like we have prophetic things that are being said to us now but we only need the prophetic now when we get to glory.

Does anybody need to tell us what the future is going to entail anymore? Prophecies will pass away.

As for tongues, they will cease. Again that's a miraculous sign that has been talked about in Acts and earlier in chapter 12.

Will we need those miraculous signs any longer? When we get to glory.

As for knowledge, it will pass away. 1 John 3 says that on the day that we meet with Him in the air we will be made to be like Him and we will see

Him exactly as He is. So we will know just as we are fully known as Paul will go on to say here in a moment.

Verse 9, for now we know in part and we prophesy in part but when the perfect comes the partial will pass away.

Now some will use this verses 9 and 10 as an argument for cessationism and as I said in the beginning of this study when we started in chapter 12,

I'm what you might call a practical cessationist but I don't think you can use those verses to argue for the miraculous sign gifts coming to an end.

You're going to have to use scripture somewhere else to make that argument. I don't think 9 and 10 does it because it appears to me that in context what

Paul is talking about here with the perfect coming it looks like that's when glory comes.

That's when we're with Christ forever the perfect comes. That's the context there. So I don't think the perfect being like the close of canon.

The Bible is completed, it's done so therefore miraculous sign gifts have ceased. I don't think that's the argument that Paul is making.

I just say that because it's a very common couple of verses used to make that particular argument.

So we know in part we prophesy in part but when the perfect comes the partial will pass away.

What we live in right now is the transient. We live in the midst of things that are passing away.

Even knowledge that we possess that's on this earth is temporary and when we get to glory we'll have perfect knowledge that we don't possess now.

Verse 11, when I was a child I spoke like a child. I thought like a child.

I reasoned like a child. When I became a man I gave up childish ways.

And how has Paul been speaking to the Corinthians all this while?

He's been talking to them like children. By the way you need to keep that in mind when we get to chapter 14 as well.

And that's even going to help you understand some of the things that we read about with regards to prophecy and tongues.

Those two particular gifts that Paul kind of goes back and forth on in chapter 14. We got a couple of weeks before we get there but remember that Paul still has to speak to them as children.

And it's not like just because he said this now in chapter 13 grow up that now he's going to start speaking to them as adults.

He still has to rebuke them as though I mean they're immature in the faith. And so that's where we're going as we continue on with the study.

But in the meantime we've seen these kinds of rebukes before. Paul calling them arrogant. Paul calling them conceited.

Saying that they're immature. And so here he says look I used to be there too. I was a child like you.

And when I was there I acted like a child. But I became a man and I put away childish things.

Skip ahead to chapter 16 for a moment. Look at verses 13 and 14.

So Paul has started this letter rebuking them for their immaturity. Guess how he ends it?

Encouraging them to grow up. 1 Corinthians 16, 13. Be watchful. Stand firm in the faith.

Act like what? Men. Be strong.

But then look at verse 14. Let all that you do be done in what? Love. Grow up.

Love one another. And verse 12 coming back to 13.

For now we see in a mirror dimly but then face to face. And now I know in part and then

I shall know fully. Even as I have been fully known. You know the image that we see in the mirror is not.

The image we see in the mirror dimly okay. It's not Christ. Not technically. Although that's typically the way that we take that particular verse.

What is it that Paul says we see in a mirror dimly. But eventually we'll see face to face.

Anybody have an idea? The mirror can be fogged up.

It can be distorted. It's not necessarily the truth. It's just a reflection of what we think.

Yeah it's kind of. There's something there. It's kind of fuzzy. We can't quite make it out. But I know it's there.

What Paul is really talking about here is our fully sanctified selves. We can see it because scripture is a mirror.

James talks about that. When you read the word of God it's like looking at yourself in a mirror. And if you don't do what the word says you're like a man who looks at himself in a mirror and then walks away and forgets his own reflection.

So when we look into the word we see what we're supposed to be in perfect sanctification.

But we're not going to see that image face to face until that day that we are perfect.

That we're together with Christ in glory. But remember the word that Paul gives in Philippians 1 .6.

I'm confident of this that he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it at the day of Christ.

Lastly verse 13. Now faith hope and love abide these three but the greatest of these is love.

Why is love the greatest out of faith hope and love? It covers a multitude of sins.

Amen to that. Yeah there you go.

Yeah thinking of Horatio Spafford and it is well with my soul. Lord haste the day when my faith shall be sight.

So in the day that we enter glory we don't need faith anymore. We don't need hope anymore. But we need love now and guess what?

We'll be in the love of Christ forever in glory. Hence why love is the greatest. Hence why love never ends.

Hence why my friends you need to love as Christ has loved you.

Amen. This is when we understand the text with Pastor Gabe Hughes.

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