What Love isn't & is
1 Corinthians 13:1-7 · Vern Peterman · Dec 6, 2009
1 & 2 Corinthians, No. 26
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926149168099

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. We're going to be studying this passage in more depth that Wayne just read for us here. This is one of the more famous passages, and what's interesting is even people in the world who don't know the Lord will look at what's in this passage and find it fascinating.

Before we do that, I just want to remind you we have our electives starting a month from today. And so that'll be for just to let you know, for the sake of choosing, we do need to have you choose, okay? I've had somebody tell me that they don't want to choose. You must. However, if you really don't want to choose, just pick one and listen to the others online and get the handouts and all that.

So that's fine too. It's completely legal. Oh boy. Okay. Great Doctrines of Salvation is the first one, and Mike and Courtney will be doing that. I think they might even be catering it, but I wouldn't promise that. Now, Galatians will be the other one, and we've got a team of men who are teaching that, and that will be a good dig into the book of Galatians, a rich book, and one of Paul's first out of the pen, so to speak. And we'll also have a series on Q&A, answering questions of various kinds. How many angels can fit on the head of a pin?

Things like that. No, I think probably a little more relevant than that. But Q&A, nonetheless. So at any rate, we would ask that you give consideration to that. There are sign-up sheets out there. And it really will help us figure out materials, how much do we need in advance, where do we need to plan to have it space-wise, and that sort of thing. So if you can give some thought to that and sign up in the lobby, that'd be real helpful. What's interesting is, as I was looking at this passage, one of the things that I was fascinated to find, there is all kinds of material out there based on 1 Corinthians 13. All sorts of pieces of artwork and posters and jewelry. Just amazing. Photographs.

It's a passage, hint hint, that is used in weddings and things of that sort. At any rate, it is a great one. And so I just kind of give some examples of some of the pieces of kind of artistic expression of this passage and how that's been done. Different pieces of artistic expression will choose different portions of the passage. And that's fine, I suppose. They each have something to emphasize. Here's one where it's just simply a matter of putting the verse on a beautiful natural scene there.

And here's another one where 1 Corinthians 13 is in the foreground, the writing of the passage is in the background, and all the O's are in the shape of hearts. Anyway. This is another frequent photograph taken a lot of times with wedding scenes, is to have a rose there in the passage on the pages. Here's another one where you have the ring and then with the lighting, have a little heart. I mean, romantic touch is just right there, you know.

And all sorts of variations. Some of these rings I looked at and I thought, how do you wear that comfortably? But anyway, you can decide that for yourself. How do you wear three rings on one finger when they're all combined with one other? That's a tough one.

What you have on page one of your handout, I'm going to go through the chapter kind of in sequence to make a point here, but we'll actually be going through them kind of in a dispersed fashion. The first three verses, as you'll notice, come in a particular poetic pattern.

I think not only is that a rather Jewish way of writing, is to write poetry not with rhyming words all the time in sound, but rhyming meanings. And this particular one reads well that way, and I think that's one of the reasons why it's been a popular passage to read, to read in public, to read in weddings, and is because it is naturally poetic in the way Paul wrote it.

Verses 1 through 3 have their own pattern, and we've broken it up and even color-coded it in such a way that you can see that. As we move along, we'll see this, the verses four through six, and those also have their own pattern, different from the first three verses.

And so we'll be looking at that pattern in a little more detail. And then the last verse has its own pattern. So it's interesting, it's all patterned, it's all poetic, and yet there's a variety to it as well. He doesn't just make it all monotonous. He goes, at most, three verses at a time with the pattern.

So with that, let's kind of step through the slides here. One of the things we point out, while this passage gets read, and I think it's still fitting, while it gets read in all sorts of other contexts, people read it because they really like it. I've even seen tattoos that people have done with this passage. Some of them I can't show on the screen. But anyway, so people like it in various poetic expressions.

The thing to remember is while what Paul says here can be applied in various ways, the context he was writing it in was sandwiched right between two chapters dealing with actual problems with spiritual gifts. So he's addressing their problems. Here's the other thing, however, we're going to find. Not only is it in the context of spiritual gifts, but he is also going to address issues and problems and topics that he's been bringing up since the beginning of the letter.

And we'll see that shortly here. So as Paul continues to respond to these questions here about spiritual gifts, it is apparent that the believers in Corinth had made spiritual gifts a key part of their pursuit of personal empires. We kind of drew from the old advertisement about dog food. I'm not sure they make the dog food anymore, but it's the my dog's better than yours routine. And here their problem is my gift is better than yours.

Now, the consequence of the self-seeking arrogance, and he actually addresses both of those issues, self-seeking and arrogance, among them is to stir up jealousy. a great deal of jealousy. Since they lack the expression of love among them, and it was being expressed as jealousy among them, Paul helps them understand God's love. Helps them understand God's love. So he lovingly corrects their lack of love.

What we're going to see here is a pattern. The first seven verses of this chapter, verses 1 through 7, Paul wants them to understand, first of all, the necessity of love. That's the first three verses. Love is necessary. It is not optional. The next, he's going to talk about what love is and what love is not, and what love just simply does not do. He's going to spell that out. In the next week's passage, verses 8-13, he's going to help them all to understand that the spiritual gifts that they're jealous about are all going to end soon.

And that even faith and hope will have an end. Now, I don't mean to disturb anybody, but that's true. We'll study that next week. Even faith and hope, as good as those are, will have an end. We'll see why shortly. Of all these, only love is forever. The spiritual gifts will all come to an end, some soon, some eventually. Faith, absolutely essential.

You know how you're saved? You're saved by faith. But do you know that that will come to an end? Oh, not your salvation, the faith. Hope will even come to an end the day we go and see the Lord. But love is forever. All these things they're squabbling about, my gift's better than your gift, it's all going to stop. Faith and hope as important as they are don't match up to love. One of the ways of putting this, and this is to add something that's not in your handout directly, verses 1-7 are about the quality of love. Verses 8-13 are about the duration of love, forever is the statement.

So as we look at these first three verses we see the pattern and he starts off there each line of the poetic pattern, if I, if I, and he does that in each case. And then he talks about some kind of an action or a gift that they have. And then he follows up each of those, in each case, with, but if I don't have love, but do not have love. And finally, he says, I have or I am or some consequence to me. That's the pattern here. And he does it there in very clear pattern with each verse.

There's also the mention here of faith, which is something he's going to continue to address in not only this passage, but in next week's passage. Notice what I've underlined, and you also have this in your handout, Tongues, Prophecy, and Knowledge. Those spiritual gifts he is going to address again in next week's passage, and we'll see a very important reason why when we get there.

One of the things that he makes very clear in the first three verses is love is essential. One must have love, the real thing, or all the impressive spiritual gifts that one might have are all for nothing, all for naught. Love is an essential, not an optional item. One must have love, the real thing, or even sacrificing of one's possession or one's very life is all for naught. Love is essential.

Suppose you were to go and order a car, a nice one, and they ask you, do you want the driver's side wheels? And you say that's optional? That doesn't seem very optional to me. Well, you've got a good point. They aren't optional. Your car is going to be up on blocks or else going around in very difficult circles. You need them, right? The wheels on the driver's side are essential. You can't do without them, or at least not very well at all.

And that's the way love is. Or let's say this other thing. You are shopping for a nice bullet bike. The only thing is you can only afford so much for this bullet bike. And so you get one where all you've got is the front end. That's not going to work so good. Unicycle bullet bikes don't work.

One can be theologically correct with all the right doctrine. You can impress everybody at church. or at work or in any other context where it's important, but love is an essential. Nothing else will compensate for love. Oh, it's okay, I don't have love because I have this instead. No, you can't do that. Just like you're really going to need the driver's side wheels on the car. Just like you're going to need the back wheel on the bullet bike.

In the first verse there, he talks about tongues of men and of angels. What does he do in the first couple of verses there, but he talks about some of the gifts that they're looking upon as, boy, these are really important gifts, and so I want to have those gifts because they're really important, because I want to be important, and I want everybody to know I'm important. So he addresses this issue of tongues, because they really like that. Paul provides the example of speaking in tongues, whether, he says, of men or of angels. as something that would not be a valid substitute for love and something that should not be done without love.

It's pretty clear that what they were doing is exactly that. I'm not so sure about the tongues of angels part, but they were wanting to express the gift of tongues and love was not an issue. I want that very impressive gift. It's one that everybody can hear me. And so I like that one. And I think perhaps he put this, you know, of angels part on just to kind of make it sound extra special.

I don't think there's any indication that the gift of tongues ever included angels. The indication is, especially as you see the first instance in Acts chapter 2, it appears from every instance to be human language and not angels. It could be that this reference, tongues of angels, was a claim that some of the Corinthians were making. And say, boy, I get to speak the tongues of angels. Did you hear me? Me, me, me. It was all that. Next, verse 2 there, he talks about the gifts of prophecy and knowledge and faith. As Paul did previously with tongues in the first verse, when he made it even include of angels, he does that with these gifts as well.

He makes them superlative. He puts them in the loftiest terms possible or even impossible. They're just the ultimate is the way he expresses it. He says, even if I have the ultimate spiritual gift with all the options, Even if I have that, even if I have the very best of spiritual gifts, the most impressive, if I have not love, it doesn't do any good. The ordinary gift of knowledge then becomes know all mysteries and have all knowledge. It's superlative.

Faith is of such an impressive nature that you're even able to move mountains. follows after what the Lord said in Matthew a couple of times. In verse 3, he finally spells out kind of the ending part of each of those, I have, I am, and it profits me nothing.

In verse 1, the believer who does not have love is one who has become like a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. Very interesting. He not only says nothing, but everyone wishes he would stop. In verse 2, the believer who does not have love is nothing. Isn't that interesting? I am nothing. And in verse 3, the believer who does not have love not only doesn't profit anyone else, he doesn't even benefit himself.

That's one of the points that the Corinthians were missing about these spiritual gifts. The spiritual gifts were not all about me, me, me, me, me, me, me. The spiritual gifts were about benefiting others in the body. It's somebody else that's benefited. It draws attention to the Lord, not yourself. And so he was trying to get the point across. You may have the most impressive gift. Or it may be the ultimate. See, you don't just have the gift of knowledge. You know everything. And you know all mysteries. I mean, you've got it all covered. It is the ultimate.

And yet, if I haven't love, I have, I am, and it profits me nothing. On page 2 we have this pattern where verses 4 through 6 break into a pattern of their own. Paul speaks with kind of implying the word, so I've added in brackets just so that it's clear what the pattern is. But he does so by pretty clear implication. I'm not adding some meaning that isn't there. He implies it pretty clearly.

This is love is patient, love is kind, and love is not jealous. And what jumps out at you, and I've made sure it jumps out at you because I've put the knots in red. Those aren't knots like you tie. This is not like knot, right? Oh boy, that's clear. And then finally, at the end, a positive statement. Love rejoices with the truth. So as you look through those verses, you get this pattern here. You have statements of this form. First, love is. Love is patient and kind.

Love is not. this, and he lists things in that form, or love does not, and puts things in that form. Isn't it amazing how many things it's not? Love isn't this, love isn't that, love isn't this, and there's a reason for his putting those nots in there. Verses four through six begin with two positive statements, love is patient, love is kind, and then eight statements about what Love is not like or does not do. Then one final positive statement about rejoicing with the truth. Let's look at those love is portions of his love poem in verse 4.

There are two main words in the Greek language that mean patient. I'm not talking about the one in the hospital laying in the bed. That's not the kind of patient we mean. We're talking about patience where one word means to be patient with circumstances, and the other word, and that's the one in this particular passage, means to be patient with people. Isn't it interesting?

We tend to think of patience as something we have, but Scripture divides it out. Patience with circumstance, patience with people. And this one particularly is patience with people, which sounds exactly like the issue that the Corinthians need to deal with, right? Patience with people. They were impatient that people weren't seeing how important their spiritual gift was. They were impatient that people weren't seeing how extremely valuable the gift was that they had to offer, and how it was so much better than the others.

Love is patient and love is kind. This kindness is a practical goodness. It's not just kind as something hypothetical. It's not just kind as I feel kind, but it's kind that does. It's kindness in action. What's interesting is this love, this particular kind of patience, and kindness are all part of the fruit of the Spirit. which Paul had spelled out in Galatians chapter 5, verses 22 and 23. And isn't it interesting? That was another church that was doing a lot of squabbling. Love is patient. Love is kind.

Now, Paul then lists eight things that love is not or does not do. It would be fair to say that the things Paul listed in these eight things were exactly what those believers in Corinth were doing. The reason that Paul had to say, love is not jealous, love is not, and go down the list is because that's exactly what they were doing.

Precisely. Not this kind of not. It's interesting, even if we add on the things in verse 7, you still have more negative statements than positive statements in verses 4 through 7. There was a whole lot of, kind of, it's not this and it's not that. All the things that were happening. All the issues that he had to deal with in the church there. They had a lot to learn about love. It was very clear. They had to understand, and they apparently didn't, They had to understand what love is not. Love doesn't include this. Love doesn't include that. Now, in this slide here, more about is not and does not.

Love is not jealous. One of the things we pointed out last week is this issue of jealousy. He began addressing it at the end of chapter 12. But you jealously long for the greater gifts, though I'll show you a more excellent way. Then in this verse here, love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous. Then the beginning of chapter 14, which we'll get to, pursue love, but you jealously long for spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.

Oh, that's one of the better ones. That makes me most important, you know. Love does not brag. And I've got a little correction on your handout. It should be 231. But one of the other things that comes out here is in more than one place, their boasting comes out in this book. They would boast. Why? Because that's a part of building your own personal empire. So he says, you know that bragging that you're doing? Love doesn't do that. Love doesn't do that bragging that you're doing. Love is not arrogant. And notice I give several references. Why? Because he said it several times. You guys have a problem?

You're arrogant. And in verse 418 there, now for some have become arrogant as though I were not coming to you. They were arrogant about this, they were arrogant about that. They were even proud that they were immoral and tolerant of it. Does not act unbecomingly. He had had to deal with their rude behavior among one another when they would have the Lord's table and the love feast that went along with it. Verse 21 of chapter 11, for in your eating each one takes his own supper. One is hungry and another is drunk. Everybody is very selfish and piggy about it.

I spent time around pigs. Not that much time, okay? Don't worry. But I spend time around them, and believe me, they very much want what they want for themselves when they want it. And if one gets in the way, I've heard all kinds of squeals and ear bites and everything else. They act like pigs, I hate to tell you. And that's the behavior he was talking about here. I want what I want when I want it, and when I'm satisfied, then you can have yours. When I'm more than satisfied, then you can have yours. And they were acting unbecomingly, like pigs.

Love does not seek its own. And what do we find in 1 Corinthians 10, 24? Let no one seek his own good but that of his neighbor. I would assume that they had a problem with seeking their own good. He says, that's not love. It's not provoked and does not take into account a wrong suffered. Remember back in chapter 6, the first eight verses dealt with lawsuits between one over the other.

And one of the things he said, he says, it would be better for the sake of the gospel, it would be better for the sake of the body for you to just say, forget about it, than to pursue this and take into account the wrong suffered between you. As Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus, I imagine they may have had a similar problem, he says, forgive one another as God in Christ has already forgiven you. What motivates your forgiving? In order to be forgiven? No. You are already forgiven. Grace. It's grace that motivates your forgiving. And finally, does not rejoice in unrighteousness. I've added a passage on to this and feel free to do that.

In 1 Corinthians 5, 1 and 2, it's actually reported that there is immorality among you, immorality of such a kind that does not even exist among the Gentiles. Even the people out there are unbelievers. Can't believe what's going on. Someone has his father's wife. Basically, a man was sleeping with his stepmother. You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead. They have become prideful of their tolerance of this immorality. Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness. That's not what love does.

Finally, in verse 6, he says, love rejoices in the truth. And there's a key point here. A lot of Christians today have made the error of thinking that between love and truth, if you're ever in a place where you've got to choose between love and truth, pick love. let truth fall by the wayside, love is the one you're supposed to pick, right? So that's the way a lot of Christians have kind of approached this, is I'm supposed to grab truth, I'm supposed to grab love, but if I've got to choose between the two, I'll pick love over truth. God's Word doesn't place love and truth at odds with one another, as if we're supposed to pick one or the other. Love and truth are both aspects of God's nature.

It's who God is. That's why we can't pick one instead of the other. God is love and God is truth. Those are the passages right there in the Gospel of John and 1 John. They're both aspects of God's nature. That's why we can't pick one and not the other. God wants both love and truth in all that we do and say. Both love and truth.

Finally, in verse 7, love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Now, I need to make clear here, bears all things has nothing to do with these guys. That's not what he means. This is a kind of patience that bears under difficulties by God's power. It looks at the moment of distress and says, in the midst of that, love bears up under that. Secondly, believes all things. Now this is another one I've got to correct.

That does not mean you believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and what the politician told you is certainly going to do with no taxes. Right? That's not what he's talking about. Okay? This is not a gullibility, but standing ready to believe what is true with a hopefulness.

We're going to talk about what this hope means. This is a certain hope. You see, as a believer in Christ, you have a hope this world does not understand. It's not a, I hope this happens. It might or might not, but I hope this. This is a certain hope that we as believers have.

It is a love that is not cynical. It is a love that does not lean towards, oh, it's going to be bad. It's a love that does not lean towards Murphy's Law rules the universe. Hopes all things. This is not wishing well Christianity. This is a love that keeps our certain, going to happen, absolutely, hope in the Lord in mind and in heart. Always hopeful because we have a certain hope. Not because we just wish something would happen.

A lot. Finally, endures all things. What's interesting is that endure all things is exactly the phrase that Paul used with respect to the gospel. In 1 Corinthians 9, 12, we endure all things so that we will cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ.

Why? Because we love the people. And we love the Lord. That's why. This is the time of year when people, especially Christians, look at the birth of Christ and observe that. And we've got all sorts of customs and things. And as a matter of fact, even here in this church, we've got a number of things we're doing just this month to look at that. But that's the beginning of God's expression of love through Christ. What we're going to share together here is the Lord's Table in a short period of time. And that ultimately is the greatest remembrance of the expression of love. Christ said, do this in remembrance of me. Why? What did he do? He died on the cross for our sins.

And this is ultimately the gospel accomplished. It's the gospel completed that we're remembering here this morning. What does the gospel consist of? The person who is to be saved must believe that Christ died for your sins, hence we have the cross there, shown with the verses in today's passage in the middle of it. If you believe that Christ died for your sins and was buried and rose again, That simple, that's the gospel, that is God's ultimate expression of love through Christ.

And faith is the only way to appropriate that. Do you believe it? You're saved. It's that simple. Let's pray. Lord, as we look at this passage, as we look towards a time of sharing the Lord's table together, we just look to you and ask that you would bring these truths about your love home to our hearts as we look at the characteristics of love and as we see it spelled out in our Savior's love for us, the Savior who loved and gave and loved and gave. We just thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.