1 Corinthians 13:1-13 Love and Spiritual Gifts - part 2

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity or love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and although I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profits me nothing.

Love suffereth long, is kind, charity, envieth not. Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. Doth not believe itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, and is not easily provoked, and thinks no evil. Rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. Beareth all things, believes all things, hopeth all things, and endures all things. Love never fails, but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail.

Whether there should be tongues, they shall cease, and whether there should be knowledge, it should vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, that when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, understood as a child, and I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face, and now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known.

And now abideth faith, hope, and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love. Alright, good. So, first verse. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail. And whether there are tongues, they'll cease. And knowledge, it's going to vanish away. Love never fails.

A logical conclusion of verse 7. Let's look at verse 7 again. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. What else could there be? Is there any failure noticed in verse 7? It's unequivocal based on verse 7 that verse 8 should say love never fails. It's a perfect conclusion of verse 7. Why does love never fail?

Because it's not man's love. That's got to be the key to all this. Tom, I don't believe you can add to that, but let's hear what you have to say anyway. The total source of love is infinite, so how can infinite fail? I'm going to say that's duplicative, but nevertheless, I'll give you a gold star for that. Okay, what source of God can fail? I mean, it's an impossibility that God's love would ever fail.

And if we don't believe that, we're in the wrong place here today. OK? Now, the problem with, I think, the organized church is they're kind of putting a metric to their own ability to love. And we always fall short there, don't we? But it's God's love through us that never, never fails. Keep that in mind now as we continue to look at this section. Why do prophecies, tongues, and knowledge fail, cease, or vanish away?

It's all from men. Well, do you think that's true of what was described here? What about the New Age, the Apostolic Age, the Church being founded? These things were special gifts of the Lord, right? We're talking about gifts now. That was, as we know, for a time. But knowledge is certainly And also, I think, all those things make men puff up. Well, that's true, but I think in the Apostolic Age, these were gifts of the Lord that were being manifested in the Apostolic Age. Let's define each of these.

Prophecies were an endowment and speech of Christian leaders. Yes, prophecy could be predicting the future. Brandy covered this a little bit last week. I think prophecy really was the ability to transmit the information the Spirit had led them to provide the new church and its growth. So these could be teachings of the time.

And by the way, we have teachers today. You got one up here this morning. But nevertheless, I'm not prophesizing in terms of the future. I'm simply teaching. But the unique teaching of the age of the church, the new age of the church, was spirit given and a gift.

Tongues. Randy covered it beautifully last week. Tongues are languages used by particular peoples in distinction from that of other nations. So that means I can speak in Greek here today, or I can speak in French, or I can speak in Chinese. I can't read Chinese, and never mind. But you get the idea here. These are not speaking in some unknown language. And tongues would ultimately cease, and we'll come back to that in a second.

Knowledge. Gnosis. Keep in mind, three verbs for knowledge or nouns for knowledge. The IDEO, which is head knowledge and factual knowledge, like we're at Holly Hills Bible Church on 2400 South Holly. Facts, head knowledge. Gnosis is a deeper, more advanced knowledge at the time of a religion or a faith. Here, the apostolic truth.

I think the knowledge here is of what the Lord had them know about what the church was all about and how it would be especially and spiritually founded. Epigonosis we're going to come to because that's in a few verses and that's even more extreme or complete knowledge.

Macaulay's good here. By the way, Macaulay is very, very good here. Not that he's not usually good, but I'm going to be quoting him three times this morning because he has, I think, an understanding here that's consistent with what my understanding was, which doesn't make him right or me right. It simply, I think, is really a unique view of what the truth of this section really is. So Macaulay, the verb used with prophecies and knowledge is identical.

In both cases, it's future tense, passive voice. In the future, they will be acted upon in such a way that they will be made inoperative. So, let's look back. Prophecies will be made inoperative. Yeah, Tom. That reminds me of that old phrase you heard on Mission Impossible. This machine will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck, Jim. Tom, we can count on you. He said 1960s television show, you need bits of information. So it was a series, it self-destructed.

Tongues or speaking in others' languages would passively, they will stop. In other words, this isn't because people made them stop, the Lord was about his business making them cease. Alright, back to Macaulay. In the future they will be acted upon in such a way that they will be made inoperative. The verb used with tongues is different. It's a future tense but a middle voice, and the middle voice means that the action of the verb is directed towards itself.

We could say, tongues shall cease in and of themselves. So A.T. Robertson says, they shall cease, future middle of pallo, to make cease, and they shall make themselves cease, or automatically cease of themselves, but all will end, but in a different manner.

Now that's a little detail, but the idea, the first two of these gifts were made inoperative by the Lord. These other languages, speaking in tongues, known tongues of someone else, would ultimately just dissipate. Now you could say even the Lord didn't cause that to dissipate. They came to an end on their own. I mean we're not, I'm not quite sure exactly why that occurred the way it occurred but nevertheless I think Macaulay is kind of on a right track here. Winnie and then Tom. Winnie?

I don't quite understand how knowledge can cease. Well knowledge I think... I don't understand prophecy. But I think this was a gift at its time of very special knowledge. Yeah. You have to go back, if you go back to chapter 12 The gifts that were given in that time period are listed and knowledge is one of those things. Knowledge is a special thing outside of scripture that was given to a person. Especially the apostles had knowledge directly from the Lord. So that knowledge, that spiritual gift, no longer, it ceased basically.

Well Roger, to build on that, the apostles had unique capabilities of healing, right? I mean there were special gifts and that could be a special kind of knowledge that existed only for that time and only certain people, the apostles. Okay, good. Everybody okay with this?

So the Lord ultimately said, not this special kind of knowledge, which is extremely important in founding the church is going to, I'm going to make that stop. And the ability ultimately of prophesying, you know, that's what we're talking about. And this ability to, you know, speak in tongues is going to cease. Knowledge will vanish away, so the knowledge in fact is ultimately what goes away.

Let's get this correct now. The verb use in prophecies and knowledge is identical, but that use in tongues is what's different. So the order is a little bit different. Tongues are kind of in the middle, knowledge and prophecies, the bookends. But the verb use I'm combining verses 9 and 10 here. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part will be gone away.

Yes, I didn't wonder about that. And it just came to me. It's kind of like when you are told to memorize the alphabet and you're given it verbally and that's all you got. And then you do the best you can with it. And then you find out later that it's you. how you communicate. And you don't need to play A, B, C, D, E, F. It becomes usable in a different way. It displaces it. That's an interesting analogy. OK, Tom, good thought. Any other thoughts here?

I mean, we don't really have a good explanation of how tongues ceased, but they kind of just went away, whereas the Lord dictated that the spatial prophecies and knowledge of the time would cease. Bob, we're going to spend all of chapter 14, I've been working on that since I teach the next two weeks, and Paul's going to go into extreme detail about how tongues, even in that time period, when they were valid, need to be controlled because they get out of control. People thought, this is really cool, the Lord can speak a language I don't know about through me, even if he can't, I'll even I'll fake it until I make it, so to speak. Do you think that speaking in tongues, meaning known language to others' languages, was unique to the apostles?

I believe so. But it's interesting how even in that time period it was a problem. We see in this time period it's a problem, but I think even in that time period it's a problem because it was so miraculous and so people like, wow, I mean, they're attracted to that.

Wow, I can do this, look what I can do, and it overwhelmed the teaching of God's word. The prophecy which was proper there, God speaking through men, It was overwhelming that. A similar example might relate to Christ's life on earth, where in fact all the miracles occurred, but that didn't save anybody, right? People were amazed by the miracles, but ultimately didn't believe Jesus. Show us a miracle. Show us a miracle. They didn't care about Him. They wanted to see a miracle.

Let me hear a little bit of Korean from your mouth, right? That's really neat, right? Let me make sure I'm understanding. tongues was only for the apostles? Is that what somebody was saying? Well, that was the question I asked. I did not have an answer. Roger Felder was, but I don't know why.

Acts tells us no, because when the Gentiles become believers, Peter says, and he testifies to the other disciples, that the Gentiles spoke in tongues, which was a confirmation. So I wouldn't say that it's not that. Actually, I meant for the apostolic age. Oh yes, that I would agree with. I'm sorry. That's okay. All right, well, Roger's going to cover that in Chapter 14, so we'll have much more detail on that. I didn't drill down on that particular question.

All right, what does it mean to know or gnosco in part and prophesy in part? Gnosco, again, that's kind of a special kind of knowledge, experiential kind of knowledge, more than simply a factual knowledge. What does it mean to do it in part? For we know in part and we prophesy in part.

Well, how about imperfectly? compared to that of the Lord Jesus Christ. Right? I mean, in the apostolic age, this happened imperfectly, or not completely, but in parts. It just was at times an example of special truth to be pronounced at that particular age. So let's look at Ephesians 4, 11 through 13. And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, and to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

So this in comparison, that perfect knowledge in the fullness is really what we mean in part. We're told we have the knowledge of Christ, but it's in part. It's not complete. And that completeness will only come at the time of our rapture, our earthly death, and presence with the Lord, and or in future times that are mapped out ahead. So what is that which is perfect? The completed Bible, the New Testament, finished. Perfect in New Testament scripture is typically complete. So that's kind of the end part. But that which is perfect is the completed act.

Now, is this when we're raptured or dead or asleep and with the Lord? Is that what's implied here? Well, on your next page I'm going to say that eleven commentators think it is. That's what it is. And the twelfth one, well, what can I say? There were twelve different people that went. Twelve representatives went out into Canaan to find out what was good about the land. Eleven of them found out everything that was wrong about the land. Joshua and Caleb, I guess I get the numbers wrong, they nailed it, but they were about to be... nailed with stones or something.

So the minority opinion can many times be right, particularly when it's related to spiritual truth. Okay, so is it when we're raptured or dead? So 2 Corinthians 5a, we are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body to be present with the Lord. I mean, we all kind of throw that out there all the time, which is true. I mean, to be absent from the body to be present with the Lord.

So is that the completeness that this relates to or that perfection? Well, again, Macaulay. Some take it to be the return of Christ. This is not, however, the subject of this chapter, nor is there any allusion to it. The word perfect is telios, and the basic meaning is to be complete, as we just focused in on.

The completion of prophecy and knowledge is the New Testament canon. It must be remembered that the church age has a pre-canon era and a post-canon era. Pentecost was at least 50 years before the last New Testament book was written. The Corinthian church existed in this pre-canon period.

By the way, as I just indicated, 11 commentators that I read, none of them agree with Macaulay. And nobody even mentioned that. That's amazing. And I've read 11 different commentaries, and I could have kept going, and I may have found one or two that would agree with it. When the perfect has come is the completion of New Testament scripture. Randy? I've spent quite a bit of time studying this and I found that not only is it the 11, it is greater, you're correct, and there's a majority.

But a lot of it has to do with not understanding gifts holistically as an end-to-end principle. They don't understand them and they just go with what makes the most sense in their misunderstanding. But you can see how it might be easily interpreted when the rapture occurs or when we're finally out of this earthly body and with the Lord, that's when the perfect has come for each of us individually. But then it doesn't put in context the text that we're in, and that's what Macaulay is saying. In context, we're talking about the foundation of the Apostolic Church and the gifts related to that special period in history. And I think it's most consistent to think these healing ministries and this perfect knowledge and all the other spirit-led attributes of the age would ultimately cease once the written canon was complete.

And we, you know, Macaulay, we tend to look at, you know, a little bit differently because we think he's really into identification truth and understands what position is, condition. So you tend to migrate to people who have your own biases. But I think in terms of perfect interpretation of the word, this is the best interpretation. Bill, are we okay? Okay, good.

All right, verse 11, when I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, and I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things. When I got saved, I said to my late wife, I said to Sharon, I want this on the wall. Of course, I was drinking milk at the time. And here I was mentally and emotionally escalating to this kind of thinking as a man now, not a child. And she said, no, I don't want you to do that. And so, you know, your wives have a way of influencing your decision-making. Thank you, Margaret. Most of the time, they're right. Notice I said most. How many times have you used this verse, though?

I mean, you know, in a sense, it does relate to this maturity of the meat-eating experience that we're having here at Holly Hills and the kind of teaching we have here. Because this is not drinking milk anymore, the simple gospel. You know, the gospel is very straightforward. I'm a sinner, Christ died for my sins, was resurrected to give me life eternally. Very simple message.

And soon son really needs to understand that message. But nevertheless, I think here This is an oversimplification of this particular verse. In context, Randy, I mean, I think again, in context, we can all pick out verses that we personally apply and feel warm and fuzzy about. But interpretation really is importantly carried out in context. So what do you mean when you quoted this verse? What did you mean? I think you meant what I just stated is that now I'm saved and I have this mature understanding of a very different view, all true. But is that really the right interpretation?

Ephesians 4.14, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and in the craftiness of deceitful plotting. True. Very true. We can't deny 4.14. But in context, has this been an appropriate application? And I don't think so. In context, back to Macaulay.

And again, I really learned a lot from looking at his section on this particular part of scripture. This division is supported by Paul's illustration in verse 11. In verse 11, the verb spoke matches tongues. Think and reason fit with the prophecies and knowledge.

Each of these is linked to childhood. They were gifts that functioned in the childhood of the church. And as Paul was once a child who as a man put away childhood things, so the church was once in childhood days and must put away things of its childhood. The word now in verse 12, which we'll come to in a second, would point to pre-canon days and the word then to the days when the canon will be complete and the fullness of God's revelation in the scriptures would come about. OK, so yes, we can all identify when we're saved as being children and having a childlike thought process, which could even relate to our time before we were saved. And then we're saved and now we're made men. But that process is painfully slow for some and much more exponential in others. And we don't measure that in anybody but ourselves. And the Lord is the one who measures it, not we ourselves. So, but in context, I think it really relates very much to the gifts we're speaking about here and they're ceasing or vanishing away and we need to put this in context.

So the church here is childish in terms of the foundational truths that they had when these bodies of believers met together and were informed about the word of God. And if you think of Corinth now and kind of what an immature church this was, right? I mean, we've talked throughout the last year on how milk-like and uninformed and behaviorally this church was really not on par with that post-canon type of church atmosphere that is wanted and desired by Paul for the church at Corinth. Everybody are kind of OK with this?

I think this is a very, I think, appropriate interpretation and context here. All right, verse 12, then, for now, OK? Remember, Macaulay said, for now, we see in a mirror, dimly, by the way. Now we see dimly, but then face to face. So the idea of immaturity and maturity.

Now I know Gnosko in part, but then I shall know Epignosko, just as I also am known Epignosko. So can't you see this kind of The church has some knowledge. They know in part. But then as they grow in grace and truth, that knowledge will be ultimately superior.

And epigenosko really, I think, could possibly be applied to the first interpretation. It's when the Lord comes again or when we die or go to sleep and we're with him. Epigenosko is to become thoroughly acquainted with or to know thoroughly. And I would contend that the teaching here of position, influencing condition and seeing ourselves from the right hand of God is in fact this epikonosko.

Because when we in fact become more thoroughly knowledgeable about the Lord Jesus Christ and our vision and our dependency is on who we are in him by faith, then ultimately that's what this can relate to in terms of each one of us individually. But in terms of the times, I think it's related to the church now being founded on sound doctrine and the scriptures being complete.

Other thoughts about this? Randy? The thing that I think is kind of unique with this mirror analogy is the Corinthian church, or the Corinthians, had a mirror stone. And they would produce these mirror stones. But you had to hand polish them, and they were dim. Actually if you go to the Colorado State Museum or Colorado Museum of Nature and Science, they actually have one in their gemstone area. They've got a mirror stone. You can look and it's in a protective environment so it doesn't oxidize quickly. But it's a dim mirror. Was that true of the times in general or is that just in Corinth? Well they were the producers of it so everybody else wanted the mirror. That's a neat historical perspective. Yeah, so when he uses this analogy they actually had context for that.

And you could see the contrast he's using here. The dimly versus face to face is like fidelity versus the blur. So there's a cool cultural quality that unfortunately I haven't seen brought out enough places. Good, good thoughts. What does Paul mean when he means seeing a mirror dimly?

And Randy's added nicely to that. For, you know, in a sense, 2 Corinthians 5, 7, for we, by the way, Brunch, I'm wondering whether we ought to do 2 Corinthians rather than Hebrews, just because, and I don't know, here's, I'll just go tangential here a second. I think 2 Corinthians is one of the most uplifting epistles of the New Testament.

There's so much sound doctrine for not children, but people who chew on meat. And that might be appropriate. Or what we could do possibly is do that and start into Hebrews and finish Hebrews in the next year. I mean, we could talk about this. 2 Corinthians is so, so rich in truth.

And by the way, we're going to look at two verses right here. 5.7, For we walk by faith, not by sight. This dim mirror, I mean, in a sense, yeah, you're looking at yourself poorly, but that's not what makes us walk. But then 1 John 3, 2, Beloved, now we're children of God, and it's not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he really is. That mirror now is pretty bright.

But for the believer, the thing that we hear so often in this body of believers is 2 Corinthians 3.18, but we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as by the Spirit of the Lord. That's really not a dim mirror. That's a mirror where in fact our nature and our walk is of the Lord Jesus Christ, because we continue to know him and know him better and better all the time.

So they looked at the mirror dimly, but ultimately, as Paul would call us to in 2 Corinthians 3.18, this is something that by faith, that light is reflected in us by the Spirit of the Lord.

This isn't something that we do intellectually. This is by faith. were transformed into his image. So this is the transformed life in Christ Jesus. And if we go back to the verse itself, to know him completely will be when we're finally in his presence. But as ultimately we're looking in this mirror, that nature is increasingly reflected in our day-to-day existence.

By faith, Spirit-led. All right, verse 13. Another verse that gets quoted time and time and time and time again. We're doing well on time. I'd like to really talk a lot about this as I go through the next few points here. And now abides faith, hope, and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love. How are you doing here? Sitting on my hands, letting you do it. Boy. You've just got to have right theology to put this on. I've said this before, but I'll say it again.

We don't have to like everybody, we just have to love them. And that's of a whole different nature. When you look at somebody who's kind of offended you, and by the way, as court would say, we choose to be offended, and only the flesh can be offended. It's not the new nature that's ever offended. It's just the flesh. So choose to be offended, but if you are offended and your flesh is flaming for whatever it's worth, the love for that individual still cuts through because that's not your love. That's love of the I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. But Christ liveth in me. All right. Why is love greatest among these?

What do you think? It doesn't matter what we think. It matters more what follows and explains it further. Do you want to be more specific about that comment? Love believes all things, quotes all things. Everything that follows after that verse, it all fits in. Okay. All right, that's going to be up to Roger then, huh? Let's define faith, and I think faith, I'm going to be very Schofield here, and I think it's very simple, faith believing what God has revealed.

You know, Hebrews 11.1 we often spout out, and there's nothing wrong with Hebrews 11.1, but it's complicated. I used to have it memorized, but I finally put it to rest because I think faith is believing what God has revealed is probably as accurate.

Let's turn to Hebrews 11.1. Let's see how that fits here. Somebody read that again, please.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. OK, so Randy, interpret that for us. Faith is, when we define faith we often have linked it to that which is unsubstantial, right? Oh you have faith, there's an unsubstantial mystery, or it's an unsubstantiated thing that you hope for. The author here writes that it is an assurance of those things. It's not just a hypothetical. It is a grounding or a tying together with the things that are coming. I love the idea of conviction of things.

Not just that you are 80% sure, but the conviction being this certainty that comes as a result of what the Lord has taught and reviewed. Cheryl mentioned soon son who were to pray for because she's had some conversation with Cheryl about believing and is resistant to that because she's old. How would verse 11.1 be interpreted for her? I'm not being critical. I'm just saying that we understand it as believers. I mean, we all have this hope.

And by the way, hope, faith and love, it's in this verse. So we have this hope of things we believe are certain, based on what God's already proven by His prophetic fulfillment, and the many unanswered promises have yet to be fulfilled, but we believe those as if they were facts, and we should. But the world system's going to be very critical of that, isn't it? So that verse shared where the world would take a lot of time to kind of work through, but believing what God has revealed, I think Scofield's right on. Faith is believing what God has revealed. Now keep in mind, our job as believers is to rightly divide the word of truth.

And that's, I think, where the Church has failed, not because we have the corner on the answer, it's simply that the world perceives all these divisions within the Church, doesn't it? And the mainline church, to some extent, have a lot of unsaved people who go there for reasons that are not motivated by true biblical faith. So we'll leave that for what it is.

So faith I'm going to define simplistically, not ignoring Hebrews 11.1, because it's perfectly true for us.

But I think Hebrews 11.1 is meat.

I mean, that's not milk, to dissect Hebrews 11.1 and make sense of it.

What's hope? I hope the Bengals beat the Broncos today. That's my particular hope. Should I get out my shield? Margaret will be throwing darts, I can assure you. So define hope. It's the joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation and everything that's wrapped up into it. I mean, eternal salvation we have now, but everything wrapped up into that from this minute forward going hence. It's really something we're looking forward to with joy and comfort and total satisfaction.

So hope hadn't occurred yet, But because of Hebrews 11.1, we can be assured that these things will occur.

Love. I'm going to define love, and it's tough, but for the believer, it's our spirit-led new creation in Christ Jesus' love. So when we're told that love never ceases, for us in our day-to-day lives, it's not our own love for people. It's His love working through us for others.

And that's a whole different ballgame. And what I would claim, it takes the pressure off, doesn't it? When you're having trouble with another individual and you just take a step back and realize that it's not your ability to make the flesh conform to loving that person, it's only the new nature that can do that. It's only the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives, Spirit-led, that can do that. Actually, Hal got me started on this. If you put in where it says love, there's actually a definite article in many places, and you put in Christ's love, read that as Christ's love is patient, Christ's love is kind. You begin to see, it takes the pressure off, because the problem is you read 13 and you say, I can't do any of this, and I'm trying my best, but I can't do any of this, and that's right. It's only Christ's love that can perform any of those things in 13.

And that's where God would have us, to take the pressure off ourselves and look to Him. It's only as position becomes condition that this is possible in our lives. If you don't see yourself as righteous, positioned at the right hand, and totally... I mean, remember, He hath made Him to be sin for us.

Again, 2 Corinthians. He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. How beautiful is that text? 2 Corinthians 5.21. Oh, gosh. Strong stuff. Just how neat. There's no condemnation, therefore, to those that are in Christ Jesus. That's where you start. You start seeing yourself as righteous because of His great grace expended on our behalf. And that's where the love comes from.

Randy? This is going to be a little less awesome than what you just said about love. He says, but now the faith, hope, and love abide. These things remain. The other things are going to be done away with. But if the perfection is the return of Christ, it wouldn't make sense at all for faith and hope to remain. Our hope is in Christ. We're going to be returning with him.

So that's a technicality, not as cool as what you said. That adds a lot. But I think it bookends this principle of perfection not being the return of Christ. Notice to what love is compared. Love is compared with faith and hope. And it transcends and really trumps those other two things. But what important comparison is not made here?

Of course, you have your handout. And Macaulay goes here, too, by the way. And I love Macaulay because he thinks like I do. Never mind. I love the way the Lord leads me because often, where he's at, I come up with truth all the time. And I'm going to say truth, in my opinion, the source of all of these things, including love, is truth. Now, truth is not mentioned here, but let's define truth. And I think truth is what God has revealed. Now, our faith is believing what God's revealed, but truth is what God's revealed. And every time we have a decisive process that relates to our life in Christ on this earth, it's putting truth to that circumstance that ultimately allows us to live by faith. So if we don't believe that God's word is true, then our living by faith is mistaken because it's not founded on what the Lord has revealed to us in terms of the perfect truth.

But I find it interesting that Paul doesn't bring up truth here, but we know the critical importance of truth. Other thoughts here about where you put truth. You know, I came to salvation at a Bill Goffard seminar. Because if we had any owls in our house we were to cast them out because Satan was living in our home. But Bill brought me to the Lord and I praised the Lord for him. But I came to salvation because of truth and realizing that God was the source of truth. And although I drank milk for a long time, that truth is what we all live by in faith. So why do you think Paul didn't put truth here?

He was actually like a big league manager that's trying to teach little leaguers how to get started. He decided it's better not to overload them with things that come later. That's interesting. Big league manager and what we're talking about kids just starting baseball. Having coached baseball for a number of years, I can relate to that a little bit, but I would not consider myself a Big Lake manager. Other thoughts? Why is truth avoided here? Do you think it's assumed?

Well, he's talking about, in context, we're talking about gifts here, aren't we? And love is a gift that will not be removed, and it abides forever in all things. And truth is something that does also, but love is based on God's truth, is it not? And that truth is really not needed to be mentioned here because we're talking about other gifts and how they're positioned in relationship to love. And Paul knew the truth very well because God taught it to him personally. Yeah, really.

And again, if and when, you know, and by the way, in some teachings here, you know, I listened to McGee on this, I turned back to him and I'm not, McGee is in Hebrews with me right now in my morning studies, but They went back to this section and he totally ignored when the perfect shall come.

He didn't even deal with that. That always happens, Bob. The point you want to make. What does he think about that? They never cover it. That's right. I forgot what I was going to say. It related to truth. And I think what McGee did say is he brought up truth also in not being mentioned here. And I think it was concluded that truth was assumed and not needed to be mentioned. And it didn't fit in with the gifts kind of theme of this particular section of scripture. Other thoughts about one of the perhaps most important chapters in the Bible that people often turn to for sometimes milk, but often for meat? Randy? Oh, the other thing I was going to say is that faith, hope and love are outcomes. Faith, hope and love are outcomes of the truth. Which was this focus of 28 that we had the apostles and the prophets and the teachers sharing the truth.

They're there bringing the truth. That's their job is to bring truth. And then you have faith and you have hope. And you exercise by the power of the Holy Spirit love. from that foundation of truth. So the truth, not only is it assumed, but it's critical to the actual core of the passage. And I think in relationship to that, I think it's neat to think about truth being what God has revealed. And our faith is believing what God has revealed. And that's pretty simple in terms of the description of truth is what it is. It's what God's revealed. That written word is what God has revealed. And now do we believe it? And our hope is that those promises that have yet to be made evident will ultimately occur, and we have assurance that they will, because we're born again by his great mercy and grace.

All right, good. Well, thanks for your help getting through 1 Corinthians 13. And Roger's going to take on tongues in more detail, right? You ready for this? Actually, it's been pointed out that 14 is more about prophecy and rightly understood from the context of the apostolic age that that was the superior gift and not tongues. Paul is going to go into great detail and say tongues is not the main attraction here.

It's God's word, God speaking through men. On this statement here, it says it believes all things. Love believes all things. Is that talking about Scripture? It believes all things. All truth. All truth. Yeah, I could interpret it that way. You don't want to say it believes anything.

Well, I mean, if we think of love as to what it is in terms of God's great gift, God so loved the world that he brought his only begotten son, you know, then that is based on truth and the love believing all things would reflect that truth from the time of Genesis 1-1 to the end of Revelation. Yeah.

Randy, you have a thought? Last week when we talked about it, I had to rush to that part, but I think the thing that I wanted to reflect when I was teaching was the idea that if you're a skeptic, if you're coming from the philosophical approach that the Corinthians were, and they're skeptical, they're selfish, here's this idea of love believing because of Christ being in you. When I come to you and I speak to you, you lovingly listen, and you lovingly understand, and you lovingly believe. You're not like, well, here comes that liar Randy again. And I think that's kind of the gist of that believing. It's not believing in anything. It's believing the messenger. And by the way, this love is not making ourselves doormats.

I think when truth is the foundation of love, that ultimately, sometimes love can be tough, but yet still of the Lord. Take the pressure off of loving one another, off yourselves. Let him do it through you. That's hard, but yet it's by faith we can do it.

Spirit gives us that capability. Let's close in prayer. Randy, close us in prayer please. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for being where our definition of love comes from. That Agape represents you in your benevolence and kindness to us. by abiding and walking in the Holy Spirit, your love would be manifested here in the body in deep ways. We thank you that we also get to walk by faith and we praise you for the truth of this word. In Jesus name. Amen.