SERIES: Christ is the Answer When the Church Is in Crisis
Love Never Fails
SCRIPTURE: 1 Cor. 13:5-13
Introduction: Have you ever stood before an exquisite painting or sculpture and felt as if you were gazing into the very soul of an artist? One of the joys of my life has been visiting some of the great art galleries of the world. I once spent more than a week by myself traveling from one great art museum to another across Europe. I have had the privilege of spending many hours in the Louvre in Paris, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Pushkin in Moscow, the Uffizi in Florence, the Vatican Museum in Rome, and our own National Gallery of Art in Washington D. C.
I am not an artist myself, but perhaps that’s why I marvel at the ability of some people to paint portraits of life that go way beyond what the eye can see or the camera can capture. It is an absolute spiritual experience to stand for an hour before a great painting like Rembrandt’s The Night Watch or before a statue like Michelangelo’s David.
Two weeks ago we were privileged to visit the superb art gallery of word pictures found in the 13thchapter of 1 Corinthians. The Apostle Paul has here painted a number of incredible mini-portraits of what love is. Look for them as we read the chapter again:
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Two weeks ago we considered the first five of these mini-portraits:
1. “Love is patient.”
2. “Love is kind.”
3. “Love does not envy.”
4. “Love does not boast.”
5. “Love is not proud.”
Today I want us to ponder ten others:
6. “Love is not rude.” The Greek word for “rude” means “without grace or charm.” There are some Christians who seem to take delight in being blunt, justifying it on the grounds of honesty. They will say, “I’m just telling it like it is.” But love doesn’t always tell it like it is; it doesn’t always verbalize all its thoughts, particularly if those thoughts don’t build others up. There is a graciousness in Christian love which never forgets that courtesy and tact and politeness are lovely things.
7. “Love is not self-seeking.” In fact, love is the very antithesis of insisting upon one’s own rights. Needless to say, this is a rare quality today. Ours is a society in which self-seeking is not only tolerated; it is even advocated. You can go to any bookstore and choose titles like, Winning Through Intimidation, Looking Out for Number One, or Creative Aggression. But a self-absorbed life, a narcissistic person, cannot act in love. Love is not possessive, demanding, stubborn, or dominating. Love does not talk too much but listens well. Love does not insist on its own way.
The hardest kind of marriage counseling I am called upon to do is when the individuals have focused their attention on their rights rather than their responsibilities. “I have the right to a certain amount of spending money.” “I don’t have to submit to his demands.” “I have the right to spend Christmas with my parents.” (I wonder how many young couples have had that discussion in the past two weeks!) So long as married people are seeking their own rights, the possibility of agape love in that relationship is seriously diminished. Love is not self-seeking.
8. “Love is not easily angered.” It is not given to emotional outbursts, is not exasperated by petty annoyances, and refuses to let someone else get under one’s skin. But, you say, when someone else provokes me, it’s not my fault. Yes it is. We don’t have to get irritated, and if we were exercising love, we wouldn’t. One version of the NT translates this virtue, “Love is not touchy.” Do you know people who are so quick to take offense that you have to handle them with kid gloves? You try to avoid talking to them and when you can avoid it no longer, you carefully measure every word you say to make sure that you say exactly what you mean. But still the person seizes upon something and twists it to make you look bad. That kind of person knows nothing of agape love, for love is not touchy.
Jonathan Edwards, third president of Princeton and one of America’s greatest preachers, had a daughter with an uncontrolled temper (often wrongly referred to as an uncontrollable temper). But, as is often the case, this fault was not widely known outside of her family. One day a young man fell in love with her and asked Jonathan Edwards for her hand.
“You can’t have her,” was his abrupt answer.
“But I love her,” the young man replied.
“You can’t have her.”
“But she loves me.”
“You can’t have her.”
“Why?” asked the young man.
“Because she is not worthy of you.”
“But,” he asked, “she is a Christian, isn’t she?”
And Edwards finished the conversation with these words: “Yes, she is a
Christian, but the grace of God can live with some people with whom no one else could ever live!”
9. “Love keeps no record of wrongs.” Paul uses the normal word here for bookkeeping. Love does not keep a ledger of evil deeds. It doesn’t write down each injury done and keep the account open to be settled someday. I know some people who are accomplished bookkeepers in regard to injuries sustained. One couple in my previous church would periodically rehearse injuries sustained 5, 10, even 20 years earlier. If one of their offenders came to them with apologies, they would make a great show of forgiving that person, but if ever offended by that person again, the ledger would come out and the “forgiven” sins would once again be aired.
Contrast that with the case of Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross. I noticed in the paper the other day that Christmas Day will be the 180th anniversary of her birth. She was asked on one occasion if she was still speaking to so and so. Her response was, “Why shouldn’t I?” And this friend, who had known years ago of a major offense suffered by her at that person’s hand, mentioned the injury. Miss Barton responded, “Oh I distinctly remember forgetting that.” Love doesn’t hang on to reminders of wrongs. Are there some ledgers you need to go home and toss in the fireplace?
10. “Love does not delight in evil.” Have you ever noticed how much of the news from TV, the newspaper or news magazines concerns people’s misfortunes and misdeeds? There is something in our human nature which causes our attention to be drawn to murder trials, FBI probes, natural disasters, and human tragedies. When was the last time you rubber-necked at the scene of an accident? More seriously, even blatant sin can be enjoyed by proxy, as is evident in the immense popularity of trashy tabloids and romance novels. Love is not like that. Love takes no joy in evil of any kind. It takes no malicious pleasure when it hears about the inadequacies, mistakes, and sins of someone else. Instead,…
11. “Love rejoices with the truth.” Joseph Fletcher was the father of Situation Ethics, which he promoted as a new morality in the 1970’s, but which was just the same old immorality disguised in new terminology. He taught that any action–whether lying, adultery or even murder–can be moral if it is done in love. But his theory was nonsense. If an action does not conform to the truth of God’s Word, it can’t be done in love. Truth and love go together like hand in glove. Truth must make our love discriminating, and love must make our truth compassionate and forgiving. If our actions are in accord with agape love, we will always welcome biblical truth, never resist it.
Now after a number of reverberating negatives come some glorious positives:
12. “Love always protects.” The KJV reads here, “love bears all things,” which seems to be a description of endurance. But endurance is the final characteristic mentioned, so this one must be something else. The term translated “bears” here has the basic meaning of “to cover.” It came to mean “to hide by covering.” If that is its usage here, Paul is suggesting that love conceals what is inadequate or displeasing in another person. It tries to protect the other person’s dignity and reputation.
Let me ask you, what would you do if you got wind of the fact that a couple in the church was having serious marital problems, or if you saw a church member coming out of an x-rated theater, or if you overheard another Christian cussing out an employee? Would you (1) get on the phone and share it with your closest friends so that they could “pray with you” for that person, or (2) write an anonymous letter to the Elder Board reporting the matter, or (3) enter it in your ledger just in case that person ever offended you? Love wouldn’t do any of those things. Love would hide it from others by covering it rather than exposing it publicly but would also go to the person privately and exhort them in love. Joseph exhibited this kind of protecting love when Mary became pregnant.
Now I’m not suggesting there aren’t times when sin needs to be exposed. Sometimes innocent people are at risk, and to protect an innocent person requires exposing the guilty one. Life gets complicated at times, and we need divine wisdom to know how to apply these principles. But love always protects.
13. “Love always trusts.” Love is always ready to allow for extenuating circumstances, to give the other person the benefit of the doubt, to believe the best about people. Many of us have developed a certain distrust of people because of negative experiences. We have heard stories about how the person who stopped to help a motorist in distress was robbed or even murdered. We have been warned never to loan money to someone without a legal document guaranteeing repayment, even if the other guy is a Christian. But there are worse things than gullibility–namely suspicion and mistrust. Love always trusts. But what if someone has broken your trust? Love works over timeand works overtime to rebuild that trust. Would your friends and family rate you as trusting or cynical?
14. “Love always hopes.” Love has a positive forward look. The Apostle is not here advocating an unreasoning optimism which fails to take account of reality. Nor is he just teaching the power of positive thinking. But he is suggesting that love refuses to take failure as final, either in oneself or in someone else. Love never gives up on people. And the reason the believer can take such an attitude is that God is in the business of taking people who have failed and producing spiritual giants out of them. He did it with Gideon, and with Nehemiah, and with Peter. And he can do it with you or your child or that impossible kid in your S.S. class.
Of course, “always hoping” doesn’t mean that we sit back and just watch God do His thing. Rather it means we get actively involved in the process as He molds the future according to His perfect plan. Love hopes and expects the best.
15. “Love always perseveres.” Endurance presupposes the confidence that expects ultimate triumph by the grace of God. The Greek word for “persevere” is a compound word which literally means “to remain under.” Love enables a person to remain under the pile without renouncing his faith or becoming bitter with God or feeling sorry for self. Endurance does not mean a stoical resignation but an active, positive fortitude. Mother Teresa wrote,
“We must grow in love and to do this we must go on loving and loving and giving and giving until it hurts–the way Jesus did. Do ordinary things with extraordinary love: little things like caring for the sick and the homeless, the lonely and the unwanted, washing and cleaning for them. You must give what will cost you something. This, then, is giving not just what you can live without but what you can’t live without or don’t want to live without, something you really like. Then your gift becomes a sacrifice, which will have value before God. Any sacrifice is useful if it is done out of love.”1
That’s especially good to remember at this time of gift-giving.
Now as you look at this art gallery of word-pictures of love, what is your conscience saying to you? What is your heart attitude? You know, when I’m going through a great art gallery I sometimes study the people around me as well as the art. Once in a while I will see a person standing in awe before a painting, enraptured by its beauty, oblivious to everything around them. Others are clearly analyzing the painting–it’s colors, its style, its history–but they are not really enjoying it. And then there are a few who seem to be there because someone dragged them in, or maybe just to get out of the cold on a winter’s day. They could go through the Louvre in an hour and say, “Been there, done that.” Kind of like I do at the Mall at Christmas time. These people don’t have the capacity to enjoy great art; their souls are dead to it.
What will you do with these portraits of love today? Will you pass them by in a hurry? Will you analyze them to death? Or will you stand in awe of them, knowing that to read this description of agape love is to gaze into the face of Jesus, because He is the only One who completely fulfills each of these portraits? In fact, you can put His name in the place of “love” and every statement is absolutely true: Jesus is patient, Jesus is kind, Jesus does not envy, Jesus does not boast and is not proud.
But let’s not overlook the fact that it is His desire and intention that all of us who love Him will be transformed into His image. Is that happening? One way to tell is to try putting your own name in place of the word “love” and see whether it fits: Paul is patient. Linda is kind. Tom is not jealous. Gary does not brag. Ken is not arrogant. Susan is not rude. George is not self-seeking. John is not provoked. Chris keeps no record of wrongs suffered. Jack does not delight in evil. Ruth rejoices with the truth. Kevin always protects. Valerie always trusts. Mary always hopes for the best. Brian always perseveres.
The problem is, we can’t just pick the one or two of these 15 characteristics that fits us best and be satisfied. God desires that all 15 be evident in our lives. Yet I must be honest and admit that agape love is an act of the will which is as unnatural as flying. In fact, no person can love with this kind of love unless he first comes to know Christ personally. He may admire this kind of love; he may talk about it; he may even try to imitate it; but he can’t practice it consistently unless he is born again by faith in Jesus Christ and begins to live in the power of the Holy Spirit. And that can happen only as a person acknowledges that he is a sinner and turns in faith to Jesus Christ, who bridged the gap between sinful man and a holy God when he died on Calvary to pay the penalty of our sin.
But, of course, not even every Christian manifests this kind of love. It certainly wasn’t the norm at Corinth or there would have been no need for this chapter to be written. Only as we allow ourselves to be controlled by the Holy Spirit is agape love possible. It is my sincere desire that the attention we have given to this chapter will make a significant difference in my life, in your life, and in our church life. It is my prayer that what seems to me to be already a loving church will become so thoroughly characterized by love that love will be the first thing others mention when they speak of First Free. As important as it is for us to be contagious Christians or to pray fervently or to celebrate Jesus or to spread the flame or to find our spiritual gift and use it, it is even more important that we learn to love.
Now the final portrait of love the Apostle offers us is that “love never fails.” However, rather than treating this as just one more characteristic, it seems to me that Paul is introducing a new aspect of his theme. He began the chapter by telling us that love is greater than the greatest of spiritual gifts. Then he painted 15 mini-portraits to reveal the depth and breadth of love. Now he concludes his treatise by focusing on the fact that “love never fails”; it is permanent while everything else is temporary; it is complete while everything else is partial; it is supreme over those things that are merely superior.
The permanence of love is contrasted with what is temporary. (8)
The Apostle is not using the phrase “never fails” to indicate the success of love so much as the permanence of love. Love is not being viewed as a spiritual formula that automatically wins; rather it is a spiritual quality that doesn’t quit. The Greek term for “fails” is used elsewhere to describe the fading of a flower, the fall of a tree, and the dislocation of a limb. Love will not fade; it can’t be uprooted; it is indestructible. It will never outlive its usefulness. As the Song of Solomon expresses it, “Many waters cannot quench love; neither can floods drown it.” It is this enduring quality of love that makes it so superior to the gifts coveted by the Corinthians. They were proud if they possessed one of the supernatural gifts; they were jealous if they didn’t. But sadly they treated love as an unwanted step-child.
So Paul focuses on the permanent quality of love in contrast to the transitory nature of spiritual gifts. The first of those gifts he mentions is “prophecy.” When we get to chapter 14 we will discover that Paul valued this gift as the highest, the most useful, and the most edifying of all the gifts in the Church. But as important as the prophet is to the Church, his job is just a temporary one. Prophets and preachers will be out of work when Jesus comes.
The second contrast he sets up is with the spiritual gift of “tongues.” This too was an important gift, and while Paul didn’t value it as highly as prophecy, the Corinthians seemed to value it more highly. But this gift, too, says Paul, is temporary. That is, there will come a time when the gift of tongues will no longer serve a purpose. As you read the Book of Revelation, you see pictures of the saints praising God, bowing before Him, singing great hymns to Him; but you don’t find anyone speaking in tongues.
The third contrast is with the spiritual gift of “knowledge.” There were plenty of people strutting around Corinth puffed up with knowledge, claiming special revelation and special insight. We still have them today. But even if they have what they claim, their gift is going to be redundant, for when Jesus comes all knowledge about God will be fully disclosed.
A noted scholar in his field once said that the discouraging thing about all his work was the realization that in one hundred years it would all be totally useless. Probably 25 years is more likely for most fields of endeavor today. And if you work in technology, it would be more like 25 months. Dr. Haddon Robinson has written,
“Encyclopedias 50 years old are a curiosity; no one seriously turns to them for knowledge. Where is the theory that will not be changed? Where is the geographical boundary that will not be altered? Where is the textbook that will not need revision? Where is the philosophy that will not be out-of-date?… Knowledge is being constantly ‘done away.’”2
Not so with love, for it never fails. It is as valuable and meaningful today as it was 2,000 years ago and as it will be 2000 years from now, or two million.
The second major contrast begins in verse 9 and can be stated this way:
The completeness of love is contrasted with what is partial. (9-12)
“For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.” That we know in part should be obvious. No one, even if he has the genuine spiritual gift of knowledge, is omniscient. All human knowledge is partial. God has never revealed Himself totally to any person, for no finite being would be capable of handling it. Listen to these passages which speak of the partial nature of human knowledge:
1 Corinthians 8:2: “The man who thinks he knows something does not yet
know as he ought to know.”
Job 11:7-9: “Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits
of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens—what can you do? They are deeper than the depths of the grave–what can you know? Their measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea.”
Romans 11:33-34: “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge
of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?’”
As a biblical preacher with nearly 30 years’ experience of studying God’s Word full-time and teaching it as faithfully as I know how, I am chagrined at the frequency with which I have to answer questions, “I don’t know.” But I find that even those who have been doing this for 50 or 60 years still profess great ignorance, at least if they are honest. We prophesy in part. But “when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.” When Jesus comes, knowledge will be complete, and we won’t need any of our spiritual gifts.3
I believe the period of childhood of which Paul speaks in verse 11 is analogous to the present church age during which believers have a lot in common with children. The child has a short attention span and a very difficult time understanding delayed gratification. The future seems so remote. The period of manhood, on the other hand, is analogous to the Kingdom Age, which Jesus will inaugurate at His Second Coming. This is when God’s people will reach maturity and finally grow up spiritually, able to focus entirely on the important and the eternal.
The cloudy mirror of which Paul speaks likewise stands for this day and age when we are seeking to know God’s will and purposes. Corinth was well-known for its mirrors, made from polished bronze rather than glass. No matter how well it is made, a mirror made from metal yields only a fuzzy, distorted image–a view that is far inferior to turning around and looking directly at someone face-to-face. But when Jesus comes we will see Him as He is, and we will know ourselves and our situation as He knows us.
By the way, isn’t that a glorious day to look forward to? I get so tired of the dim view, the cloudy mirror, seeing only God’s fingerprints and never His face, wondering why a ten-day-old baby must die, or why some people have to struggle with mental illness all their lives, or why so many things lead to utter futility. But someday we’ll know the answers to those questions–when we see Jesus face to face.
The supremacy of love is contrasted with what is merely superior. (13)
Paul concludes in verse 13: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” These three eternal elements–faith, hope and love–are superior to all other desirable things, and they are very often linked together in the NT. Let me read just two of those passages.
Colossians 1:3-6: “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints—the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel that has come to you.”
1 Thessalonians 1:3: “We continually remember before our God and Father
your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”
“Faith” is one of the dominant themes of the NT. Its orientation is primarily toward past time–confidence in the facts of the Christian faith, especially the atoning death and resurrection of Christ. “Hope’s” orientation is primarily toward the future; it is the confidence that there are better things ahead. “Love” is the third member of this incomparable trifecta, and its orientation is primarily to the present. Based upon the past and continuing in the future, it is the governing principle of the Christian’s life.
Faith, hope and love–these three great works of art–will remain. But the greatest of these is love. No longer is Paul comparing love to entities that are temporary and partial, but rather to those which are eternal and superior to all else. But even among these, love stands out as preeminent and supreme. How so? I believe 1 John 4:7-11 answers that question:
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
Do you see there the specific evidence the Apostle marshals for the love of God? It is that God sentHis one and only Son into the world. He’s talking about the incarnation of Christ, which we are celebrating at this time of year, an incarnation that culminated in His atoning sacrifice. The coming of Christ into our world to solve our sin problem is clearly the preeminent demonstration of divine love. And it is only because of what Jesus has done for us that we can love one another.
Conclusion: After writing a commentary on this incomparable chapter, Leon Morris observed that he sensed that “clumsy hands have touched a thing of exquisite beauty and holiness.”4 That’s how I feel after having preached on it. I’m also reminded that a day is coming when preaching–something I’ve given my life to–will no longer be of any value or purpose. Yet to the extent that you and I love others the way God loved us, we are building an eternal legacy and are practicing something that we can use for all eternity. How will your life paint a picture of love this Christmas?
DATE: December 16, 2001
Tags:
Love
Faith
Hope
1. Mother Teresa, A Simple Path, Ballantine Books, 1995, 99, cited by Ron Ritchie in sermon, “Expressing Our Gifts with Love,” Discovery Papers, Catalog No. 4480, 1.
3. What is Paul talking about here when he says, “when the perfect comes”? There are two different interpretations which can lead us to very different conclusions from this passage. The first interpretation is that the phrase “when the perfect comes” refers to the completion of the canon of Scripture. Early church history would indicate that the last books of the New Testament were completed by about A.D. 90, and from that point on the canon was closed, i.e. God’s Word was complete. Paul is writing 1 Corinthians some forty years earlier, and he is predicting, according to this view, that once the NT was completed there would be no need for the gifts of knowledge or prophecy or tongues; in other words, the charismatic gifts of the Spirit have ceased.
Those who hold this view appeal to the two analogies that follow in verse 11 & 12. The childhood period is viewed as the infant stage of the NT Church. During that time certain gifts were important to validate the claims of the Apostles. But once the Church was out of the Apostolic period and had the complete NT to guide it to maturity, then these particular gifts were unnecessary. In verse 12 the time of the cloudy mirror is likewise viewed as the time when the NT was as yet unfinished, whereas the clarity of knowing face to face is the privilege of those who have the completed Scriptures. According to both analogies, once the Bible is finished, gifts like prophecy and tongues and knowledge are unnecessary.
This is a common view held by many conservative Bible teachers. In fact, at Dallas Seminary, where I attended, this interpretation of 1 Cor. 13:10 is actually in the Statement of Faith; i.e., teachers must affirm it in order to teach there. The view is sometimes called “cessationism,” because it holds that the charismatic gifts have ceased. And if that is true, then the manifestations of those gifts claimed in the church today must be bogus, psychological, or perhaps even demonic. “This is particularly sobering when we recall that the one sin Christ identified as unforgivable was the allegation by certain Jewish leaders that signs of the Spirit’s presence were actually the work of the devil (Mark 3:29-30).” (Quotation from Craig Blomberg, The NIV Application Commentary, 1 Corinthians, 265).
But there is a second view of this crucial phrase that comes to a very different conclusion. And it is that “when the perfect comes” refers to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. When we stand before God, there will be no need for spiritual gifts. How are we to decide between these two interpretations? Is Paul contrasting love with gifts that ceased in the first century, or is he contrasting it with gifts that still exist in the church today? I personally feel confident that “when the perfect comes” is referring to the Second Coming. As a matter of fact, that was the uniform interpretation of all commentators until the 20th century. I have strong suspicions that the other interpretation was devised specifically to deal with the “charismatic problem” in the 20th century church. Frankly, I don’t think we should ever massage Scripture in order to solve contemporary problems.
Furthermore, I do not believe there has to be a “charismatic problem” in the church. We have demonstrated here at First Free that charismatics and non-charismatics can treat one another as brothers and sisters in Christ, can respect one another’s gifts, and as a result we can be a stronger church because we worship together rather than apart.
But let me say one more thing. Even if you disagree with my interpretation of 1 Cor. 13:10, even if you are a cessationist and believe the gifts of tongues and miracles and healings ceased in the first century, it really doesn’t change Paul’s primary point. No matter when prophecy, tongues and knowledge cease–whether in A.D. 90 or 2001 or 3001–they will cease; they are partial. But love will not cease. Love is not partial. Love never fails.
4. Leon Morris, The First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, 90.