BACKGROUND:
In chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians, Paul gave evidence of the Corinthians’ lack of love in the usage of spiritual gifts; chapter 13 defines real love; and chapter 14 shows how love works. While spiritual gifts are important to the functioning of the body (1 Corinthians12:12-31), they lose their value if love is not the motivation behind them.
Paul begins chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians by expanding on the importance and priority and value of love. He says great faith, great acts of dedication or sacrifice, great miracle-working power, or the ability to speak in any language in heaven or on earth will produce very little without love.
Without love, speaking in a heavenly language, although a gift of the Spirit, becomes nothing more than meaningless noise. The gift of tongues, used without love, is as valueless as pagan worship. Without love, the gifts do not build up other believers, so they are useless.
Christians must not exalt their gifts or blessing over character and integrity. Love is far more important than any gift or possession. The word for “love” used here is the Greek word agape. The Greeks had different words that described different kinds of love. The word agape connotes a deep, abiding, self-sacrificing, unconditional love. This is the love that God has for us and this is the love that He desires/commands that we would for one another.
SO WHAT? (what will I do with what I have read today?)
Let me ask you this morning – what do you think really matters most to God? The Bible tells us in Galatians 5:6, “If you are a follower of Christ Jesus all that matters is your faith that makes you love others.” God says what matters in life is not your accomplishments or your achievements or your fame or your wealth. What matters in life is one thing.
All that matters is your faith that makes you love other people. He says if you miss that, you have missed the most important thing in life. It’s the kind of faith that makes you love other people.
This week, we’re going to look at the most famous chapter in the Bible on love, 1 Corinthians 13. It is my greatest prayer and desire that we become a church that makes what matters most our highest priority. Let’s do a flyover of 1 Corinthians 13 and see what it has to say about love. The first thing we see from 1 Corinthians 13
#1. If I don’t live a life of love, nothing I SAY will matter.
Verse 1: “If I could speak in any language in heaven or on earth, but I didn’t love others I would only be making meaningless noise like a loud gong or a claiming symbol.” God says words without love are just noise. Words without love are empty.
We’re really impressed by great speakers, great communicators. We love eloquence. We love charisma. We love to hear somebody really ring our chimes and really stir us. God says, “That doesn’t impress Me at all. I don’t care how good of communicator you are. I want to know if you love. Is your life a life of love?” Living a life without love means nothing I say will matter.
#2. If I don't live a life with love, nothing I KNOW will matter.
Verse 2: “I may have the gift of prophecy. I may understand all the secret things of God. I may have all knowledge. But if I do not have love, then I am nothing.” You may be Phi Beta Kappa, a Mensa member, you may be a genius, brilliant, a walking Bible encyclopedia, have incredible knowledge of science or math or literature or history. You may be a genius. But He says if you don’t have love in your life, all that you know is worthless. It doesn’t really matter. Brilliance without love equals zero.
We live in a world where knowledge is exploding. It doubles about every six years in our society. We are smarter than we’ve ever been before than any other generation. But we still have the same old problems – war, terrorism, crime, abuse, prejudice, hatred, violence. Why? Because what the world needs is not more knowledge; it needs more love. Without love, nothing I say will matter, and without love, nothing I know will matter. All the knowledge in the world can’t compensate for it.
#3. If I don’t live a life with love, nothing I BELIEVE will matter.
There’s a myth that being a Christian, being a follower of Christ, is just a matter of believing certain truths. That is not true. Nothing can be further from the truth. Following Christ is much more than believing intellectual facts or doctrinal truths. It’s a life of love. The Bible says, “Even if I have the gift of faith so I could speak to a mountain and make it move [In other words, a miracle worker], I will still be worth nothing at all without love.” It takes more than belief to please God.
You say, “But wait a minute! I believe in Jesus!” So what? So does the devil. The devil believes that there’s a God. The devil believes that Jesus is the Son of God. But you won’t find him in heaven. Why? Because it takes more than believing in Christ to make it to heaven. The issue is not do you believe in Him. The issue is do you love Him. Have you given Him your life? Are you living life by His rules? Well, for instance. The Bibles says you can’t love God and hate people. So, if you really love God, you are instructed to go and make things right – to the best of your ability. Pretty profound huh?
#4. If I don’t live a life of love, nothing I GIVE will matter.
“If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, but I didn’t love others, I would be of no value whatsoever.” Some people give just in order to get back. That’s not love. Some people give out of guilt, to try to assuage a guilty conscious so they give and give and give trying to make up for something they did in the past. That’s not love. Some people give to control other people. (Parents do this all the time – the way they give to their kids in order to try to control them.) Not love.
Some people give for prestige, for glory, for honor. They want a little plague that says, “Look! I'm a great giver!” That’s not love. You can give for a lot of wrong motives, and the Bible says when I give, if I’m doing it of love, in love, none of my giving counts. And nothing I give will matter.
A guy told me one time, “I don't understand. I’ve bought my wife everything she could ever want, and she's leaving me.” I said, “But did you love her?” You can’t buy a wife, just like you can’t buy your kids. A lot of parents try to compensate for the lack of time they spend with their kids by buying them lots of things. They don’t need things. They need your time. They need your love.
#5. If I don't live a life of love, nothing I ACCOMPLISH will matter.
1 Corinthians 13:3 in The Message paraphrase says, “No matter what I say or what I believe or what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.” You can rack up an incredible list of personal achievements. You can get your picture on the cover of Fortune magazine or Inc. or Time. You can win the Nobel Peace Prize. You can have enormous accomplishments, be entrepreneur of the year, build a billion-dollar company, have incredibly great successes in your field of endeavor. But the Bible says it isn’t worth squat if you don’t love.
One day you’re going to stand before God when you die. And God’s going to evaluate your life. When He evaluates your life, He’s not going to look at your bank account. He’s not going to look at your list of accomplishments. He’s not going to look at your grades. He’s not going to look at all your sports trophies. He’s not going to look at your endorsements or your PR list or your resume.
God is going to evaluate your life on one basis – your relationships. God is going to ask, “How much did you love Me and other people?” That’s called the Great Commandment. Did you love God with all your heart, and did you love your neighbor as yourself? That is all that matters in God’s eyes. All the other stuff is superfluous.
So, if you’re going to love like God wants you to love, you better understand what real love is. RIGHT? Well, let me tell you right now, that it’s going to take me about eight weeks to unpack that question. There’s so much about it. We’re going to go deep, and I guarantee you it’s going to surprise you. You’re going to learn things about love you’ve never thought about. But let me start this series this morning by just giving you a broad overview of some definitions of love from God’s word.
#1. The Bible says that love is a command.
God commands that we love each other. It’s not optional. If we don’t do it, the Bible says that we are sinning. 2 John 1:6 says “Love means doing what God has commanded.” He has commanded us to love one another, and you can’t please God without obeying His commands.
Because love is commanded, that brings up a corollary, and it is this: Love is not a feeling. We know that because you can’t command a feeling. You can no more command a feeling that you can command the wind. Have you ever said to a little kid that is upset and crying and really frustrated: “I command you to be happy! I command you to stop crying!” You can no more command a feeling than you can command the mountains to move. Feelings cannot be commanded.
#2. The Bible says that love is a choice.
We choose to love, and we choose to not love. It’s a choice. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 14:1 in The Message paraphrase, “Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it because it does.” Underline the phrase “go after.” That means make a choice. Decide. Choose. A volitional act of the will. Love is a choice. We choose to love or to not love.
That destroys another myth that we have about love. We think love is uncontrollable. As if one day I'm just walking along and I'm instantly in love – no control over it. Even the terminology we use is kind of accidental – I fell into love. Like it’s a big ditch or something. I fell in love. “Help! I’ve fallen in love, and I can’t get up!” As if I have no control over my choice to love or not love.
Because it is a choice, and you could choose to keep on loving even if they didn’t love you. That’s your choice. In fact, the truth is, acting in love when you don’t feel like it is actually a higher level of love than when you do feel like it.
#3. The Bible says that love is a conduct.
It’s a behavior. It’s an action. Love is something you do. 1 John 3:18 says “Let us stop just saying we love people. Let us really love them and show it by our actions.” Love is not something you feel. Love is not something you say. Love is something you do. It’s behavior. It’s actions. It’s an activity.
Did you know that every minute of the day God is putting around you – right in front of your nose – opportunities to demonstrate love. The problem is most of the time we’re too busy. We’re too distracted. How many times have you thought: I need to write a letter to that person. I need to make a call. I need to give a word of encouragement to that person at work. I need to go next door to my neighbor’s and do such and such. And you have all these great intentions of loving and showing kindness and showing unselfishness, but you didn’t do it. And the opportunity bypassed you. Now it’s gone. Love is not good intentions, love is not talk, love is a conduct.
I thank God that so many of the people of COV are putting this foundational truth to practice. I don't know of a church more loving than COV. Let's keep it up. Let's keep on demonstrating this lifestyle.
Lord, draw people to COV this morning. Use the worship and message to speak to their hearts. Lord, change lives today. I love you guys. Stay faithful. Stay the course.
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