This is the third in our series of sermons on the Gifts of the Spirit, and we are studying Paul’s 1st letter to the Corinthians chapters 12 to 14. Today we look at possibly the best known of all the chapters in the New Testament, 1 Corinthians 13 – Paul’s great hymn to love, as it has often been called. Two preliminary points...........
1. One of the difficulties about speaking about ‘Love’ in the English language is that it can have various meanings. ‘I love strawberries and cream’. ‘I love you’. ‘I want to make love’ – random examples with very different meanings.
Paul is writing in Greek, and the Greek language has different words for different types of ‘love’ and you will find more about that on the study sheet. But throughout his letters, Paul uses a special and rare Greek word which has come to sum up what Christians mean when we say that we should love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, and love our neighbour as ourselves.
This word for love does not describe an intimate personal relationship. It is not in the least sentimental. It is not concerned at all with the way we feel. For example, when we are told to ‘love our enemies’ there is no expectation that we should ‘feel good’ about them – only that we should long for and pray for their highest good, rather than their destruction.
Paul’s native religious language is Hebrew – he describes himself as a Hebrew through and through (Phil. 3:4). Now the Hebrew language does not deal much in abstract concepts or principles in the way that Greek does. Its words tend to be ‘action words’. And so Paul has found a Greek word that concentrates on what love does in action – not some abstract concept of what love is, let alone what love feels like. And this chapter is not about lofty principles, let alone about our fickle and often fragile feelings. This chapter is about what love does and does not do – how love behaves in practice.
2. The love that Paul is talking about in this chapter describes the love which God has for us. God does not feel sentimental about us. His feelings for us do not waver. His love for each one of us is so great that every minute of every day He longs and works for our highest and greatest good. He sends his Spirit down upon us to urge us to make right decisions, to guide us through every circumstance of life. He rejoices with us when we rejoice, and weeps with us when we weep. It is, when necessary, tough love. When we sin, He grieves and knows that we shall probably have to live with the consequences. But when we repent and ask for forgiveness, it is gladly given, and we start again. He is a God of faith, and hope, and love.
And the highest and greatest gift that God can give us through his Spirit is the gift of that same love. We can reflect, in our lives, the same love that God has for us. That is what this chapter is about. This love is the highest gift of all, and the gift without which all the others are worthless, because we are being freely given by God’s Spirit, to live out day by day, that very same love which God has for you and me. What a privilege! What a calling! What a challenge!
Some people think ‘Oh! Love is easy – surely it comes naturally’. But is isn’t easy at all. It can be the hardest thing of all – much harder than speaking in tongues, or prophecy or miracles – or other more spectacular gifts of the Spirit. God calls us to love with the same love that He has for us – and (speaking for myself) I don’t think God finds that very easy sometimes. With that as introduction, let’s look at this great chapter, under three headings: It is love alone that counts. It is love alone that triumphs. Love alone endures.
1. It is love alone that counts
Verse 1...‘If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.’
The Corinthian Church thought of themselves as very spiritual Christians when they spoke in tongues. Now speaking in tongues probably sounds fairly exotic to many Christians, but let’s be clear that it is lovely, precious gift of prayer which is of infinite blessing to many, many Christians. It can be the way God’s Spirit comes to our help when we simply run out of words, or our anxieties and problems simply can’t be adequately expressed in words. Let me say clearly that your Christian life could be infinitely enriched by this gift. But you can’t earn it, you can’t make it happen, it is God’s gift which he shares out by his Spirit as He sees fit. But if a Christian, let us say, speaks out in Church in tongues (as happened in this Corinthian Church) and thinks he is being super-spiritual, but without love in his heart, it would amount to no more than a discordant clash – out of tune and without harmony. It would not be a word from God.
Verse 2...‘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.’
The spiritual gifts of prophecy, and wisdom and knowledge, and the faith that can move mountains, are likewise good and wonderful and infinitely desirable gifts. I suspect (indeed I venture to say, I know) that there are those here this morning who have the potential to develop all these gifts. We need to pray all the time that God will reveal to each one of us what gifts the Spirit wants to develop in us. We need a faith that is more adventurous, more willing to let God take full control of our lives. But the Corinthian Church seems to have had all these wonderful gifts, yet it was a divided church that seemed to lack the one crucial ingredient that would have brought it all alive – love. It was like an orchestra where every instrument was playing a different tune and not listening either to the conductor or to each other.
Verse 3...‘If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing’.
Let’s consider just two examples which may spring to mind, whether or not they are exactly what Paul had in mind when he wrote these words.
Firstly, our church and the church world-wide and the whole Christian mission everywhere depends on our financial support as well as our prayers. Likewise, when there is a disaster somewhere in the world, an appeal goes out for practical aid – food, shelter, clothing, and practical assistance. Again, we may know personally someone who is in need of help, whether financial or practical, and we respond to the best of our means and ability. In due course, we shall be asking for financial support to renew our church building – indeed sacrificial giving. But God is not looking so much at the amount, as at the spirit in which we respond and give. God showers everyone of us so incredibly generously with goodness, love and grace. Our giving must be the response of love to God’s amazingly generous love for us. If we really understand and appreciate the depth and wonder of what God has done for us, we will respond with all the love in our hearts. That is what will count.
Secondly, as we look back at the history of the church over 2000 years, we rightly celebrate those who have been martyred for their faith. it’s a big ask, isn’t it, to enquire whether they died with the kind of love I have been describing in their hearts. But their great role model (and ours too) is Jesus on the cross, who seemed more concerned with forgiveness for the soldiers and the fate of the criminals on either side of him, than he was for himself. The role model is there – it is love alone that counts.
2. It is love alone that triumphs
Verses 4-7..‘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’.
Here is that Christian love in day to day action. Here is how love behaves in practice. God goes on loving us despite all the provocation we give him, and so must we. God’s love does not fly to the heights and then sink to the depths along with circumstances, and vary according to how others treat us. Love acts – it does not re-act as we are constantly tempted to do. It does not speak or act for effect, for show. It does not keep a mental note of other people’s past failures, so that old sins can be produced at the drop of a hat when we feel defensive or criticised. Love perseveres, believes the best not the worst, doesn’t dwell on the past, but hopes for better things in the future. Every phrase would warrant a sermon to itself. Love triumphs over all the odds.
3. Love alone endures
In verses 8 – 12, Paul contrasts the other Gifts of the Spirit which he has listed with love, and shows that it is love alone which will last for ever. We are on a journey of faith (a bit like growing to full maturity) which finds its fulfilment when we meet the Lord face to face and ‘know, even as we are fully known’. What gifts of the Spirit will we need then? All the spectacular ones which the Corinthian Christians prized so highly will have become redundant.
Just three will remain. Faith, by which Paul means that personal trust in God which will never die, rooted in the cross of Christ. Hope, by which Paul means that nothing of eternal value will ever come to an end, but all that is best and good and holy will find its place in the heavenly city through which runs the onward flowing river on whose banks is the tree of life, which is for peace and the healing of the nations, and where God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. Have a look at Revelation chapter 21 and 22.
But above all, eternally there shines the love of God like an everlasting light, which we have sought, however dimly, to reflect in our day to day lives, and which now finds its eternal fulfilment.
So, yes, this love can be hard to sustain in thought, word and deed, but it is the one Gift which controls everything worthwhile and gives it its value. God gives to every Christian the Holy Spirit who comes bearing wonderful gifts. But Paul’s magnificent exposition in this chapter rings down the centuries. Seek out all the gifts God gives you and put them to the fullest possible use. But over-arching them all is the greatest gift of all – the one which lasts for ever – the gift of love.
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