The Country Church Bourbon Indiana

Text: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Verses 1-3

Love gives purpose and eternal value to the exercise of spiritual gifts. 1 Corinthians 13 is called the love chapter in the Bible, and that’s why I am turning here this morning – to help us better understand what it means to love God and love people – but it is found in the middle of Paul talking about spiritual gifts.

The church of Corinth had many problems. Probably it’s most serious and talked about problem was all the in-fighting and factions that were going on in the church. The letter to the Corinthians begins with an appeal that they stop dividing into quarreling factions. Paul says in verse 10 “I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.”

He goes on to describe how they had divided into camps where one camp would claim Paul as their leader, another claim Apollos, another Peter, another Christ. Paul found that disturbing and pointed out that Paul wasn’t crucified for them, Jesus was, and that Jesus isn’t divided so they shouldn’t be either.

The division of the Corinthians also expressed itself in how they took communion. Back in Jesus’ time, communion was part of a full meal. Some of the people were eating a lot more of the food than others, so that there wasn’t enough food to go around for everybody and people were missing out on communion. It’s an embarrassing picture of certain factions in a church hogging all the communion food so that other factions go hungry. Imagine if on a Sunday morning when we passed the communion plate around, some people were to just take the plate and everything on it and keep it for themselves. It was that bad.

Still one more way that the church in Corinth was broken off into quarreling divisions was over the use of spiritual gifts. They were viewing it more or less as a competition. People with the gift of prophecy thinking their gift was best. People with the gift of speaking in tongues thinking that their gift was best. Knowledge thinking theirs is best. Faith. Service. And so on.

When you read through 1 Corinthians 12, you are left with the impression of a body acting crazily. Hands telling the feet that they are useless. Feet exalting in self-importance over their ability to carry burdens. Mouths saying they don’t need stomachs because they can chew the food up just fine themselves, thank you very much.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:26 that “if one member suffers, all suffer together.” With all the division, pride, and quarreling going on, the body at Corinth must have been suffering greatly.

So, that’s what 1 Corinthians 13 is being written to address – Paul wants these divided, prideful people to know that whatever their gifting, whatever their service, whatever their religious looking actions, if they are not growing out of love, then they amount to a hill of beans.

Your gift of tongues is ugly and abrasive without love. Your prophecies, understanding, knowledge, and faith lack eternal worth if there is no love. Your extravagant service gains nothing if there is no love.

Now, thankfully, I don’t sense that TCC has this same problem. If we have factions out there that pridefully think they are better than other factions because of their spiritual gifts, that’s shocking news to me. Nobody is going hungry at our church fellowship meals because certain factions are hogging the food.

There’s some delicious food that appears at our fellowship meals that I wouldn’t mind taking the whole plate of over to a table by myself and enjoying, but I don’t do that and no one else does.

I’ve never heard anybody say “I have X gift, so I am better than X.” So praise the Lord for that! It’d be an embarrassment to us all if we looked like Corinth.

But, you know, we are all still sinners. There is a somewhat similar problem that most churches in America have and that I don’t think we are free from. It is a very common way of thinking in America that elevates events and programs and similar over relationships.

You know, churches in America are very program centered. We have youth groups and choirs and praise teams and mentoring programs and pantries and preschools and Sunday school programs and special events like cantatas. We have church boards and preschool boards and missions committees and decorating committees. We have various financial and administrative officers. Security teams, ushers, sound teams, work crews. Yesterday we had a prayer sister’s reveal party. Next Saturday there’ll be a party for Betty Stevenson. The following a men’s breakfast. And we are a small church! Large ones tend to have even more.

Having all that stuff, that’s not a bad thing by any means. I love all of our programs. They help to give us all kinds of outlets for serving the Lord. But here is the tricky part – they are outlets for serving the Lord. They aren’t, in and of themselves, serving the Lord.

Just like tongues without love is abrasive, or giving away all you have without love profits nothing, so too does me hosting a men’s breakfast in a couple weeks if there’s no loving purpose behind that. Or having any number of special events or programs.

Now, the danger that we as task driven Americans can have in all of our busyness and programs is that we can subtly view that busyness and those programs as the whole point, rather than outlets for showing love to God and showing love to people.

Americans are very good at doing things, but can be quite bad at loving relationships. About half of all marriages end in divorce. Families struggle with kids that are wild and disobedient. Pornography is everywhere. A lot of people in this country hate this country or other people in the country. But we put in more work hours than other countries and have more money than other countries.

Culturally, we’re good at doing stuff but our relationships have some serious problems. This can find its way into churches too, easily.

I’ll give you two examples to show a bit what I’m talking about.

First Example: As part of my graduate degree requirements, I took a course on church administration. I remember reading a chapter that revolutionized the way I think about church leadership. The point of the chapter was simply this: the people you lead are not tools for accomplishing ministry. The people you lead are your ministry. Get the secular idea of human resources out of your head. Walmart uses human resources to sell product. You love people and teach others to do the same.

That ought not to be a revolutionary way of thinking. For a Christian who has read 1 Corinthians 13, that ought to be a basic way of thinking. I love our programs, but you don’t find youth groups and choirs and pantries and preschools, etc., etc., in the Bible. You find commands to love and give the Gospel and evangelize and so on. So, ministry is not Christian ministry without love. Leadership is not Christian leadership without love. But we’re so good at doing things and bad at loving relationships, that we often miss that.

Second Example: A story. When I became a deacon at the church I attended in WV, I was introduced to a problem. I had kind of sort of noticed it before becoming a deacon, but didn’t realize why it was a problem. The fellow who ran our audio/visual setup was sleeping on the job. Almost every Sunday slides would fail to transition or there would be some major sound issue. We’d be singing through songs, but the slides weren’t moving. Preacher would be preaching and moving forward in his points, slides weren’t moving. Someone would speak into a microphone that was off, and it would stay off. Members on the praise team would look upward toward where our audio/visual board was and you could see frustration on their faces. They’d have to wave their hands to get their attention sometimes.

I mean, I knew it was a problem, I just thought it was a training problem or laziness or something.

Well, no. It was a love problem. The fellow who ran the audio/visual board actually designed and built it himself and paid for it himself. It was a mammoth system, filling up a room that’d be the size of some people’s bedrooms. Having spent a fortune on time and money to put it there, he was going to run it himself.

The church board had tried to get more people trained on it, but there were multiple problems with getting someone trained for it. For one, you can imagine it was just inherently difficult with such a large system. But two, because the guy felt as though he owned the system, he was extremely controlling over what could or could not be touched and when.

The biggest problem though, was that he was just an unloving and demanding guy. They had pretty much run out of people who were willing to try to learn the system because their experiences had been so negative.

Making matters worse, there was some animosity which existed between him and the associate pastor. See, every year the church would host a car show. People from all around would bring souped up classics and put them in our parking lot. We’d play some music and do some drawings for prizes, give out hot dogs and stuff. It was unique. It was enjoyable. We’d get a lot of people coming who wouldn’t otherwise come near a church, and we’d get to engage them. It was a good outlet for ministry.

Well, the last year that we had done the event, there had been a fight between the associate pastor and this man. The issue was that the portable sound system brought was the sound guy’s sound system and so he wanted to play the music that he wanted to play. The music that he wanted to play was not the music that the associate pastor wanted him to play because it wasn’t Christian music, and worse had some morally questionable stuff in it. So they got into a shouting argument in the parking lot during the event over it and the guy took his sound equipment and left.

Well, I wasn’t happy to hear all this and they didn’t really need me to tell them it needed to change. They were already working on doing that. I wish it had a perfectly happy ending, but it wasn’t really. Since I was the one to make the biggest stink about it, I got the privilege of calling the sound guy to say the board would be running a ministry evaluation to suggest some improvements. That was a frightening phone call. It was entirely polite on both ends though, thankfully. However, within a few days, the family wrote a letter to the board saying that they were leaving the church and they did.

A sad ending and a sad story all around. You know, call me simple, but the problem as I see it was ultimately a love problem and a miss-placed priorities problem. Sound boards are not the essence of ministry at church. Car shows aren’t the end goal of the church. Playing the music you enjoy at car shows isn’t what ministry is all about.

The Lord knows the truth, but at least from my perspective it looked to me like the man loved his sound equipment more than he loved the people of the church. He made the best sound system I’ve ever seen, but its usage was abrasive because of a lack of love. Sounds a lot like verse 1, doesn’t it?

One of my fellow deacons who was so saddened and frustrated by the ongoing drama said in all sincerity, “I would rather we had no instruments or speakers or screens at all then that our worship should look like this. I can’t worship like this.” And I agreed wholeheartedly.

The truth is, ultimately, whatever it is that we do, be that tongues, or prophecy, or knowledge, or faith, or music, or programs, or building work, or food preparation, or whatever – if love is not present, then it isn’t being done correctly and is of no value. And it is so easy in small ways here or there to miss that, to elevate a gift or program or whatever above love and so waste the effort. Guilty as charged. It’s easy. So we must be on guard against that.

Link: Well, so what is love then? The world talks a lot about love. I talk a lot about love. But as we know so well, two people can use the same word and mean two totally different things by it. If a lack of love renders our ministry meaningless, then it is imperative that we know what God means when He talks about love. So let’s see the definition provided in the next verses:

Verses 4-7

So, two observations that show God’s definition of love is quite a bit different from how we tend to use the word in English. One observation is easy to see, one you need Greek to see.

So the first observation. I don’t see an emphasis on feelings in here. I suppose irritableness, patience, rejoicing, words like these have undertones of emotions. I’m not sure how it is possible to rejoice with no emotion whatsoever, or to be irritable and not feel upset. But it’s clear that emotions are not front and center in this definition of love.

Contrast that with the world’s definition of love, which is a feeling that you fall into or fall out of. It is an emotional state of enjoyment and fondness that you have little control over whether you have it or you don’t. God’s definition of love isn’t an emotional state you have little control over.

Second observation, the one you need Greek to see. All of these descriptors are actually verbs. In English it says “Love is patient.” In Greek it says “Love is exercising patience.” English says “Love is kind.” Greek says “Love is exercising kindness.” They are all in the active or middle tense, not the passive. That means that you choose to do the action, not that it happens to you. When you are passive, things just happen around you or happen to you. When you are active, you are causing the event. Bearing, believing, hoping, enduring, they are all active. You activate the action yourself of your own will.

Maybe you’ve heard before that love is a verb. Humorously enough, love is a noun in this sentence. But that idea is correct anyway – love is a verb. It is something you do. You are being patient, being kind. Love is also actions that you don’t do. Love is not envying. Love is not boasting. Love is not practicing arrogance or rudeness.

To me, that is encouraging to know. Imagine if the Bible commanded us to do something outside of our emotional control. Imagine if love really were that feeling of fondness and affection that seems to come and go. And that is what we are supposed to have all the time toward God and everyone else. That wouldn’t just be hard, that would be oppressive and frustrating. Especially since we are supposed to love those who persecute us. I’m supposed to feel affection toward my torturer? You want to pour sand in my eyes? But I just want to pour hugs and kisses on you!

Love still can be hard, but because it is active actions, not passive feelings, no one can say it is out of reach for them. Though you might not feel like it, though many terrible things beyond your control might happen to you, there is nothing stopping you from being patient and avoiding boasting or carrying resentment. It’s hard, but not impossible. I feel terrible inside sometimes in situations where I am called to endure and be patient, but I do it anyway.

I won’t take the time to define all the words here, but I will say this is a great little passage for some personal study and memorization. If the Law and Prophets hang upon this: that we are to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, and soul, and mind. And we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. Then it would be wise to learn these verses well. Direct this behavior toward God with your heart, your soul, and your mind, and direct it toward your neighbor and you will be doing very well.

Link: Another reason to learn well what true love is, and to grow in love, is because it is eternal.

Verses 8-13

Speaking of division, there’s quite a lot of differences of opinion about how to interpret these verses. I want to point out though, that disagreement can exist alongside of love. That’s another problem our culture has with its idea of love. There is a strong and common idea that if you disagree with someone, then that means that you don’t love that someone. That’s a childish idea. It is the thinking of adolescents which declares every disagreement to be down to a lack of love: “mom, you don’t approve of my girlfriend? Well you don’t love me!” Parents know. They were once that way and they’ve heard it from their children before. I’m embarrassed about the times I did that to my parents. I’m embarrassed for the adults out there still behaving this way.

I have yet to meet someone I perfectly agreed with in all things, but I strive to love everyone. It’s simply false to say that disagreement means a lack of love.

There are people I know who disagree with me on these verses, but I love them and they love me too.

And no one loves you or me more than God, yet I am sure God disagrees with many of my decisions and ideas.

Well, anyway, to the point: the differences of opinion arise over the issue of when, precisely, these gifts are supposed to cease, which ones are supposed to cease, whether or not other gifts besides these listed will or have cease, and what the “perfect” is. A lot of disagreements there. I’m not going to try to answer every possible disagreement. Instead I’ll just share what I believe to be true.

There are three possibilities for what “the perfect” could refer to. Perfect translates τελειος, which means “end, completion, or perfection” depending on context. This could refer to Jesus coming back – because He is perfect. It could refer to the end of time – as that’s the end. Or it could refer to the completion of the Bible, because it too is perfect.

Because Paul speaks on both prophecy – which is revealing God’s Word, and knowledge – which is knowing God’s Word, I believe that the “perfect” refers to the Bible. Furthermore, the concept of looking into the Bible as being looking into a mirror is talked about elsewhere. James 1:23 says that if someone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. Looking at Jesus or the end times is not talked about as a mirror.

And in 2 Corinthians 3, Paul talks to the same Corinthian believers again and speaks of how reading the Bible transforms and matures us. And the verses we read from Peter last week spoke about the maturing power of God’s Word as well. So I believe these gifts passed away with the completion of the Bible.

And at least for prophecy and knowledge, I’ve yet to see someone reveal new Scripture that didn’t contradict the old Scripture in some way. When people say “the end is coming on such and such a day,” it inevitably ends in embarrassment for the church. My wife and I once had someone prophecy that we would give birth to a baby soon. That was probably 4 or so years ago. No pregnancy yet. If it happens, I won’t think it was a successful prophecy. If anybody has knowledge from God not found in the Bible, I’m not believing it, sorry.

Now, tongues is spoken of a bit differently here. It has a different verb accompanying it and Paul says we prophecy and know in part, he doesn’t say we speak in tongues in part. Depending on who you are talking to, tongues may or may not have to do with prophecy and knowledge. Frequently someone will deliver a prophecy in a tongue. I disagree with that for the same reason I stated above. If prophecies have passed away, then so has speaking a prophecy in tongues.

My biggest disagreement is reserved for those who would say you must speak in tongues to be saved. 1 Corinthians refutes that idea very powerfully. It is against the idea that people lord their gifts over others. It is especially against the teaching of 1 Corinthians to say that only people who have your gift are saved.

Others will speak in tongues as a prayer language. My disagreement with this mostly just has to do with the definition of terms. I think that tongues, as spoken of in the Bible, were a sign gift. It was a miraculous occurrence where someone who didn’t know another language was suddenly enabled to speak fluently in that language to declare the words of God.

Romans 8:26 talks about instances of prayer where the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. Simply put, I think that is a different thing from the sign gift of speaking in tongues. I believe sign gifts like tongues and healing served the purpose of authenticating the words of the New Testament, showing that the prophets and apostles and evangelists of those days were real, but now that the purpose of the revelatory gifts – prophecy and knowledge – has come to pass, the sign gifts which backed up those gifts have also passed away.

Praying to God in groanings directed by the Holy Spirit because you don’t know precisely the right way to pray, I think that’s a different thing. Private prayer is still a thing and the Holy Spirit is still interceding for Christians. If someone is speaking to God in their private prayers in words I don’t understand, I’m not the one who needs to understand them anyway and God knows our minds and hearts perfectly, so I’m not worried about that.

Well, to get back to the larger point: The point is that the sign and prophetic gifts are not eternal things. They will pass away. Whatever gift I have or think I might have, or you have or think you might have, it would be silly of us to find our eternal identity in that gift and make that gift the end all be all of our ministry. Tongues without love are noisy. Prophecies and knowledge without love is nothing. And those things are or have gone away anyway. What will remain is love, hope, and faith. So we ought to abide in these three. The greatest of which, is love. Look back at the definition of love and you will see both faith and hope are included in that definition. You can have faith and hope without love, but you can’t have love without faith and hope. Really, right there in verse 7.

Anyway, I think it’s important to point out that prophecy, tongues, and knowledge are not the only things that are going to pass away that one could make the end all be all of their ministry and purpose.

Your house will pass away. This church building will pass away. Your earthly legacy will pass away. Your toys and gadgets will pass away. All of the programs of this church will pass away. Your job will pass away. Your business will pass away. The government of this country will pass away. All of heaven and earth is going to pass away and be made new.

But some things will remain – faith, hope, love, souls, and the fruit of genuine good works. The programs might not exist forever, but the souls saved through them will. The glory brought to God and the beauty of feeding the hungry will resound forever. The goodness of a child hearing of Jesus will endure forever. The sweet memories of fellowship will endure forever. The friendships made with other believers will endure forever.

And love, undergirding and directing all of these things, will endure forever.