Listen in WMA
Download MP3
Download WMA<<Previous Part -- [This sermon is number 33 in a series of 46] -- Next part>>
1 Corinthians - Part 33
"The More Excellent Way"
Copyright 2003
by Pastor David Legge
All Rights Reserved
(Permission is granted to distribute this transcript in its entirety, with no alterations)
I Corinthians 13:1-13 |
|
You will remember if you've been with us in recent weeks that we have been, from the outset of starting chapter 12, looking at the subject of spiritual gifts that the Holy Spirit has given in God's sovereignty to the body of Christ which is the church - that is you and I, in a universal sense we all make up together the church of Jesus Christ. He has given us all gifts, many and varied gifts as we have seen in recent weeks - but what we come to tonight in this chapter 12 through to chapter 14, which comprises a section specifically on spiritual gifts, is a pausing point - not a parenthesis, it's very much found within the context of this theme of spiritual gifts, but it's a point at where we pause with the apostle so that he may show to us the more excellent way than spiritual gifts or spiritual manifestations. So keep that in mind as we begin our reading this evening, that this is a time where he's just pausing to tell us: 'Look, there's something more important, there's something more valuable than all the spiritual gifts that I have mentioned - even the most important of those - there is a more excellent way'. So we begin at verse 1 to find out what that is, but let's just begin at verse 31 of the previous chapter (12):
"But covet earnestly", he says, "the best gifts" - the gifts that will edify the assembly, the gifts that will be the most value to the people of God - "and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, 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 charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But 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, I understood as a child, 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: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity".
It was Jonathan Swift, the satirical author of the famous book that many of you will know from childhood, "Gulliver's Travels", it was he who said these words: 'We have just enough religion to make us hate one another, but not enough religion to cause us to love one another'. If you like, in summary, that is what the apostle Paul is saying to this church at Corinth. Remember from the very beginning of this book, Paul commended them that they were a church that came behind in no gift - they were filled with not only natural talent, but spiritual ability. There were great leaders, great orators, great mighty charismatic leaders within the church - but the fact of the matter was, for them contextually as we look at this passage tonight, they had enough religion to hate one another, to envy one another, to be prideful with each other because they were envious, competitive in this egotistic sense, but yet they hadn't enough religion to love one another.
So the theme of this chapter that we're looking at, chapter 13, tonight is really what true love is - what true love is within a Christian sense. What we are faced with tonight here is the apostle Paul telling us the preeminence of love in the life of the believer and in the life of the local assembly. We're going to see tonight love's preference: this is the more excellent way, it is more excellent than spiritual manifestations and gifts, it is to be preferred above those things; and in fact it is necessary even for the operation of those things, intrinsically, if they're to operate properly.
Love's preference, then we're going to see love's properties - in other words it is more excellent in its perfect definition. We're going to see in verses 3 to 7 what true love really is, the characteristics of this love that Paul talks about. Then we'll see thirdly and finally that it is a more excellent way in it's eternal duration: love's permanence. Though many things pass away, we're going to see tonight that many of these gifts as they were in the original New Testament church have passed away in some senses, and even one day when all spiritual gifts pass away in the consummation when we're all gathered to go to be with the Lord and the eternal state comes into fruition, when we will be with the Lord and will not need these gifts any more, there will be one thing that will abide and will outlive all the rest of these spiritual manifestations, and it is love.
What Paul is really saying in this chapter tonight is, this body that he was illustrating last week - the working mechanisms of the church of Jesus Christ - he's saying that love is the heartbeat of that body. Love is necessary for the circulatory system of this body if things are to work well, if spiritual gifts are to have their desired effect - to glorify God and the Lord Jesus, whom the church is trying to portray, and also to edify the members of the body, love has to be the operating factor of everything.
Now in verse 31 of chapter 12 we found that he was leaving the subject of spiritual gifts and going to show them a more excellent way. You could almost run from the end of verse 31, chapter 12, to the start of chapter 14 verse 1, where he says: 'Follow after charity' - that is the more excellent way. But as I've already said, what he's doing is: he's stopping to really take time - in chapter 12 he has shown us the purpose of these spiritual gifts, and in chapter 14 we'll see hopefully next week that he talks to us about the perversion of these spiritual gifts in the church at Corinth - but he's stopping for a moment for us to meditate in chapter 13 on this mighty point. It's marvellous to have spiritual gifts in your life - if you've got them, praise God - and in the life of the local assembly, it's tremendous to be furnished with abilities to make you useful for God and the cause of Christ, but it is always better to be filled with love than to be filled and endued with supernatural power!
Now we don't want in any stretch to belittle supernatural power or spiritual gifts or manifestations, that is not what we are doing. But Paul is saying: what is the more excellent way? What is the more preferred thing? What is the necessary modus operandi of these spiritual gifts? It's love! If you're going to build up the body with these gifts, rather than building up your own personal reputation and your own party within the church of Jesus Christ like these were in Corinth, love must be the motivation of it all. We're going to find out next week that this church took great pride in the tongue speaking that was manifest within it, to such an extent that there was a lot of confusion in the assembly - and we'll see the rules and regulations that Paul laid down next week for that in the New Testament church. But what I want you to see is that everybody was getting up and speaking in tongues, or getting up and giving their ecstatic prophecy or whatever it was, and everything was getting carried away because they were motivated by their own pride, to be seen to be the one that God had just put His hand on and God was starting to speak through. But there was the little woman, and the young fellow, the teenager and the wee child, and when these people were getting up and speaking in foreign languages (which is what tongues is), they didn't understand. They didn't understand what they were saying, they didn't understand the ramifications of all this - so what you're seeing here was that pride was coming before the edification of the body! There was a selfishness motivating all this, it wasn't love for each other but it was love for their ego!
So Paul sees it is necessary, before addressing the perversions of the spiritual gifts, to stop for a moment and to give these Corinthian believers an education into this love, this more excellent way. Let me say, if you have the Authorised Version before you that we love and use here in the assembly, this word 'charity' throughout the whole of chapter 13 it really would be better translated 'love'. The reason being that the meaning of 'charity' in our day has changed from what it was when these translators translated the original scriptures from the Greek. People think of 'charity' as putting a piece of money into a box that somebody shakes outside Boots, and gives you a wee sticker on your breast so you can show off that you gave to charity - that is not the meaning of this word here in chapter 13. It means 'love', so you could replace it with 'love' right throughout the chapter. If you're familiar with the Scriptures at all, you will know that because it was written in Greek originally there are numerous words for our English word 'love' in the Greek language. For instance there is the Greek word 'phileo', and it's the word for love of a friend, a sort of companionship affection that you would have for your best friend or maybe for a neighbour or work colleague. 'Phileo', it's the word we get 'philanthropy' from, which is simply the word that means 'love for mankind', and charitable giving because you love mankind. You know the church of Philadelphia in the book of the Revelation, 'Phileo-delphia', it just means 'love of the brothers', or 'brotherly love'.
Now that is not the word that we find here in chapter 13, it's not 'phileo', the word here is the word 'agape'. It simply means 'the love of God'. We're not talking now about a human love between humankind, we're talking now about something divine - so you could substitute the word 'charity' in chapter 13 with 'love of God' or 'divine love', 'agape'. 'Agape' is the word that we find in John 3:16: 'For God so loved the world' - it is divine love, God's love for us. Then when you come into an epistle such as 1 John, you find that John is talking there not only of God being love toward us, and showing and commending His love toward us, but he then talks about our reciprocated love toward God - and the same word is used there, 'agape'. Our love toward God is also of a divine nature! So the love that you ought to show toward God is different than the love you have for your wife, or the love that you have for your best friend, or your neighbour, or your family member - it is something that, I suppose we could say, is supernatural.
Of course there are other words for love, we'll not go into them all tonight, but a common one that we hear a lot about today is the word 'eros'. It is the word we get 'erotic' from, or 'eroticism', and in Paul's day it was commonly used by the philosophers and the mythologists because they talked about the god 'Eros', who was the god of love, the son of Aphrodite. They actually worshipped sexual love, they worshipped the thought of love between a man and woman, and it got to such an extent that they were worshipping this god in so many pagan and, in fact, iniquitous ways that we could never even mention or think of tonight, that God not once in His holy word from Genesis to Revelation mentions this word 'eros' - not once! It would seem that it became so defiled, and this type of man-woman love so degraded and corrupted in New Testament days among society, it was such a voluptuous word, a sensuous word, that the Holy Spirit - and never forget that He is the 'Holy' Spirit - He forbade that word to be used within the Scriptures.
So the word we have tonight is 'agape', and what we're saying is that this is a love that is born of God. Now please grasp that, because a woman in the middle of the jungle loves her little child, and maybe even loves her husband, and loves the rest of her family, and loves her neighbours and shows kindness toward them, but if she is not a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ - and let me tell you that she doesn't need to be in the jungle to be that, you can be five yards down the street - she doesn't know this love, 'agape', she doesn't know it from God experientially, and she cannot show it and display it to others, because this love is something that is born of God. It's not based on human nature, it is based on the new nature, and that means that if you're in our meeting this evening - no matter how much you love anybody, no matter how much you serve God and think that you worship Him - you cannot love God like this unless you have had the experience of being born again. You haven't known it! It doesn't matter how nice you are, how moral you are - this is how people delude themselves, they say: 'I love God! I love my neighbour as myself! I love my children, I love all those around me, I try my best!' - but unless you've had the conversion experience, and you've repented of your sins and turned to Christ for salvation alone in Him, you're not born-again...and you cannot know agape love!
Now, what Paul is saying here to the believers is: without this agape love for God you're useless. Do you hear that? You're useless! Without this agape love for others, this love of God shown through you to those around you, brothers and sisters and the world, you're useless! Now before we go on any further, and we've a lot to get through tonight, but it would be remiss of me to move one step forward without asking this question right away: how is your love tonight for Him? What shape is it in? What temperature is it?
We can't stay there, we've got to move on - and this is one good gauge of how your love is for Him, when you ask: how is your love for one another? How is your love for the brothers and sisters in Christ that are sitting around you tonight? How is your love for the lost around you in the streets of this area? Paul is saying to these believers: 'Don't worry about what gifts you have, what you need to be concerned about is whether those gifts are operated and being controlled by divine love'. If your life is filled with this divine love, then your life, no matter what gifts you have, no matter how many or how few, your life will glorify God and will edify the body because there's nothing that edifies it like love!
Now I know this is a digression, but I think it's important as a foundation: turn with me to Revelation chapter 2, and then we'll move on swiftly, but this is important and it should be a challenge to us all. The Lord Jesus is addressing the seven churches, one of which here is the church of Ephesus: "Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus", He says, "write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks" - this is now the Lord of the churches speaking to this church of Ephesus. Now watch how He addresses them, He says; "I know thy works", this church was a church filled with activity, they were always working for God - isn't that amazing? You don't find many churches like that today! It's hard to get workers in the church! "And thy labour", this wasn't just, you know, winking at God, acknowledging Him, doing something for Him once a week or something - they were labouring! They were laying down their lives, it wasn't only their activity, but the quality of their activity that we're seeing here. "And thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil". There was a solidity about this church, they were united in doctrine and they were sincere in their opposition of falsehood. Oh boy, we'd go a long way to find a church like that today, wouldn't we? Read on: "And thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars" - reliability, they knew the word of God, they knew how to test the spirits to see whether they be of God. Verse 3: "And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured", there's the work again, "and hast not fainted". Immovability! Imagine a church that is full of activity, quality, solidity, sincerity, reliability, immovability - what a church, outstanding! Yet look what the Lord says in verse 4: "Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love".
You see, you could have all these things as an individual or as a church, and not love Him! Now I hope the searchlight of God's word is penetrating our hearts just now. Let me read a translation of that verse 4: 'You don't love me now the way you used to do at the first'. Remember when you were first saved? Do you remember the zeal and the enthusiasm? I don't mean the work that you did, I mean the bubbling over affection that was in your heart toward the person of the lovely Lord Jesus - can you remember that? What's it like tonight? Is it the same as it was at the first? You see, you can be sound in doctrine, yet sound asleep! Is that not the fact? The outflow of this love for Christ, Paul is saying, in the church at Corinth ought to be the love for Christ's ones, the Christians, around about them - and it was vital for the operation of the organism of the body working in spiritual gifts, that they were operating in love - so he shows them this more excellent way.
Now here is how he shows them it at first: it is more excellent than spiritual manifestations - all these gifts that they'd got so taken up with, and we read them in verses 1 to 3. We find the gift of tongues mentioned, prophecy mentioned, knowledge, faith, charity, alms-giving and martyrdom. Paul is saying: 'You might possess these gifts, but if you're not possessed of love these gifts mean' - and mark this please - 'nothing!'. They don't amount to anything - he's saying: 'Love is preferred more than these spiritual manifestations, in fact love is essential to the working of these spiritual gifts'. He says: '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'. 'The tongues of men' - now that shows us right away that tongues, this spiritual gift, are the tongues of men - they're not some kind of unknown tongue. You say: 'Well, the Bible says it's an unknown tongue' - well, you look at that verse that says 'unknown tongue', and you'll see that 'unknown' is in italics, and that means that the translators have added it to help you understand, and really what it does is it confuses us more - at least some people have taken it out and confused us more with it! It just means a tongue that's not known to you, but here we have it that they are the tongues of men, they're the languages of other nations that's not your nation. Don't try and say that Paul talked with all the tongues of all the nations when he says: 'Though I speak with the tongues of men', as if it was all the tongues of men. That's not what he means here, he's supposing: 'Even if I did speak with all the tongues of all the languages in the world, in fact if I could speak with the eloquence and the melody of angels' - and don't tell me tongues is an angel language, because every time angels spoke to men in the Bible they spoke in their own language. He's saying: 'Though I had eloquence of every language of this world in this spiritual gift, if I could even deliver it like an angel would, and don't have love - it's nothing!'.
He's supposing alright, you look at verse 3 just in case you doubt me, he says: 'Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing' - did he give his body to be burned? Did he? No, he didn't! He's supposing that 'Even if I did these things, and didn't have love, it wouldn't matter anything'. Now please remember that this was a church that was dominated by this gift of tongues - but Paul is saying you shouldn't be dominated by tongues, and you shouldn't be dominated by any spiritual gift, you should be dominated by love!
Many of you will have heard of William Tyndale. He had many enemies who persecuted him, hounded him, and did all manner of evil against him in his lifetime - but every time something was done against William Tyndale he returned their persecution with a tender love and charity. To one of those enemies he is reported to have said these words, listen: 'Take away my goods, take away my good name, yet so long as Christ dwelleth in my heart, so long shall I love you not a whit less'. Now I'll tell you, Tyndale was a man of great eloquence, and Tyndale was one of the finest early Bible translators that even this translation is partly based on tonight - but it wasn't only the words of the Bible that he translated into the current language, but he personally translated the truth of God's love into his deeds! That's what the apostle is getting at, that's what the Corinthians had failed in - they had perhaps the most eloquent preachers in the whole of the known world, yet they couldn't get on with one another, they couldn't love one another!
Isn't it interesting that even today some of the most eloquent preachers, when you get in close on them - and I have to be careful here, I don't want to be judgmental - but the fact of the matter is that some of them have the most volcanic temperaments that you've ever seen in your life! It ought not to be so. The gift of tongues is worthless, eloquence is worthless without love. Then he comes to prophecy, he's saying - and we looked at prophecy, we don't have time to look at it tonight, get the other tape when we looked at it in detail - he's telling them that it was more desirable to have love than to even know the future, or to be inspired by God to speak literally and audibly His word!
Now let me ask you: where does that come near to our value system tonight? If God was to say to you now - and He's not going to do it because the canon is finished - but if you were one of the apostles and God was saying to you: 'Now I want you to write the book of Ephesians', or 'I want you to get the revelation of Jesus Christ', that we have at the end of our Bibles - that would be a tremendous privilege, wouldn't it? To be used as a man who was inspired of God to write - do you know what he's saying? Do you know what is more preferable than that? More necessary than that? It is to have love for God and to have love for your brethren, and do you see even if you had that gift of inspiration: it would mean nothing if you were devoid of love!
This is serious stuff, isn't it? Then he moves on from prophecy to knowledge. He's saying that to be in some kind of favoured circle where mystic secrets of God and the divine mind are made plain to you - it's not as desirable as love! Because John tells us: 'God is love', and you see, what is more desirable than knowing the mind of God is knowing the God of love. This isn't just where the cults and the prophets that add to the Scriptures fall down, I'll tell you: this is where we fall down many a time, because we can be the most knowledgeable person in the word of God, and yet at the same and one-time be the least knowledgeable person with the God of heaven! I wonder for some of us does the word of God get in the way of the knowledge of God, a personal intimate communion with Almighty God? That can only happen through love.
Then he mentions faith: 'Though I have all faith', and all these things are said 'all' - 'all knowledge', 'all faith, so that I could remove mountains'. If you had all these gifts, and you took them all out of every person in the church that had them - and you took David Legge, and you stuffed him full (for want of a better phrase) of all these spiritual manifestations and abilities, yet he was standing there a cold dead sinner without any love...he would be worthless.
Charity, alms-giving, this is charity in the sense of our word. Philanthropy is a noble cause, but even that can be a selfish thing - you can throw a coin at a beggar just because you wish to get the relief from your sympathies in your heart, and salve your own conscience from feeling bad because of the way we live. It might be nothing to do with love or compassion for that poor soul. Or perhaps we could give like the hypocrites: not from generosity, but for our own good and our own reputation. Even acts of charity like this, Paul is saying, can be acts of selfishness rather than acts of divine agape love. 'Without love', he says, 'it profiteth me nothing' - it doesn't say 'it profiteth me little', he says: 'it profiteth me nothing'. 'Though I give', verse 3, 'my body to be burned' - not just all your giving to the poor, but if you give yourself, not your finances but your very flesh to be burned - you could be so zealous in some kind of human cause, or even a religious cause, to lay down your life and it could be worth nothing if it's only for a cause and not for the Christ!
Oh there's a difference - many of us will be called upon to lay down our lives, but if behind it there is not a love for Christ Paul says it doesn't matter how much blood you shed or how much pain you go through, it doesn't matter one iota if the love of God isn't in you when it's happening. One man has said, very truly I believe, many times: 'To live and love in living is greater martyrdom than to die'. Oh we'd all love - well, maybe we wouldn't love, but if we were thinking of eternity we would think it a great privilege to lay down our lives for the Lord Jesus Christ - but Paul is saying: 'Do you know what's better than doing that without love? It's loving your brothers and sisters and having a life of love to God!'.
Henry Drummond says that 'In the heart of Africa among the Great Lakes I have come across black men and women who remembered the only white man they ever saw, his name was David Livingstone. As you cross his footsteps in that dark continent men's faces light up as they speak of the kind Doctor who passed there years ago - and they could not understand him, but they felt the love that beat in his heart'. Did you know that when he was buried his heart was left in Africa? Here are six or seven, some believe, great things - but Paul is saying that love is greater than them all, love is to be desired most of all, without love their possession is prostituted by selfishness, they're useless to God and useless to man if they're not motivated by love. Love is the operating and motivating force of all that we are, and it should be of all that we do.
Now let's move on - that is the more excellent way than spiritual manifestations, love's preference. Now we see the more excellent way in its perfect definition, its properties, verses 3 to 7. Now maybe some of you parents have been asked by courting teenagers: how do you know when you're really in love? Some of them are not teenagers any more, but they're smiling! How do you know when you're really in love? The answer comes back - what is it? You know it! - 'Ach, you just know', isn't that the answer? Love may be difficult to define, but we have to say that love is not difficult to discern. That's what that means, isn't it? It's hard to just put your finger on it, and in language speak of what love is; but when you see it you discern it, you know it right away. Well, here we have it: the characteristics of true love, and I think it's the most perfect definition that we have in the Scriptures. Some would say there's fourteen characteristics, I count fifteen, but they say it's double seven, double perfection - I don't know, but the fact of the matter is what we have here is love's effect on the man that love masters. Have you got that? Love's effect on the man that love masters.
Let's look at it, verse 4: 'Charity suffereth long', that just means charity is patient. How many of you are patient? I'll not go through the rhyme, but how many of you are patient? Patience is love's poise, it's the disposition of love. It has an absence of petulance, and it means that under the fire of misunderstanding and accusation and other's disapproval, that you're able to stand patiently because you've got the love of God in your bosom. If you're loving you'll be patient.
Secondly: 'Charity suffereth long and is kind'. Kindness is the fruit of love, it shows that you're loving person. There once was a church in Scotland that was filled with a lot of people who felt that they weren't sinners any more - they'd got entire sanctification, that the old nature had been totally purged from their body, and they were running around as perfect Christians before they got to heaven - but the only problem was that the pastor noticed that they were running around criticising one another and censuring each other with merciless criticisms. One day, he wasn't a great theologian but he was a simple man of God, and he hung over the pulpit and he said: 'Remember, if you're not very kind you're not very holy, because holiness and kindness cannot be separated'. Are you a kind person? That shows you right away whether you've got the love of God in you - if you've any unkindness towards anybody, that's not God's love!
Now let me tell you something: you can be patient, and it's hard to be patient, but if you're patient without kindness that's not love whatsoever. One author put it like this: 'Patience is passive endurance, where you stand and take it all; while kindness is active service, it's something you do - it's like a negative and a positive. Patience is the endurance of ill and evil, while kindness is love actively doing good, it's the doing. Patience is love waiting with folded hands, while kindness is love working with busy hands. Patience is being good, while kindness is doing good'.
He goes on: 'Charity envieth not', it's not jealous. You can't be jealous and love at the same time. Now this is not generosity of alms, this isn't giving generously of your finance, what this is is generosity of thought. That means, in the Corinthian situation and in ours, that if there's somebody in the meeting who is better than you at preaching, who's got greater spiritual gifts numerically speaking and in capacity and in unction, and maybe there's even somebody around you who's greater in wealth than you - will you say: 'God bless them', and it doesn't irritate you and you don't get jealous? Because if you love them, you'll not be jealous of them.
He goes on: 'Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up', that means it's not boastful. You see, when you love Him, you know right away it all about Him - it's got nothing to do with me, it's nothing to do with you, it's all about Jesus! It's all about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit - it's His work we're in, and that humility will come when we learn that it's about God - and I'll tell you one thing we'll not do that many do: we'll not be pushing ourselves into public notice and aspiring to be in the limelight. It's amazing the amount of speakers, you know, that ring you up and say: 'Can I speak some night in the Iron Hall?' - a man's gift maketh room for him, he doesn't need to invite himself to a meeting, he doesn't need to boast in any way. If you've really got the gift of God, and you're being used of God, you'll know it's all about God, and you'll not need to invite yourself anywhere!
It's not boastful and it's not arrogant, 'it vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up'. It means that it's not pompous, you don't look down your nose at other people who don't have as many and as great spiritual gifts as you might have or you think you have. If you love them you'll not be arrogant around them. Then he goes on in verse 5: 'Doth not behave itself unseemly' - you could translate that 'is not impolite'. That is love's courtesy. Now, I'll just ask a question: why is it that some of us, we would have to say, some of the rudest people that we know are Christians? Isn't that a travesty? There's no excuse, Paul is saying, for being ignorant. There's no excuse for being impolite, to lack courtesy - in fact the sense of gentlemanliness and womanliness should be the mark of a Christian, because this agape love ought to soften the hard lines around us and smooth the sharp edges upon us. We're not talking about a put-on: 'How are you doing, brother?', with daggers in our heart - not that! It's not something put on, it's something that's put in by God, it's divine! It's not weakness, it's real strength.
We move on: 'seeketh not her own', is not selfish - in other words, it doesn't grasp at its own rights, it's looking out instead of looking in, it's looking after others before you look after yourself - not being selfish. Move on: 'is not easily provoked', now that word 'easily' isn't in the original, it just means 'is not provoked'. It means that there's to be no temperamental explosions where you're concerned - and this is something that Henry Drummond has called 'the vice of the virtuous'. Many a believer are so zealous about the views that they have and the convictions that they aspire to, that when somebody breaks their little commandment they go bananas and the steam comes out of their ears! Now this is what Paul is talking about here: love is meant to be goodnatured, you know that saying 'agree to disagree', that's what he's talking about.
Then he goes on 'thinketh no evil', and that's not a tremendous translation, it should be really translated 'has no memory for injuries'. It doesn't think about evil things that have been done to it, you could read it like this: 'it does not keep a record of wrongs'. What this is is a person with a mental book, right? And every time you look at them the wrong way, oh that's noted down, a black mark there. You say something that they interpret the wrong way, or maybe it is wrong and you shouldn't have said it, but they note it down and it's written upon that memory book of their heart - and it's written with indelible ink and they're not going to forget it even if you ask for forgiveness! They have a record of wrongs - and let me say, I have to say, that's why some of you are so miserable: because you've got a chip on your shoulder about something somebody did, or you think somebody did, and you have a record of it and you're not going to erase it one iota. You're going to live the rest of your life with a lack of love, that is to say, as Jesus said, 'When he was reviled, he reviled not again'. That's your Lord now...it's the difference between a dove and a raven - you remember when Noah first of all sent a raven out of the ark, and it never returned - why? Because a raven lives on the carrion, and it couldn't just fly over dead things, so it landed on them and ate of them before the flood had abated. So Noah sent out a dove, but the dove doesn't eat carrion, a dove is a clean animal and it quickly returned because it flew over all the uncleanness. You see, carnality, Paul is saying, is what feeds upon unkindness of others and uses it against them - but holiness flies over it.
Here's something else: 'Rejoiceth', verse 6, 'not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth'. Love, this love, does not rejoice in unrighteousness. Now we're touching sore points here tonight, but are you an avid follower of the soaps? I'm not talking about Imperial Leather, I'm talking about Neighbours, and Eastenders, and Emmerdale, and Coronation Street, and all that soap that makes people dirty instead of clean. Most of them, by the way, are in pubs - aren't they? My friend, what we do when we become addicted to these things is we rejoice in unrighteousness. Young people say: 'Why shouldn't I go to the cinema, and watch such-and-such?' - how many times is the Lord's name taken in vain? How many sex scenes are there? How many people get blown to smithereens? Are we entertaining ourselves with unrighteousness, that's the question! Why can't I go to the pub? Why can't I go to the club? Why can't I go to that concert? Are we entertaining and rejoicing in the unrighteousness of others?
People think, to hear them talk about love, that it's softness - I'll tell you love protests, that's why we're protest-ants, or we're meant to be at least. Because love stands up against unrighteousness and is vocal about it. Love is not soft on sin, and if you read 1 Corinthians 5 in this book you would know that love is not soft on sin, they put out that sinful one from among them! People talk about love today, you'd think it would mean that you have to embrace everything, that's not what it means: we're not to rejoice in unrighteousness. A pastor was once leaving a church to go to another one, and he was one of those pastors who could say a lot of sweet nothings that wouldn't hurt a flea, yet on the other hand he would do nobody any good either. All the people came to him after the cup of tea, and were congratulating him and thanking him for all that he'd done, all the time and effort and all the rest, and a young man came up to him and said: 'Pastor, I'm so sorry we're going to lose you. When you came to us three years ago I was only a young man who did not care for God, man, or the devil - but since listening to your beautiful sermons I've learned to love them all!' - God, man, and the devil! That is the kind of sentiment that passes for love these days: embrace God, embrace all men, embrace even the things of the devil! Remember the words of the Lord Jesus to Peter? 'Satan has desired to sift thee as wheat', and then when Peter tried to deter Him from the cross, He addressed him as Satan: 'Get thee behind me Satan, for thou savourest not the things that are of God but the things that are of men' - now that wasn't softness, that was love! Remember Him to the Pharisees? 'Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell?'. You'll not get a more loving man than the Lord Jesus Christ, but it wasn't a mask of pretence and it never rejoiced in unrighteousness.
Here's another point on this one, rejoicing in unrighteousness: do we ever laugh within ourselves, or gloat secretly when things go wrong for another person? Do we? 'Oh, they got what they deserved' - do we ever say that? Do you know what one translation of this statement is? 'We are to have no secret satisfaction in discovering the moral weakness or the hidden wickedness of a rival, we are not to be eager to spread an evil report to glory in the triumph of wrong', but Paul says we are to rejoice in the truth. Now let me finish this section: rejoice in the truth, that means - listen now - when the rumours that you've been hearing are proved to be wrong, you don't say: 'Ach, there's no smoke without fire, there must have been something going on!', you rejoice in the truth! Praise God, he's been exonerated, he's been vindicated. Here's another thing: rejoice in the truth, do you see if people really did rejoice in the truth, we would have the seats up the aisles, wouldn't we? 'I can't wait to get to the Bible Reading' - my friends, this is a love for righteousness.
Then he goes on: this love, agape, is a love that bears all things - that means 'covers over the faults of our brothers and sisters in Christ'. But do we, as Christians, seek to minimise others faults, or do we want to expose them or exaggerate them? He says this love believes all things, that's not a gullibility that doesn't question anything, but it's the trust of truth. It means not that you're not meant to be discerning, but you're not meant to be suspicious about everything that comes out of everybody's mouth - and just because you don't know about it, or you haven't analysed it, that it's not right. You're to believe all things and trust. You're to hope all things, number 14, that's a scriptural hope - that means, I call it 'scriptural optimism'. There's not too many scriptural optimists about, sometimes the prayers are so pessimistic, aren't they? Somebody has said: 'A pessimist has been described as a person who blows out the light to see how dark it is' - whatever light there is, it get blown out because things are too bad to have any light, but this love is expectant - it expects the blessing. Then he says: 'it endured all things'. Now this crowns it all - it endures all, this isn't kindness for a day Paul is talking about, this isn't being patient for a day, or not being jealous, or boastful, or arrogant, or impolite, or selfish, or provoked, or keeping record of wrongs, or rejoicing in unrighteousness, not rejoicing in the truth for a day - it's endurance, forever! If it's love, it will never fail in all of those things!
Now we could never measure up to this, could we? That doesn't mean we don't try, because please remember that this was given to one of the most carnal churches that we read of in the word of God, yet Paul expected them to measure up to the characteristics of this divine love. But do you know what this really is? It is a perfectly penned picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you see if you just went through this passage and changed every word 'charity' for 'the Lord Jesus Christ', well it would make so much sense, wouldn't it? Look at it: 'Charity, the Lord Jesus', verse 4, 'suffered long, the Lord Jesus is kind; He did not anything; He did not vaunt Himself, He was not puffed up, He did not behave Himself unseemly, He did not seek His own, He was not easily provoked, He did not think evil or keep a record of wrongs; He did not rejoice in iniquity, He rejoiced in the truth. He bore all things, He believed all God's promises, He hoped for all things, He endured all things - even the cross - and He never failed, and He hasn't failed one of you either!' - sure He hasn't?
Oh, I had so much more to say, but I have to end on this note - and it's a glorious note to end on: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. What Paul is saying to them is, listen: you need to be controlled with the love of God, because the world needs to see Jesus in you. Isn't it true - we sang at the beginning of our meeting:
'There is no love like the love of Jesus,
Never to fade or fall,
Till into the fold of the peace of God
He has gathered us all.
There is no heart like the heart of Jesus,
Filled with His tender love,
No throb can throw that our hearts can know,
But He feels it above.
There is no eye like the eye of Jesus,
Piercing so far away.
N'er out of sight of its tender light
Can the wanderer stray.
There is no voice like the voice of Jesus,
Tender and sweet its chime.
Like the musical ring of a flowing spring
In the bright summertime.
Oh, let us hark to the voice of Jesus
Oh, may we never roam
Till safe we rest on His loving breast
In the dear heavenly home'.
Jesus love, precious love - the rest of this portion is just saying this: prophecy will fail, and tongues will cease, and all this knowledge will pass away - but the thing that will not pass away, the thing that will endure spiritual gifts, and we know that many of them have stopped in their revelatory primary sense, but love will endure...for Christ will endure. Isn't it wonderful - you wouldn't think it to look at you! Are you rejoicing in the love of God?
Father, we feel so inadequate when we read an account like this tonight - it just paints a wonderful portrait of the Lord Jesus. But where we want to get now is where He's just looking into our eyes and saying: 'Do you love me? How much do you love me?'. Lord, may we love Thee like this love - we ought to love because He first loved us, and may we do it from this day on that others may look upon us and say: 'Behold, how they love one another'. Amen.
Don't miss part 34 of the 1 Corinthians Study Series: "Corinthian Confusion vs God's Commission Of Tongues"
------------------------
Transcribed by:
Andrew Watkins
Preach The Word
November 2003
www.preachtheword.com
info@preachtheword.com
This sermon was delivered at The Iron Hall Assembly in Belfast, Northern Ireland, by Pastor David Legge. It was transcribed from the thirty-third tape in his 1 Corinthians series, titled "The More Excellent Way" - Transcribed by Andrew Watkins, Preach The Word.
All material by David Legge is copyrighted. However, these materials may be freely copied and distributed unaltered for the purpose of study and teaching, so long as they are made available to others free of charge, and this copyright is included. This does not include hosting or broadcasting the materials on another website, however linking to the resources on preachtheword.com is permitted. These materials may not, in any manner, be sold or used to solicit 'donations' from others, nor may they be included in anything you intend to copyright, sell, or offer for a fee. This copyright is exercised to keep these materials freely available to all. Any exceptions to these conditions must be explicitly approved by Preach The Word.