A. A teacher in an adult-education
creative-writing class told her students to write “I love you” in 25
words or
less, without using the words “I love you.”
1. She gave the class 15 minutes.
2. A woman in the class spent
about ten minutes looking at the ceiling
and wriggling in her seat.
3. The last five minutes she
wrote frantically, and then read the
class her results: “Why, I’ve seen lots worse hairdos than that,
honey”; “These
cookies are hardly burned at all”; “Cuddle up—I’ll
keep your feet warm.”
B.
That
lady, whether she knew it or not, was able to define love.
1. No doubt she once came home
from the beauty shop in tears, and her
husband wisely said, “Why, I’ve seen lots worse hairdos than that,
honey.”
2. No doubt she had burnt cookies
to a crisp, but her husband ate them
and said they weren’t burned at all.
3. No doubt she had been cold one
night, when she hadn’t shaved her
legs in days, and her husband said, “Honey, come on and cuddle up. I’ll
keep
your feet warm.”
4. Her husband was able to put
his needs and his wants on the back
burner and put his wife’s needs first.
a. That’s what real love is all
about.
- We hear all the
time that so-and-so has
fallen in love or perhaps that so-and-so has fallen out of love.
- I don’t believe
that for a second. It’s
possible to fall in love. It’s possible to fall in infatuation or to
fall in
lust, but you cannot fall in love.
b. Rather than an emotion, true love
always
involves sacrifice, putting someone else’s needs in front of our own.
- “Husbands, love
your wives, as Christ loved
the church and gave himself up for her . . . Husbands should love their
wives
as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no
one ever hated his
own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the
church” (Eph
5:25, 28-29).
- “This is my
commandment, that you love one
another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that
someone
lays down his life for his friends” (Jn 15:12-13).
- “By this we
know love, that he laid down
his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers”
(1 Jn
3:16).
c. I can’t help but think of
Liviu Librescu.
- Librescu was a Jew
who had survived the Nazi
holocaust and persecution in communist Romania.
- He had come to
Virginia and was a respected
aeronautics professor at Virginia Tech.
- He was
lecturing to a class full of
students on April 16, 2007 when a gunman came to kill the students in
his
class.
• Librescu wedged himself
at the door, and told
his students to jump from the windows.
• The last person to see
Professor Librescu
alive appears to have been Alec Calhoun, a student who turned as he
prepared to
leap from a high classroom window to see the elderly
academic holding shut
the classroom door. The student jumped and lived. Minutes later, the
professor
was shot dead.
d. The essence of love
is always found in sacrifice—whether an elderly professor holding shut
a door
or the perfect Son of God hanging on a cross.
- Our sacrifices will
likely never reach the
point of laying down our lives for others. Our sacrifices may be
nothing more
than handing our spouse the remote when the Steelers are a
touchdown
away from a Super Bowl win. But, love is always sacrifice.
- The Corinthians so
desperately needed to
hear about true love, for they displayed so little true love to one
another.
• Those who spoke in
tongues thought they were
better than those who could not.
• Paul, in
chapter twelve, offers the unity of the body as a corrective against
such
thinking. Here, he shows the superiority of love. Paul says that LOVE
IS A
BETTER SYSTEM, LOVE IS
BETTER
THAN SPECATACLE, & LOVE IS BETTER THAN SACRIFICE.
II. LOVE IS A BETTER SYSTEM, v 31.
A.
“I
will show you a still more excellent way.”
1. “More excellent” in Gr refers
to a throwing beyond.
a. The term was used in classical
Gr to refer to
the altitude of a star or to an exorbitant price.
b. The word refers to things which are
far, far
beyond other things. In fact, this word has come into English as
“hyperbole,”
the literary device of great exaggeration.
2. Paul also says that he
will demonstrate this more excellent way.
a. He, like he did concerning
self-sacrifice
back in chapter 9, holds himself up as an example. That becomes quite
evident
as Paul writes, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels,” for
example, in verse
1.
b. Examples are powerful teaching
tools, and Paul
here holds himself up as a model.
B.
In
holding himself up as a model, Paul is going to show the Corinthians
that more
excellent way. How is love “a more excellent way”?
1. Love is a more excellent way
than spiritual gifts.
a. Notice fully what Paul writes
at verse 31:
“Earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more
excellent
way.”
b. That had to cause the Corinthians to
sit up and
take notice.
- You see, the
Corinthians thought spiritual
gifts, especially tongue speaking, were the epitome of Christianity.
- Paul says, “Not so
fast. Love is the epitome
of Christianity.”
c. We need to be careful about
making any test an
epitome of Christianity.
- We have a real
tendency to do that, don’t we?
• “Brother Lewis was such a
good person. He
came every time the doors were open.” Never mind that he refused to
help his
neighbor put that ramp on the side of his house after his
wife had her stroke.
• “Brother Johnson was such
a good preacher. He
stood for truth like no other man I’ve ever known.” Never mind that his
children had to walk on egg shells to keep from upsetting that
temper.
- Please don’t
misunderstand me—worship and
doctrine are vital; Scripture teaches that. Yet, Scripture teaches that
love is
the most important aspect of following Jesus.
• “By this all people will
know that you are my
disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:35).
• “Owe no one anything,
except to love each
other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Rm 13:8).
• Tertullian, a leader of
the church in the
early third century, wrote, “It is mainly the deeds of a love so noble
that
lead many to put a brand upon us. See, they say, how they love one
another,
for themselves are animated by mutual hatred; how they are ready even
to die
for one another, for they themselves will sooner put to death.”
• Is that the kind of
sacrificial, more
excellent love that we have for one another?
2. But, why was love so much
better for the Corinthians than their
spiritual gifts?
a. It has been noted that much of
1 Corinthians
13 stands diametrically opposed to everything the Corinthians were.
b. John Chrysostom, an excellent
preacher in the
late 4th century, in preaching on this text, said: “Each one of the
things
mentionedby him was a sufficient medicine to heal their wounds.”
c. Notice what Paul does here.
For example,
- The Corinthians
were jealous.
• “While there is jealousy
and strive among
you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?” (3:3).
• Love, however, “does not
insist on its own
way” (13:5).
- The Corinthians
were puffed up.
• “I have applied all these
things to myself
and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to
go
beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor
of one against
another” (4:6).
• Love, on the other hand,
“is not arrogant”
(13:4).
- The Corinthians
boasted in wrongdoing.
• “It is actually reported
that there is sexual
immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among
pagans,
for a man has his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Ought
you not
rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you”
(1 Cor
5:1-2).
• Love, rather, “is not
arrogant” (v 4) and
“does not rejoice at wrongdoing” (v 6).
d. How much do we need this medicine?
Are we
jealous of one another? Are we arrogant? Do we boast in wrongdoing?
III. LOVE IS BETTER THAN SPECTACLE, vv 1-2.
A.
“If
I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a
noisy
gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and
understand all
mysteries and all knowledge, and if I
have
all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”
B.
It
isn’t clear if Paul actually envisions individuals speaking in the
tongues of
angels or if he simply says, “If it were possible to do that and I
didn’t have
love.”
1. Yet, that’s not important, for
Paul’s point comes through loud and
clear: If I can speak in all these different tongues but I don’t have
love, the
sound is empty and meaningless.
2. The Gr word for “gong” is
copper.
a. The Copper Bowl of Dodona, at
the oracle of
Dodona, was said to sound all day and therefore “copper” was used to
describe a
person who talked non-stop.
b. Have you ever known someone who
talked and
talked and talked and never said a word?
- Some time ago,
Tammy and I went out to eat
with some good folks.
- I sat between two
of them who talked and
talked and talked. I was afraid I would injure my brain from shaking my
head so
much!
c. That’s the idea here. If we
don’t have love
but can speak in all kinds of tongues, we’re talking, but it’s nothing
but hot
air.
C.
If
I have prophetic powers, understand all mysteries and all knowledge,
and if my
faith can move mountains, but I don’t have love, I’m nothing.
1. What Paul says here is
somewhat surprising, for as he rebukes the
Corinthians for their elevation of tongue-speaking, he makes the point
that
prophecy is by far the greatest gift.
a. “Earnestly desire the
spiritual gifts,
especially that you may prophesy . . . . The one who prophesies speaks
to
people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation . . . .
The one
who prophesies is
greater than the one who speaks in tongues” (14:1, 3, 5).
b. Yet, without love, the one who
prophesies is
nothing.
2. Understanding all mysteries
and all knowledge, which comes through
prophecy, is useless without love.
3. Moving mountains without love
is pointless.
a. Jesus says that with proper
faith, his
disciples could move mountains: “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith
like a
grain of mustardseed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to
there,’ and it
will move, and nothing will be impossible for you” (Mt 17:20).
b. I’m fully convinced that the
disciples could
have moved mountains. If they needed the mountain to move for some
valid reason
and had sufficient faith, the mountain would have gotten up
and moved.
c. Yet, without love, even such
love would have
been pointless.
D.
What’s
the point of all this?
1. Simply that love is better
than spectacle, that love is better than
miraculous gifts.
2. Why?
a. We need to understand this in
the context of 1
Corinthians.
- The Corinthians had
an ego problem when it
came to gifts: They really believed that if they could speak in
tongues, they
were better than those who could not.
- Any time an ego is
involved, love flies out
the window.
• Ahab wanted Naboth’s
vineyard, but Naboth
refused to give the king the inheritance of his fathers.
o When Ahab sulked in his
palace, Jezebel said
to him, “Do you now govern Israel? Arise and eat bread and let your
heart be
cheerful; I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the
Jezreelite” (1
Ki 21:7).
o Jezebel
had Naboth killed, and Ahab went and took his vineyard.
o Jezebel stroked Ahab’s
ego, thus Ahab went
along with Jezebel’s evil plan, a plan that caused the Lord to send
Elijah to
Ahab to say that Ahab would die.
o No love, but great ego.
• The same thing happened
with Cain.
o Abel’s offering was
accepted by God, but God
had no regard for Cain’s offering, “so Cain was very angry, and his
face fell”
(Gn 3:5).
o Why? Because his ego had
been harmed. He then
went and killed his brother.
o John, often referred to
as “The Apostle of
Love,” juxtaposes love and Cain’s treatment of Abel: “This is the
message that
you have heard from the beginning, that we should love
one another. We should
not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother” (1
Jn
3:11-12).
b. The Corinthians, quite like Jesus’
disciples,
wanted to be great, and they sought greatness through great spectacle,
but love
is far better.
3. Years ago, a Johns Hopkins
professor gave a group of graduate
students this assignment:
a. Go to the slums. Take 200
boys, between the
ages of 12 and 16, and investigate their background and environment.
Then
predict their chances for the future.
b. The students, after consulting
social
statistics, talking to the boys and compiling much data, concluded that
90
percent of the boys would spend some time in jail.
c. Twenty-five years later,
another group of
graduate students was given the job of testing the prediction.
- They went back to
the same area. Some of the
boys—by then men—were still there, a few had died, some had moved away,
but
they got in touch with 180 of the original 200.
- They found that
only four of the group had
ever been sent to jail.
d. Why was it that these men, who had
lived in a
breeding place of crime, had such a surprisingly good record?
- The researchers
were continually told:
“Well, there was a teacher . . . .”
- They pressed
further and found that in 75
percent of the cases it was the same woman.
• The researchers went to
this teacher, now
living in a retirement home. How had she exerted this remarkable
influence over
that group of children? Could she give them any reason
why these boys should have
remembered her?
• “No,” she said, “no, I
really can’t.” And
then, thinking back over the years, she said musingly, more to herself
than to
her questioners: “I loved those boys . . . .”
- That love the
teacher demonstrated was more
important than anything else. It was more important than arithmetic,
than
writing, than history, than grammar. It was love that changed
their lives.
• That lady could have
sought to become great
in any number of ways: through getting a Ph.D. and teaching in a famous
university, through running for office and changing the country.
• But, what did she do? She
loved and changed
countless lives?
• Are we seeking greatness
through love?
IV. LOVE IS BETTER THAN SACRIFICE, v 3.
A.
“If
I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but
have not
love, I gain nothing.”
B.
The
Gr for “I give away” means “I feed with a small morsel,” as a child or
invalid.
1. The idea is clearly charity.
2. There have been those who have
given away all that they had.
a. The early Christians “were
selling their
possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any
had
need” (Acts 2:45).
b. “Joseph, who was also called by the
apostles
Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of
Cyprus, sold
a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it
at the apostles’ feet”
(Acts 4:36-37).
C.
Early
Christians often were delivered up to fire for their faith.
D.
The
whole point here is motivation.
1. We mentioned earlier that love
is sacrifice, and Paul uses the
example of sacrifice here: sacrificing for the poor and sacrificing for
the
Lord.
2. Acts makes a good point about
the motivation for sacrifice.
a. We just read the about
Barnabas. Immediately
after we read of Barnabas, we read of Ananias and Sapphira.
b. Why is Barnabas remembered kindly,
while
Ananias and Sapphira were struck dead? Barnabas gave with pure motives;
Ananias
and Sapphira did not.
3. Is our sacrifice prompted by
love?
a. Do we contribute generously to
the church
because we love God and we want to see his work prosper?
b. Do we do what’s right out of love
for God, or
out of fear of what others might think?
c. Do we give to the needy
because we love them,
or so they’ll leave us alone?
d. What is our motivation for
sacrifice? Is that
motivation love? Do you, out of love, need to come and offer yourself
as a
living sacrifice this morning?