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The Great Commandment, Part 4
1 Corinthians 13 – The Love Chapter
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June 22, 2014 ~ Legacy Baptist (www.LegacyBaptistChurch.org)
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My prayer is (and at the top of our website ) that we are becoming a:
GREAT COMMANDMENT CHURCH (the last few weeks’ MEMORY VERSES):
Matthew 22:36-40 (ESV), THE GREAT COMMANDMENT - “Teacher, which is the great
commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all
your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first
commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On
these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
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Next Sunday we’re beginning the Gospel of Mark, preparing us to lead our lost friends through a
six-week one-on-one (or small group) evangelistic study of Mark. I want to see us all equipped in
sharing the Gospel clearly and lovingly. So here are the next few weeks’ memory
verses… [which you can now see on the church website, on the “Scripture Memory Tab”. And
there’s a sheet you can print off that has ALL the verses we’ve been memorizing, with some of
my comments and in different Bible versions.]
2 Timothy 2:24–26 (ESV) - And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to
everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25 correcting his opponents with gentleness.
God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may
come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do
his will.
[This verse is so helpful for when we share the Gospel, or have to confront someone who is in
error. Our job is to be KIND and CLEAR, then we pray that God will “grant them repentance
leading to a knowledge of the truth…” This is a heart change that only our Sovereign God can
bring, but He uses the means of us teaching His truth (prayerfully in a KIND and CLEAR way).]
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INTRO to 1 Cor 13
Here is the “Love Chapter”! It’s often heard at weddings (and of course it applies there), but
here’s the original context… The church at Corinth was very gifted, and particularly admired
showy speaking gifts (contrast 1 Cor 2:1-5). They were divided over which Christian leaders and
speakers they admired (1 Cor 1:10-13; 3:3-9, etc). And then in 1 Cor 5 they were apparently
bragging over their tolerance of the open, ongoing, unrepentant sexual sin of one of their church
members. So yet ANOTHER misunderstanding of what Biblical love is supposed to be like. In 1
Cor 6 we find they were suing each other. In 1 Cor 8 and 10 they weren’t willing to sacrifice any
of their food/drink preferences, even though they were tempting other church members to
stumble in sin. In 1 Cor 11, we find out the rich have been eating elaborate meals before the
Lord’s Supper, before the poor had time to get off work and get there, so ANOTHER division in
the church. And 1 Cor 12 and 14 are about spiritual gifts, and how what we need is a focus on
gifts that BUILD up the body of Christ, not let an individual show off. THIS is the context for the
“Love Chapter”! It would have been VERY convicting, not a pretty thing to read at a wedding.
They (like so quickly happens with us) were slipping into an individual focus, rather than on what
would honor God and build up the whole church.
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Today we live in a culture that has redefined love as what makes ME feel loved, or as tolerance
of whatever the person is doing. But Biblical love is being committed to what is best for the one
loved. There are descriptions here with hard edges (like “love rejoices with the truth” – v 6) and
descriptions with a softer feel (“kind” – v 4, “not irritable” – v 5). In other words, there’s enough
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here for all of us to be in over our heads and desperate for God’s Spirit to bear His fruit in our
lives (the first of which is love – see Gal 5:22-26)!
---------------------------1 Corinthians 12:24–13:13 (ESV)
24 …God has so composed the body, giving
greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that
there may be no division in the body, but that
the members may have the same care for
one another. 26 If one member suffers, all
suffer together; if one member is honored, all
rejoice together. 27 Now you are the body of
Christ and individually members of it. 28 And
God has appointed in the church first
apostles, second prophets, third teachers,
then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping,
administrating, and various kinds of tongues.
29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all
teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all
possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with
tongues? Do all interpret? [These are
“rhetorical questions,” where you already know
the answer – “No!”] 31 But earnestly desire the
higher gifts.
[I think this refers to the gifts that build up the
body – see 1 Cor 14:1-5, 12-19, 26. ALL of
the gifts must be exercised in LOVE, and not
be a chance to just do our thing and feel
good about ourselves.]
And I will show you a still more excellent
way.
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I. The IMPORTANCE of Love
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If I speak in the tongues of men and of
angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong
or a clanging cymbal. 2 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. [Including not a
Christian – see 1 Jn 4:7-8, 19-21.] 3 If I give
away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to
be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
[See last week’s notes for more on the
importance of love…]
II. The DESCRIPTION of Love
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Love is patient
[or “suffers long” / “endures”; see this Intro for
how much the Corinthian church had done to
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each other, and Paul wants them to hang in
there and love each other! I’m concerned it’s
so easy to be isolated these days that we
don’t let each other close enough to have to
“suffer long”.]
and kind;
[gentle / useful / acting on behalf of another’s
good – see 1 Cor 5:5 which may not have
FELT kind, but WAS aimed at his long-term
good and the good of the church as a whole.
Many have commented that these
descriptions are all actions. True, but “kind”
gives a gentle feel to all those actions.
The same Greek root is in Ephesians 4:32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, as God in Christ
forgave you.]
love does not envy
[NASB: “is not jealous”; same Greek in
James 4:2 as “covet”]
or boast;
[or “brag” / doesn’t need to “top that
testimony”]
it is not arrogant
[or “puffed up” / proud; this word is used a lot
in 1 Corinthians to describe this church – 1
Cor 4:6, 18, 19; 5:2; 8:1. 1 Cor 8:1b (ESV) ...“knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up.]
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or rude.
[HCSB – “does not act improperly”. Love
cares about behaving properly towards the
opposite sex (same Greek as 1 Cor 7:36) and
proper manners for the culture (for rudeness
in the Corinthian church, see 1 Cor 11:5-6,
20-22, 14:26-40]. And yes, this means that
we’ll put others’ comfort ahead of our own –
see 1 Cor 9:19-23]
It does not insist on its own way;
[love DOES insist on GOD’s way – see 1 Cor
5, 13:6, but not its OWN way.
1 Cor 10:24 (ESV) - Let no one seek his own
good, but the good of his neighbor. [Also 1
Cor 9:19-23, 10:31-33, 6:7]
it is not irritable
[NIV = “easily angered”
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James 1:19–20 (ESV) - Know this, my
beloved brothers: let every person be quick to
hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the
anger of man does not produce the
righteousness of God.]
or resentful;
[NIV = “keeps no record of wrongs”
2 Cor 5:19 (ESV) - …in Christ God was
reconciling the world to himself, not counting
their trespasses against them, and
entrusting to us the message of
reconciliation.]
it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but
rejoices with the truth.
[See 1 Cor 5 for a perfect example. (1 Cor
5:8 is the only other place in 1 Cor that uses
this same Greek word for “truth”).
Also see 3 John 4 (ESV) - I have no greater
joy than to hear that my children are walking
in the truth.]
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Love bears all things,
[“bears” – NIV = “always protects,” and it
CAN be that, but it’s the same Greek in 1 Cor
9:12 as “endures”. Also same Greek in 1
Thess 3:1,5. Love hangs in there, even after
the horrible way the Corinthians had been
treating each other – see Intro.]
believes all things, hopes all things, endures
all things.
[NIV = “always trusts, always hopes, always
endures.” This is the word that’s used
consistently in the NT for belief / trust in God
and His truth. Most commentators think that
here, because of the context, it refers to
putting the best spin on what those we love
tell us, and hoping the best for their spiritual
condition (like Paul demonstrates in 2 Cor
1:7, 2:3, 3:2-4, 7:16, 10:15). A few others
(and I’m leaning this way) say that Biblical
love keeps trusting and hoping in GOD and
what HE has said and promised, no matter
what’s happening around us; no matter how
III. The PERMANENCE of Love
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deeply those we love are hurting us. There
may be an element of both these things –
Biblical love looks to GOD for what it is
ultimately trusting and hoping in, and can
therefore afford to be hurt by others, tending
towards believing / hoping the best about
them, while our ultimate confidence is in God,
so we endure, looking to Him and loving
those He’s put in our church family,
even/especially when that’s tough.]
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Love never ends. As for prophecies,
they will pass away; as for tongues, they will
cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9
For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will
pass away.
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[Some see “the perfect” as referring to the
completion of Scripture. I don’t think so,
especially in view of 1 Cor 13:12. I think it’s
referring to heaven. The clear point, though,
is this: the Corinthians (and us, too) tending
to get overly excited about things that are
TEMPORARY (in this case, the gifts of
tongues, prophesy, and the gift of
knowledge). We NEED to focus on what is
ETERNAL, like love! A good evaluation
question: “What difference will this make in
100 years??”]
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When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I
thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.
When I became a man, I gave up childish
ways.
[In other words, love is the mark of Christian
MATURITY. The way the Corinthians had
been acting (see Intro) was childish.]
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For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then
face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall
know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these
three; but the greatest of these is love.