What’s A Church To Do?
Studies in First Corinthians
32^nd in the Series

31 But eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way. ¹ If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. ⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. ⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. ¹² Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. ¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.  (1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13, NIV)

As I look out over this audience, it occurs to me that all of you are older today than you were the last time I saw you. Indeed, we are all getting older, aren’t we? And to be honest with you, I must confess that I don’t like that. But no one has found the Fountain of Youth, so I suppose we will just have to look at the positive side of things.

There are some positive aspects about getting older. It does give you more experience with life and it does give you a greater perspective on life. Things that you thought were so important when you were young don’t seem all that important as you grow older. And it also gives you a sense of your own mortality. You realize more clearly that you will not live in this body forever. And in some people, this engenders a midlife crisis. It has been said that we are the only creature that knows it is going to die. That knowledge does cause you to ask some serious questions. What is really important? What’s it all about? What really matters?

I recently watched a movie where one of the characters looked at a tombstone on which the date of birth and date of death were listed, separated by a hyphen. The character commented on how that hyphen represented the person’s entire life. Think about it. Your entire life on a tombstone comes down to a single hyphen.

As you know, I was out of the pulpit last week because I had been sick. For a couple of days I felt extremely bad. I hurt all over and was literally "out of it" for a while. But during that time I found myself thinking and dreaming about past events throughout my life, even from childhood. Mostly I thought about people I had known and relationships that had at one time been very important to me. These were schoolmates, best friends, people in my family, and others with whom I had spent significant time. And for some strange reason this became very upsetting. I thought of all the loss. As you grow older, things change, people move on, people die, and there is nothing you can do about it. The more I thought about how much of life is dealing with loss, the more emotionally distraught I became. I must confess that I don’t like that about life.

But one thing this experience crystallized for me was something that all of us know intellectually, and that is that the best things in life are not things, but people we love and who love us. Life is more than things. Life is more than accomplishments. The bottom line of life is love. Without love, nothing else matters much. And I believe that everyone, without exception, wants to experience what it means the give and receive genuine love.

The passage before us is considered the love chapter of the Bible. It is probably one of the most beautiful passages in all of Scripture. It summarizes for us God’s motivation in redemption, for God so loved this world that he gave his son Jesus to die for us.

In a way, it seems out of place. It comes right in the middle of a discussion on spiritual gifts and their use in the church. But perhaps Paul, as he was thinking about the importance of each member of the body doing their part, suddenly realized he needed to remind them of the why of it all. You see, however important we are and what ever gift we have means nothing without love. It’s all about love. Love is the very nature of God and also the mark of the Christian. And we need to be reminded of that.

Does love, God’s love characterize what I do and why I do it? What an important question for us to ask! Because without love nothing else matters much. We desperately need to see that the priority of living is loving the way God loves, so that what we do for him makes a difference for eternity. But before we look at that question, let’s first look at the characteristics of genuine love as God defines it.

As we have already said, this all comes in the context of the use of spiritual gifts. Paul has been teaching the Corinthians, and us, just how important we all are to the function and health of the body. We all have a gift. We all have a ministry. We all have a place of service, a job to do. And it’s all important. We are encouraged to desire the greater gifts, so that we can make a difference and extend the kingdom of God.

But wait! There is a danger. What is your motivation? Why do you want these gifts? Why do you want to make an impact? The danger is that one key ingredient can be missing that is essential. That ingredient is love. More specifically, it is God’s love. This is what Paul calls the most excellent way.

When we talk about love, the reason we need to define what kind of love it is, is because of the way we use the word in our language. The Greek language had several words for love, each with its own particular definition. There were three major words, although C. S. Lewis covers a fourth in his book, The Four Loves.

One of the three major words is phileo. This is the word most commonly used for friendship. It is brotherly love. The city, a few miles away, of which we are a suburb, gets its name from this word. Philadelphia is the city of brotherly love, at least in theory. There is a reciprocal nature to this kind of love. One pastor, Doug Goins, called it the "if" kind of love. "If you’re nice to me, if we share things in common, if you please me, if you love me... then I will love you." There are conditions placed on this kind of love.

Another major word used for love is eros. Again, this is a familiar sounding word to us. From it we get our word "erotic." It refers to the physical or sensual aspect of love. And like phileo, eros comes with conditions to be met. There must be a certain chemistry, a certain attraction. Goins calls it the "because" kind of love. "Because you’re so handsome or beautiful, because you’re so wonderful to me, because you give me physical pleasure... I will love you."

The word Paul uses for love here is the Greek word agape. This is the love of God, or God’s kind of love. And what sets it apart from all the rest is that it is unconditional. Goins calls it the "in spite of" kind of love. In spite of your faults and failures, in spite of your inconsistencies and hypocrisies, whatever you’re like, I choose to love you." It is this kind of love that should be the mark of every Christian. Without it, nothing really matters much.

To illustrate his point, he uses the very gifts of the Spirit of which he has been talking. You may have the gift of tongues, even angelic tongues. In Corinth, they were making a big deal about this gift. But what good is it without love? Without love, you are only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. You’re just an annoying noise. In the next verse, he makes the same point using the gift of prophecy. He says if you can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge and have a faith that can move mountains, what good is it without love? No good. In fact, he says, "I am nothing." Nothing? This is pretty strong stuff. He is on to speak of someone willing to give all to the poor, something extremely self sacrificing. He speaks of someone even willing to lay down his life as a martyr, to surrender my body to the flames. But without love, I gain nothing.

Love is essential. Without love, God’s love, you have nothing, you are nothing, and you gain nothing.

Not only is love essential, he goes on to say that love is evident in what we do and how we live. It is not invisible. It is not merely a feeling. Love is an act of the will that reveals itself by what it does and by how it behaves.

He is going to give us 15 descriptions of love in this section. Love is patient. The idea here is of long suffering even in the midst of trial, of bearing up under hardship without complaining. Love is kind, not harsh or insensitive. Love does not envy. It does not resent what others have or covet their possessions or lifestyle. Love does not boast or brag or call attention to itself. Love is not proud. The word used here can also be translated as arrogant. This is the person that always has to be right. Someone once said that "arrogance is big-headed, but love is big-hearted."

He goes on to say that love is not rude. This is also been translated as love "does not act unbecomingly." In other words, love behaves itself, is considerate for others, and gracious. Love is not self-seeking or selfish in any way. It doesn’t insist on its own way. Love is not easily angered. This is also translated as "not provoked." The word "easily" is not in the original Greek. The idea is that love keeps you from being quick tempered. It gives you a long fuse, not a short one. Love keeps no record of wrongs. This is accounting terminology. Keeping accurate records is good as far as your money is concerned, but it is not good as far as your relationships are concerned. Do you keep a record of the wrongs you have suffered? Do you have a list? Are you holding a grudge? Do you say things like "I’ll forgive but I’ll never forget"? When God forgives us, he wipes the records clean. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. In other words, we don’t rejoice when others fall into sin and suffer the consequences. We’re not looking to tear them down but to build them up. The truth builds people up. We rejoice when righteousness prevails, when good things happen, when people succeed in following God, when there are testimonies of truth that encourage one another. Love always protects. The idea here is bearing up or helping. Love always trusts. It sees the best in someone. Love always hopes. There is an optimistic outlook in someone filled with God’s love. Love always perseveres. It’s there for you. It stays when others walk out.

This is a great definition of how love behaves. In fact, it is simply a description of the character of Christ. You could put his name in each of these phrases and they would all work. Try it sometime. Then put your name there. How’s your love life?

Love is essential. We can’t do without it. Love is evident in our actions and behavior, in what we choose to do and not do, and in how we treat one another. But love is also eternal. It will never end or cease to exist.

Paul goes on to say that love never fails. When everything else is gone, love will always endure. The spiritual gifts will fail. Prophecies, as good as they are and as encouraging as they can be, will cease. Tongues, however eloquent or edifying, will be stilled. Even knowledge, growing exponentially, one day will pass away.

Our problem is that we are incomplete. We are in part, Paul says. We know in part. We prophesy in part. But there will come a day when perfection comes. And in that day when the perfect comes, the imperfect disappears. You see, we’re not there yet. We don’t know it all. We haven’t experienced it all. We have only seen glimpses of the glory of God. We haven’t entered into the kingdom in all its fullness. We’re still walking by faith, imperfect faith at that. We’re still living in the hope of the glory that is to come. Then we will be complete.

Children grow up. When they do they put away childish ways. We are all still in some stage of maturity. What we see is but a poor reflection as in a mirror. It’s not the real thing. It’s only a reflection. But one day we are going to see him face to face. One day our knowledge will be complete, we shall know fully, even as I am fully known. Until then, we need all of God’s gifts. Until then, we need to study to show ourselves approved. We need to walk by faith. We need to live by hope. But we must genuinely love. It is the most excellent way. It is indispensable. Without it, none of the rest works.

Without love, nothing else matters much. You may achieve great success, financial wealth, fame and recognition. You could be considered the greatest person alive. But it doesn’t really matter if you’re not loved and if you don’t really love. You’re nothing. And you have nothing. How’s your love life? Does love, God’s love characterize what you do and what you do it?

Love is the highest expression of God the world will ever see because it is eternal and essential. Without it, all else is useless, imperfect, and temporary. Nothing can take its place. For God so loved the world because God is love. And Jesus showed us the greater love, God’s love, by dying on the Cross for our sin. Think about it. The very God we had offended came himself to pay the penalty for how we had wronged him.

Copyright © 2004 J. David Hoke. This data file is the sole property of the copyright holder and may be copied only in its entirety for circulation freely without charge. All copies of this data file must contain the above copyright notice.

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