Love - The Greatest of All 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 Adapted from a David Owens sermon http://www.sermoncentral.com/print_friendly.asp?SermonID=124792

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5. One day an elderly woman and her little
grandson, whose face was sprinkled with
bright freckles, spent the day at the zoo.
Lots of children were waiting in line to get their
face painted by an artist who was decorating
them with tiger paws.
A girl in line turned to the freckle-faced
grandson and said, “You’ve got so many
freckles, there’s no place to paint!”

6. Embarrassed, the little boy dropped his head.
His grandmother knelt down next to him, and
said, “I love your freckles. When I was a little
girl I always wanted freckles. Freckles are
beautiful.”
The boy looked at his grandmother and said,
“Really?”
“Of course,” said the grandmother. “Why just
name me one thing that’s prettier than
freckles.”

7. The little boy thought for a moment, peered
intensely into his grandma’s face, and softly
whispered, “Wrinkles.”
The love between grandparents and
grandchildren is precious – as is the love
between husbands and wives, and parents
and children.
Love is indeed a wonderful and powerful thing.
God is love and we must become like God.

8. As we look to chapter in our study of
, we arrive at familiar and revered
territory.
Anytime we study the topic of love, we turn to
verses , and rightly so.
Most weddings we attend include something
about verses , and rightly so.

9. But what we have to keep in mind is that these
verses and this chapter are a part of a larger
context and argument.
Certainly the verses of this chapter can stand
alone and have powerful things to say to us,
but they have even greater power when they
are applied in context.

10. As Paul describes the qualities of love to his
Corinthian readers, he is seeking to promote
the character formation that will help them
overcome the many problems they are facing
in the church.
We must keep in mind that Paul penned this
letter to a church in complete disarray.

11. The Corinthian church was rife with public
immorality, doctrinal confusion, divisions,
bickering, believers suing other believers in
secular courts, pagan cults, divorce, abuses of
spiritual gifts and the abuse of the Lord’s
supper.
What was needed more than anything was
LOVE.
Not some kind of sweetly sentimental notions
of love, but real, tough love.

12. A rigorous vision of love that rejoices in the
truth and bears all suffering in the name of
Jesus.
This chapter nicely divides into three sections.
Let’s work our way through the development of
Paul’s arguments in these sections, and then
step back and apply these truths to our lives.

14. Paul’s communication in these verses can be
understood in two ways.
On the one hand, he could be condemning
“doing the right thing for the wrong reasons.”
Therefore, he would be calling for love as the
proper motivation for religious practices.

15. On the other hand, he could be condemning
moral inconsistency. In other words, doing
some of the right things but lacking love in
other areas of one’s life.
Therefore, he would be calling for love to be
lived out in all aspects of our lives.
Both readings make good sense, and there is
no need to exclude either.

16. Notice how Paul tries to illustrate his point by
exaggerating the highest religious activities
that anyone can think of.
So he pictures the person who is able to speak
in tongues of both men and angels.
He pictures the person who can fathom all
mysteries and all knowledge.
He pictures the person who has faith that can
move mountains.

17. On top of all that, he pictures the person who
gives all they possess to the poor and then
becomes a martyr by surrendering their body
to the flames.
All of the Corinthians, and us for that matter,
would look at someone who could do those
things and say, “Wow! Aren’t they spiritual!
God must really think they are something.”

18. But then Paul gives the surprise ending for
each of those people.
The person who speaks in the tongues of men
and angels but has not love, is only a noisy
gong or a clanging cymbal.
You might be interested to know that Corinth
was famous for its production of bronze
vessels and what the ESV translates “noisy
gong” is literally “bronze sounding” and is
never used elsewhere to refer to a musical
instrument.

19. Some scholars have proposed that Paul’s
phrase refers to bronze acoustic vases that
were used in the theater to echo and amplify
the voices of the actors.
The clanging symbol was particularly
associated with the cult of Cybele.
So what the Corinthians might have
understood Paul to be saying was, “Even if
you can speak with the heavenly language of
angels, but have no love, your high-toned
speech has become like the empty echo of an
actor’s speech or the noise of frenzied pagan
worship.”

20. The person who knows everything and has
mountain-moving faith, but has not love is
nothing.
And the person who gives up everything,
including their lives and body in death, but has
not love gains nothing.
So, Paul’s initial point is clear – even great
religious activity is lacking if it is not motivated
by love or accompanied by love.

22. In this next section, Paul speaks in praise of
love by detailing what love does and does not
do.
Even though Paul begins his catalogue with
two positive items, it is evident that the weight
of Paul’s interest falls upon the eight negative
items in the list.
Almost every one of these descriptions of what
love does not do correspond directly to the
behavior of the Corinthians as described
elsewhere in the letter.

23. On the positive side of love, Paul begins, “
, .”
Certainly that is an important place to begin as
we understand what love is and does.
Love should be with others needs and
problems.
It should not be impatient.
Love should be .
It should be gentle and sensitive in all its
activities.

24. Then turning to the negative, the first thing that
Paul mentions about what love does not do is
– “ .”
Paul wrote of this first in ESV
Love is the opposite of the divisive rivalry that
was going on in the Corinthian church.

25. The second negative item, “
,” echoes Paul’s repeated reprimands of
the Corinthians boasting.
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27. The third negative item surely got the
Corinthian’s attention – “ .”
Most English translations have opted for the
less colorful synonyms such as “proud,” but
the Greek word means “puffed up.”
“Love is not puffed up.”
This is precisely the word that Paul has
already used several times in the letter to
chastise the Corinthians.

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30. Paul’s most clear parallel is probably found in
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31. The fourth negative item, “ ,” is
actually a stronger term referring to shameful
behavior.
In other words, love does not behave
shamefully.
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32. Paul may have in mind the sexual misconduct
that he condemned in , and , as
well as the shameful behavior of women
prophesying with heads uncovered in ,
and the humiliation of the poor during the
Lord’s supper .
All of these Corinthian offenses would
constitute the sort of “acting shamefully” that
Paul sees as contrary to love.

33. The fifth negative item, “
,” repeats precisely the language
Paul used in in his response to the idol-
meat controversy.
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Paul used himself as an example in
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34. By this time the Corinthians would surely have
gotten the point.
Paul is implying that everything about their
behavior contradicts the character of love.
The next negative items are harder to relate to
specific passages in the letter, but they are
probably to be seen in contrast to the rivalry
and dissensions in the Corinthian church.

35. . Do not fly off into a rage at
the slightest issue.
The word translated irritable literally means to
sharpen as in sharpening a sword.
We are not to sharpen our mind, temper, or
tongue to use as a weapon against another.
. This means to put the
worst possible face on the motives and
conduct of others. So love calls us to put the
best possible face on others.

36. Love is not easily angered and keeps no
record of wrongs.
Whenever we are experiencing conflict, we
need to keep these two things in mind.
With verse , Paul closes the list of negative
attributes and offers a positive contrast –

37. “
.”
The word the ESV translated “ ,”
might better be translated “injustice” and was
featured prominently in chapter where Paul
deplored the Corinthian’s practice of taking
one another to court.

38. After telling us what love is not, Paul ends this
unit with four strong verbs that characterize
positively the action of love –
.
Paul’s point is not to say that love makes us
foolish Pollyannas, but there should be no limit
to love – no limit to its faith, hope and
endurance.

41. The final section of chapter moves the
discussion in a different direction.
Paul now contrasts the permanence of love
with the transitory character of spiritual gifts.
This part of the chapter most clearly shows
that it was composed to deal with the specific
problem of spiritual gifts in the Corinthian
church.

42. The opening affirmation of verse establishes
the point of contrast – “ .”
Others (NRSV, NET, GW, GNB, LEB) renders
the verse – “ .”
In contrast to that, prophesy, tongues and
knowledge will all be brought to nothing.
The fact that they will be brought to nothing
doesn’t mean that they are evil or have no
purpose, but just that they will no longer be
necessary at some point.

43. What is “the perfect” that Paul was waiting for?
Some have suggested & I believe it is the
completed New Testament, others have
suggested that it is the return of Christ, heaven
itself, or maturity.
Whatever we conclude about what Paul had in
mind, his main point was to relativize the place
of these gifts in the purposes of God.

44. What was the role, purpose, of speaking in
other languages, prophesying, working
miracles?
In a word, the miracles of the New Testament,
whether wrought by our Lord or by His
apostles, reveal a new source of power, in the
person of our Lord, for the salvation of men.
(ISBE)
They were to validate the spoken message.
We now have the Bible, the inspired Word of
God, so they are no longer necessary.

45. The gifts have a role to play, but the time of
their usefulness will pass.
However, the usefulness of love will never
pass away.
Paul’s point would surely have ruffled the
feathers of the Corinthians who considered
themselves far advanced in their spirituality
and who think of the gift of tongues as the
pinnacle of spiritual maturity.

46. Paul employed two analogies to try to help
them see the need to mature and grow.
He used the child to adult analogy, and he
used the mirror analogy as he talked of the
contrast of seeing an image in a mirror or
seeing the image face to face.
Depending on the quality of the mirror, there
can be a big difference between the two
images.

47. They made beautiful mirrors in Corinth, but
they hadn’t perfected the art so as to remove
distortion completely.
The reflection was not perfect, it was only
partial, just as their knowledge was partial.
God is the only one who is complete, mature,
and really knows all.

48. What lessons from chapter should we walk
away with and seek to apply to our lives?
I would like to offer one lesson from each of
the sections.
First, we learn love requires the monitoring of
our motives.
The first section of should
encourage us to step back and ask ourselves,
“Why do we do what we do?”

49. Even our most cherished religious activities
and projects should be tested by the question:
“Why am I doing this?”
If we cannot honestly say, “I am doing this for
love and in love,” then the legitimacy of the
whole enterprise must come under serious
doubt.

50. In all honesty, we must confess that we are
often motivated by a number of things,
including guilt, fear and reward.
Sometimes we do what we do because we
want to be admired spiritually by others.
But hopefully, we can grow up and overcome
the temptations to be self-seeking even in our
practice of religion.

51. Hopefully, we can grow to a place where love
is our primary motive; both love for God and
love for others.
When love does become a primary motive
then our actions lead to the building up of the
body and are recognized and rewarded by
God.

52. Second, we learn that love requires the
formation of character. Love is not just a
matter of feelings – feelings come and go –
but love endures.
Paul’s description of the attributes of love
offers a picture of a habitual lifestyle and
disposition.
None of us can merely decide in a day’s time
to start doing these things.

53. Nor can any of us master this kind of love
without the assistance of the divine.
This kind of love is the fruit of the Spirit – it is
the product of the Spirit.
This kind of fruit is cultivated over time as we
allow God’s Spirit to teach us these habits.
The church should be a school for the
cultivation of the habits and practices of love.

54. Third, we learn that love requires humility.
No matter how gifted or spiritual we become,
no matter how much we grow in knowledge,
we will always be incomplete this side of
heaven.
Even our greatest understandings and
accomplishments in Christ pale in comparison
with who God is, what God knows and what
God has done.
When we keep that in mind, we are much
easier to live with, and we will treat others
much more patiently and kindly.

55. I have no doubt that if I were to ask for a show
of hands this morning, asking how many of
you consider yourself a loving person, or
consider The Lindley Christian Church as a
loving church, that most, if not all our hands
would go up.
But are we really as loving as we think we are?
This chapter certainly puts our love to the test.

56. Here is the good news – the more we
resemble the kind of love seen in this chapter
the more blessed our lives will be.
Every single one of our relationships will be
enhanced by this kind of love – marriages,
friendships, work relationships, and church
relationships.
And, the more we love each other as God
would have us love each other, the more this
church will grow in spirit and in number.

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Let me close by leaving this picture in your
mind - the church needs to be like the
intensive care unit.
Some of us have spent a lot of time in the ICU
waiting room.

58. Listen to this excerpt from “One Inch From the
Fence” by Wes Seeliger:
“I have spent long hours in the intensive care
waiting room…watching with anguished
people…listening to urgent questions: Will my
husband make it? Will my child walk again?
How do you live without your companion of
thirty years?

59. The intensive care waiting room is different
from any other place in the world.
And the people who wait are different.
They can’t do enough for each other.
No one is rude.
The distinctions of race and class melt away.
A person is a father first, a black man second.
The garbage man loves his wife as much as
the university professor loves his, and
everyone understands this. Each person pulls
for everyone else.

60. In the intensive care waiting room, the world
changes. Vanity and pretense vanish. The
universe is focused on the doctor’s next report.
If only it will show improvement. Everyone
knows that loving someone else is what life is
all about.”
Love is the greatest of all.
Love is the most excellent way.
May God show us that way, and guide us in
that way.