Christ: Eternal Love with Skin and Bones
Intro: The apostle Paul addressed a variety of controversial issues facing the church at Corinth. There was controversy over baptism, leadership, marriage, and charismatic gifts — to name a few. To that list we could add our own controversies over theology, worship, and church growth.
According to Paul the solution to (almost) all of the controversies (problems) facing churches is love. Love is foundational to the Christian life. It is called the primary mark of the Christian. It is the fruit of the Spirit and the supreme virtue of Christ.
Context: Apart from love there is no communion/fellowship with God and no life in the church. Consider these texts:
1 Cor. 2:9-10 — Only those who love God can see, hear, and understand what God has prepared for them. Those who do not love God will never know.
1 Cor. 8:1-3 – If God establishes a relationship with you then love (not data/information) will be the mark of your fellowship with God. If we do not love each other we prove that we do not know God for God is love.
Unfortunately, love is one of the first casualties of any conflict or controversy. It is virtually impossible to maintain controversies when love stands at the center of your relationships.
Text: 1 Corinthians 13:1-12
Calvin – The main truth of the passage is this—that as love is the only rule of our actions, and the only means of regulating the right use of the gifts of God, nothing, in the absence of it, is approved by God, however magnificent it may be in the estimation of men.
1 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. 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.
Love is better than charismatic gifts. Love is better than esoteric knowledge. Love is better than mystical insight. Love is better than propositional truths. Love is better than spiritual experiences. Love is better than social work. Love is better than personal martyrdom.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends.
Basically, the apostle Paul treats love as the personification of Christ. Christ is eternal love with skin and bones. Christ is love made flesh.
To help us understand eternal love the apostle describes it in positive and negative terms. He teaches us what love is and what it is not; what loves does and what it does not.
As we work our way through the text let’s examine our own hearts. Compare and contrast yourself with Christ. Do not compare yourself with other people. Compare yourself with Christ and see where you need to change and how you need to grow. Remember the ultimate goal is to be conformed to the image of Christ.
Positive (+)
Love is patient — to persevere for a long time; to endure misfortunes and troubles for a long time; to be long-suffering in bearing the offenses and injuries of others.
Love is kind – gracious and well-disposed to serve others
Love rejoices with the truth – celebrates sound doctrine, biblical teaching, and divine revelation
Love bears all things – stego means two things: love protects and supports; it covers over and holds up; love shelters and shields.
Love believes all things – grants benefit of doubt to others
Love hopes all things – expects to see progress and good things in others
Love endures all things – hupomeno permanently abides in one place come what may
All these things describe the Lord Jesus Christ. Do they describe you?
Negative (-)
Love does not envy – heated emotions that boil with zeal, envy, leads to hatred which leads to anger which leads to death
Love does not boast – to brag about one’s self; bragging is “employing rhetorical embellishments in extolling yourself excessively”; put more simply it means to talk a lot of BS about yourself.
Love is not arrogant – to inflate, blow up, to cause to swell up; to puff up, make proud
Love is not rude — to act indecently or shamefully; nothing to blush about or be ashamed of
Love does not insist on its own way – demand something from someone; does not seek its own things; not ego-centric; not seek its own advantage
Love is not irritable – edgy, touchy, grouchy; hyper-sensitive.
Love is not resentful – not a record-keeper of evil; no data base of wrongs; no permanent records
Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing – lit. unrighteousness, injustice, sin
Love never ends – Lit. never falls down, perishes, or decays; never falls into ruin; never collapses
All these things describe the Lord Jesus Christ. Do they describe you?
8 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. 11 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. 12 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.
There is a real difference between wanting charismata and desiring Christ. To spiritual infants/children charismatic gifts, esoteric knowledge, and spiritual experience are everything. But to spiritual adults Christian love is everything.
Spiritual children are fascinated with momentary things, things that are designed to fade away and fall out of use–like spiritual gifts. Spiritual adults are fascinated with permanent things, things that are designed to endure the tests of time–like the fruit of the Spirit and the virtues of Christ.
Love is total, everything else is partial. Love is eternal, everything else is temporal.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Love is better than systematic theology. Love is better than church growth. Love is better than traditional and contemporary worship. Love is better than mission work. Love is better than money. Love is better than (sex) making love. Love is better than faith and hope. Love is better than everything, because nothing is better than Christ who is love incarnate, love with skin and bones.
Conclusion:
So how did the apostle dismantle the controversial threats to the church at Corinth? Love. And how should we dismantle the controversial threats at New Hope? Love.
Pursue love (14:1). Let all that you be done in love (16:14).
“If anyone does not love Christ the Lord, let him be accursed.” (16:22)
