Pursue Love!

Pursue Love
1 Corinthians 13

A More Excellent Way

In 12:31, Paul says, “And I will show you a still more excellent way.” With that, he introduces what has become one of the most cherished passages of Scripture in the Bible: the love chapter. 1st Corinthians 13 is probably the passage of Scripture quoted most often at weddings. Many of us have heard it so many times that we can quote parts of it. But sadly, like Psalm 23, it is a passage that is read more often than it is understood. And since we’ve heard it several times before, I need to ask you to try and hear it again now in a new way. Hear it now not just as a great work of prose, but as the teaching of an apostle of Jesus for our church.

So what does Paul mean when he says that he is showing us “a more excellent way”? He’s not saying that we should choose to pursue love instead of spiritual gifts, since he says in 12:31 “earnestly desire the higher gifts.” Rather, he is saying that love must be paramount. Our desire for gifts is only appropriate when it is motivated by a desire to show love to others. As Calvin says, “This, then, is the more excellent way, when love is the regulating principle of all our actions.”

I wonder, is love “the regulating principle” of your life? What does this look like? Consider with me how love should be the regulating principle of our lives in our thoughts, our words, and our actions:

First, consider the many thoughts that come into your head each day. Some are graciously prompted in you by the Spirit, and are good and pure thoughts. Others are motivated by the flesh, and are evil, selfish thoughts. Which do you allow to be entertained in your mind? As Christians, we should allow love to be the standard of our thoughts. If our thoughts contain love for God or love for others, then meditate on them. But if our thoughts are loveless, we should seek to put them as far away from us as possible as quickly as possible.

Or, consider the words we speak: Woe to the person who speaks whatever pops into his head! We should be slow to speak, thinking about what we are going to say before we say it. And we learn to how to test our words for love, not allowing any loveless words to pass from our lips. This is what Paul is getting at in Ephesians when he says

“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” (4:29)

And love should be the regulating principle of our actions. Nothing should be done if it is not motivated by love. This is where the Corinthians had gone off track – they were pursuing gifts as a means for exalting themselves rather than as a means for serving others.

So let me ask you again: Is love the regulating principle of your life? What would your spouse say? What would your children say? Let me encourage you to ask them on your way home tonight. Ask, is my life characterized by love? Or is there some other quality that more accurately characterizes the way I live?

The Excellency of Love

Where do we begin in trying to express the excellency of love? Even the Biblical word itself speaks of its uniqueness. The word agape was not a commonly used word for love in the first century. Phileo and eros and storge were much more common. But Christians took the word agape and made it the word to describe the love of God – undeserved, sacrificial, divine love. It is this kind of love that we see displayed at the cross! And it is this kind of love that Paul is saying we should pursue above all else.

Of course, we all remember what Jesus said was the greatest commandment. “You shall love…”, He said. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” And what was the second greatest? “You shall love!” “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” And then Jesus says this remarkable statement: “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Mt. 22:37-40)

In other words, all that God requires of us is summed up in this word: Love! Now, of course, we need more words then that. We need words to tell us what love is and what it looks like. In the Bible we find stories that show us what is loving and what is not. We find promises that enable us to love. And most importantly, we find the God who is love. The Bible is a book about love!

All of the other virtues that God commands for us are brought together in love. Colossians 3:14 says, “And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” 1st Peter 4:8 says, “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.” What is the primary fruit of the Spirit? It is love! What is the best evidence that we have come to know God? Love! “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.” (1 John 4:7)

Love is more excellent than spiritual gifts. That’s Paul’s point in verses 1-3. In verse 1, we see that love is more excellent that speaking in tongues. The “tongues of men and of angels” is probably a reference to speaking in tongues, though it certainly includes all human speech. The fact is, without love, all of our speaking of any kind is like a “noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” It is obnoxious and repulsive to God!

Oh, how many times we repulse God with our words! Sometimes we sing a song called “I Love You, Lord”, that says:

I love You, Lord, and I lift my voice
To worship You, oh, my soul, rejoice!
Take joy, my King, in what You hear,
May it be a sweet, sweet sound in Your ear.

When we speak in love to one another, speaking truth, encouraging and admonishing, seeking to strengthen each other’s faith, that is a sweet sound in God’s ear! He delights in that! But when we use our words to exalt ourselves and to tear down others created in His image, it disgusts Him, it angers Him, and He would be right to condemn us. I thank God that all my repulsive words have been nailed to the cross, and that I have been forgiven for them. Let us resolve to only speak in love – this is the more excellent way.

In verse 2, Paul refers to three spiritual gifts that he has already mentioned in 12:8-10: the gift of prophecy, the gift of knowledge, and the gift of faith. These are the kinds of gifts that Paul would probably refer to as higher gifts, because of the good that can from them. Yet Paul says that even if a person has these gifts, without love, he is nothing.

Contrast God’s way of evaluating people with the world’s way of evaluating people. The world says that those who are talented, intelligent, wealthy, famous, or influential are something. They are of high value. God says that only people who love are something. Everyone else is nothing.

Why? Because nothing is good or beautiful in God’s eyes if it is lacking love! Love is the essential ingredient in goodness and beauty (which, by the way, are synonymous in the Bible.) Take love away, and everything becomes rotten.

Consider what I’m doing right now. Preaching in God’s eyes is a glorious thing when love is involved. When a pastor preaches out of love for the people, longing for them to know God’s love, God is delighted! He is rejoicing over us! But when a pastor preaches not out of love, but out of a desire for self-exaltation, or out of greed, that preaching is an abomination in God’s eyes.

This was the case with the spiritual gifts in Corinth. It wasn’t the gifts that were the problem. In fact, it really is amazing that despite all of the conflict the Corinthian church was experiencing over the issue of gifts, Paul still in the first chapter thanks God for the many spiritual gifts He had given them. And he does not tell the Corinthians to stop using their gifts, but actually encourages them to pursue the gifts even more! So the gifts themselves were not the problem – it was the motivation behind them. When spiritual gifts are used in pride, to exalt ourselves, they become hideous to God. But when they are used in love, they are honorable and good and pleasing to God.

Some have tried to suggest that in chapter 13 Paul is “chasing a rabbit” – he’s wandering away from his topic of spiritual gifts. But that’s not at all what he’s doing! Rather, he has put his finger on the main issue and is helping the Corinthians to understand that while they were wonderfully blessed with spiritual gifts, what they really needed was love!

In verse 3 Paul talks about the gift of generosity and self-sacrifice – both truly wonderful things. Oh how our world needs to see more self-sacrificing Christians, giving of themselves to lift up others, to care for the poor and the oppressed, the widow and the orphan, willing to die for the cause of Christ! Yet all of these things become ugly and sinful when they are not motivated by love. God is not glorified in loveless sacrifice! And there will be no reward in heaven.

Perhaps we could sum up these first three verses in two words: motives matter. When love is not our regulating principle, our driving force, then all of our good works truly are as filthy rags before God.

Love Described

Jerry Bridges says that love is “an inner disposition of the soul provided by the Holy Spirit.” This means that love is not mainly external, but internal, though true love will express itself in outward ways. Our thoughts, our words, and our actions all spring from our hearts; if love is in our hearts – in our very souls – then it will come out in everything we say, think, and do.

I appreciate Bridges’ description of love because it also reminds us that true love ultimately comes from the Holy Spirit. We can talk about unbelievers “falling in love”, but then we’re really talking about eros or storge – not agape. Agape love comes from God and only God – like faith, He must give it to us or we will not have it. This should send us to our knees every day crying out for more love that we might better reflect His character to our families, friends, etc.

Here in 1st Corinthians 13, Paul does not define love so much as he describes it. Some things are more easily described than defined. Verses 4-7 are Paul’s description of love. I do not intend for us to take the time to expound each line – that would take a whole series of sermons[1] - but I do want to make two comments about this description:

1. I want us to understand that Paul is not describing love here for academic or artistic purposes. It’s true that entire books have been written about the content of this chapter, and it’s true that it is a beautiful work of prose, but Paul’s desire for the Corinthians was not that they would read it and say “Oh, isn’t that nice” or “Oh, isn’t that deep.” Paul’s desire was for them to live this out! And God’s desire for us is that we would practice these things as well. Only God can make this happen, but He does so through our efforts to obey. “For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13) So let’s not just marvel at this passage – let’s live it out!

2. It seems very likely that the descriptions of love that Paul chooses to use in verses 4-7 are exactly those that the Corinthians needed to hear. Paul says love is patient, yet one of the problems in the church at Corinth was those who were more knowledgeable about food sacrificed to idols were not being patient with those who had less understanding. Paul says love is kind, though in chapter 11 the wealthy in the church were going ahead with their meals while the poor had none. Paul says love does not envy, yet the Corinthians were jealous of those more gifted than they. Love is not arrogant, yet Paul had to instruct the Corinthians in chapter 1 to only boast in the Lord. Love is not rude, yet Corinth was plagued with disunity and the inability of the people to get along with each other. Love does not insist on its own way, yet the Corinthians were taking each other to court to get their own way. You get the point. Paul’s desire was that this description of love would serve the Corinthians as a mirror into which they could look and see just how sinful they were. Paul’s aim was repentance!

I wonder, do you need to repent of being impatient or unkind? Is your life characterized by envy or arrogance? Are you rude, or do you always insist on your own way? Then don’t treat these sins lightly, but be just as repulsed by them as God is, and resolve to be different. Pray that God would make you different, and that He would empower you to overcome your sins and to obtain virtue.

Love is Forever

1st Corinthians 13 is a love sandwich. The meat of the sandwich is the description of love in verses 4-7. The two slices of bread are the two reasons why Paul urges us to pursue love. Reason number one is in verses 1-3: love is so inherently excellent that we are nothing without it. Reason number two is in verses 8-13: love is eternal.

The argument in verses 8-13 is mainly that spiritual gifts will pass away, but love will not. This is most obvious in verse 8, where Paul is teaching that the spiritual gifts of prophecy, tongues, and knowledge will all pass away. Why will they pass away? Verses 9-10 tell us. They will pass away because they are imperfect gifts for an imperfect world. We are not meant to have perfect knowledge in this life – only glimpses of truth that God is gracious enough to reveal to us. Prophecy, tongues, and knowledge were all spiritual gifts that – when properly exercised – were used by God to reveal truth. But when the perfect come – that is, when Jesus comes back and we enter into eternal life – our knowledge will be perfect and we will not need these gifts anymore. They will have ceased.

Verse 11 is an illustration from our own lives. People do not remain children forever, but at some point put away childish things and grow up. So also, God’s children are not meant to remain in this sanctification process forever, but will be made perfect one day. We may be growing up now, but we will be made fully mature in heaven.

Verse 12 says that our knowledge today is like looking into a mirror dimly. Unlike our mirrors today, most mirrors in the first century had a dark tint and were not nearly as smooth as our mirrors. The result is that a person’s reflection would be distorted. Yet when we arrive in heaven, the distortions will be gone and we will see clearly.

What about the phrase “then I shall know fully”? Does this mean we will know everything when we get to heaven? It is hard to say. The Greek word is epiginosko, and can mean “to know accurately”. Paul could be saying that just as God knows us accurately – with no distortion – in heaven we will finally have an accurate knowledge of ourselves and of God.

The Bible never directly addresses the question of whether we’ll know everything in heaven or not, but my best guess is that we will not. God is infinite, we are finite. He is capable of infinite knowledge – but as finite beings, we are not. We will always be finite beings; we will never become gods. God alone is omniscient. My guess is that in heaven we will know all that we need – and perhaps heaven will be a place where we spend eternity learning more and more about God, thus giving us more and more reason to worship Him anew every day in the age to come.

In verse 13, we are told that faith, hope, and love remain. They are with us now. But the greatest of these is love. Why? Because only love will last forever. Faith will give way to sight. Hope will give way to possession. But love – that will last forever.

Heaven is a World of Love

I want to ask all of us to take seriously the command of 14:1 – pursue love! Let us ask God to make us more loving people. And to encourage us and lift up our hearts, I want to close by reading one passage from a sermon Jonathan Edwards preached around 250 years ago on this passage. He was focusing on the fact that love will endure forever, and that perfect love awaits us in heaven. The sermon was entitled, “Heaven, A World of Love”, and here is one short portion of it:

“There, even in heaven, dwells the God from whom every stream of holy love, yea, every drop that is, or ever was, proceeds. There dwells God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, united as one, in infinitely dear, and incomprehensible, and mutual, and eternal love. There dwells God the Father, who is the father of mercies, and so the father of love, who so loved the world as to give his only-begotten Son to die for it. There dwells Christ, the Lamb of God, the prince of peace and of love, who so loved the world that he shed his blood, and poured out his soul unto death for men. There dwells the great Mediator, through whom all the divine love is expressed toward men, and by whom the fruits of that love have been purchased, and through whom they are communicated, and through whom love is imparted to the hearts of all God’s people. There dwells Christ in both his natures, the human and the divine, sitting on the same throne with the Father. And there dwells the Holy Spirit — the Spirit of divine love, in whom the very essence of God, as it were, flows out, and is breathed forth in love, and by whose immediate influence all holy love is shed abroad in the hearts of all the saints on earth and in heaven. There, in heaven, this infinite fountain of love — this eternal Three in One — is set open without any obstacle to hinder access to it, as it flows forever. There this glorious God is manifested, and shines forth, in full glory, in beams of love. And there this glorious fountain forever flows forth in streams, yea, in rivers of love and delight, and these rivers swell, as it were, to an ocean of love, in which the souls of the ransomed may bathe with the sweetest enjoyment, and their hearts, as it were, be deluged with love!”

Amen