I Corinthians 13

Harvest

Introduction

Love is basic to Christian nature.

John 13:34-35 [34] A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. [35] By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Love is essential to Christian Community.

“This love is a servant of the will, not a victim of the emotion.” (John Stott)

Three Strong Statements about the Nature of Things When Love is Absent

1 –Exciting Worship

[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.

pointIf you don’t have love among yourselves, your exciting worship is just worthless noise.

2 –Solid Teaching

[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.

pointIf you don’t have love among yourselves, all your teaching and preaching and knowledge are nothing.

3 – Abounding in Service and Sacrifice

[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.

point If you don’t have love among yourselves, your giving and going and serving and sacrificing gain nothing.

15 Facets of Love

Love is…

not focused on the worthiness of the one loved…

but on the character of the lover.

Philippians 2:12-13 [12] Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, [13] for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

1 – patient (:4) (Exodus 34:6 II Peter 3:9 Romans 2:4 Matthew 12:20)

2 – kind (:4) (Ephesians 2:7 Romans 2:4 Matthew 11:30)

3 – does not envy (:4) (Proverbs 14:30 Proverbs 27:4 James 3:14)

4 – does not boast (:4)

5 – is not arrogant (:4)

6 – is not rude (:5) (I Peter 3:5)

7 – does not insist on its own way (:5) (Matthew 20:28 Acts 20:35)

8 - it is not irritable (:5c) (I Peter 2:23-24)

9 - or resentful; (:5d) (Romans 4:8)

10 - it does not rejoice at wrongdoing (:6a) (Proverbs 18:8 Philippians 4:8)

11 - but rejoices with the truth. (:6b) (III John 4)

I John 4:7-12 [7] Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. [8] Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. [12] No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.