Sermon Supplement, Lord’s Day, February 11, 2007
First and Second Worship Services
Kihei Baptist, Kihei,
Glenn Armstrong D.D., Pastor
LONG LASTING LOVE
Glenn Armstrong____________________________________________________
EXPOSITION OF FIRST CORINTHIANS 13:1‑3EMPTINESS, THE HUMAN HEART WITHOUT LOVE
I. HISTORICAL SETTING FOR LOVE
1. The Corinthian church needed balance in the importance of spiritual gifts.
2. The Corinthian church needed protection from the abuse of spiritual gifts.
3. The Corinthian church needed development in the purpose of spiritual gifts.
A. Chapter 11‑ THE MESSAGE‑ DIVINE DEATH‑ WHY WE WITNESS
B. Chapter 12‑ THE METHOD‑ DIVINE GIFTS‑ WHAT WE USE TO WITNESS
C. Chapter 13‑ THE MOTIVE‑ DIVINE LOVE‑ THE WAY WE USE GIFTS TO WITNESS
II. OBSERVATION ABOUT LOVE
1. Covet (12:31) = “Zelos”, fleshly jealousy. We are to earnestly desire the best gifts and use them in a harmonious manner rather than the to seek show gifts.
2. God is interested in our character rather than in our charisma.
3. Character controls the use of power attached to gifts.
4. Supernatural gifts need supernatural guidance through divine love.
III. DEFINITION OF BIBLICAL LOVE
1. Agape love
A. Greek literature gives little light to the meaning to God’s love since it is so foreign to the Greek lifestyle.
B. God’s love, "agape", expresses an idea previously unknown.
C. Agape love is defined by revelation rather than cultural rationalization.
1. It is the attitude of God the Father toward the Son, John 17:26.
2. It is the attitude of God toward lost mankind, John 3:16; Romans 5:8.
3. It is the attitude of God toward believers, John 14:21.
4. It sets the example for the attitude of believers, John 13:14.
5. It expresses the essential nature of God, I John 4:8.
6. It is a self‑sacrifice love as demonstrated at
7. It is what identifies the spiritual level of a believer.
8. It is a love that can only come from God who is the sole source of “agape” love.
9. It is the love which moves and motivates the believer to continued faithful service, II Corinthians 5:13.
2. Phileo love
A. Phileo love is tender affection.
B. It is the love a family member may have.
C. It is natural, not supernatural.
D. It comes from man, not God.
E. It is limited to a high level of possibility on a human plane.
F. It is never the kind of love a believer is commanded to have in his love for God.
G. Because of its limitation and human source, it is never the kind of love that accompanies spiritual service.
H. Its rewards will be acknowledged by man, but not necessarily by God.
I. It is powerless to produce spiritual accomplishments.
J. It is valuable for humanitarian achievements.
IV. DEMONSTRATIONS OF LOVE
1. The Hypothetical Situation of Speaking
A. Message from man
1. Tongue = language of man
2. Ability to speak in foreign languages
3. The Apostles spoke in 16 different languages at Pentecost which were unknown by them, but clearly known by the people present.
B. Message from angels
1. Not a special language
2. When the Bible records a message from angels, it is always in the language commonly known by the hearer.
C. Message without agape love
1. Becomes like noise of brass
2. Becomes like a horn played poorly
3. Becomes like an inarticulate sound
4. Becomes sound without substance
APPLICATION: The believers’ speaking without agape love is always empty senseless sound and profits nothing (no thing)!
2. The Hypothetical Situation of Knowing
A. A full head with an empty heart is worthless to God.
B. What we know, even supernatural revelation, is worthless unless presented by an accompanying divine (agape) love.
C. Believing even the right material such as supernatural revelation and accomplishments, without divine (agape) love, is spiritually worthless.
D. A miraculous act of moving a mountain supernaturally is meaningless unless the motivation grows out of divine love.
APPLICATION: Knowing and doing without agape love is always empty senseless information and activity, and profits nothing (no thing).
3. The Hypothetical Situation of Giving.
A. Giving is always good, but it does not have spiritual value unless motivated by divine love.
B. Giving food to the poor is charitable, but not necessarily an act which grows out of divine love. It can and often is a demonstration of human love (phileo).
C. Compassion and charity are expected from every human and should not necessarily expect to be accompanied by a reward from God.
D. Martyrdom is often meaningless to the purposes of God, and unless accompanied by divine love from God and for mankind it is profitless.
APPLICATION: Giving and dying (no matter how honorable) without agape love is always empty and senseless in that it will not contribute to God’s plans and purposes. In fact, giving and dying often are for ungodly and anti‑godly purposes. If so, it will profit nothing (no thing).
V. DAMAGE OF LOW LEVEL LOVE
1. Jesus reproves believers with only a “phileo” love, John 12:25.
2. Peter wrote about a love for life which is different from agape love, I Peter 3:10.
3. Peter had to learn to love God with divine love (agape) rather than human love (phileo). Until he learned this love from God, he could not effectively have a proper love for God. Actually, Peter once loved his fish the same way he loved his Savior, John 21:15‑17. Peter once loved the Lord this way, and actually we may never have loved our Lord with a higher love, agape, self‑sacrificing love.
Application: THE BELIEVER WITHOUT DIVINE LOVE IS WITHOUT PROFIT AND IS A BELIEVER WITH AN EMPTY HEART!
THE RELATIONSHIPS OF LOVE
I Corinthians 13:4‑7
Any religion which majors on building hate and rejection is a different religion than what Christ, Paul or the New Testament teaches. This is true even in the misuse of the Christian faith.
The main evidence of spiritual life and growth is an imparted love of God, His Word, and other believers, as well as those still lost without the Savior.
This passage is not a sentimental poem. It is an answer to the problem of the misuse of spiritual gifts, division within an assembly, and superficial spirituality.
The New Testament concept of love is very much unlike the world’s love. However, Christians are often so much like the world that the love God requires of His servants seems foreign to reality.
This passage of parallelism is Paul writing at his best-- sounding brass, clanging cymbals.
RELATIONSHIPS OF LOVE (HALF POSITIVE PREDICTIONS AND HALF NEGATIVE)I. LOVE IN RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER PEOPLE 13:4A
1. A believer is to be longsuffering with people and patient with things (wronged but without retaliation).
2. A believer is to be always benevolent behavior.
3. Supportive Scripture: I Thessalonians 4:9; I John 4:19; John 13:34,35; Romans 5:5
4. Even self‑sacrifice can be an act of ultimate self‑centeredness, 13:3
II. LOVE IN RELATIONSHIP TO INTERNAL CHARACTER 13:4B1. Love is satisfied with personal limitations rather than being envious, Romans 12:10. Envy is a feeling of displeasure produced by the advantage or prosperity of others. It actually is a desire to deprive another of his gain. Jealousy takes envy a step further and desires to have for oneself. Envy always has evil attached. “Physioo” appears 7 times, 6 in relation to the Corinthians.
2. Love is to be ambitious without being artificial. Vaunt implies boasting, vainglory, being a braggart and is the opposite of Christian love.
3. Love may be proud but not of personal possessions.
4. While knowledge puffs up, love builds up, cf. 8:1.
III. LOVE IN RELATIONSHIP TO EXTERNAL SITUATIONS, 13:5,6
1. Love is always without brutish behavior.
2. Love never profits at another’s expense.
3. Love is in controlled of passion and does not provoke or become bitter.
4. Love never plots to harm another.
5. Love is according to truth as a body of revelation, Ephesians 4:15.
6. Love thinks no evil in the sense that it does not keep records of others’ wrong.
7. People who are list keepers of other people’s failures are unhappy people. List workers are productive people.
8. Ephesians 4:26,32; I Peter 4:8.
9. Iniquity implies lawlessness and a contempt for divine law even to the point of deny the very existence of God, II Thessalonians 2:3.
IV. LOVE IN RELATIONSHIP TO FAITH, 13:7A1. Love finds no pleasure in others’ failures.
2. Love enjoys truth as perfecting precepts.
3. Love accepts others along with their limitations.
4. I Corinthians 8:13.
V. LOVE IN RELATIONSHIP TO THE FUTURE, 13:7B1. Love matures believers beyond having a suspicious nature or questioning motives.
2. Love matures believers to the level of anticipation of good, even from bad situations.
3. Love matures believers beyond the self‑centered “quitter stage”.
A. Intimidation
B. Spiritual “blackmail”
4. Love leads to a hope that as used in a Christian sense is confident expectation and never blind wishful thinking.
5. See I Corinthians 9:10,23.
6. Love endures and remains steadfast even in the face of unpleasant circumstances”.
APPLICATION: LOVE ME...FEED MY SHEEP, John 21:15‑17The kind of love the lord is looking for is only produced by the Holy Spirit in a believer's life and can never be self-generated. Galatians 5:22,
EXPOSITION OF FIRST CORINTHIANS 13:8‑13LONG LASTING LOVE
REVIEW: I Corinthians 13:1‑31. God’s love (agape) is compared to human love (phileo).
2. God’s love supersedes speaking, knowing and giving (13:1‑3).
3. God’s evaluation of life without His love is‑ no profit.
4. God’s reproof of life with only human love‑ you will lose what you love, John 12:25.
5. Application: Emptiness: The human heart without love.
REVIEW: I Corinthians 13:41. Love is long suffering with other people.
2. Love is without envy of others’ prosperity.
3. Love does not keep record of others’ wrongs.
4. Love accepts others’ limitations.
5. Love matures beyond a suspicious nature.
6. Love maintains a constant faith in the future.
7. Application: Love me more than these (fish)‑ Feed my sheep, feed my sheep, John 21:15‑17.
LONG LASTING LOVE: 13:8‑13
HISTORICAL SETTING: Believer are to mature beyond the use of gifts and knowledge that are transitory. Gifts are to be used only in a manner guided and guarded by a higher principle, Agape Love that comes only from God.
I. LOVE LIVES AND LASTS, 13:8 (PERMANENT)
1. Gifts are temporary.
2. Fail = rendered null and void.
3. cease = stop functioning on its own.
4. vanish away = rendered null and void.
5. The value of the gifts may last, but the use of them will not.
6. Tongues will cease functioning before other gifts are void.
7. Love lives on, beyond gifts, so excel in love.
II. LOVE LEADS AND LEARNS, 13:9‑10 (PERFECTS)
1. Gifts are imperfect.
2. God has not made revelation total.
3. God’s love will lead us to higher levels of usefulness, even when supportive information is unavailable.
4. Through God’s love we learn what is proper to do, even when supportive instructions are withheld.
5. It has always be possible to live a perfected life at any level of revelation. God’s love will always lead us towards God’s life.
6. Perfect = total revelation of God’s Word and works.
III. LOVE LEAVES AND LIBERATES, 13:11‑12 (PROGRESSES)
1. Gifts are limited and distorted.
2. Speaking, knowing and thinking are alright on a child’s level, but only when we are children. Gifts will not mature one beyond an infantile life.
3. Love, not gifts, helps us leave spiritual childhood and liberates us from the limitations of infancy.
4. An expression of God’s love will liberate others from the domination and selfish nature of an immature Christian.
5. Leaving childishness is necessary for one’s maturity.
6. Liberating others from domination is necessary for their maturity.
7. Love helps others to progressively become all that God wants them to be. It does this by compelling them to leave a lower level of personality (child) and move to a higher level (adulthood).
8. Love admits that one’s best wisdom is distorted (glass) and in riddle form (darkly).
9. Love admits that God alone has perfect knowledge and that He alone can give guidance for each individual’s future.
10. Love admits and permits.
IV. LOVE LINGERS AND IS LOFTY, 13:13 (PROFITABLE)
1. Love lasts.
2. In the triad of love, faith and hope, only love lasts.
3. Faith = trusting the trustworthiness of God, even when revelation is limited.
4. Hope = confident expectation in the details of revelation.
5. Faith and hope are limited in that they become reality and are no longer needed.
6. Love is a higher principle than faith and hope in that it is a manifestation of the very holy character of God. God is love.
7. Faith and hope grow out of details. Love grows out of deity.
8. Other important matters, gifts, faith, and hope lapse in time. Love will linger because it is loftier.
V. APPLICATIONFOLLOW AFTER (pursue diligently) GOD’S (agape) LOVE.
A LIFE OF LOVE IS THE FIRST AND LAST PLATFORM OF THE CHRISTIAN LIVING.
CHRISTIAN LOVE IS A PRODUCT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT’S MINISTRY IN THE BELIEVER’S LIFE, Galatians 5:22, 23.
THE GOD OF THE GOSPEL IS GLORIFIED ONLY THROUGH ACTS OF AGAPE LOVE. GAA(f)
EMPTINESS, THE HUMAN HEART WITHOUT LOVE
I. HISTORICAL SETTING FOR LOVE
1. The Corinthian church needed balance in the importance of spiritual gifts.
2. The Corinthian church needed protection from the abuse of spiritual gifts.
3. The Corinthian church needed development in the purpose of spiritual gifts.
A. Chapter 11‑ THE MESSAGE‑ DIVINE DEATH‑ WHY WE WITNESS
B. Chapter 12‑ THE METHOD‑ DIVINE GIFTS‑ WHAT WE USE TO WITNESS
C. Chapter 13‑ THE MOTIVE‑ DIVINE LOVE‑ THE WAY WE USE GIFTS TO WITNESS
II. OBSERVATION ABOUT LOVE
1. Covet (12:31) = “Zelos”, fleshly jealousy. We are to earnestly desire the best gifts and use them in a harmonious manner rather than the to seek show gifts.
2. God is interested in our character rather than in our charisma.
3. Character controls the use of power attached to gifts.
4. Supernatural gifts need supernatural guidance through divine love.
III. DEFINITION OF BIBLICAL LOVE
1. Agape love
A. Greek literature gives little light to the meaning to God’s love since it is so foreign to the Greek lifestyle.
B. God’s love, "agape", expresses an idea previously unknown.
C. Agape love is defined by revelation rather than cultural rationalization.
1. It is the attitude of God the Father toward the Son, John 17:26.
2. It is the attitude of God toward lost mankind, John 3:16; Romans 5:8.
3. It is the attitude of God toward believers, John 14:21.
4. It sets the example for the attitude of believers, John 13:14.
5. It expresses the essential nature of God, I John 4:8.
6. It is a self‑sacrifice love as demonstrated at
7. It is what identifies the spiritual level of a believer.
8. It is a love that can only come from God who is the sole source of “agape” love.
9. It is the love which moves and motivates the believer to continued faithful service, II Corinthians 5:13.
2. Phileo love
A. Phileo love is tender affection.
B. It is the love a family member may have.
C. It is natural, not supernatural.
D. It comes from man, not God.
E. It is limited to a high level of possibility on a human plane.
F. It is never the kind of love a believer is commanded to have in his love for God.
G. Because of its limitation and human source, it is never the kind of love that accompanies spiritual service.
H. Its rewards will be acknowledged by man, but not necessarily by God.
I. It is powerless to produce spiritual accomplishments.
J. It is valuable for humanitarian achievements.
IV. DEMONSTRATIONS OF LOVE
1. The Hypothetical Situation of Speaking
A. Message from man
1. Tongue = language of man
2. Ability to speak in foreign languages
3. The Apostles spoke in 16 different languages at Pentecost which were unknown by them, but clearly known by the people present.
B. Message from angels
1. Not a special language
2. When the Bible records a message from angels, it is always in the language commonly known by the hearer.
C. Message without agape love
1. Becomes like noise of brass
2. Becomes like a horn played poorly
3. Becomes like an inarticulate sound
4. Becomes sound without substance
APPLICATION: The believers’ speaking without agape love is always empty senseless sound and profits nothing (no thing)!
2. The Hypothetical Situation of Knowing
A. A full head with an empty heart is worthless to God.
B. What we know, even supernatural revelation, is worthless unless presented by an accompanying divine (agape) love.
C. Believing even the right material such as supernatural revelation and accomplishments, without divine (agape) love, is spiritually worthless.
D. A miraculous act of moving a mountain supernaturally is meaningless unless the motivation grows out of divine love.
APPLICATION: Knowing and doing without agape love is always empty senseless information and activity, and profits nothing (no thing).
3. The Hypothetical Situation of Giving.
A. Giving is always good, but it does not have spiritual value unless motivated by divine love.
B. Giving food to the poor is charitable, but not necessarily an act which grows out of divine love. It can and often is a demonstration of human love (phileo).
C. Compassion and charity are expected from every human and should not necessarily expect to be accompanied by a reward from God.
D. Martyrdom is often meaningless to the purposes of God, and unless accompanied by divine love from God and for mankind it is profitless.
APPLICATION: Giving and dying (no matter how honorable) without agape love is always empty and senseless in that it will not contribute to God’s plans and purposes. In fact, giving and dying often are for ungodly and anti‑godly purposes. If so, it will profit nothing (no thing).
V. DAMAGE OF LOW LEVEL LOVE
1. Jesus reproves believers with only a “phileo” love, John 12:25.
2. Peter wrote about a love for life which is different from agape love, I Peter 3:10.
3. Peter had to learn to love God with divine love (agape) rather than human love (phileo). Until he learned this love from God, he could not effectively have a proper love for God. Actually, Peter once loved his fish the same way he loved his Savior, John 21:15‑17. Peter once loved the Lord this way, and actually we may never have loved our Lord with a higher love, agape, self‑sacrificing love.
Application: THE BELIEVER WITHOUT DIVINE LOVE IS WITHOUT PROFIT AND IS A BELIEVER WITH AN EMPTY HEART!
THE RELATIONSHIPS OF LOVE
I Corinthians 13:4‑7
Any religion which majors on building hate and rejection is a different religion than what Christ, Paul or the New Testament teaches. This is true even in the misuse of the Christian faith.
The main evidence of spiritual life and growth is an imparted love of God, His Word, and other believers, as well as those still lost without the Savior.
This passage is not a sentimental poem. It is an answer to the problem of the misuse of spiritual gifts, division within an assembly, and superficial spirituality.
The New Testament concept of love is very much unlike the world’s love. However, Christians are often so much like the world that the love God requires of His servants seems foreign to reality.
This passage of parallelism is Paul writing at his best-- sounding brass, clanging cymbals.
RELATIONSHIPS OF LOVE (HALF POSITIVE PREDICTIONS AND HALF NEGATIVE)I. LOVE IN RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER PEOPLE 13:4A
1. A believer is to be longsuffering with people and patient with things (wronged but without retaliation).
2. A believer is to be always benevolent behavior.
3. Supportive Scripture: I Thessalonians 4:9; I John 4:19; John 13:34,35; Romans 5:5
4. Even self‑sacrifice can be an act of ultimate self‑centeredness, 13:3
II. LOVE IN RELATIONSHIP TO INTERNAL CHARACTER 13:4B1. Love is satisfied with personal limitations rather than being envious, Romans 12:10. Envy is a feeling of displeasure produced by the advantage or prosperity of others. It actually is a desire to deprive another of his gain. Jealousy takes envy a step further and desires to have for oneself. Envy always has evil attached. “Physioo” appears 7 times, 6 in relation to the Corinthians.
2. Love is to be ambitious without being artificial. Vaunt implies boasting, vainglory, being a braggart and is the opposite of Christian love.
3. Love may be proud but not of personal possessions.
4. While knowledge puffs up, love builds up, cf. 8:1.
III. LOVE IN RELATIONSHIP TO EXTERNAL SITUATIONS, 13:5,6
1. Love is always without brutish behavior.
2. Love never profits at another’s expense.
3. Love is in controlled of passion and does not provoke or become bitter.
4. Love never plots to harm another.
5. Love is according to truth as a body of revelation, Ephesians 4:15.
6. Love thinks no evil in the sense that it does not keep records of others’ wrong.
7. People who are list keepers of other people’s failures are unhappy people. List workers are productive people.
8. Ephesians 4:26,32; I Peter 4:8.
9. Iniquity implies lawlessness and a contempt for divine law even to the point of deny the very existence of God, II Thessalonians 2:3.
IV. LOVE IN RELATIONSHIP TO FAITH, 13:7A1. Love finds no pleasure in others’ failures.
2. Love enjoys truth as perfecting precepts.
3. Love accepts others along with their limitations.
4. I Corinthians 8:13.
V. LOVE IN RELATIONSHIP TO THE FUTURE, 13:7B1. Love matures believers beyond having a suspicious nature or questioning motives.
2. Love matures believers to the level of anticipation of good, even from bad situations.
3. Love matures believers beyond the self‑centered “quitter stage”.
A. Intimidation
B. Spiritual “blackmail”
4. Love leads to a hope that as used in a Christian sense is confident expectation and never blind wishful thinking.
5. See I Corinthians 9:10,23.
6. Love endures and remains steadfast even in the face of unpleasant circumstances”.
APPLICATION: LOVE ME...FEED MY SHEEP, John 21:15‑17The kind of love the lord is looking for is only produced by the Holy Spirit in a believer's life and can never be self-generated. Galatians 5:22,
EXPOSITION OF FIRST CORINTHIANS 13:8‑13LONG LASTING LOVE
REVIEW: I Corinthians 13:1‑31. God’s love (agape) is compared to human love (phileo).
2. God’s love supersedes speaking, knowing and giving (13:1‑3).
3. God’s evaluation of life without His love is‑ no profit.
4. God’s reproof of life with only human love‑ you will lose what you love, John 12:25.
5. Application: Emptiness: The human heart without love.
REVIEW: I Corinthians 13:41. Love is long suffering with other people.
2. Love is without envy of others’ prosperity.
3. Love does not keep record of others’ wrongs.
4. Love accepts others’ limitations.
5. Love matures beyond a suspicious nature.
6. Love maintains a constant faith in the future.
7. Application: Love me more than these (fish)‑ Feed my sheep, feed my sheep, John 21:15‑17.
LONG LASTING LOVE: 13:8‑13
HISTORICAL SETTING: Believer are to mature beyond the use of gifts and knowledge that are transitory. Gifts are to be used only in a manner guided and guarded by a higher principle, Agape Love that comes only from God.
I. LOVE LIVES AND LASTS, 13:8 (PERMANENT)
1. Gifts are temporary.
2. Fail = rendered null and void.
3. cease = stop functioning on its own.
4. vanish away = rendered null and void.
5. The value of the gifts may last, but the use of them will not.
6. Tongues will cease functioning before other gifts are void.
7. Love lives on, beyond gifts, so excel in love.
II. LOVE LEADS AND LEARNS, 13:9‑10 (PERFECTS)
1. Gifts are imperfect.
2. God has not made revelation total.
3. God’s love will lead us to higher levels of usefulness, even when supportive information is unavailable.
4. Through God’s love we learn what is proper to do, even when supportive instructions are withheld.
5. It has always be possible to live a perfected life at any level of revelation. God’s love will always lead us towards God’s life.
6. Perfect = total revelation of God’s Word and works.
III. LOVE LEAVES AND LIBERATES, 13:11‑12 (PROGRESSES)
1. Gifts are limited and distorted.
2. Speaking, knowing and thinking are alright on a child’s level, but only when we are children. Gifts will not mature one beyond an infantile life.
3. Love, not gifts, helps us leave spiritual childhood and liberates us from the limitations of infancy.
4. An expression of God’s love will liberate others from the domination and selfish nature of an immature Christian.
5. Leaving childishness is necessary for one’s maturity.
6. Liberating others from domination is necessary for their maturity.
7. Love helps others to progressively become all that God wants them to be. It does this by compelling them to leave a lower level of personality (child) and move to a higher level (adulthood).
8. Love admits that one’s best wisdom is distorted (glass) and in riddle form (darkly).
9. Love admits that God alone has perfect knowledge and that He alone can give guidance for each individual’s future.
10. Love admits and permits.
IV. LOVE LINGERS AND IS LOFTY, 13:13 (PROFITABLE)
1. Love lasts.
2. In the triad of love, faith and hope, only love lasts.
3. Faith = trusting the trustworthiness of God, even when revelation is limited.
4. Hope = confident expectation in the details of revelation.
5. Faith and hope are limited in that they become reality and are no longer needed.
6. Love is a higher principle than faith and hope in that it is a manifestation of the very holy character of God. God is love.
7. Faith and hope grow out of details. Love grows out of deity.
8. Other important matters, gifts, faith, and hope lapse in time. Love will linger because it is loftier.
V. APPLICATIONFOLLOW AFTER (pursue diligently) GOD’S (agape) LOVE.
A LIFE OF LOVE IS THE FIRST AND LAST PLATFORM OF THE CHRISTIAN LIVING.
CHRISTIAN LOVE IS A PRODUCT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT’S MINISTRY IN THE BELIEVER’S LIFE, Galatians 5:22, 23.
THE GOD OF THE GOSPEL IS GLORIFIED ONLY THROUGH ACTS OF AGAPE LOVE. GAA(f)
1. Covet (12:31) = “Zelos”, fleshly jealousy. We are to earnestly desire the best gifts and use them in a harmonious manner rather than the to seek show gifts.
2. God is interested in our character rather than in our charisma.
3. Character controls the use of power attached to gifts.
4. Supernatural gifts need supernatural guidance through divine love.
III. DEFINITION OF BIBLICAL LOVE
1. Agape love
A. Greek literature gives little light to the meaning to God’s love since it is so foreign to the Greek lifestyle.
B. God’s love, "agape", expresses an idea previously unknown.
C. Agape love is defined by revelation rather than cultural rationalization.
1. It is the attitude of God the Father toward the Son, John 17:26.
2. It is the attitude of God toward lost mankind, John 3:16; Romans 5:8.
3. It is the attitude of God toward believers, John 14:21.
4. It sets the example for the attitude of believers, John 13:14.
5. It expresses the essential nature of God, I John 4:8.
6. It is a self‑sacrifice love as demonstrated at
7. It is what identifies the spiritual level of a believer.
8. It is a love that can only come from God who is the sole source of “agape” love.
9. It is the love which moves and motivates the believer to continued faithful service, II Corinthians 5:13.
2. Phileo love
A. Phileo love is tender affection.
B. It is the love a family member may have.
C. It is natural, not supernatural.
D. It comes from man, not God.
E. It is limited to a high level of possibility on a human plane.
F. It is never the kind of love a believer is commanded to have in his love for God.
G. Because of its limitation and human source, it is never the kind of love that accompanies spiritual service.
H. Its rewards will be acknowledged by man, but not necessarily by God.
I. It is powerless to produce spiritual accomplishments.
J. It is valuable for humanitarian achievements.
IV. DEMONSTRATIONS OF LOVE
1. The Hypothetical Situation of Speaking
A. Message from man
1. Tongue = language of man
2. Ability to speak in foreign languages
3. The Apostles spoke in 16 different languages at Pentecost which were unknown by them, but clearly known by the people present.
B. Message from angels
1. Not a special language
2. When the Bible records a message from angels, it is always in the language commonly known by the hearer.
C. Message without agape love
1. Becomes like noise of brass
2. Becomes like a horn played poorly
3. Becomes like an inarticulate sound
4. Becomes sound without substance
APPLICATION: The believers’ speaking without agape love is always empty senseless sound and profits nothing (no thing)!
2. The Hypothetical Situation of Knowing
A. A full head with an empty heart is worthless to God.
B. What we know, even supernatural revelation, is worthless unless presented by an accompanying divine (agape) love.
C. Believing even the right material such as supernatural revelation and accomplishments, without divine (agape) love, is spiritually worthless.
D. A miraculous act of moving a mountain supernaturally is meaningless unless the motivation grows out of divine love.
APPLICATION: Knowing and doing without agape love is always empty senseless information and activity, and profits nothing (no thing).
3. The Hypothetical Situation of Giving.
A. Giving is always good, but it does not have spiritual value unless motivated by divine love.
B. Giving food to the poor is charitable, but not necessarily an act which grows out of divine love. It can and often is a demonstration of human love (phileo).
C. Compassion and charity are expected from every human and should not necessarily expect to be accompanied by a reward from God.
D. Martyrdom is often meaningless to the purposes of God, and unless accompanied by divine love from God and for mankind it is profitless.
APPLICATION: Giving and dying (no matter how honorable) without agape love is always empty and senseless in that it will not contribute to God’s plans and purposes. In fact, giving and dying often are for ungodly and anti‑godly purposes. If so, it will profit nothing (no thing).
V. DAMAGE OF LOW LEVEL LOVE
1. Jesus reproves believers with only a “phileo” love, John 12:25.
2. Peter wrote about a love for life which is different from agape love, I Peter 3:10.
3. Peter had to learn to love God with divine love (agape) rather than human love (phileo). Until he learned this love from God, he could not effectively have a proper love for God. Actually, Peter once loved his fish the same way he loved his Savior, John 21:15‑17. Peter once loved the Lord this way, and actually we may never have loved our Lord with a higher love, agape, self‑sacrificing love.
Application: THE BELIEVER WITHOUT DIVINE LOVE IS WITHOUT PROFIT AND IS A BELIEVER WITH AN EMPTY HEART!
THE RELATIONSHIPS OF LOVE
I Corinthians 13:4‑7
Any religion which majors on building hate and rejection is a different religion than what Christ, Paul or the New Testament teaches. This is true even in the misuse of the Christian faith.
The main evidence of spiritual life and growth is an imparted love of God, His Word, and other believers, as well as those still lost without the Savior.
This passage is not a sentimental poem. It is an answer to the problem of the misuse of spiritual gifts, division within an assembly, and superficial spirituality.
The New Testament concept of love is very much unlike the world’s love. However, Christians are often so much like the world that the love God requires of His servants seems foreign to reality.
This passage of parallelism is Paul writing at his best-- sounding brass, clanging cymbals.
RELATIONSHIPS OF LOVE (HALF POSITIVE PREDICTIONS AND HALF NEGATIVE)I. LOVE IN RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER PEOPLE 13:4A
1. A believer is to be longsuffering with people and patient with things (wronged but without retaliation).
2. A believer is to be always benevolent behavior.
3. Supportive Scripture: I Thessalonians 4:9; I John 4:19; John 13:34,35; Romans 5:5
4. Even self‑sacrifice can be an act of ultimate self‑centeredness, 13:3
II. LOVE IN RELATIONSHIP TO INTERNAL CHARACTER 13:4B1. Love is satisfied with personal limitations rather than being envious, Romans 12:10. Envy is a feeling of displeasure produced by the advantage or prosperity of others. It actually is a desire to deprive another of his gain. Jealousy takes envy a step further and desires to have for oneself. Envy always has evil attached. “Physioo” appears 7 times, 6 in relation to the Corinthians.
2. Love is to be ambitious without being artificial. Vaunt implies boasting, vainglory, being a braggart and is the opposite of Christian love.
3. Love may be proud but not of personal possessions.
4. While knowledge puffs up, love builds up, cf. 8:1.
III. LOVE IN RELATIONSHIP TO EXTERNAL SITUATIONS, 13:5,6
1. Love is always without brutish behavior.
2. Love never profits at another’s expense.
3. Love is in controlled of passion and does not provoke or become bitter.
4. Love never plots to harm another.
5. Love is according to truth as a body of revelation, Ephesians 4:15.
6. Love thinks no evil in the sense that it does not keep records of others’ wrong.
7. People who are list keepers of other people’s failures are unhappy people. List workers are productive people.
8. Ephesians 4:26,32; I Peter 4:8.
9. Iniquity implies lawlessness and a contempt for divine law even to the point of deny the very existence of God, II Thessalonians 2:3.
IV. LOVE IN RELATIONSHIP TO FAITH, 13:7A1. Love finds no pleasure in others’ failures.
2. Love enjoys truth as perfecting precepts.
3. Love accepts others along with their limitations.
4. I Corinthians 8:13.
V. LOVE IN RELATIONSHIP TO THE FUTURE, 13:7B1. Love matures believers beyond having a suspicious nature or questioning motives.
2. Love matures believers to the level of anticipation of good, even from bad situations.
3. Love matures believers beyond the self‑centered “quitter stage”.
A. Intimidation
B. Spiritual “blackmail”
4. Love leads to a hope that as used in a Christian sense is confident expectation and never blind wishful thinking.
5. See I Corinthians 9:10,23.
6. Love endures and remains steadfast even in the face of unpleasant circumstances”.
APPLICATION: LOVE ME...FEED MY SHEEP, John 21:15‑17The kind of love the lord is looking for is only produced by the Holy Spirit in a believer's life and can never be self-generated. Galatians 5:22,
EXPOSITION OF FIRST CORINTHIANS 13:8‑13LONG LASTING LOVE
REVIEW: I Corinthians 13:1‑31. God’s love (agape) is compared to human love (phileo).
2. God’s love supersedes speaking, knowing and giving (13:1‑3).
3. God’s evaluation of life without His love is‑ no profit.
4. God’s reproof of life with only human love‑ you will lose what you love, John 12:25.
5. Application: Emptiness: The human heart without love.
REVIEW: I Corinthians 13:41. Love is long suffering with other people.
2. Love is without envy of others’ prosperity.
3. Love does not keep record of others’ wrongs.
4. Love accepts others’ limitations.
5. Love matures beyond a suspicious nature.
6. Love maintains a constant faith in the future.
7. Application: Love me more than these (fish)‑ Feed my sheep, feed my sheep, John 21:15‑17.
LONG LASTING LOVE: 13:8‑13
HISTORICAL SETTING: Believer are to mature beyond the use of gifts and knowledge that are transitory. Gifts are to be used only in a manner guided and guarded by a higher principle, Agape Love that comes only from God.
I. LOVE LIVES AND LASTS, 13:8 (PERMANENT)
1. Gifts are temporary.
2. Fail = rendered null and void.
3. cease = stop functioning on its own.
4. vanish away = rendered null and void.
5. The value of the gifts may last, but the use of them will not.
6. Tongues will cease functioning before other gifts are void.
7. Love lives on, beyond gifts, so excel in love.
II. LOVE LEADS AND LEARNS, 13:9‑10 (PERFECTS)
1. Gifts are imperfect.
2. God has not made revelation total.
3. God’s love will lead us to higher levels of usefulness, even when supportive information is unavailable.
4. Through God’s love we learn what is proper to do, even when supportive instructions are withheld.
5. It has always be possible to live a perfected life at any level of revelation. God’s love will always lead us towards God’s life.
6. Perfect = total revelation of God’s Word and works.
III. LOVE LEAVES AND LIBERATES, 13:11‑12 (PROGRESSES)
1. Gifts are limited and distorted.
2. Speaking, knowing and thinking are alright on a child’s level, but only when we are children. Gifts will not mature one beyond an infantile life.
3. Love, not gifts, helps us leave spiritual childhood and liberates us from the limitations of infancy.
4. An expression of God’s love will liberate others from the domination and selfish nature of an immature Christian.
5. Leaving childishness is necessary for one’s maturity.
6. Liberating others from domination is necessary for their maturity.
7. Love helps others to progressively become all that God wants them to be. It does this by compelling them to leave a lower level of personality (child) and move to a higher level (adulthood).
8. Love admits that one’s best wisdom is distorted (glass) and in riddle form (darkly).
9. Love admits that God alone has perfect knowledge and that He alone can give guidance for each individual’s future.
10. Love admits and permits.
IV. LOVE LINGERS AND IS LOFTY, 13:13 (PROFITABLE)
1. Love lasts.
2. In the triad of love, faith and hope, only love lasts.
3. Faith = trusting the trustworthiness of God, even when revelation is limited.
4. Hope = confident expectation in the details of revelation.
5. Faith and hope are limited in that they become reality and are no longer needed.
6. Love is a higher principle than faith and hope in that it is a manifestation of the very holy character of God. God is love.
7. Faith and hope grow out of details. Love grows out of deity.
8. Other important matters, gifts, faith, and hope lapse in time. Love will linger because it is loftier.
V. APPLICATIONFOLLOW AFTER (pursue diligently) GOD’S (agape) LOVE.
A LIFE OF LOVE IS THE FIRST AND LAST PLATFORM OF THE CHRISTIAN LIVING.
CHRISTIAN LOVE IS A PRODUCT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT’S MINISTRY IN THE BELIEVER’S LIFE, Galatians 5:22, 23.
THE GOD OF THE GOSPEL IS GLORIFIED ONLY THROUGH ACTS OF AGAPE LOVE. GAA(f)
1. The Hypothetical Situation of Speaking
A. Message from man
1. Tongue = language of man
2. Ability to speak in foreign languages
3. The Apostles spoke in 16 different languages at Pentecost which were unknown by them, but clearly known by the people present.
B. Message from angels
1. Not a special language
2. When the Bible records a message from angels, it is always in the language commonly known by the hearer.
C. Message without agape love
1. Becomes like noise of brass
2. Becomes like a horn played poorly
3. Becomes like an inarticulate sound
4. Becomes sound without substance
APPLICATION: The believers’ speaking without agape love is always empty senseless sound and profits nothing (no thing)!
2. The Hypothetical Situation of Knowing
A. A full head with an empty heart is worthless to God.
B. What we know, even supernatural revelation, is worthless unless presented by an accompanying divine (agape) love.
C. Believing even the right material such as supernatural revelation and accomplishments, without divine (agape) love, is spiritually worthless.
D. A miraculous act of moving a mountain supernaturally is meaningless unless the motivation grows out of divine love.
APPLICATION: Knowing and doing without agape love is always empty senseless information and activity, and profits nothing (no thing).
3. The Hypothetical Situation of Giving.
A. Giving is always good, but it does not have spiritual value unless motivated by divine love.
B. Giving food to the poor is charitable, but not necessarily an act which grows out of divine love. It can and often is a demonstration of human love (phileo).
C. Compassion and charity are expected from every human and should not necessarily expect to be accompanied by a reward from God.
D. Martyrdom is often meaningless to the purposes of God, and unless accompanied by divine love from God and for mankind it is profitless.
APPLICATION: Giving and dying (no matter how honorable) without agape love is always empty and senseless in that it will not contribute to God’s plans and purposes. In fact, giving and dying often are for ungodly and anti‑godly purposes. If so, it will profit nothing (no thing).
V. DAMAGE OF LOW LEVEL LOVE
1. Jesus reproves believers with only a “phileo” love, John 12:25.
2. Peter wrote about a love for life which is different from agape love, I Peter 3:10.
3. Peter had to learn to love God with divine love (agape) rather than human love (phileo). Until he learned this love from God, he could not effectively have a proper love for God. Actually, Peter once loved his fish the same way he loved his Savior, John 21:15‑17. Peter once loved the Lord this way, and actually we may never have loved our Lord with a higher love, agape, self‑sacrificing love.
Application: THE BELIEVER WITHOUT DIVINE LOVE IS WITHOUT PROFIT AND IS A BELIEVER WITH AN EMPTY HEART!
THE RELATIONSHIPS OF LOVE
I Corinthians 13:4‑7
Any religion which majors on building hate and rejection is a different religion than what Christ, Paul or the New Testament teaches. This is true even in the misuse of the Christian faith.
The main evidence of spiritual life and growth is an imparted love of God, His Word, and other believers, as well as those still lost without the Savior.
This passage is not a sentimental poem. It is an answer to the problem of the misuse of spiritual gifts, division within an assembly, and superficial spirituality.
The New Testament concept of love is very much unlike the world’s love. However, Christians are often so much like the world that the love God requires of His servants seems foreign to reality.
This passage of parallelism is Paul writing at his best-- sounding brass, clanging cymbals.
RELATIONSHIPS OF LOVE (HALF POSITIVE PREDICTIONS AND HALF NEGATIVE)I. LOVE IN RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER PEOPLE 13:4A
1. A believer is to be longsuffering with people and patient with things (wronged but without retaliation).
2. A believer is to be always benevolent behavior.
3. Supportive Scripture: I Thessalonians 4:9; I John 4:19; John 13:34,35; Romans 5:5
4. Even self‑sacrifice can be an act of ultimate self‑centeredness, 13:3
II. LOVE IN RELATIONSHIP TO INTERNAL CHARACTER 13:4B1. Love is satisfied with personal limitations rather than being envious, Romans 12:10. Envy is a feeling of displeasure produced by the advantage or prosperity of others. It actually is a desire to deprive another of his gain. Jealousy takes envy a step further and desires to have for oneself. Envy always has evil attached. “Physioo” appears 7 times, 6 in relation to the Corinthians.
2. Love is to be ambitious without being artificial. Vaunt implies boasting, vainglory, being a braggart and is the opposite of Christian love.
3. Love may be proud but not of personal possessions.
4. While knowledge puffs up, love builds up, cf. 8:1.
III. LOVE IN RELATIONSHIP TO EXTERNAL SITUATIONS, 13:5,6
1. Love is always without brutish behavior.
2. Love never profits at another’s expense.
3. Love is in controlled of passion and does not provoke or become bitter.
4. Love never plots to harm another.
5. Love is according to truth as a body of revelation, Ephesians 4:15.
6. Love thinks no evil in the sense that it does not keep records of others’ wrong.
7. People who are list keepers of other people’s failures are unhappy people. List workers are productive people.
8. Ephesians 4:26,32; I Peter 4:8.
9. Iniquity implies lawlessness and a contempt for divine law even to the point of deny the very existence of God, II Thessalonians 2:3.
IV. LOVE IN RELATIONSHIP TO FAITH, 13:7A1. Love finds no pleasure in others’ failures.
2. Love enjoys truth as perfecting precepts.
3. Love accepts others along with their limitations.
4. I Corinthians 8:13.
V. LOVE IN RELATIONSHIP TO THE FUTURE, 13:7B1. Love matures believers beyond having a suspicious nature or questioning motives.
2. Love matures believers to the level of anticipation of good, even from bad situations.
3. Love matures believers beyond the self‑centered “quitter stage”.
A. Intimidation
B. Spiritual “blackmail”
4. Love leads to a hope that as used in a Christian sense is confident expectation and never blind wishful thinking.
5. See I Corinthians 9:10,23.
6. Love endures and remains steadfast even in the face of unpleasant circumstances”.
APPLICATION: LOVE ME...FEED MY SHEEP, John 21:15‑17The kind of love the lord is looking for is only produced by the Holy Spirit in a believer's life and can never be self-generated. Galatians 5:22,
EXPOSITION OF FIRST CORINTHIANS 13:8‑13LONG LASTING LOVE
REVIEW: I Corinthians 13:1‑31. God’s love (agape) is compared to human love (phileo).
2. God’s love supersedes speaking, knowing and giving (13:1‑3).
3. God’s evaluation of life without His love is‑ no profit.
4. God’s reproof of life with only human love‑ you will lose what you love, John 12:25.
5. Application: Emptiness: The human heart without love.
REVIEW: I Corinthians 13:41. Love is long suffering with other people.
2. Love is without envy of others’ prosperity.
3. Love does not keep record of others’ wrongs.
4. Love accepts others’ limitations.
5. Love matures beyond a suspicious nature.
6. Love maintains a constant faith in the future.
7. Application: Love me more than these (fish)‑ Feed my sheep, feed my sheep, John 21:15‑17.
LONG LASTING LOVE: 13:8‑13
HISTORICAL SETTING: Believer are to mature beyond the use of gifts and knowledge that are transitory. Gifts are to be used only in a manner guided and guarded by a higher principle, Agape Love that comes only from God.
I. LOVE LIVES AND LASTS, 13:8 (PERMANENT)
1. Gifts are temporary.
2. Fail = rendered null and void.
3. cease = stop functioning on its own.
4. vanish away = rendered null and void.
5. The value of the gifts may last, but the use of them will not.
6. Tongues will cease functioning before other gifts are void.
7. Love lives on, beyond gifts, so excel in love.
II. LOVE LEADS AND LEARNS, 13:9‑10 (PERFECTS)
1. Gifts are imperfect.
2. God has not made revelation total.
3. God’s love will lead us to higher levels of usefulness, even when supportive information is unavailable.
4. Through God’s love we learn what is proper to do, even when supportive instructions are withheld.
5. It has always be possible to live a perfected life at any level of revelation. God’s love will always lead us towards God’s life.
6. Perfect = total revelation of God’s Word and works.
III. LOVE LEAVES AND LIBERATES, 13:11‑12 (PROGRESSES)
1. Gifts are limited and distorted.
2. Speaking, knowing and thinking are alright on a child’s level, but only when we are children. Gifts will not mature one beyond an infantile life.
3. Love, not gifts, helps us leave spiritual childhood and liberates us from the limitations of infancy.
4. An expression of God’s love will liberate others from the domination and selfish nature of an immature Christian.
5. Leaving childishness is necessary for one’s maturity.
6. Liberating others from domination is necessary for their maturity.
7. Love helps others to progressively become all that God wants them to be. It does this by compelling them to leave a lower level of personality (child) and move to a higher level (adulthood).
8. Love admits that one’s best wisdom is distorted (glass) and in riddle form (darkly).
9. Love admits that God alone has perfect knowledge and that He alone can give guidance for each individual’s future.
10. Love admits and permits.
IV. LOVE LINGERS AND IS LOFTY, 13:13 (PROFITABLE)
1. Love lasts.
2. In the triad of love, faith and hope, only love lasts.
3. Faith = trusting the trustworthiness of God, even when revelation is limited.
4. Hope = confident expectation in the details of revelation.
5. Faith and hope are limited in that they become reality and are no longer needed.
6. Love is a higher principle than faith and hope in that it is a manifestation of the very holy character of God. God is love.
7. Faith and hope grow out of details. Love grows out of deity.
8. Other important matters, gifts, faith, and hope lapse in time. Love will linger because it is loftier.
V. APPLICATIONFOLLOW AFTER (pursue diligently) GOD’S (agape) LOVE.
A LIFE OF LOVE IS THE FIRST AND LAST PLATFORM OF THE CHRISTIAN LIVING.
CHRISTIAN LOVE IS A PRODUCT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT’S MINISTRY IN THE BELIEVER’S LIFE, Galatians 5:22, 23.
THE GOD OF THE GOSPEL IS GLORIFIED ONLY THROUGH ACTS OF AGAPE LOVE. GAA(f)
I Corinthians 13:4‑7
I. LOVE IN RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER PEOPLE 13:4A
1. A believer is to be longsuffering with people and patient with things (wronged but without retaliation).
2. A believer is to be always benevolent behavior.
3. Supportive Scripture: I Thessalonians 4:9; I John 4:19; John 13:34,35; Romans 5:5
4. Even self‑sacrifice can be an act of ultimate self‑centeredness, 13:3
II. LOVE IN RELATIONSHIP TO INTERNAL CHARACTER 13:4B1. Love is satisfied with personal limitations rather than being envious, Romans 12:10. Envy is a feeling of displeasure produced by the advantage or prosperity of others. It actually is a desire to deprive another of his gain. Jealousy takes envy a step further and desires to have for oneself. Envy always has evil attached. “Physioo” appears 7 times, 6 in relation to the Corinthians.
2. Love is to be ambitious without being artificial. Vaunt implies boasting, vainglory, being a braggart and is the opposite of Christian love.
3. Love may be proud but not of personal possessions.
4. While knowledge puffs up, love builds up, cf. 8:1.
III. LOVE IN RELATIONSHIP TO EXTERNAL SITUATIONS, 13:5,6
1. Love is always without brutish behavior.
2. Love never profits at another’s expense.
3. Love is in controlled of passion and does not provoke or become bitter.
4. Love never plots to harm another.
5. Love is according to truth as a body of revelation, Ephesians 4:15.
6. Love thinks no evil in the sense that it does not keep records of others’ wrong.
7. People who are list keepers of other people’s failures are unhappy people. List workers are productive people.
8. Ephesians 4:26,32; I Peter 4:8.
9. Iniquity implies lawlessness and a contempt for divine law even to the point of deny the very existence of God, II Thessalonians 2:3.
IV. LOVE IN RELATIONSHIP TO FAITH, 13:7A1. Love finds no pleasure in others’ failures.
2. Love enjoys truth as perfecting precepts.
3. Love accepts others along with their limitations.
4. I Corinthians 8:13.
V. LOVE IN RELATIONSHIP TO THE FUTURE, 13:7B1. Love matures believers beyond having a suspicious nature or questioning motives.
2. Love matures believers to the level of anticipation of good, even from bad situations.
3. Love matures believers beyond the self‑centered “quitter stage”.
A. Intimidation
B. Spiritual “blackmail”
4. Love leads to a hope that as used in a Christian sense is confident expectation and never blind wishful thinking.
5. See I Corinthians 9:10,23.
6. Love endures and remains steadfast even in the face of unpleasant circumstances”.
APPLICATION: LOVE ME...FEED MY SHEEP, John 21:15‑17The kind of love the lord is looking for is only produced by the Holy Spirit in a believer's life and can never be self-generated. Galatians 5:22,
EXPOSITION OF FIRST CORINTHIANS 13:8‑13LONG LASTING LOVE
REVIEW: I Corinthians 13:1‑31. God’s love (agape) is compared to human love (phileo).
2. God’s love supersedes speaking, knowing and giving (13:1‑3).
3. God’s evaluation of life without His love is‑ no profit.
4. God’s reproof of life with only human love‑ you will lose what you love, John 12:25.
5. Application: Emptiness: The human heart without love.
REVIEW: I Corinthians 13:41. Love is long suffering with other people.
2. Love is without envy of others’ prosperity.
3. Love does not keep record of others’ wrongs.
4. Love accepts others’ limitations.
5. Love matures beyond a suspicious nature.
6. Love maintains a constant faith in the future.
7. Application: Love me more than these (fish)‑ Feed my sheep, feed my sheep, John 21:15‑17.
LONG LASTING LOVE: 13:8‑13
HISTORICAL SETTING: Believer are to mature beyond the use of gifts and knowledge that are transitory. Gifts are to be used only in a manner guided and guarded by a higher principle, Agape Love that comes only from God.
I. LOVE LIVES AND LASTS, 13:8 (PERMANENT)
1. Gifts are temporary.
2. Fail = rendered null and void.
3. cease = stop functioning on its own.
4. vanish away = rendered null and void.
5. The value of the gifts may last, but the use of them will not.
6. Tongues will cease functioning before other gifts are void.
7. Love lives on, beyond gifts, so excel in love.
II. LOVE LEADS AND LEARNS, 13:9‑10 (PERFECTS)
1. Gifts are imperfect.
2. God has not made revelation total.
3. God’s love will lead us to higher levels of usefulness, even when supportive information is unavailable.
4. Through God’s love we learn what is proper to do, even when supportive instructions are withheld.
5. It has always be possible to live a perfected life at any level of revelation. God’s love will always lead us towards God’s life.
6. Perfect = total revelation of God’s Word and works.
III. LOVE LEAVES AND LIBERATES, 13:11‑12 (PROGRESSES)
1. Gifts are limited and distorted.
2. Speaking, knowing and thinking are alright on a child’s level, but only when we are children. Gifts will not mature one beyond an infantile life.
3. Love, not gifts, helps us leave spiritual childhood and liberates us from the limitations of infancy.
4. An expression of God’s love will liberate others from the domination and selfish nature of an immature Christian.
5. Leaving childishness is necessary for one’s maturity.
6. Liberating others from domination is necessary for their maturity.
7. Love helps others to progressively become all that God wants them to be. It does this by compelling them to leave a lower level of personality (child) and move to a higher level (adulthood).
8. Love admits that one’s best wisdom is distorted (glass) and in riddle form (darkly).
9. Love admits that God alone has perfect knowledge and that He alone can give guidance for each individual’s future.
10. Love admits and permits.
IV. LOVE LINGERS AND IS LOFTY, 13:13 (PROFITABLE)
1. Love lasts.
2. In the triad of love, faith and hope, only love lasts.
3. Faith = trusting the trustworthiness of God, even when revelation is limited.
4. Hope = confident expectation in the details of revelation.
5. Faith and hope are limited in that they become reality and are no longer needed.
6. Love is a higher principle than faith and hope in that it is a manifestation of the very holy character of God. God is love.
7. Faith and hope grow out of details. Love grows out of deity.
8. Other important matters, gifts, faith, and hope lapse in time. Love will linger because it is loftier.
V. APPLICATIONFOLLOW AFTER (pursue diligently) GOD’S (agape) LOVE.
A LIFE OF LOVE IS THE FIRST AND LAST PLATFORM OF THE CHRISTIAN LIVING.
CHRISTIAN LOVE IS A PRODUCT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT’S MINISTRY IN THE BELIEVER’S LIFE, Galatians 5:22, 23.
THE GOD OF THE GOSPEL IS GLORIFIED ONLY THROUGH ACTS OF AGAPE LOVE. GAA(f)
1. Love is satisfied with personal limitations rather than being envious, Romans 12:10. Envy is a feeling of displeasure produced by the advantage or prosperity of others. It actually is a desire to deprive another of his gain. Jealousy takes envy a step further and desires to have for oneself. Envy always has evil attached. “Physioo” appears 7 times, 6 in relation to the Corinthians.
2. Love is to be ambitious without being artificial. Vaunt implies boasting, vainglory, being a braggart and is the opposite of Christian love.
3. Love may be proud but not of personal possessions.
4. While knowledge puffs up, love builds up, cf. 8:1.
III. LOVE IN RELATIONSHIP TO EXTERNAL SITUATIONS, 13:5,6
1. Love is always without brutish behavior.
2. Love never profits at another’s expense.
3. Love is in controlled of passion and does not provoke or become bitter.
4. Love never plots to harm another.
5. Love is according to truth as a body of revelation, Ephesians 4:15.
6. Love thinks no evil in the sense that it does not keep records of others’ wrong.
7. People who are list keepers of other people’s failures are unhappy people. List workers are productive people.
8. Ephesians 4:26,32; I Peter 4:8.
9. Iniquity implies lawlessness and a contempt for divine law even to the point of deny the very existence of God, II Thessalonians 2:3.
IV. LOVE IN RELATIONSHIP TO FAITH, 13:7A1. Love finds no pleasure in others’ failures.
2. Love enjoys truth as perfecting precepts.
3. Love accepts others along with their limitations.
4. I Corinthians 8:13.
V. LOVE IN RELATIONSHIP TO THE FUTURE, 13:7B1. Love matures believers beyond having a suspicious nature or questioning motives.
2. Love matures believers to the level of anticipation of good, even from bad situations.
3. Love matures believers beyond the self‑centered “quitter stage”.
A. Intimidation
B. Spiritual “blackmail”
4. Love leads to a hope that as used in a Christian sense is confident expectation and never blind wishful thinking.
5. See I Corinthians 9:10,23.
6. Love endures and remains steadfast even in the face of unpleasant circumstances”.
APPLICATION: LOVE ME...FEED MY SHEEP, John 21:15‑17The kind of love the lord is looking for is only produced by the Holy Spirit in a believer's life and can never be self-generated. Galatians 5:22,
EXPOSITION OF FIRST CORINTHIANS 13:8‑13LONG LASTING LOVE
REVIEW: I Corinthians 13:1‑31. God’s love (agape) is compared to human love (phileo).
2. God’s love supersedes speaking, knowing and giving (13:1‑3).
3. God’s evaluation of life without His love is‑ no profit.
4. God’s reproof of life with only human love‑ you will lose what you love, John 12:25.
5. Application: Emptiness: The human heart without love.
REVIEW: I Corinthians 13:41. Love is long suffering with other people.
2. Love is without envy of others’ prosperity.
3. Love does not keep record of others’ wrongs.
4. Love accepts others’ limitations.
5. Love matures beyond a suspicious nature.
6. Love maintains a constant faith in the future.
7. Application: Love me more than these (fish)‑ Feed my sheep, feed my sheep, John 21:15‑17.
LONG LASTING LOVE: 13:8‑13
HISTORICAL SETTING: Believer are to mature beyond the use of gifts and knowledge that are transitory. Gifts are to be used only in a manner guided and guarded by a higher principle, Agape Love that comes only from God.
I. LOVE LIVES AND LASTS, 13:8 (PERMANENT)
1. Gifts are temporary.
2. Fail = rendered null and void.
3. cease = stop functioning on its own.
4. vanish away = rendered null and void.
5. The value of the gifts may last, but the use of them will not.
6. Tongues will cease functioning before other gifts are void.
7. Love lives on, beyond gifts, so excel in love.
II. LOVE LEADS AND LEARNS, 13:9‑10 (PERFECTS)
1. Gifts are imperfect.
2. God has not made revelation total.
3. God’s love will lead us to higher levels of usefulness, even when supportive information is unavailable.
4. Through God’s love we learn what is proper to do, even when supportive instructions are withheld.
5. It has always be possible to live a perfected life at any level of revelation. God’s love will always lead us towards God’s life.
6. Perfect = total revelation of God’s Word and works.
III. LOVE LEAVES AND LIBERATES, 13:11‑12 (PROGRESSES)
1. Gifts are limited and distorted.
2. Speaking, knowing and thinking are alright on a child’s level, but only when we are children. Gifts will not mature one beyond an infantile life.
3. Love, not gifts, helps us leave spiritual childhood and liberates us from the limitations of infancy.
4. An expression of God’s love will liberate others from the domination and selfish nature of an immature Christian.
5. Leaving childishness is necessary for one’s maturity.
6. Liberating others from domination is necessary for their maturity.
7. Love helps others to progressively become all that God wants them to be. It does this by compelling them to leave a lower level of personality (child) and move to a higher level (adulthood).
8. Love admits that one’s best wisdom is distorted (glass) and in riddle form (darkly).
9. Love admits that God alone has perfect knowledge and that He alone can give guidance for each individual’s future.
10. Love admits and permits.
IV. LOVE LINGERS AND IS LOFTY, 13:13 (PROFITABLE)
1. Love lasts.
2. In the triad of love, faith and hope, only love lasts.
3. Faith = trusting the trustworthiness of God, even when revelation is limited.
4. Hope = confident expectation in the details of revelation.
5. Faith and hope are limited in that they become reality and are no longer needed.
6. Love is a higher principle than faith and hope in that it is a manifestation of the very holy character of God. God is love.
7. Faith and hope grow out of details. Love grows out of deity.
8. Other important matters, gifts, faith, and hope lapse in time. Love will linger because it is loftier.
V. APPLICATIONFOLLOW AFTER (pursue diligently) GOD’S (agape) LOVE.
A LIFE OF LOVE IS THE FIRST AND LAST PLATFORM OF THE CHRISTIAN LIVING.
CHRISTIAN LOVE IS A PRODUCT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT’S MINISTRY IN THE BELIEVER’S LIFE, Galatians 5:22, 23.
THE GOD OF THE GOSPEL IS GLORIFIED ONLY THROUGH ACTS OF AGAPE LOVE. GAA(f)
1. Love finds no pleasure in others’ failures.
2. Love enjoys truth as perfecting precepts.
3. Love accepts others along with their limitations.
4. I Corinthians 8:13.
V. LOVE IN RELATIONSHIP TO THE FUTURE, 13:7B1. Love matures believers beyond having a suspicious nature or questioning motives.
2. Love matures believers to the level of anticipation of good, even from bad situations.
3. Love matures believers beyond the self‑centered “quitter stage”.
A. Intimidation
B. Spiritual “blackmail”
4. Love leads to a hope that as used in a Christian sense is confident expectation and never blind wishful thinking.
5. See I Corinthians 9:10,23.
6. Love endures and remains steadfast even in the face of unpleasant circumstances”.
APPLICATION: LOVE ME...FEED MY SHEEP, John 21:15‑17The kind of love the lord is looking for is only produced by the Holy Spirit in a believer's life and can never be self-generated. Galatians 5:22,
EXPOSITION OF FIRST CORINTHIANS 13:8‑13LONG LASTING LOVE
REVIEW: I Corinthians 13:1‑31. God’s love (agape) is compared to human love (phileo).
2. God’s love supersedes speaking, knowing and giving (13:1‑3).
3. God’s evaluation of life without His love is‑ no profit.
4. God’s reproof of life with only human love‑ you will lose what you love, John 12:25.
5. Application: Emptiness: The human heart without love.
REVIEW: I Corinthians 13:41. Love is long suffering with other people.
2. Love is without envy of others’ prosperity.
3. Love does not keep record of others’ wrongs.
4. Love accepts others’ limitations.
5. Love matures beyond a suspicious nature.
6. Love maintains a constant faith in the future.
7. Application: Love me more than these (fish)‑ Feed my sheep, feed my sheep, John 21:15‑17.
LONG LASTING LOVE: 13:8‑13
HISTORICAL SETTING: Believer are to mature beyond the use of gifts and knowledge that are transitory. Gifts are to be used only in a manner guided and guarded by a higher principle, Agape Love that comes only from God.
I. LOVE LIVES AND LASTS, 13:8 (PERMANENT)
1. Gifts are temporary.
2. Fail = rendered null and void.
3. cease = stop functioning on its own.
4. vanish away = rendered null and void.
5. The value of the gifts may last, but the use of them will not.
6. Tongues will cease functioning before other gifts are void.
7. Love lives on, beyond gifts, so excel in love.
II. LOVE LEADS AND LEARNS, 13:9‑10 (PERFECTS)
1. Gifts are imperfect.
2. God has not made revelation total.
3. God’s love will lead us to higher levels of usefulness, even when supportive information is unavailable.
4. Through God’s love we learn what is proper to do, even when supportive instructions are withheld.
5. It has always be possible to live a perfected life at any level of revelation. God’s love will always lead us towards God’s life.
6. Perfect = total revelation of God’s Word and works.
III. LOVE LEAVES AND LIBERATES, 13:11‑12 (PROGRESSES)
1. Gifts are limited and distorted.
2. Speaking, knowing and thinking are alright on a child’s level, but only when we are children. Gifts will not mature one beyond an infantile life.
3. Love, not gifts, helps us leave spiritual childhood and liberates us from the limitations of infancy.
4. An expression of God’s love will liberate others from the domination and selfish nature of an immature Christian.
5. Leaving childishness is necessary for one’s maturity.
6. Liberating others from domination is necessary for their maturity.
7. Love helps others to progressively become all that God wants them to be. It does this by compelling them to leave a lower level of personality (child) and move to a higher level (adulthood).
8. Love admits that one’s best wisdom is distorted (glass) and in riddle form (darkly).
9. Love admits that God alone has perfect knowledge and that He alone can give guidance for each individual’s future.
10. Love admits and permits.
IV. LOVE LINGERS AND IS LOFTY, 13:13 (PROFITABLE)
1. Love lasts.
2. In the triad of love, faith and hope, only love lasts.
3. Faith = trusting the trustworthiness of God, even when revelation is limited.
4. Hope = confident expectation in the details of revelation.
5. Faith and hope are limited in that they become reality and are no longer needed.
6. Love is a higher principle than faith and hope in that it is a manifestation of the very holy character of God. God is love.
7. Faith and hope grow out of details. Love grows out of deity.
8. Other important matters, gifts, faith, and hope lapse in time. Love will linger because it is loftier.
V. APPLICATIONFOLLOW AFTER (pursue diligently) GOD’S (agape) LOVE.
A LIFE OF LOVE IS THE FIRST AND LAST PLATFORM OF THE CHRISTIAN LIVING.
CHRISTIAN LOVE IS A PRODUCT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT’S MINISTRY IN THE BELIEVER’S LIFE, Galatians 5:22, 23.
THE GOD OF THE GOSPEL IS GLORIFIED ONLY THROUGH ACTS OF AGAPE LOVE. GAA(f)
The kind of love the lord is looking for is only produced by the Holy Spirit in a believer's life and can never be self-generated. Galatians 5:22,
EXPOSITION OF FIRST CORINTHIANS 13:8‑13LONG LASTING LOVE
REVIEW: I Corinthians 13:1‑31. God’s love (agape) is compared to human love (phileo).
2. God’s love supersedes speaking, knowing and giving (13:1‑3).
3. God’s evaluation of life without His love is‑ no profit.
4. God’s reproof of life with only human love‑ you will lose what you love, John 12:25.
5. Application: Emptiness: The human heart without love.
REVIEW: I Corinthians 13:41. Love is long suffering with other people.
2. Love is without envy of others’ prosperity.
3. Love does not keep record of others’ wrongs.
4. Love accepts others’ limitations.
5. Love matures beyond a suspicious nature.
6. Love maintains a constant faith in the future.
7. Application: Love me more than these (fish)‑ Feed my sheep, feed my sheep, John 21:15‑17.
LONG LASTING LOVE: 13:8‑13
HISTORICAL SETTING: Believer are to mature beyond the use of gifts and knowledge that are transitory. Gifts are to be used only in a manner guided and guarded by a higher principle, Agape Love that comes only from God.
I. LOVE LIVES AND LASTS, 13:8 (PERMANENT)
1. Gifts are temporary.
2. Fail = rendered null and void.
3. cease = stop functioning on its own.
4. vanish away = rendered null and void.
5. The value of the gifts may last, but the use of them will not.
6. Tongues will cease functioning before other gifts are void.
7. Love lives on, beyond gifts, so excel in love.
II. LOVE LEADS AND LEARNS, 13:9‑10 (PERFECTS)
1. Gifts are imperfect.
2. God has not made revelation total.
3. God’s love will lead us to higher levels of usefulness, even when supportive information is unavailable.
4. Through God’s love we learn what is proper to do, even when supportive instructions are withheld.
5. It has always be possible to live a perfected life at any level of revelation. God’s love will always lead us towards God’s life.
6. Perfect = total revelation of God’s Word and works.
III. LOVE LEAVES AND LIBERATES, 13:11‑12 (PROGRESSES)
1. Gifts are limited and distorted.
2. Speaking, knowing and thinking are alright on a child’s level, but only when we are children. Gifts will not mature one beyond an infantile life.
3. Love, not gifts, helps us leave spiritual childhood and liberates us from the limitations of infancy.
4. An expression of God’s love will liberate others from the domination and selfish nature of an immature Christian.
5. Leaving childishness is necessary for one’s maturity.
6. Liberating others from domination is necessary for their maturity.
7. Love helps others to progressively become all that God wants them to be. It does this by compelling them to leave a lower level of personality (child) and move to a higher level (adulthood).
8. Love admits that one’s best wisdom is distorted (glass) and in riddle form (darkly).
9. Love admits that God alone has perfect knowledge and that He alone can give guidance for each individual’s future.
10. Love admits and permits.
IV. LOVE LINGERS AND IS LOFTY, 13:13 (PROFITABLE)
1. Love lasts.
2. In the triad of love, faith and hope, only love lasts.
3. Faith = trusting the trustworthiness of God, even when revelation is limited.
4. Hope = confident expectation in the details of revelation.
5. Faith and hope are limited in that they become reality and are no longer needed.
6. Love is a higher principle than faith and hope in that it is a manifestation of the very holy character of God. God is love.
7. Faith and hope grow out of details. Love grows out of deity.
8. Other important matters, gifts, faith, and hope lapse in time. Love will linger because it is loftier.
V. APPLICATIONFOLLOW AFTER (pursue diligently) GOD’S (agape) LOVE.
A LIFE OF LOVE IS THE FIRST AND LAST PLATFORM OF THE CHRISTIAN LIVING.
CHRISTIAN LOVE IS A PRODUCT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT’S MINISTRY IN THE BELIEVER’S LIFE, Galatians 5:22, 23.
THE GOD OF THE GOSPEL IS GLORIFIED ONLY THROUGH ACTS OF AGAPE LOVE. GAA(f)
LONG LASTING LOVE
1. God’s love (agape) is compared to human love (phileo).
2. God’s love supersedes speaking, knowing and giving (13:1‑3).
3. God’s evaluation of life without His love is‑ no profit.
4. God’s reproof of life with only human love‑ you will lose what you love, John 12:25.
5. Application: Emptiness: The human heart without love.
REVIEW: I Corinthians 13:41. Love is long suffering with other people.
2. Love is without envy of others’ prosperity.
3. Love does not keep record of others’ wrongs.
4. Love accepts others’ limitations.
5. Love matures beyond a suspicious nature.
6. Love maintains a constant faith in the future.
7. Application: Love me more than these (fish)‑ Feed my sheep, feed my sheep, John 21:15‑17.
LONG LASTING LOVE: 13:8‑13
HISTORICAL SETTING: Believer are to mature beyond the use of gifts and knowledge that are transitory. Gifts are to be used only in a manner guided and guarded by a higher principle, Agape Love that comes only from God.
I. LOVE LIVES AND LASTS, 13:8 (PERMANENT)
1. Gifts are temporary.
2. Fail = rendered null and void.
3. cease = stop functioning on its own.
4. vanish away = rendered null and void.
5. The value of the gifts may last, but the use of them will not.
6. Tongues will cease functioning before other gifts are void.
7. Love lives on, beyond gifts, so excel in love.
II. LOVE LEADS AND LEARNS, 13:9‑10 (PERFECTS)
1. Gifts are imperfect.
2. God has not made revelation total.
3. God’s love will lead us to higher levels of usefulness, even when supportive information is unavailable.
4. Through God’s love we learn what is proper to do, even when supportive instructions are withheld.
5. It has always be possible to live a perfected life at any level of revelation. God’s love will always lead us towards God’s life.
6. Perfect = total revelation of God’s Word and works.
III. LOVE LEAVES AND LIBERATES, 13:11‑12 (PROGRESSES)
1. Gifts are limited and distorted.
2. Speaking, knowing and thinking are alright on a child’s level, but only when we are children. Gifts will not mature one beyond an infantile life.
3. Love, not gifts, helps us leave spiritual childhood and liberates us from the limitations of infancy.
4. An expression of God’s love will liberate others from the domination and selfish nature of an immature Christian.
5. Leaving childishness is necessary for one’s maturity.
6. Liberating others from domination is necessary for their maturity.
7. Love helps others to progressively become all that God wants them to be. It does this by compelling them to leave a lower level of personality (child) and move to a higher level (adulthood).
8. Love admits that one’s best wisdom is distorted (glass) and in riddle form (darkly).
9. Love admits that God alone has perfect knowledge and that He alone can give guidance for each individual’s future.
10. Love admits and permits.
IV. LOVE LINGERS AND IS LOFTY, 13:13 (PROFITABLE)
1. Love lasts.
2. In the triad of love, faith and hope, only love lasts.
3. Faith = trusting the trustworthiness of God, even when revelation is limited.
4. Hope = confident expectation in the details of revelation.
5. Faith and hope are limited in that they become reality and are no longer needed.
6. Love is a higher principle than faith and hope in that it is a manifestation of the very holy character of God. God is love.
7. Faith and hope grow out of details. Love grows out of deity.
8. Other important matters, gifts, faith, and hope lapse in time. Love will linger because it is loftier.
V. APPLICATIONFOLLOW AFTER (pursue diligently) GOD’S (agape) LOVE.
A LIFE OF LOVE IS THE FIRST AND LAST PLATFORM OF THE CHRISTIAN LIVING.
CHRISTIAN LOVE IS A PRODUCT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT’S MINISTRY IN THE BELIEVER’S LIFE, Galatians 5:22, 23.
THE GOD OF THE GOSPEL IS GLORIFIED ONLY THROUGH ACTS OF AGAPE LOVE. GAA(f)
7. Application: Love me more than these (fish)‑ Feed my sheep, feed my sheep, John 21:15‑17.
HISTORICAL SETTING: Believer are to mature beyond the use of gifts and knowledge that are transitory. Gifts are to be used only in a manner guided and guarded by a higher principle, Agape Love that comes only from God.
I. LOVE LIVES AND LASTS, 13:8 (PERMANENT)
1. Gifts are temporary.
2. Fail = rendered null and void.
3. cease = stop functioning on its own.
4. vanish away = rendered null and void.
5. The value of the gifts may last, but the use of them will not.
6. Tongues will cease functioning before other gifts are void.
7. Love lives on, beyond gifts, so excel in love.
II. LOVE LEADS AND LEARNS, 13:9‑10 (PERFECTS)
1. Gifts are imperfect.
2. God has not made revelation total.
3. God’s love will lead us to higher levels of usefulness, even when supportive information is unavailable.
4. Through God’s love we learn what is proper to do, even when supportive instructions are withheld.
5. It has always be possible to live a perfected life at any level of revelation. God’s love will always lead us towards God’s life.
6. Perfect = total revelation of God’s Word and works.
III. LOVE LEAVES AND LIBERATES, 13:11‑12 (PROGRESSES)
1. Gifts are limited and distorted.
2. Speaking, knowing and thinking are alright on a child’s level, but only when we are children. Gifts will not mature one beyond an infantile life.
3. Love, not gifts, helps us leave spiritual childhood and liberates us from the limitations of infancy.
4. An expression of God’s love will liberate others from the domination and selfish nature of an immature Christian.
5. Leaving childishness is necessary for one’s maturity.
6. Liberating others from domination is necessary for their maturity.
7. Love helps others to progressively become all that God wants them to be. It does this by compelling them to leave a lower level of personality (child) and move to a higher level (adulthood).
8. Love admits that one’s best wisdom is distorted (glass) and in riddle form (darkly).
9. Love admits that God alone has perfect knowledge and that He alone can give guidance for each individual’s future.
10. Love admits and permits.
IV. LOVE LINGERS AND IS LOFTY, 13:13 (PROFITABLE)
1. Love lasts.
2. In the triad of love, faith and hope, only love lasts.
3. Faith = trusting the trustworthiness of God, even when revelation is limited.
4. Hope = confident expectation in the details of revelation.
5. Faith and hope are limited in that they become reality and are no longer needed.
6. Love is a higher principle than faith and hope in that it is a manifestation of the very holy character of God. God is love.
7. Faith and hope grow out of details. Love grows out of deity.
8. Other important matters, gifts, faith, and hope lapse in time. Love will linger because it is loftier.
V. APPLICATIONFOLLOW AFTER (pursue diligently) GOD’S (agape) LOVE.
A LIFE OF LOVE IS THE FIRST AND LAST PLATFORM OF THE CHRISTIAN LIVING.
CHRISTIAN LOVE IS A PRODUCT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT’S MINISTRY IN THE BELIEVER’S LIFE, Galatians 5:22, 23.
THE GOD OF THE GOSPEL IS GLORIFIED ONLY THROUGH ACTS OF AGAPE LOVE. GAA(f)
