Love is... (2)
The Church of Corinth; Struggling to be in the world but not of the world • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 49:42
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Intro:
Review:
Deviod of Love
defined love of God
talked about it being in his nature
defined those who lack love from God as not belonging to God. This could be the focus of Paul’s rebuke to the Corinthians
background behind Paul’s rebuke is the prioritizing worldly things above love, even in the church. The gifts themselves became more important than the love those gifts are supposed to be practiced through.
Love from God towards one another is the key and the gifts are just a means to demonstrate that love.
Focus:
Today, we are going to submerge ourselves and look deep into God’s love. We can be fascinated by the ocean while standing at the beach or we can put on scuba gear, dive deep into the ocean and look at all its inhabitants and its components. Then we will truly be amazed.
The lens by which we look at God’s love is the works that he has carried out in Christ so we can then understand how he might carry that out in us by His Spirit. We must first see Christ display these characteristics if we are to understand the way in which we too can carry them out in this world.
A few statements about this passage as we move forward in our study:
these seem to be written in adjectival way meaning, descriptors of love. “Love is Kind” but when you look at the Greek, Love is the subject and what follows is simply a present active verb so for example. Love continually suffers long has a stronger and powerful phrase than love is patient. It not only reminds the reader of the action of God himself as he acts in love upon our lives but it calls the follower of Jesus, who possesses the power of the Spirit to a holy action of love that reflects God’s power in us.
These commands are not calling believers to be perfect in this area. If anything, they show everyone that in our human state, we fall short.
“a close look at this chapter should provoke us to a deep repentance, because it reveals what agape demands of us as we are called to be imitators of God. But as the demands of agape are spelled out for us, they reveal the nature of the love in the character of God Himself. When we measure our behavior against God’s standard, it is clear that our behavior falls far short of what love requires.” - Sproul
But with a transformed heart by the Spirit that longs to love as God loves and a continual power that flows in us by the Spirit, we can display this love to others. It is a grace of God but he equips us to accomplish what he commands us to do.
I would love to say we will finish this list, but why start off a sermon with a lie. Instead, I have divided up this list in 10 characteristics of Christian love. These are components and details to which God has richly displayed his love to us. Again, imagine this is our first deep dive into God’s endless ocean of love. What wonders we will behold.
1. Suffering Long
1. Suffering Long
1 Corinthians 13:4 (NASB95)
4 Love is patient
Literally love continually suffers long. The context of such a phrase is that one suffers long with injury that has been directed at him or her. We can all relate the this context in a world full of sin where insults, hate and physical attacks are hurled at us. Sin not only invites conflict with others, but sin in this world invites circumstances that require us to suffer long with them. Bodily ailments and disease require us to suffer long or be patient.
Think of this aspect of love as defensive for the Christian life. Suffering long is the mental, emotional control of a person to withhold and stand firm from the passions that may lead us to react negatively and ungodly in dire situations. One commentator describes it as “holding out before fuming and breaking into flames” (Rogers and Rogers, 379).
It is defensive in our Christian conduct because we are preventing acts of unholiness from rising up from the well of our struggle with the flesh. Instead, of lashing out in anger at our enemy or our circumstances, the Spirit empowers the patience and the longsuffering to hold steady.
We can see longsuffering in Jesus Christ, which accusations about his insanity came at him from his own family. He said nothing. When the religious leaders called him a blasphemer, when he was insulted and sit upon he retailiated not.
7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.
You could also say that God’s longsuffering with our sin, not immediately crushing us when we fail him is an act of his love. When God clothed Adam and Eve in the garden, casting them out in isolation but not immediate annihilation is an act of love. While separation from God’s presence was a challenge, they lived, they still were able to be fruitful and multiply, and they were given the promise that their rebellion had a cure in one who would bring resolution and peace to mankind again.
Peter tells us of God’s loving patience in
2 peter 3:9
9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
What a gracious act of love for God to long-suffer with us so humanity can come to know of this peace with God that was provided in the work of Jesus Christ upon the cross.
So then, we are called to long suffer as the first component of love. As I said last week, there are clear connections to Galatians 5 and the fruits of the Spirit and this list of the characteristics of love. In that list, we read that the Spirit creates love, peace and patience. All three of these connect us to long-suffering because we love as God loves, we seek peace as the peacemakers that God creates us to be. Be are long suffering with the insults and injures of this world.
Now let’s see how longsuffering connects us to #2 in our list of characteristics of Godly love.....
2. Suffering Long with Kindness
2. Suffering Long with Kindness
1 Corinthians 13:4 (NASB95)
4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,
I call this suffering long with kindness, because kindness is the offense as longsuffering is the defense of these moments. How do we respond to insults and injuries, we push back rage and revenge, and we put on kindness. Kindness means a willingness to be helpful and useful. Couple that action with those in this world, those who hurt or attack us, and we see much clearer God’s love manifest in his people.
Who has the capacity to be a helpful hand to our enemies? Who has the mental or emotional fortitude to look into the eyes of those who hate us and instead of extending a fist of rage and revenge, we offer a helping hand?
God gives us that strength in his spirit and its only by His spirit that his people can accomplish kindness.
Let us consider the opposite response, an unholy response to injuries that was mentioned previously- revenge. Revenge is the opposite of kindness. Revenge is the plan of Satan while Kindness is the work of God. Revenge led Cain to murder his brother while kindness was displayed in David towards his pursuing son, Absalom.
Jonathan Edwards writes,
“There are many ways in which men do that which is revengeful: not merely by actually bringing some immediate suffering on the one that may have injured them, but by anything, either in speech or behavior, which shows a bitterness of spirit against him for what he has done. Thus, if after we are offended or injured, we speak reproachfully to our neighbor, or of him to others, with a design to lower or injure him, and that we may gratify the bitter spirit we feel in our hearts for the injury that neighbor has done us, this is revenge.” -Edwards, Charity and Its Fruits
Instead of taking the judgment of God and his wrath into our own hands, making it our mission, instead Spirit-born believers will put on kindness. We will be helps to those who have harmed us. It may not be initially but under conviction, we will put away wrath and put on Christ love.
“In him that exercises the Christian spirit as he ought, there will not be a passionate, rash, or hasty expression, or a bitter, exasperated countenance, or an air of violence in the talk or behavior. But, on the contrary, the countenance and words and demeanor will all manifest the savor of peaceableness and calmness and gentleness.”Edwards, Charity and Its Fruits
But kindness is more than just how we respond to the worst case scenario, but the Christian love that leads to kindness is one that is always a doer of good and who lends a helping hand. We live a culture these days where we see a generation who is more eager to use their hands to hold the phones that record someone in distress rather than use those hands to help.
The Good Samaritan is an example of kindness, especially towards a cultural enemy because he was a help to a man in an unexpected moment. The Samaritan shows kindness by caring for the injured Jew, over an above what one might even consider a normal method of help. The Samaritan went to great lengths of personal sacrifice to show kindness and help towards this man.
Therefore, when we act in loving kindness, we are doing good and being a help to the saved and the lost. All are our neighbor whom the Lord calls us to love and as our neighbors, we will seek to care and help them in a Spirit born kindness that comes from God.
God’s kindness manifest in Christ
Christ is kindness personified! He was a help to the helpless during his earthly ministry. He was kind to social and personal enemies like the Samaritan woman and his friend Judas. He healed beggars instead of ignoring them. He cared for widows and desperate fathers like Jairus. Most importantly, the work of Jesus on the cross reflects God’s kindness towards sinners in Christ.
12 So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.
Paul roots his argument to the Colossians that our forgiveness, compassion and kindness flows from those who have truly tasted the grace and forgiveness of Christ. How could we still hold grudges, act unkindly or even carry out revenge towards others if we say that Christ is our Lord and we have forgiveness in Him for so much. Christian, we cannot hold onto bitterness and resentment in one hand and cling to Christ with the other. Instead, Christian love compels us to show kindness and be a help to others, even our enemies.
3. Being Content
3. Being Content
1 Corinthians 13:4 (NASB95)
4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous;
The first two statement are given in the positive form and most of the others are in the negative. We will look at the remaining commands in both their positive and negative respects.
The third characteristic of love is Not being jealous. This is probably one of the easiest GK words to remember because ZELOO which sounds alot like our English word zealous. If you are zealous for something, you can positively act with passion towards accomplishing a task or goal in your life.
Isaiah 26:11 (NASB95)
11 O Lord, Your hand is lifted up yet they do not see it. They see Your zeal for the people and are put to shame; Indeed, fire will devour Your enemies.
God has a passionate love for his people that is called zeal. But in the negative, that zeal can be sinful with man. Zeal can be for that which does not belong to us. Zeal for other people’s fame, other people’s successes, or other people’s popularity. We can desire that which does not belong to us and therefore we fall into the sin of jealousy. We can imagine how jealous was swarming around the idea of spiritual gifts in the church at Corinth. As the gift divided believer from believer, it was clearly over that distinction of gifts that lead some to covet or be jealous over the gifts others have.
Jealousy in its root form is when a person is not content with what God has given them. Jealousy is a failure to trust in the sovereign provision of God for your life. Instead of trusting that the Lord has given us exactly what we need for our lives, we can fall into jealousy toward others and fail to love them. How can we love someone if we are jealous over what belongs to them? Instead of love, our jealousy leads to contempt, rivalry and competitiveness.
Jonathan Edwards writes,
“this spirit is especially called envy, when we dislike and are opposed to another's honor or prosperity, because, in general, it is greater than our own, or because, in particular, they have some honor or enjoyment that we have not. It is a disposition natural in men, that they love to be uppermost; and this disposition is directly crossed, when they see others above them. And it is from this spirit that men dislike and are opposed to the prosperity of others, because they think it makes those who possess it superior, in some respect, to themselves. And from this same disposition, a person may dislike another's being equal to himself in honor or happiness, or in having the same sources of enjoyments that he has. For as men very commonly are, they cannot bear a rival much, if any, better than a superior, for they love to be singular and alone in their eminence and advancement.”
One of the great examples of jealousy instead of love in the Bible is the story of Cain and Abel in Gen 4 where jealous consumed Cain. The word jealousy is not used in this story but it isn’t hard to deduce such an emotion in Cain. It is written that God accepted the offering of Abel and not Cain because it was Abel that gave God his best while the attitude behind Cain’s offering was arrogance and unbelief.
The writer of Hebrews gives clarity,
Hebrews 11:4 (NASB95)
4 By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.
Cain’s offering in contrast lacked faith and in his anger, he retaliated. But instead of being angry with God, Cain turned to his brother Abel and in jealousy and wrath murdered his brother. Instead of being content with God’s judgment of the offerings and moving to respond in faith, Cain acted in jealous hate toward his brother and towards God himself.
When jealousy consumes us, we are driven from love to hate. We hate those who have what we want and we hate God for not giving to us accordingly to what we think that we need.
14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. 15 This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.
We must see that it was envy and jealousy that put the Lord Jesus on the cross by his enemies. When Jesus stood trial before the Jews under Roman arrest, and Pilate gave the Jews the choice of releasing Jesus, the Scriptures tell us,
17 So when the people gathered together, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release for you? Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” 18 For he knew that because of envy they had handed Him over.
The religious leaders had been filled with demonic envy in their unbelief and this led them to allow a criminal to go free while sending an innocent man to perish on the cross.
God calls us to turn from our envy and jealousy and to put on contentment.
6 But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. 7 For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. 8 If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.
Paul reminds us that God has given us all that we need and in proportion to what he desires for us to have. As God’s people called to love as God loves, then we must not allow jealousy and envy to affect our love for others. Instead, when we are content, we will love as Christ loved us. We will be filled with joy at the success and accolades of others. We will rejoice in good gifts that God has given them.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Let me stop here and call us to evaluate our hearts this afternoon. Does the love of God dwell within us? Do we put on these aspects of love, although imperfectly, yet consistently? Are we longsuffering? Are we seeking to help others? Are we joyful at the blessings of others as we rest in the contentment of what God has given us?
Paul’s description of love in these verses should leads all of us to repentance as the Spirit reveals some of these areas that we need growth in.
Others here with us or online, may see for the first time that God’s love does not dwell with them and therefore, they need to repent and trust Christ. He will in turn change your heart into a heart that loves as God loves.