1 Corinthians 13:8-13 God is Love!

1 Corinthians 13:8-13  Love never fails.  But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.  When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.  When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.  Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.  And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love.

Love never fails.  All else might fail us.  Our spiritual understanding and our giftings might fail us.  Even our knowledge of what is might fail us.  But God who is love will never fail us.  In the spiritual sense, love holds all creation together for God is the Creator.  He is the entity who spawned life as we know it; we see his love in the universe.  Love is more than an emotion.  Jesus said the law taught people to ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy.  But I say, love your enemies!  Pray for those who persecute you!  In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven.  For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and on the unjust, too.  (Matthew 5:43-45)  For us, the word enemy connotes hatred, bitterness, betrayal.  These are emotions that define an enemy, but Jesus says, God's love wipes those attitudes away.  The love of God surpasses our limited human understanding.  We see that when Jesus is on the cross, He prays, Father, forgive these people, because they don’t know what they are doing.  (Luke 23:34)  Stephen expresses the same forgiveness when he is stoned to death.  Love is a heavenly property flowing from the heart of God.  Maybe if we were caught up into paradise as was Paul's experience, we might come back with a better understanding of love.  But I do know that I was caught up into paradise and heard things so astounding that they cannot be told.  (2 Corinthians 12:4)  Undoubtedly, love in the perspective of heaven remains beyond our concepts to explain with our words.  Words tend to fail us when we try to define God, the unimaginable in a world guided by the senses.  Who can understand or explain God with our limited vocabulary and concepts.  Talking about our final heavenly dwelling the scriptures say, No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.  (1 Corinthians 2:9)  God, our heavenly home, and God's divine love are beyond our imagination.  So we depend upon the Holy Spirit to teach us who God is, to prepare us for heaven, and to love God and others through us.

Our dependence upon God is complete.  We look to him in all areas of life.  Earlier in Paul's letter we read his rebuke to the Corinthians to stop looking to themselves for wisdom.  He wrote: Stop fooling yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world’s standards, you will have to become a fool so you can become wise by God’s standards.  For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God.  (1 Corinthians 3:18-19)   We often try to use the wisdom and knowledge of this world to explain spiritual realities in a way that is understandable to our natural minds.  Attempts to make the spiritual coherent to the flesh are not inherently bad, for Paul says, Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.  Attempting to understand the spiritual reality of love in its full glory is a futile journey for humans, for we are caught in the garment of the human senses.  Assessing the realities of anything in our world is based on the limited perceptions of our senses.  Knowledge as we know it, even spiritual knowledge as we perceive God and his domain, will be diminished by our human condition.   Now I know in part!  However, I shall know fully!  When I am with Jesus in my final place of rest, I will know him as He is and I will be fully known.  Love will be known fully at that time.  Until then, we can say with Paul, I have been crucified with Christ.  I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  So I live my life in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  (Galatians 2:19-20)  

We are to express love as the children of God, depending upon Christ in us and the power of the Holy Spirit.  Of course love is encased in our natural bodies, but we should allow it to flow through us in words and actions.  John wrote: Dear children, let us stop just saying we love each other; let us really show it by our actions.  (1 John 3:18)   If our love is dependent on circumstances or situations, we will do only what the world does for others.  If we give money expecting reciprocation in words or deeds, we will be exactly like the world.  If we want a thank you from those we treat with love, we are operating just like the world.  Jesus said, Love your enemies!  Do good to them!  Lend to them!  And don’t be concerned that they might not repay.  Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to the unthankful and to those who are wicked.  (Luke 6:35)  We should give a cup of water to those who are thirsty, feed those who are hungry.  When we do such acts to the least of these, we are serving Jesus.  He is there in ALL OF THOSE CIRCUMSTANCES.  Continue to love each other with true Christian love.  Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it!  Don’t forget about those in prison.  Suffer with them as though you were there yourself.  Share the sorrow of those being mistreated, as though you feel their pain in your own bodies.  (Hebrews 13:1-3)  Are you entertaining angels today by your actions of love?  Are you empathetic to the person in jail, groaning in your spirit for fellow brothers and sisters who are imprisoned?  Do you shed tears and feel pain in your own bodies as you pray for the abused and the neglected?  Do you weep at night when you pray for the lost?  The love of God is unimaginable to us, for it goes beyond our understanding, our way of living.  However, we must put on Christ, ask for his heart of love, feel the pain He felt for a dying and suffering humanity.  He went to the cross for them, for us.  Touch us today, dear Lord.      

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Love Never Fails!

1 Corinthians 13:4-8  Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails. 

The concept that God is love is a hard one for us frail, sinful, self-willed beings to imagine and to embrace fully.  To fathom a world of sustained, sacrificial, deferential love, a place where laws would disappear, seems beyond us.  We struggle in a world that lacks peace and harmony; daily we see the absence of unconditional love.  For sure, our basic instincts, our survival tendencies, are not in line with an existence of pure love.  Going our own way, doing what is right in our own eyes, seems a better way for survival in a sinful world.  However, the initial sin in the garden of questioning God's authority in our lives has caused division, estrangement, wars, abuse, and great pain in humankind.  Every day in our news reports, we see what our will and our self-orientation has wrought.  Countries, cities, families, relationships are torn apart, destroyed by the selfishness of humans and their lack of love.  People are not patient; they are not kind.  Rather than harmony and peace ruling in this world, cruelty and violence win the day.  If God's authority ruled, relationships, families, nations, and the world would look completely different.  In a world under God's love, policemen would find another job; laws would serve no purpose for people would choose to do right.  Generosity towards others would be common place, so the homeless would find care along with the sick, the helpless, the disadvantaged, and all in every community who needed a helping hand.  We would love each other as we love ourselves.  We would fulfill God's Word: Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.  (Romans 13:8)  God would not have to say to us as he said to Cain:  “Where is your brother Abel?” (Genesis 4:9)  No, we would understand that we are our brother's keeper.  God expects such love from us, for his love in us should compel us to be our brother's keeper.  We should defer to others rather than demand that our own will take preeminence in our relationships with others.  Love is not self-seeking. . .It (Love) always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  In every interaction, Love NEVER fails.

In our scripture focus, Paul continues his instruction to the church on love.  He knows that God's love provides the glue that holds a body of believers together in good times and in bad.  God's love will always bring harmony, peace, and justice into any body of believers.   Positions, giftings, and responsibilities in the church will not hold the body together if God's generous love is not present.  Jesus told believers: You are the light of the world.  (Matthew 5:14)  Then He told them to let their light shine.  But if the church is not functioning under the authority of God's love, we will be nothing more than a fraternal organization, meeting to talk about good things but not showing the love of God to a hurting world.  James confronts this lack of love in believers, their lack of deferring to others, as a serious problem.  What causes fights and quarrels among you?  Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?  You want something but don’t get it.  You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want.  You quarrel and fight.  You do not have, because you do not ask God.  When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.  (James 4:1-3)  When a church loses its way, anger, disputes, and selfish ambition will be in the center of every interaction.  People will hold grudges and bitterness toward others because their hearts are cold.  Rather than forgiving a hurt in a relationship, unruly and ungodly people will get their pound of flesh by either directly striking back or by sowing seeds of discord in the church.  Of course, disharmony is always the product of such sinful actions.  This lack of obedience to Christ and his love, can reside in anyone, regardless of their responsibility, position, or gifting within the church.  Who is wise and understanding among you?  Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.  But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.  Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil.  For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.  (James 3:13-16)  No matter your position in the body of Christ, you should be wise and understanding, listening to the Holy Spirit's leading.  You should know the church operates in love, depending on the love of God functioning in every part of the body.  If love is not allowed freedom, then disorder and evil practices will rise up and bring disorder.

Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love dislodges every evil intent of the heart.  Love will take the back seat in any interaction.  Love will not promote self; rather, love promotes God and his desires.  Love brings God to the table in every situation.  If we are to reveal God to the world, we must take Paul's instructions on love seriously.  These words are often read at marriage ceremonies.  The couples usually ascent to these words.  In their prospective marriages, they really want to love each other with a whole heart, an honest heart.  But the flesh quickly comes between them.  They find that they have to put aside their own vision for their life and consider the vision of their spouse.  They discover they have to accommodate the other person's ideas about how to construct a meaningful life.  They realize their self-centeredness has to give way to another person's self-centered ideas.  This is hard and gets harder.  This is when a third person is needed in the relationship, someone who can be the counselor, the advocate for peace, the comforter.  Every relationship needs this person.  Jesus said He must go away so He could send the mighty Counselor, the Spirit of truth and peace who would teach them all things.  When the Holy Spirit fell upon the believers, this third person of the trinity became the reality of God's presence in a Christian's life.  No longer would we be alone, in a position of faith in the God of heaven: we would have the Holy Spirit abiding within us, advocating for God's love.  Marriage relationships break down because God's love is not operative in our interactions.  But love will never slip away if we listen to the Spirit of God abiding in us, teaching and guiding us.  We must open our ears to his urgings.  He is asking us to love others even if it costs us a great deal.  He wants to bear fruit in God's children: the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  (Galatians 5:22-23)  If anyone should be hurt in a relationship, let it be us, for love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never ends.  Let it begin today in us!         

1 Corinthians 13:1-31 Love, the Excellent Way!

1 Corinthians 13:1-3  If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. 

Human nature inclines the heart toward love when a child is born into a family.  Except for pretensions such as the fear a baby will interfere with our self-centered world, love for the helpless infant represents a compelling urge in the parents' hearts.  A parent will love and protect this precious little one, a life conceived and developed within the mother's womb.  Without such love, parents are outside of the normal reaction of humans to a baby that possesses their genes and depends totally upon their care.  In 1 Corinthians 12:31 Paul writes, And now I will show you the most excellent way.  A better way than what?  A better way of organizing the body of Christ other than through special giftings, responsibilities, and positions.  Yes, the body can and is organized in this way, but a more cohesive and more sure bonding of the body comes not through the definite roles, but through the activities and unctions of the unconditional and abiding love of God at work in his children.  The work of individuals in the body will fail us at times as we unite and serve the Lord, but as we will read in our continuing study: Love never fails.  (1 Corinthians 13:8)  Jesus' perspective on love even includes loving our enemies.  But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.  (Matthew 5:44-45)  With that kind of bonding, how can we fall apart into factions and divisions?  No, with love we would consider each other above ourselves, meeting the needs of others before we meet our own.  Our needs and our perspectives would take second place to the functioning of love for others.  If anyone should sustain a rebuke or pain in our relationships with others, we will take the difficult position; we will bear the affront to our self-image and perspectives.  In today's focus, Paul says you might be the most talented, knowledgeable, or reasonable person in your community of believers; but if you are not practicing God's love, you will gain nothing with God.  Your talents and special knowledge are inconsequential if you do not love others.  As we have said often in our breakfasts, Jesus said people would know we are his followers, if you love one another.  (John 13:35)  Are we known by our love or are we known by our critical attitudes and divisions.  Sadly, in the church of God, we have divided many times.  Often those divisions leave a residue of emotional and spiritual pain that passes from one generation to the next.  The bitterness of separation and division can devastate a community of believers.    

Often, we hear the message of love preached in church.  We have heard wonderfully gifted pastors promote love in their teaching and their books.  They back up everything they say with scriptures, yet some of their parishioners seem not to hear their message of love, for they are bickering and disputing within the body.  They are holding grudges against each other.  They will not communicate with those who hold a different view.  They do not see the need to defer to others.  They want their ideas and expertise to champion over the thoughts and skills of others.  They want the church to function according to their vision.  Rather than loving others, they hold great bitterness and at times even hatred in their hearts towards others.  One wonders how they can sit in church Sunday after Sunday, hearing the message of Christ's love for them and how they should love others while holding such angry feelings in their hearts.  What has happened to their spiritual ears?  When Jesus was upset with his disciples for not hearing him, He warned them about the leaven of the Pharisees, and He said, Do you still not see or understand?  Are your hearts hardened?  Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear?  (Mark 8:18)   When people's lives run counter to the scriptures, they lose their ability to hear the voice of God.  When our spiritual senses become dull, self-will overwhelms the spiritual person within us.  The flesh does not want to be hurt, does not want to take second place.  In fact, the flesh wants to be preeminent, at the front of the line.  To take the back seat, not to be in the driver's seat, seems difficult or impossible for some people.  They want to say, "Here am I.  I am important too!  I have good ideas.  Listen to ME."  Yes, in a sense those things are true.  You are a unique and an important person with good ideas, and yes, you are significant.  But everything you do should be done within the context of yielding your life to God and loving others as yourself.  John said this clearly:  This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.  And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.  (1 John 3:16)  When we truly begin to love, our old fleshly person will not like it, and we may argue: "I have rights too.  Why do I have to be second fiddle?  Why do I have to defer to them?"  Most of us do not want to step aside or to feel pain as we operate in our own plans.  But as we see Jesus, we learn what it means to love and to surrender to mercy and grace.  Jesus felt sorrow and pain, but He went to the cross for the joy that was in front of him.  We can experience that same inexpressible joy in him as our lives are hidden with Christ in God. 

In our disobedience, we are no more than a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.   We are heard, but we say nothing worth listening to, for our message is not one of love.  We can talk about love, but our lives must reflect God's love to have an impact upon others.  If we love truly, we give life to the world just as Jesus showed his love by giving his life for us.  If we allow our flesh to be in the forefront of our words and actions, we are just repeating what the world thinks.  The flesh wants to be god of our lives, in control.  “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”  (Genesis 3:1)  The devil told Eve that she could make as sound of a decision for herself as God.  She really did not have to follow God's directions, for she had her own capabilities and knowledge to guide her decisions.  By listening to the father of lies, Adam and Even caused mankind to fall into sin: every man does what is right in his own eyes.  As God pronounced in the Old Testament: And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  (Genesis 6:5)  Unfortunately, in the church, even with special assignments, positions, and gifts, this spirit of self-will is still very much in evidence.  Only by remaining in Christ and allowing the Holy Spirit to teach and to guide us will we be full of the love of the Lord that binds us together in perfect harmony.  There is a better way: the better way is the perfect way of love.  Christ gave himself to us, He died on the cross because of his great love for us.  We who are IN CHRIST SHOULD DISPLAY HIS LOVE AND LIGHT TO THE WORLD.  We read in the Word: This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.  (1 John 1:5)  John goes on to say: God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.  (1 John 4:16:   That means we also have to die to our flesh.  We have to be instruments of love.  If we are not, the flesh is in control of our lives.  

We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers.  Anyone who does not love remains in death. 

  (1 John 3:14)  Breakfast companions, we are not those who remain in death; we are those who are alive IN CHRIST JESUS.  Therefore, go out and love others with God's perfect love: love your brethren and love the world.  This is your daily assignment.   

1 Corinthians 12:28-30 Christ Is Faithful!

1 Corinthians 12:28-30  And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues.  Are all apostles?  Are all prophets?  Are all teachers?  Do all work miracles?  Do all have gifts of healing?  Do all speak in tongues?  Do all interpret?  But eagerly desire the greater gifts.  And now I will show you the most excellent way.

The body of Christ should speak and illustrate the WORD to the world.  In Genesis 1, God speaks human existence into being and creates all that we can know through our senses: what we can measure, detect, and know through our intellect.  This God who speaks nothing into something is greater than our imaginations, for who can imagine this genesis?  We know God is beyond our wildest imaginations.  He has always existed and never will cease to exist.  How can we know such a Creator?  Only through the Christ of the Word: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.  (John 1:1-5)  Of course the Word in this passage refers to Jesus.  He is, was, and always will be with God the Father.  He is an essential part of God in trinity form.  No doubt, this is a mystery, but the New Testament explicitly points to Jesus as Lord, a part of the triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.  In referring to Jesus' position as God, Paul says, Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  (Philippians 2:5-7)  Jesus answers Philip's request to see the God of creation by saying,  “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time?  Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.  How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?  Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?  The words I say to you are not just my own.  Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.  Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves."  (John 14:9-11)  Jesus does not say He reflects God; He says He is one with the Father.  He is in the Father and the Father is in him.  In today's focus, we see there are many members in the body of Christ, the church.  All of these members should function in harmony to reveal the Creator.  Collectively, as the voice of God, we manifest his Word in the flesh.  Each one of us has a limited time on Earth, but just as with John the Baptist, we present Jesus to the World.  We should help people believe the oft quoted words that God loved the world so much that He gave his only Son, so we might not perish in the grave, but have eternal life with God. 

Jesus let the people know who He was through the Word as well as his actions.  Jesus went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom.  And he stood up to read.  The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him.  Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  (Luke 4:16-19)  As members of the church, we are his voice today, continuing to carry out his mission.  We are to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, expressing the good news of God to the world: Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for ALL the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.  (Luke 2:10-11)  In a world of sin, there is need for the good news the church has to share.  If we function well, our message of hope and gladness will spread throughout the world.  Every generation will hear God's voice if the church takes up its mission and serves the world in love. Those weary from the consequences of sin, sickness, and sorrow will see a great light, the light of Christ manifested in individuals in their communities of faith.  The year of the Lord's favor can come to every generation if the church functions by the power and authority of the Holy Spirit.  The people of the world will no longer experience life as inconsequential and unsubstantial grass.  As Peter states, Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.  For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.  For, “All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever.” (1 Peter 1:22-25)  Because the word of the Lord stands forever, the people of the world will no longer have to despair.  No, God has prepared a place for them in heaven, a place of rest for their souls, a place with their Father God where they will praise him forever.  People are not inconsequential, generations are not inconsequential.  God loves all people and has poured out his love and mercy upon all who accept his Son.  The WORD, Jesus Christ, has come to redeem the world from sin and death, for all people, for all time. 

No matter what gifts we display or what positions we hold in the body of Christ, we use our gifts to express God's word of deliverance to a needy world.  All the parts of the body must function well for the world to understand fully God's plan of freedom from sin.  Often, the winds of violence and degradation blow fiercely against every movement of mercy and love the church offers to the world.  No matter how much we live out Christ's life individually and collectively, the world seems to be apathetic or hostile to the message of God's goodness, mercy, and salvation plan.  The church must stand strong, as soldiers of the cross, never retreating, always displaying the Good News, as the angels proclaimed it at Jesus' birth.  We should passionately fulfill our appointed positions in the church: First, apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues.  Our callings strengthen and edify the body of Christ.  A strong community of believers reflects Christ and his message to the world.  He came to heal the brokenhearted, to set the captive free, to feed the poor, and to announce the good news to everyone.  Our assignments in the church are important.  As with Jesus, we must be about the Father's work.  In this dark and difficult world, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can be a strong voice, crying out the message and leading the way.  As the body of Christ, we must prepare the way for the LORD, so He might indwell the people of this world.  If we function well, based on love, mercy, and servanthood, the world will know God through Jesus Christ, the Lord.  As we continue to share Jesus, people will come to understand their purpose for living; joy and victory will saturate their hearts.  We should never give up but remember that God works behind the scenes, all of the time.  We read in the Word: But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house.  And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.  (Hebrews 3:6)  Dear friends, seek the kingdom of God first, fulfill your position in the church.  Pray about your role in the body: follow your inclination.  Help your pastors, love and serve fellow members.  Open your life to a new direction, one that fits in well with the body of Christ.  Then you will let the world know that  Jesus is Lord in your life, and they can also belong to the God of Creation.  Amen!