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Gifts of the Holy Spirit: Love Is…

WHAT IS LOVE?

“LOVE IS THE SUBJECT OF COUNTLESS POEMS, SONGS, STORIES AND TREATISES WRITTEN SINCE THE DAWN OF MANKIND.”

“EVEN THE HEATHAN WORLD RECOGNIZES LOVE AS THE CHIEF VIRTUE AND THE GREATEST PRIZE ONE CAN ATTAIN IN LIFE.”

“AT THE BOTTOM OF EVERY LONGING AND HUMAN ENDEAVOR IS THE DESIRE TO LOVE AND TO BE LOVED.”

“STILL MOST PEOPLE DO NOT UNDERSTAND LOVE, IN THE SAME THEY DON’T UNDERSTAND OXYGEN. THEY LIVE OFF IT, BUT THEY CAN’T ADEQUATELY EXPLAIN IT.”

“SOME EVEN MISREPRESENT LOVE AND TWIST IT TO THEIR OWN SELFISH ENDS.”

“THE REASON THE WORLD DOES NOT UNDERSTAND LOVE IS BECAUSE THE WORLD DOES NOT UNDERSTAND GOD—GOD IS LOVE.”

“MUCH OF WE WHAT EXPERIENCE AS ‘LOVE’ ARE FRAGMENTS OF GOD’S GOODNESS AND NATURE STILL SEEN IN OUR FRACTURED IMAGE OF HIM.”

“WE FILL IN THE GAPS WITH OUR POOLED IGNORANCE, BUT WE NEED TO GO TO THE PRIMARY SOURCE, TO GOD AND HIS SELF-REVELATION.”

“WE SHOULD NOT ONLY LEARN OF HIS LOVE IN AN ACADEMIC SENSE, BUT KNOW HIS LOVE FOR US THAT WE MAY LOVE HIM AND OUR FELLOW HUMAN BEINGS RIGHTLY.”

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

13 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 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 do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

VV. 1-3: The Most Excellent Way

  1. The “love passage” is not given in the context of a wedding ceremony, but in setting order in the church.
  2. Christian love (for fellow Christians) is the love of the highest order (John 13:13-14; 34-35; 1 John 3:16; Matthew 25:40; Galatians 6:8-9). We are to love all people, but not in the same way. Love must be understood according to how God has ordered relationships. 
  3. The Corinthian believers were interested in pursuing spiritual gifts, in exercising their freedom as believers (8:1, 9-12), and were zealous in keeping the church ordinances (11:17-22), all while failing to love their fellow Christians.
  4. If you use God’s gifts and blessings with only your own benefit in mind, you are missing the point. If you are blessed, you are blessed to be a blessing! 

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

VV. 4-7: Love Is…

  1. We should look at each of these attributes through the lens of God’s nature and how He is towards us, because God is love and we are to be imitators of Him.
  2. Patient (longsuffering)
  3.  Kind
  4. Does not envy
  5. Does not boast
  6. Is not proud
  7. Does not dishonor others
  8. Not self-seeking
  9. Not easily angered
  10. Keeps no record of wrongs
  11. Does not delight in evil
  12. Rejoices in the truth
  13. Always protects
  14. Always trusts
  15. Always hopes
  16. Always perseveres

8 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. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 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 the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a 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.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

VV. 8-13: Love Remains

  1. Love never fails: Whereas the spiritual gifts have some level of fallibility and will be of no use in the end, love never fails now and will never cease being operative through all eternity.
  2. When completeness comes: Spiritual gifts are a provision from the Holy Spirit as we grow in grace and knowledge. Only when we see Christ at His return will be complete (1 John 3:1). Until then, the gifts remain in operation as conduits of God’s love to and through us. 

1 John 4:7-12

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.