Better things to come – ‘the greatest is love’
Introduction
It is possible to strive for the wrong thing
Example of a footballer
The Corinthian Church was striving for the wrong thing
Many were seeking spiritual gifts as an end in their selves
Reading 1 Cor 13:8-13
The Corinthian Church had a misplaced love
It was striving after the wrong things – spiritual gifts
Many felt they had ‘arrived’ because of these gifts
There was rivalry amongst them
There was discension
There was jealously
The gifts of the Holy Spirit were being abused
Paul had to correct them
v1 – without love I am like an annoying alarm!
v2 – without love, faith is useless
v3 – without love, I do not benefit
Chapter 13 – comes before chapter 14
Before they can think about use of the gifts
You must remember that love is the most important thing
Overview:
Realisations the limitations of the Gifts (v8-9)
Better things are to come (v10-12)
Keep faith, hope and love central (v13)
Realisations the limitations of the Gifts (v8-9)
In many charismatic the height of spiritual gifts is to speak in tongues, to prophecy or give a word of knowledge
Such experiences are a proof of God’s power at work
The Corinthian church had gifts of tongues, prophecy and miracles – yet it was an immature and carnal church (1:3-4)
There was a disproportionate emphasis on the gifts of the Holy Spirit
The early church saw the gifts of the Holy Spirit as aids
They were living at a time when there was no bible – there was some early letters and later the gospels
So God gave them prophets and tongues to edify the people
(Tongues should not be used unless there was an interpretator)
God gave them words of knowledge, perhaps into the Old Testament
The goal was to edify the church in love
Not to give individuals a fuzzy sense of the power of God
These gifts will all fail (v8), but love will never fail
We must acknowledge the limitations in our experience
We are not promised heaven on earth
We may know ‘touches’
We have struggles, pain, sickness, difficulty, struggle, sin, failure
We are to live holy lives and fight against sin
If anyone excelled in tongues (1 Cor 14), understood the deep wisdom of God, or had deep spiritual experiences (2 Cor 11-12) – it was Paul
Yet he said we only know in part (v9)
We see dimly but will see in heaven face to face (v12)
Paul himself said he not "attained" but pressed on in Christ
If any says you are not excelling, remember:
The greatest gift we have been given is love
Maturity is to know Christ, walk with Him, live in holiness
To be humble before God
Better things are to come (v10-12)
When is the perfect coming?
Some think this verse referred to the completion of the cannon of Scripture
The context refers to heaven – when we know Jesus completely and the gifts cease
There is a book by Jonathan Edwards entitled Charity and its fruits, where a whole chapter speaks about heaven
Some think that v11 speaks about maturity and not heaven
Eph 4:13 – this happens ultimately in heaven
As a Christian – you will go into the immediate presence of Jesus Christ
When we comes again, He will raise our bodies from the grave
Our body and soul will be united
We will be in a glorified state before our Saviour
We will know as we have never known before
We will be perfect – explanation
We will delight in Christ and there will be no jealousy
God knows us fully – this can be frightening, but it can aid us
One day we shall know Him in a similar way
Jonathan Edwards calls heaven as a world of love
Keep faith, hope and love central (v13)
Our emphasis in the church is not to be on gifts but love
If the emphasis was on gifts, would we not hear about them in every epistle
Instead, we hear so much about faith, hope and love
Col 1:3-5
1 Thess 1:3
Is faith, hope and love central to your Christianity?
Challenge
These are the marks of holiness
The greatest of these is love (v13)
Sometimes we can shy away from this word
Quote from Jonathan Edwards – "The sum of all holiness is love"
Love is not a feeling but demonstrated
We are talking about divine love
Examples of actions
The importance of love
Rom 13:8-9
Gal 5:14-15
Jam 2:8
1 John 3:14-18
The greatest is love
We must focus on loving God and loving the church family