Love

How many people do we know find their involvement in the church as a fulfilling and worthwhile experience? How many people do we know like that? Perhaps you see or know of people who view the church as an event on Sunday, something that they will fall back on if the weather is bad and they can't take their jet ski out on the water. Perhaps some of us, for some of us, the church is like an antique spinning wheel, which is nice to look at, nice to have, but there's no real purpose for it anymore. And it sits in the corner somewhere collecting dust.

Perhaps we know of people like that. It's nice to have to know that the church is around. It's like a little boy who was inquisitive about an old plaque that he saw in his old church, and he asked his pastor, what was it for? The pastor replied that it was a plaque commemorating people who had died in service. The morning or the evening service?

The boy asked. But I want to ask this question this morning. What's wrong with our church? What's wrong with our church? Or to put it in a more positive way this morning, what is our greatest need?

Perhaps some of us would say that the thing our church needs is great communicators. Men and women who speak out a word that is clear, a word that resonates across the din of other voices around us, that speak through the confusion of our time and speak a sure word of God. Still others would say that our greatest need is for scholars and theologians who can study the Bible and bring it to bear. And still others might feel the deep pitch is for people who've had exciting spiritual experiences, who have felt the very touch of God on their lives, and to move out into this world and to share that with others. And all those would be very good suggestions.

We need good communicators. As millions of people sit in their living rooms on their way to hell, we need men and women to speak a clear word to them about the gospel of Jesus Christ and to speak it in such a way that they will understand and hear. We do need scholars and theologians. In a time where rose coloured fog has taken the place of Christian doctrine, we need people to understand Christian theology to clearly defend the gospel that has been defended for two thousand years, even to the point of death. But then, in case we make this theology clear, twice clear as ice and twice as cold, we need a band of intoxicated men and women who have sensed God's working in their lives personally and have moved out to share that work with other people. I know of a church we had all these things.

A church who was supremely gifted with men and women who had marvellous Christian experiences. Some of them had the authentic gift of tongues. Some of them had incredible insights into the word of God and its relevance for the people of that time. They had people who searched the scriptures for the truth of God and sought to apply it to their life, every facet of it. And it was a church that Paul wrote to called Corinth.

This church in the part of modern day Greece now, he recognised that this church had many things, but that there was something wrong with it as well. Because on paper, this church should have been a leading church. It should have been a dynamic powerhouse of a church. But in reality, they were lagging behind badly. Paul recognised that they were a gifted church.

In fact, in one Corinthians 1, Paul says that they came behind no one in regards to their spiritual giftedness, their ability. And Paul was no man to downgrade spiritual abilities. In fact, in one Corinthians 12 and 14, and we've worked through these in the past weeks, Paul urges the Corinthians to use their spiritual gifts to build one another up. But something happens between chapters 12 and 14. And he alludes to it at the end of chapter 12, where Paul puts in this caveat.

But I want to show you a better way. It is love, he says, that really matters. When it comes to all this giftedness, the thing that really matters, the thing that is their greatest need is love. Let's open up to one Corinthians 13, and we'll notice that the chapter is actually divided into three stanzas, into three sections. The first stanza is verses 1 to 3.

But Paul says that the many gifts are good, but they're worthless if they're done without one thing, love. Paul spells it out in this first verse of one Corinthians 13. Have a listen to this. 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. Paul is imagining in his mind's eye someone who's able to speak every human language on earth and even the language of heaven.

It was a gift that the Corinthians we know valued very highly, most highly perhaps than all other things, perhaps because of its spectacular, showy nature. But Paul imagines someone who could do it even more than they could do. Imagine what a man of prayer that person would have been. To have the ability to speak the language of heaven and to have the Spirit's intercession for the groans of his heart on behalf of other people, for the thoughts and the feelings that they could not adequately express in their own words, what an intercessor that would be to have on your side. Imagine what a missionary this man would be.

If he had the spiritual gift to speak in any language of the earth. We've heard of instances where missionaries have spoken a word or a sentence or a paragraph and miraculously have been understood in a person's native tongue. Imagine if he had that ability fluently, if he was eloquent as a speaker in every language, he would get off the airport in any country, get in any taxi, and would be able to share and witness of Jesus Christ to any taxi driver. What a missionary this man would be. And yet Paul says that if you have this gift, even as no one has ever had it before, and you don't have love, then you are a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

The word for gong in the Greek means or sounds like this. I hope I'm pronouncing it right. Chalkos. Chalkos. Now a chalkos was actually a gong that was used in pagan worship in that time.

We might think of some gongs in new age mystic sort of movements. And these gongs would be struck, and they would be used in worship to stir people into worship. And if used often and repeatedly, they would stir people into an aesthetic frenzy of worship. Often, cymbals would be used in this form of worship as well, but the gong and the cymbal had this one thing in common. There was no music in there.

All they made was a loud, senseless din noise. What Paul is saying is that without love, your gift of languages, your gift of eloquence, your gift of intercession is just a loud noise. Devoid of music, devoid of enrichment and meaning. There was a long time member of a church who had a pastor who was an excellent preacher, well known. She once said more thoughtfully than critically, when he's in the pulpit and we listen to him preach, we wish he'd never get out of it.

But when he's out of the pulpit, and we feel and we see the nature of his life, we wish he'd never go back there again. Eloquence and a power without love is an empty noise. Perhaps that's why Jonathan Edwards, the great reformer, the great preacher, the great leader in a time where there needed to be Christian revival in the US, resolved early in his life as he started ministry and wrote it down in his diary, he wrote these words. I am determined to preach no sermon or to write no letter unless I am motivated by the glory of God and love for the people to whom I speak. I will write no sermon unless it's motivated by love.

Hear it well. Without love, our gifts accomplish nothing. And now Paul turns to the from the gift of tongues to talk about another gift. Have a read in verse 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 have not love, I am nothing.

If someone came along with these gifts that Paul mentions into our church, and he asked to be a member here, we'd sign him up straight away, wouldn't we? In fact, we might even sack the pastor to get him on staff. This guy has all the knowledge. You could put all the eldership of this church, all the ministry leaders of this church, and all the congregation members together, and we would not have as much knowledge as this one man has. He knows everything.

He grasps all the mystery. He understands all the mysteries that we struggle with. The concept of the sovereignty of God, of election and predestination, of the Trinity, God three persons in one. He understands. The nature of an eternal God is child's play.

He understands all of it. But what's more, this man has a gift of prophecy and he can speak the truth of God into every situation. Every message he gives makes sense because it is spot on. It is always relevant. It is always apt.

On top of that, he has a faith that can move mountains. An exceptional leader with exceptional vision. This is the type of man who starts Bible colleges, who begins mission movements, who plants churches. He can see God, and where God wants him to go. And although there may be severe obstacles and difficulties in his way, he has the faith to move through it.

Talk about a leader. You'll sign that man up any day of the week. And yet Paul says, if you can do all that, even though people might be startled at what they are capable of doing, if they do not have love, they are nothing. Imagine if you have a 50 note and you put that in the collection bag today and the treasurer, Leon, takes that $50, and he goes and pays our electricity bill with it. And imagine the manager of that fund or the company takes that $50 and they well, they earn it, and they go and use it to fill up their car with fuel.

And the man who runs the petrol station uses that $50 and he collects it with some other $50, and he goes and pays his landlord the rent. And the landlord is going to then take that $50 and he's going to mail it to his daughter who is studying at university in Melbourne. And he sends the $50 down there. A day or two later, this young lady gets that gift and, very grateful to her dad, takes the $50 and goes to the bookstore to buy a textbook. And the manager of this bookstore takes the $50 and several others and takes it to the bank to bank it.

And as the teller is counting all this money, he comes to your $50 bill. And he looks at it and he discovers that it's a counterfeit. Now that bill has gone all across the country doing good things. It's blessed the church. It's paid for fuel.

It's been used as a gift for a college student. It's bought books. But when it comes to the bank, where only real value matters, it's discovered to be worthless. It's the same way with God. It is possible to minister with the gift God has given you, to do all kinds of good things with it, but when we stand before a God where true value really matters, if we haven't ministered with love, we're counterfeit.

And we're nothing. And what we did amounted to nothing. Paul goes a step further. He says, not only does your gift without love accomplish nothing, not only does your gift ministered without love make nothing happen. Paul says in verse 3, if I give all I possess to the poor, if I surrender my body to the flames but have not love, I gain nothing.

Here's an individual that Paul sees in his mind's eye again, who is concerned about the poor, about the neediest people around us, or at least it seems that way. They go out of their way, skipping the middleman, going straight to the poor. And he empties his bank account and he gives it to them. He strips off his fine clothing and he gives it to someone without shoes, without a jacket. He gives away not only the interest accrued on his bank account, but the principal as well.

And Paul says, if I surrender my body to the flames. Scholars aren't exactly sure what this means. It could refer to some of the persecution that was experienced. We know towards the end of the first century, we know of Emperor Nero, a cruel, cruel man who was the first real systematic persecutor of Christians who took Christians, put them on a stake, and lit them on fire to light up his garden for visitors. But this was written much much earlier than this, so we don't know whether this was really referring to that.

It may also refer, as others have said, to the three Hebrew men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from Daniel, who were thrown into the fire because they refused to worship God, who refused to worship someone else as God, as an idol. We're not really sure what's happening here in Paul's time, however. Whatever it is that he has drawn on, the point is clear. If I give myself in sacrifice, if I give my money to feed the poor, if I do all that and don't have love, when I stand before God on that day where He judges real value, I gain nothing. It's love that matters most.

It's love that is this church's greatest need. Of all the things we think that matter, matters the most. In fact, if you don't have it, all of your Christian service comes to nothing. And I wanted to put it to you this morning, that the thing that's wrong with this church is the thing that's wrong with us. We have a few people in our church who I see are taking notes regularly when I give a message. And that's a really great thing.

If you are a person like that, that learns by writing and reflecting on certain thoughts, I'd encourage you to keep doing that. Now, for those of us who are writing things down, I want us to go down a particular exercise. I want you to start writing zeros across one line of your page. Just zeros. One row.

Now add up those zeros and what does that amount to? Now let's keep going and write another row of zeros on another page, and add that up. Now draw another row of zeros and then another, and then continue writing down zeros across and down the whole page. And once you're done with that, flip the page and start on another one. And once you're done with the page, keep going to the next page of zeros and string them together until your whole book is full.

Now add up those zeros, and what does it amount to? It adds up to nothing. But if you take the next smallest whole number after zero and put down one in front of those zeros, what do you get? Put a one in front of one zero and you get 10. Put a one in front of two zeros, you get a 100.

Put a one in front of six zeros and you get a million. That's the kind of love that we're talking about here. Go and serve using all your best, most refined gifts without love and it adds up to nothing. But take the smallest gift, take the smallest gift done in the most humble way, and it counts. It counts.

It counts with people and it counts with God who is your King. In our churches, in our movements, in our plans, we put a great deal of emphasis on sincerity, on sacrifice, on service. We put a great emphasis on doing things because it is important to do and to use our gifts for that. Perhaps in our church up until now, maybe not all the biblical gifts, but definitely a whole handful of them. But the truth is that there can be a kind of service where all of the love has been squeezed out.

There can be a kind of sacrifice done because somehow you think that the more you hurt yourself in sacrificing, the more control you have over God and the more you ought to be blessed by Him. There can be a kind of service that's self serving. I'll give to the poor if my name is put on a mission after me. I'll start a ministry if people will know that I was the one who launched it. I'll use the gift of mercy so that others will do the same to me when I'm down and out.

But Paul is saying that of all the things that matter, of all those gifts, it is love that really matters. And that raises the question, doesn't it, this morning? What is this thing called love that Paul is talking about? Look around our world and you'll get a whole lot of different definitions. It can be used in some shady alley in surface paradise, where love has a price tag on it and a woman is willing to offer it to you for a price.

Love can be used on computer or DVD labels with the letters x x x written after it. Love can be spoken of in the motives of ISIS and their reasons for killing civilians. Or someone can say, I just love strawberries, but they give me a rash. In the next four verses in chapter 13, we find one of the most supreme definitions of love. Go to any wedding and you'll hear this.

Paul goes to describe, however, what love is. Not by giving a definition, but by showing how love acts. He says 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. It always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. Paul defines love by describing love.

Do you notice that? He defines love by describing love. There are some things that the dictionary will never be able to capture. There are some things that just can't be described the traditional way. There are some things that need to be seen to be understood.

You can't define music. Our musicians here will know exactly what I'm talking about. The dictionary definition will say that it's a cohesive unit of different sounds or tones brought together in one complete unit. That is what music is. But is that music?

We can describe saying that it is carbon that's been compressed into a see through item, a see through gem. But is that a diamond? We don't see the brilliance of it. We don't see the beauty of it. We don't experience that in its definition.

Paul doesn't define love according to the dictionary. He just defines it according to what it does. In this stanza, however, there are two things that I want to highlight this morning because we could literally spend another four weeks just breaking these things down. But two things this morning. Firstly, Paul points out that love is more than an emotion.

Love is more than an emotion. We know that there are many kinds of different loves. In fact, the Bible itself talks about three kinds of love. Love is multifaceted because it is a complex thing, and we know this to be true, don't we? There is the love that a mother has for a child.

A mom would never need to be taught how to love her child. A midwife does not have to come in and say, now this is your baby, and now we're going to train you to feel love for this baby of yours. And there's the love of lovers. Love between a man and a woman. That intoxicating emotion that fills up all the senses.

There are powerful emotions associated with love. Powerful experiences. But the love Paul talks about here is not primarily an emotion. The love He speaks about here is primarily an act of the will. It is a mindset.

And it is putting another person's interest before my own, and to seek another person's highest good. And you can see that in at least two of the things Paul mentions. We're going to look at that just briefly. In verse 4, Paul says that love does not boast. Love does not boast.

Boasting thrives on comparisons. Boasting thrives on comparisons. We may say someone is proud of being wealthy or good looking. Someone is proud of being wealthy or good looking. But that's not really what it is, is it?

That person is proud of being wealthy compared to other people. That person is proud to be good looking compared to other people. And so either openly or covertly, whether whenever I boast, what I'm doing is inherently using other people as a platform to stand on. Inherently, the idea is of me putting other people down to build myself up. And that is the essence of selfishness.

And that is the opposite of love. And friends, that is an attitude. It's not a feeling. It is a mindset, not an emotion. Paul also says in this description of love that love is not easily angered.

Or another translation, love is not irritable. I find that hard to understand though, don't you? The reason I get irritable is usually very well founded. Why I'll get irritated and angry at someone is well, because I have a schedule to keep. I have sermons to write.

I have essays to hand in. If someone calls me up to help them move their house, I'm going to get irritated, especially if it's done last minute. Don't they know I'm a busy man? I've got ministries to organise. And they want in on that.

And your son and your daughter come at the most inconvenient time for something. And they want in on that. And that's when we get irritable. It's obvious, isn't it? They should understand.

Why don't they understand? This is my time. Until I stop and I realise that they have a claim upon my life. The reason I get angry is because I have made myself the centre of the universe. And if people orbit around me at an arm's length, in just the right timing, in just the right way, and don't intersect with other things I have going on, I'm the nicest, most loving guy there is.

But mess up that rhythm, disrupt that orbit, and that's when I get irritable. There's an attitude that love offers that quenches this fire. And that is to realise that they have a claim on my life. And that is the attitude that puts their interest before my own and desires their highest good. Love does not boast and it is not easily angered.

As we wrap up this series on the spiritual gifts, we have to finish it here. We have to finish it here because for God, that's where it finishes as well. After Paul's great pastoral theological explanation on the gifts, and particularly these gifts that we struggle with today, prophecy and speaking in tongues and words of knowledge and all that sort of stuff, he sums it up and says, but now I will show you the most excellent way. Love one another. We will be putting on our website just for your information, a survey to go and look at your spiritual gifts, to go and work through them and reflect on them.

We'll be putting up information and some descriptions on the different gifts. And if you are involved in a small group, use that as well. Use a community around you to bounce this off and ask them, what do you think my giftings are? What do you sense the Spirit has given me? We'll be putting that up on our Facebook and our website this week, hopefully.

Go and do that work. Go and reflect on these things because it's important to us. We started this series four weeks ago with a quote that read, the church truly becomes the church only when the biblical meaning of spiritual gifts is recovered. A church whose life and ministry is not built upon the exercise of spiritual gifts is biblically a contradiction in terms. But we need to end where God ends with this, and that is to end with love.

And we know the reason we love is because God has loved us first. We know that He has loved us in extraordinary ways. And because we have a Saviour who has loved us first, we are able to love in extraordinary ways because His love was patient. And His love was kind. His love was not self seeking.

His love was not easily angered with our brokenness and our sin. His love always protects. It always trusts in us. It always hopes for the best in us. It always perseveres.

His love is that relentless pursuit of us that was exemplified supremely at the cross when Jesus took our sin upon Him. And as we are released now and we seek to discover and work with these tangible practical things called gifts, and as we use and appropriate these gifts in this church, we must always, always remember that without love, our efforts are just a bunch of zeros tied together in a worthless string. We started this morning by asking, what is wrong with our church today? Well, there's nothing wrong if we were to completely understand that we love because He first loved us and that we love through our gifts. And we love for the good of others before our own.

Let's pray. God, our elder Jason asked that as we open Your word that we would be encouraged for the following week. But Father, I pray for more than that. I pray that this will go on for our life. That we may be encouraged to love as You have loved us first, to love this church the way we ought to.

Forgive us our selfishness. Forgive us our self absorption. Forgive us our pride and our boasting of measuring ourselves against others and comparing our wealth and our status, our ability above theirs. God, we know that this love is a supernatural thing. And Lord, we heard in Jeremiah 31 that this law of love will be written on our hearts only because of Jesus Christ and Him coming and the infilling of the Holy Spirit, His Spirit in us, where You have written it on our hearts and our minds.

It is only possible if You do this in us. And so we ask, Lord Jesus, send Your Spirit into our hearts. Fill us, Lord, with love. Fill us with these characteristics, these attitudes of love that is kind and patient, not envious or boastful. And Father, I pray that our church may grow because of love, not because of excellent communicators, of excellent leaders, of excellent activities or services.

Do with us, Lord, what You see fit and let it begin with love. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.