Love Is The Standard
Lessons From 1 Corinthians • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
Theme: Lessons From 1 Corinthians.
Hope: To draw closer to God by better understanding the vast amount of doctrine discussions in this great letter.
What are standards as it pertains to humanity?
Webster’s defines standards as…
something set up and established by authority as a rule for the measure of quantity, weight, extent, value, or quality
In other words, one’s standards are those things we set up and establish as authority or rule in our lives.
If you drive up to a stop sign what do your standards lead you to do?
Stop or role right through?
If a lady comes to a door, young men, what do your standards lead you to do?
Watch as she opens it herself or strive to open it for her?
Our standard for how we are going to behave, will determine how we answer these questions.
In our text this evening we are looking at the great chapter on love, 1 Corinthians 13:1-8.
It is here that the great apostle Paul establishes something vital to every Christian, the standard of love.
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
1 Corinthians 13:5–8 (ESV)
5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends…
Christianity demands of its people that they love.
Christians must love God first.
Christians must love their neighbor second.
Christians must even love their enemies.
How can a Christian walk up to a complete stranger and say “I love you?”
It is because love, for every Christian, is their standard not just an emotion but a way of life.
Every decision and every action a Christian takes is based on the standard of love for God and his creation man.
So, with that in mind let’s examine our first point…
Man’s Standard
Man’s Standard
Ethical Standard’s Man Has Produced.
Ethical Standard’s Man Has Produced.
Survival of the fittest.
Might makes the person right.
Hedonism
Do whatever brings you the most pleasure i.e., eat, drink, and be merry.
Pragmatism.
What is practical for you is right.
Situation Ethics.
Whatever is deemed by that person as having the higher moral value is right.
The Golden Mean.
Do all things in “moderation.”
Humanism.
The majority rule is the rule.
Relativism.
Everyone is always right but truth is based on “you individually.”
Summary
Summary
The reality is ever single man made ethical standard fails as a universal standard of right and wrong.
There is a reason mankind, without God, cannot determine a universal standard.
Every standard man comes up with will ultimately fail.
23 I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
24 A man’s steps are of the Lord; How then can a man understand his own way?
9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.
Though man’s standards fail God’s do not.
Let’s now examine…
God’s Standard
God’s Standard
God’s Very Nature.
God’s Very Nature.
God’s very nature and therefore the standard that flows forth from him is that of love.
8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
God’s very essence his very character is that of love.
God has personally demonstrated his standard “love” over and over.
He has done so in his creation, written word, morality, salvation, and eternal life.
Our God is not one that simply sits back and ignores his creation, he gets involved.
Romans 5:8 (ESV)
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Ephesians 2:4–5 (ESV)
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved
This standard is summarized in several different passages.
Matthew 7:12 (ESV)
12 So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
This is the “golden rule” because it teaches us “God’s standard of love for others.”
37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
You see the pattern of love here do you not?
Summary
Summary
Thankfully, God revealed “in detail” the standard of love through his written word.
Can you imagine if God would have said to love him with out any direction?
Truth be told we can by looking at the denominational world around us.
Can you imagine if God would have said to love one another without any direction?
Unfortunately, again we have illustrations of this galore in our world.
Fortunately, God did not leave us without detailed instructions on how to love him and each other
Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:1-8 gives us a blue print or standard of love and the beautiful thing is we can study…
God’s Standard Exemplified
God’s Standard Exemplified
In Jesus’ Life On Earth.
In Jesus’ Life On Earth.
Love is patient.
16 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.
Love is kind and not envious.
14 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
Love does not boast in arrogance but tells the truth in love.
23 And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God!
25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”
Love is not rude.
22 And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” 23 But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.” 24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
25 But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” 26 And he answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” 27 She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” 28 Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.
Love does not insist on its own way.
This of course is based on something that is not sinful obviously.
1 On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. 3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Love is not irritable.
19 And Jesus rose and followed him, with his disciples. 20 And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, 21 for she said to herself, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.” 22 Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well.
Love is not resentful.
Luke 23:34 (ESV)
34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rather the truth.
7 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
Love never ends.
John 15:9 (ESV)
9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.
Hebrews 13:5 (ESV)
5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Summary
Summary
Thankfully, Jesus has left us an example of what that standard of love looks like in daily living.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Love is the standard of God because God is love and because we love God, love is our standard as well.
It’s no wonder John wrote that we cannot know God’s love without loving one another (1 John 4:7-21).
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.