Sermon Tone Analysis

! But have not love…

 

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.

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.

3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, *but have not love*, I gain nothing.

*1 Corinthians 13 1-3*

 

Yes, I know, I missed it by two days; and would you believe it I actually received an anonymous message on Valentine’s day too?

How we do trivialise love!

But there is no trivialising of love here in this famous passage.

The greatest example of poetry at the hand of Paul.

“It was the life of love that Jesus lived which made the psalm of love which Paul wrote possible.”

I did not choose it because of the 14th – no matter what you may think – but because I believe very strongly that the Lord wants us to know more as a fellowship of His love and to express as a fellowship more love to Him and to each other.

It is that recurring phrase that sounds like a drum beat in each verse “BUT HAVE NOT LOVE…” that preoccupies us as we gather at His table this morning.

There is a beautifully simple structure:

 

/A possible boast –       a challenge –                     a striking reality/

 

If I speak                  but have not love               a resounding gong

If I have much           but have not love               I am nothing

If I give all                 but have not love               I gain nothing

 

Paul eloquently reminds us that without love we are noisy, empty and without purpose.

But before we examine this challenge together consider:

 

! Without Christ this notion is impossible

 

It has often been suggested that to understand what Paul is saying you have to substitute the name “Jesus” for “love” – and I know what they mean by that.

Nevertheless Paul uses “love” because what he has to say is about love in all its aspects.

However without Christ and His love that is the measure of all other loves his words would be what many people understand the verses to be: a poem about love.

So they think they can be as sentimental as they wish.

How many times is the passage used at a wedding?

And of those times how many times by those who love the Lord?

Apart from Jesus – all the love we know is secondary.

It may be very deep and very significant – but it is secondary.

Christ is the living demonstration of the LOVE OF GOD to us

 

Christ sets alight in our lives a love like this

 

The heart of His nature and His gospel is this GREAT LOVE

 

*such love* NEVER FAILS.

The deepest love I have felt – the most enduring compassion fades and falters but HIS is an abiding love – everlasting love – and that NEVER FAILS

 

! Consider what it would be like to be WITHOUT LOVE

 

Even on a human level the prospect is frightening – to be without love!

 

        to be unloved

        not to matter to anyone

        to be of no significance, no value, no dignity

 

        to be unattractive, undesirable, unlovely

 

alternatively …

 

        to know no love for others

 

        a life unresolved, without warmth, without the need for any other

 

We cannot bear the thought of a world without love, without caring, without feeling

 

YET – Paul is saying *we often live our spiritual lives WITHOUT LOVE*

* *

And a spiritual life without  love is no spiritual life at all – it is a sham.

! Consider how important LOVE is in your life

 

Love as received                 *of family*

                                        mother

                                        father

                                        brother

                                        sister

 

                                        To matter, to be valued, to be needed

 

                                        *of friends*

 

                                        *of husband or wife*

* *

                                        We should take INVENTORY more often.

Love as given                     to recognise the unique warmth and purpose that                                          loving others brings to us

 

                                        even when it is seemingly unreciprocated

 

                                        the unique dimension that only LOVE brings to the                                         human spirit…

 

The love of GOD                 Who can reckon up its value?

Measure its height and depth, breadth and length?

Account for its transforming power

 

                                        To be able to say  “GOD SO LOVED ME…”

 

Love FOR God                    How shall we live BUT HAVE NOT LOVE?

But however precious, these are in a sense GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

To love and to be loved is not the sole prerogative of Christians!

So then REMEMBER TO WHOM PAUL ADDRESSES THESE MEMORABLE WORDS

 

He is sending this message TO THE CHURCH

 

To the Corinthian Church in particular – which, for all its problems was a powerful group – exercising spiritual gifts, declaring a powerful Gospel – needing to reign in a particularly /active/ worship.

Not to the world – but to the Christian

 

And so especially to ME and to YOU!

There has never been a time here in this Church when we have not needed LOVE – but I say to you – here as we approach the Lord’s table – that there has seldom been such a time as this time when we need LOVE.

“BUT HAVE NOT LOVE”

 

We may have orthodoxy

A whole range of works

A welter of assumptions

A veritable Pandora’s box of opinions

 

and, yes a DEEP LONGING TO BE RIGHT BEFORE HIM

 

But recent events remind us that we are described here in this poem by Paul

 

We have so much – BUT HAVE NOT LOVE!

 

Oh I know – the word is misused perhaps more than any other.

Like the world around us we read “love” and interpret it so widely and often so ineffectively.

Does that mean we can just shrug and move away – from Him, and from our brothers and sisters in Christ!

 

 

!

PAUL SETS THIS WORD AGAINST A THREEFOLD BACKDROP

 

There is a beautifully simple structure:

 

/        A possible boast –       a challenge –                     a striking reality/

 

1.

If I speak                  but have not love               a resounding gong

2.     If I have much           but have not love               I am nothing

3.     If I give all                 but have not love               I gain nothing

 

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.

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.



 

3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, *but have not love*, I gain nothing.

SOUND

SCIENCE \\ SACRIFICE

 

 

À    I may be one of those who is often heard.

(I fit that category!)

I can be altogether well-intentioned – and always have SOMETHING TO SAY – but if I have not love I am exactly like those annoying motorcars that drive around demonstrating megawatts of acoustic power – thrub thrubbing the atmosphere with NOISE!

I convey no message – because I have not love!

À    I may be one of those who KNOWS  - I know what’s wrong, I know what should be done, I know what choices should be made – I may pride myself on the breadth of my understanding – my long experience in the Christian life.

&                                                                                                      I may even be one of those who believes effectively – a mountain mover!

– but it can ALL be cancelled out IF I HAVE NOT LOVE – I am nothing