Sermon Tone Analysis

As we read the text, make these three observations.

1.

The Necessity of Love, which we observe in verses 1-3

2. The Characteristics of Love, in verses 4-7

3. The Permanence of Love, in verses 8-13

Introduction

To be sure first Corinthians 13 is one of the most beloved chapters of scripture in all the Bible.

Our love this text primarily stems from the reading of verses 4 through 7 at weddings or other occasions where a sentimental Bible passage is called for.

You will notice on the screen a whole host of ways that these 4 verses have been used.

From jewelry to home and office decoration.

You can have your sofa pillows embroidered with these verses, you can make it wall art hanging in your bathroom, and some have tattoos of one or all four verses.

But by far most of the time you will hear these four verses read at a wedding.

And reading would go something like this…

“…Love is patient and kind, love does not envy or boast, it is not arrogant or rude, it does not insist on its own way, it is not irritable or resentful, it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth; love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends.”

And it would sound just as sweet and endearing.

The recipients of Paul's letter in the Corinthian church would not have heard the reading of this portion of the scroll and thought to themselves, “I've gotta get a copy of that for my wedding.”

Now I'm not here today to say that you should never read first Corinthians 13 at a wedding or that what Paul says about love is not true.

The problem with the misuse of this text is that it can create a barrier for us when we are reading or studying the passage.

I think this is certainly the case with reading 1 Corinthians 12,13 and 14.

In chapter 12, Paul begins a conversation about spiritual gifts.

There, as Ken reminded us last week, he gives us the foundation for the spiritual gifts and for what it means to be people of the spirit.

Foundational point number one is, Christ is Lord and number two, there must be a diversity of the gifts because there is a diversity within the body of Christ and each member has been given the spiritual gift for the building up of the body.

In approaching chapter 13, we should remember that the holy scriptures have not always had chapter headings and verse numbers.

So when this letter was read for the first time, it would not have felt as abrupt as it may feel to us when we are reading in our modern bibles.

First Corinthians 13 is not a tangent for the Apostle Paul.

He has not suddenly decided to give a discourse on the way of love for no apparent reason.

I hope you hear today that a corrective word on love for one another was necessary for the Corinthians.

He gave them the foundation for the spiritual gifts.

And before he begins a talk in chapter 14 about how the spiritual gifts function, he must give them a sure and sound theological framework.

The spiritual gifts must be exercised within the context of love and for mutual edification.

Not a context of rivalry, self-gratification or the gratification of some rather than all.

The Corinthians must learn that the spiritual gifts serve the church only until Jesus returns.

Only love remains forever.

Paul is concerned that the Corinthians are hindered in seeing this clearly, so he interrupts his instruction on spiritual gifts to state it plainly.

But before we jump into our study of 1 Corinthians 13, let’s first be clear on the word love.

And let’s do that by hearing two passages from Jesus and Paul.

First Jesus in …

And now Paul in …

So with both Jesus and Paul, there are at least three things that we have learned about love.

1.

This is something of God that is foundational to all His acts of benevolence towards men.

2. It is poured into the heart of the Christian at new birth (when they are saved).

3. It is both an emotion of the heart and deeds toward others.

Although we could say much more about love, we cannot say less.

This is at least what Paul means when he speaks of love in our text.

Now back to our text.

So, in 1 Cor.

13, what is Paul wanting to get across to his audience?

Spiritual people are known for the love of God at work through them.

This love governs how they treat their brothers and sisters in Christ and compels them to use their spiritual gift(s) for the building up of the church.

Now, a moment ago I mention that Paul has a concern that he wants to address before continuing in his instruction on spiritual gifts.

Well, he, in fact, has two concerns that he addresses in our text.

1.

He wants to redirect the Corinthians thinking regarding what it means to be people of the spirit.

2. He’s going to place their emphasis on tongues within a framework where love is primary so that their eagerness for “the gifts of the spirit” will be directed toward edifying the church rather than directed toward a false “spirituality.”

Paul gets at both of these concerns by pointing out 3 essential truths concerning love.

(We’ve already mentioned them and if you're taking notes you may want to write down these 3 observations.)

1.

The Necessity of Love, which we observe in verses 1-3

2. The Characteristics of Love, in verses 4-7

3. The Permanence of Love, in verses 8-13

First,

The necessity of love.

In verses one through three we have a series of conditional statements that are said this way.

If I possess x, y or z, but don’t have love for my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, then I am at best a hindrance or a nuisance, powerless, and spiritually bankrupt.

Now those first three verses are a head spinning, jaw-dropping, tear your clothes and heap ashes on your head call to repentance for the Corinthians.

You'll remember from other chapters that the Corinthians have a problem with showboating.

They love to set people who have the higher gifts up above the rest.

In the very first chapter of first Corinthians the problem with divisions was highlighted.

How they prefer one teacher over another.

To the point of pitting Paul against Jesus.

They also had come to think that the human wisdom of their day could be of some benefit in their understanding of the mysteries of God bound up in the gospel.

The Corinthians had indeed been blessed with great manifestations of the Spirit's power in tongues, prophetic words, mysteries, and knowledge but they had learned nothing of how the gospel transforms selfish, self-centered sinners into others’ focused, Christ-centered saints.

The Corinthians were allowing the exercising of the gifts to take preeminence over the exercising of love for one another.

In Paul’s mind, you can’t have gifts of the spirit and be deficient in love.

And, even if only by inference, were the love of God is abounding among the church, you should also find manifestations of the Spirit’s power.

Our 2nd observation in the text are

The Characteristics of love.

It is important for us to notice that Paul uses verbs as the characterizations of love and not adjectives.

That means love in this context is not a feeling but an action.

While we could take each of these 15 characteristics, one by one and expound on them, it is more to our benefit to consider how the Apostle Paul might be using these characterizations of love as a means of correction for the Corinthian church?

We’ll take them in three parts noticing the way Paul expresses them.

First, love is patient and kind.

Here two types of action are demanded.

To be patient is to wait or be longsuffering.

It’s the action of inaction.

And kindness could be described the way commentator David Garland says it.

“It responds to others with the same tender heart and forgiveness that God has shown to us in Christ (Eph.

4:32).

Kindness recognizes that everyone carries a heavy load.”[1]

Two positive expressions of love that have opposite actions towards others or difficulties in general.

Paul sees these two as two sides of God’s attitude toward humankind.

Listen to …

Through Christ, God has patiently held back His divine wrath and bestowed kind acts of mercy upon rebellious sinners.

And since the love of God has been poured into the hearts of the Corinthian Christians, surely, they can demonstrate love for their brethren by doing likewise.

Next, we have a group of seven verbs that describe how love does not behave.

It’s as though Paul has taken these straight out of the past events that he has written about in his letter.

The first in this group, love does not envy.

And yet in chapter 3:3 this what we read concerning the Corinthians.

Love does not permit jealousy and strife among the saints.

It says, “How can I serve others, whatever my own desires?”

Second, in the group, love does not boast.

Again, we need only to look back to chapters 3 and 8 to realize how pointed this section is for the Corinthians.

They thought of themselves as having superior wisdom and knowledge.