Sermon Tone Analysis

I. The Reading

A reading from God’s Word: 1 Corinthians 16:13-24.

The Word of God says this:

This is God’s Word, if you receive it as such, would you say “Amen”?

— AMEN.

II.

The Exhortation

At the conclusion of this letter “to the church” the apostle gives his final instructions — and his love.

In verses 13-14, the apostle abruptly and in rapid succession, states clearly what the church in Corinth is to do, and how they are to do it, because they are “sanctified in Christ Jesus” and “called to be saints.”

This never changes throughout this letter.

The church’s identity and responsibilities remain unchanged to the very end.

— Why?

Because God made them what they are.

It wasn’t a work of their own doing.

They could not sanctify themselves.

They could not call themselves.

GOD sanctified them in Christ Jesus.

GOD called them to be saints.

And God does this for us too.

If God has sanctified us in Christ Jesus, and if God has called us to be saints, then that is what we are — because God said so!

[ DO NOT READ - DISPLAY VERSE ONLY ]

The words “sanctified” and “saints” used in the opening greeting of this letter explain how this church of God is distinct from all the other churches of the world.

There are other “churches” in the world.

But this church is the church of God, and is distinctly His.

This church, this people (and a church is a people) — GOD bought them!

God owns them.

God saves them.

God graces them.

God gifts them.

God unites them.

And God calls them into fellowship with Him through His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Why? — Why would God do that for His church in Corinth?

Why would God do that for Southside Baptist Church in Decatur, AL?

Why would God be so gracious to such a divided, dysfunctional, deceived, disturbed and in some cases, even dead group of people that do not deserve anything but instant damnation?

And the answer is —

His love.

God’s love.

God loves His church.

God loves you.

God loves me.

Why does God love?

The Scriptures tell us —

Because that is who God is (1 Jn 4:16).

God IS love.

And as He is, so God has made us, His Church to be.

The fruit of His Spirit is love.

And so our text says this by way of final instruction (and it is no insignificant instruction):

Nothing is exempted.

Everything we do as the Christ community, is to be done in love, or it is not done in the name of Christ.

We are to bear on another’s burdens in love.

We are to discern the needs among us and meet them, in love.

We suffer when a member suffers.

We rejoice when a member rejoices, because that’s what God does too.

God loves.

We are not instructed to love for the sake of love itself.

We do not love because of the lusts of our own flesh.

If we are left to decide what love is on our own, we would corrupt it, as we do with everything else that is carnal and worldly and of the flesh.

But all things are to be done in love, BECAUSE of our love for God — as an outworking of God’s love poured first into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom 5:5).

In other words, it is only by the Holy Spirit of God that we can fulfill this command and love in all things as we ought to love.

Jesus said:

It is our love for “one another” that is seen by others and witnesses to our faith in Christ.

Jesus isn’t saying “love your enemies” here.

He’s saying love each other.

Love your brothers and sisters in the Church.

Your fellow disciples.

— Jesus has to tell us to do that!

And by loving one another, people will know that we belong to Jesus.

How we relate and act toward our own.

All things in the church, and done by the church, are to be done in love — just like Jesus loved — with a giving, selfless, sacrificial, submissive and obedient love that always cares more for the other person, than it does for one’s self.

Church, we can get a lot of things wrong, but we will never be wrong, we can never err, we will never make a mistake, when we do what we do, in love.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends.

(1 Corinthians 13:7-8a, ESV)

Concerning our sin, Jesus could have said:

“That’s your problem, not mine.”

Jesus would have been right to walk away and do nothing about our sin.

Because sin was my problem, not His.

Jesus never sinned — I sinned.

Jesus loved God with ALL his heart, soul, mind and strength.

I did not and could not and would not.

Sin was never His problem.

But in love, look what Jesus did — Jesus made my sin His problem!

Rather than being unloving and saying “That’s your problem, not mine,” Jesus instead demonstrated for us what love is through what He did — Jesus made our problem His own!

That’s love.

Jesus took our sin and said “that’s mine.”

Jesus became sin, and dealt with it by giving His all — everything — His life — so that sin would no longer be “my problem” or define “my life” or obstruct my fellowship with God.

Jesus, in demonstration of the Father’s love, through His death, burial and resurrection, made of me what I could never be — the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor 5:21).

And that is what we do for one another, Church.

We make each other’s problems our own and meet them as God gives us the grace and ability to do so.

THAT is love!

That is God’s love that we are to have and show and act one toward another.

This is the command, once again, “to the church” — verse 14 —

This love is the umbrella that covers all the other actions of the Church.

“If I have not love, I am nothing…If I have not love, I gain nothing.”

(1 Corinthians 13:2-3).

And so this command finds a prominent place at the end of this letter “to the church” and God has a good reason for instructing us to keep this command.

Because if the church loses its love, it loses its spiritual power.

It loses its identity.

It loses everything!

God would not waste His words, by giving and preserving this command for us, if we were not in jeopardy of failing to keep it at any given moment.