Sermon Tone Analysis

Love: The Measure of life

The Value of Replacement Insurance

A farmer’s barn burned down, and his wife called the insurance company.

She told the agent, “We had that barn insured for fifty thousand dollars, and I want my money.”

The agent replied, “Whoa there, just a minute.

Insurance doesn’t work quite like that.

First, we will ascertain the value of what was insured and then provide you with a new one of comparable worth.”

There was a long pause before the woman replied, “If that’s the way insurance works, then I’d like to cancel the policy I have on my husband.”

We spend an awful lot of time figuring out the monetary value of things.

Does monetary cost determine the value of a person or item?

Is it possible to know the price of everything and the value of nothing?

The Bible teaches that life is far more important than things.

This is especially true with regard to a life that is right with Jesus!

Matthew 16:24–28 (CSB)

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it.

26 For what will it benefit someone if he gains the whole world yet loses his life?

Or what will anyone give in exchange for his life?

27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will reward each according to what he has done.

28 Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

I yearn to follow Jesus .

I want to live a life that has value.

I desire to hear “well done good and faithful servant when I meet Jesus.

So I need to know how to know the value of all things, right?

And only do those that are good in Jesus’ eyes!

Do you want that same thing?

Today’s text is 1 Cor 12:31b-13:13, and in it Paul tells us the way to measure value is love.

Love (part of the Fruit of the Spirit) is more important than the gifts given by the Spirit.

Anything devoid of love is devoid of any value, and love increases the value of everything it touches!

Paul has convicted me that I want to be known for my true love.

I know, that means a great deal of work lies ahead of me.

Thankfully most of that labor will be the Spirit’s.

If you care to join me in that quest our labor is to be teachable and willing to follow the Spirit’s lead.

1 Corinthians 12:31b–13:13 (CSB)

31b I will show you an even better way.

1 If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.

3 And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind.

Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, 5 is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs.

6 Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth.

7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends.

But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.

9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end.

11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.

When I became a man, I put aside childish things.

12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror, but then face to face.

Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known.

13 Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love—but the greatest of these is love.

The Text In Its Context

1 Corinthians 12:31b (ESV)

31b And I will show you a still more excellent way.

The Corinthians thought of the more numinous gifts as the highest experience of spirituality and divine presence, but Paul will now show them the “better way”, the “most excellent” way is found in love.

Spiritual gifts are significant, and the Corinthians should be zealous to experience the greatest gifts, but something is greater than any and all of the gifts.

Love is meant just for some believers, it is the foundation, a “way of life” that should give guidance to the expression of all the gifts: love.

If you are familiar with the Star Wars series titled the Mandalorian you might be familiar with the phrase “this is the way!”

You hear it as often in the new series as you heard “May the force be with you” in the original material.

The phrase sums up the entire way of life or code of the Mandalorian race.

If Disney made a series on the Apostle Paul the phrase might well be Love is the way!

True Love Is Priceless

1 Corinthians 13:1 (CSB)

1 If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

The value of love is beyond estimation.

No gift or possession is profitable without it.

1 Corinthians 13:2 (CSB)

2 If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.

In these verses Paul compares the superiority of love to the gift of languages, the gift of prophecy, miraculous faith, and the doing of sacrifices and good deeds.

1 Corinthians 13:3 (CSB)

3 And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.

We must recognize the value of love also, for God’s love enables us to do His work effectively.

God is love and the more like Him we become, the more love we will possess.

What True Love Looks Like

1 Corinthians 13:4–7 (CSB)

4 Love is patient, love is kind.

Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, 5 is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs.

6 Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth.

7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

The virtues of love include kindness, humility, selflessness, patience, compassion, faith, and love.

Many people are trying to express the virtues of love without the possession of love.

This is impossible to do.

We must possess the Spirit of Christ if we are to succeed in performing the work of Christ.

Being filled with the Holy Spirit enables us to practice the virtues of love.

Love Is Permanent (1 Cor.

13:8–13)

1 Corinthians 13:8–13 (CSB)

8 Love never ends.

But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.

9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end.

11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.

When I became a man, I put aside childish things.

12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror, but then face to face.

Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known.

13 Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love—but the greatest of these is love.

Loved ones, friends, pleasures, and possessions sometimes fail, but “love never faileth.”

Faith pleases God, but faith serves its purpose only in this life.

We cannot live without hope, but hope will not be needed in the world to come.

Love is a necessity; everyone needs to love and be loved.

Love is eternal; it will unfold in greater beauty and glory while endless ages roll.

Victory is assured those who are filled with God’s love.

We Must Love Like Jesus: Contemporary Application

THE NEED FOR GENUINE, Christ-like love remains as great today as ever.