1Corinthians 13 February 5, 2019 Intro/review Paul has completed his teaching on spiritual gifts with the encouragement that the gift God has equipped you with is to give glory to God and edify one another. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good (I Cor. 12:7) There is unity but also individuality for each believer. The gift is custom designed for you by God so that His gift for you fits His plan for your life. FOR CONVERSATION: Have you ever received a gift that you thought you really deserved? Or a gift for your good (cane) FOR CONVERSATION: Have you ever received a gift that disappointed you. How did you handle it? FOR CONVERSATION: Have you envied another s gift. It may even have included a declaration that the person giving the gift must have made A MISTAKE. That you deserved better. ABUSING THE GIFT Withholding it from others When we withhold our gifts from others, we mistreat God's gift to us. If you have a talent and can serve a ministry, your family, a company or an organization and have the opportunity to do so well, God is calling you to do so. We are blessed with gifts to be a blessing to others. Using it for our glory. To take the glory and honor from God is actually a form of robbing Him because the glory was never for us to begin with. That doesn't mean we are to live in false humility, but to refuse to live in entitlement and arrogance. Refusing to improve in them Whether it's because we're afraid or just unwilling, refusing to use talents limits God's move in our life. We were meant to improve, hone, and grow in our skills because it benefits you, everyone around you and even God Himself. We have to grow. The little boy told his mom he fell out of bed because he was too close to where he got in. Are we sleeping on the edge stuck where we first got in?
A MORE EXELLENT WAY No matter the gift there is something better than the gift.love WHAT IS LOVE? We define and live.love many ways; I love the Chicago Dog at JJ Red Hots I would love to drive a sporty little Audi. I love it whenever the Panthers beat the Saints I love going to Greenville to visit my daughter s family I love my wife Shirley I love fellow believers..unbelievers too? I love how Scripture ministers to my every need. I love sinners but not the sin I love my Savior Jesus Christ I love Father, Son and Holy Spirit We must have a biblical understanding of biblical love! John 3:16 (ESV) 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 15:12 (ESV) 12 This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 1 John 3:16 18 (ESV) By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. Four unique forms of love are found in the Bible. Eros - romantic love Storge - family love Philia - brotherly love Agape - God's divine love
1CORINTHIANS 13 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. Nothing = oudeis - not anything, none, one of no interest or value The point here is the gift.whether God given (tongues, prophecy) or self designed (give away all including my body) is worthless without love. Nothing is not God s intention for us! For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10 (ESV) 10 Paul s point God s point is we can t walk in them without love. VIDEO FROM GOTQUESTIONS ON AGAPE LOVE
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant PATIENT (suffereth long KJV) to persevere patiently and bravely in enduring misfortunes and troubles. 1B to be patient in bearing the offenses and injuries of others. 1B1 to be mild and slow in avenging. KIND Galatians 5:22 (ESV) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, mild, pleasant (as opp. to harsh, hard sharp, bitter). of things: more pleasant, of people, kind, benevolent Luke 6:35 (ESV) But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. DOES NOT ENVY covet earnestly James 3:14 16 (ESV) 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. 15 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. DOES NOT BOAST (vaunteth itself KJV) employing rhetorical embellishments in extolling one s self excessively. Daniel 3:10 11 (ESV) 10 You, O king, have made a decree, that every man who hears the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, shall fall down and worship the golden image. 11 And whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into a burning fiery furnace.
IS NOT ARROGANT to inflate, blow up, to cause to swell up. 2A to puff up, make proud. 2B to be puffed up, to bear one s self loftily, be proud. Philippians 2:1 5 (ESV) So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; IS NOT RUDE not suitable for time or place, inappropriate. to act unbecomingly. Stepping on toes. Bad behavior at the Lord s supper (1Cor 11:17-22) 1 Corinthians 14:40 But all things should be done decently and in order. DOES NOT INSIST ON ITS OWN WAY to seek after, seek for, aim at, strive after himself, herself, itself, themselves. 1 Corinthians 8:9 But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. 1 Corinthians 10:23-23 All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not all things build up. 24 Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. IS NOT IRRITABLE Easily provoked (KJV) to exasperate, to burn with anger fly off the handle Numbers 20:10 Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock? 11 And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock. 12 And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.
IS NOT RESENTFUL a mode of thinking, feeling, acting. 2A base, wrong, wicked. 3 troublesome, injurious, pernicious, destructive, baneful. John 18:39 But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews? 40 They cried out again, Not this man, but Barabbas! Now Barabbas was a robber. 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. DOES NOT REJOICE AT WRONGDOING..REJOICES WITH THE TRUTH does not delight in evil but embraces the truth Proverbs 17:15 He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the LORD. 2 John 4 I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. BEARS ALL THINGS to protect or keep by covering, to preserve. 2 to cover over with silence Romans 15: 1 We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. BELIEVES ALL THINGS to trust in Jesus or God as able to aid either in obtaining or in doing something: saving faith Psalm 119:66 Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments.
HOPES ALL THINGS in a religious sense, to wait for salvation with joy and full confidence Romans 8:24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. ENDURES ALL THINGS to preserve: under misfortunes and trials to hold fast to one s faith in Christ. 2B to endure, bear bravely and calmly James 1:12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. NEVER ENDS Eternal! Psalm 36:5 Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. 6 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; your judgments are like the great deep; man and beast you save, O LORD. 7 How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. Every gift works together for the maturing of the church some only functioning the early days of the church age..others active until the church is perfect Once that perfection is determined by God, and He gathers His church, the spiritual gifts will have served their purpose.except love.which NEVER ENDS o How could it.god is love and He is eternal. MEAT! The gifts given to bring the church from milk to meat to perfection.
Ephesians 4:11 15 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, (ESV) Perfection in verse 10 is translated telion. This state will not come about until the second coming of Christ. 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 gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 1 John 3:2 Beloved, we are God s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 1 Corinthians 2:9 (ESV) But, as it is written, What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him.but until then 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.