The More Excellent Way 1 Corinthians 13

Throughout history churches have been known for a variety of things. One of the most recognizable churches in the world is Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France. Construction on the cathedral began in 1163 and the work continued for almost 200 years until the cathedral was finished in 1345.  I can remember visiting Notre Dame and telling Connie, “You couldn’t build a church like this today.” It is beyond beautiful. A fire broke out on April 15, 2019 and every news channel across the globe broadcast the flames destroying the iconic spire and much of the roof. People from across the globe have donated $1 billion to restore the cathedral. More than two years later the work continues.  Some churches are known for their beauty, but the Metropolitan Tabernacle located in south London was known for its teaching of God’s Word. In 1854, a young 20 year old preacher named Charles Haddon Spurgeon became the pastor of the New Park Street Chapel. The young man was gifted, so gifted, and it didn’t take long for the church to grow beyond its capacity. The leaders of the church decided to build a new building: The Metropolitan Tabernacle with 6,000 seats. On the day they opened the doors to the new building the number of people who came to hear Pastor Spurgeon teach God’s Word was beyond anything anyone imagined. Soon they began to have to hand out tokens ahead of services to limit the number of people who could get inside. Spurgeon today, even though he has been dead for almost 230 years now, is still known as the Prince of the Pulpit. He preached more than 3,600 sermons during his ministry. During his lifetime, fifty-six million copies of his sermons were sold, in nearly 40 languages. He also published 49 volumes of commentaries on the Bible. No wonder people still travel from all over the world to see the Metropolitan Tabernacle where the Prince of the Pulpit taught God’s Word. Even in our day, churches are known for a variety of things. Some for their beauty, some for their charismatic leader, some for their amazing programs which take place at Christmas or Easter as people from all over the city gather in amazement to worship, and some for a variety of other things.  In the second century, in 197 AD, in the Roman Empire, specifically in Carthage in North Africa, Christians were being persecuted and looked at with suspicion. A church leader named Tertullian went on the offensive and wrote a letter to the Roman authorities called Apologeticus. Tertullian described the injustices that the followers of Jesus were enduring and then he refuted the charges made against them. In his letter, Tertullian writes, 

It is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us. See how they love one another, they say, for they themselves are animated by mutual hatred; how they are ready even to die for one another, they say, for they themselves will sooner put to death (Tertullian, Apologeticus, ch. 39).

The church in Carthage wasn’t known for its ornate stained glass windows, new world architecture, or even its charismatic leaders, but it was known for its love… “See how they love one another.” Let’s jump ahead to the fourth century, 360 AD, when Julian was Emperor of the Roman Empire. He was troubled by the influence of Jesus and His followers on the lives of his subjects in the Roman Empire. He wrote a letter to his friend, Arsacius, a pagan priest in Galatia. In Julian’s letter he urged Arsacius to try and get their people to follow what the Christians were doing in caring for one another. Listen to this:

Why then do we think that this is sufficient and do not observe how the kindness of Christians to strangers, their care for the burial of their dead, and the sobriety of their lifestyle has done the most to advance their cause? (Julian the Apostate, Letter to Arsacius.)

Emperor Julian became obsessed with the compassionate love demonstrated by the followers of Jesus. He was so troubled that the followers of Jesus were pulling people away from the pagan temples because of their love for all people. In another letter, he wrote,

'Atheism’ [I.e. the Christian faith!] has been specially advanced through the loving service rendered to strangers, and through their care for the burial of the dead. It is a scandal that there is not a single Jew who is a beggar, and that the godless Galileans care not only for their own poor but for ours as well; while those who belong to us look in vain for the help that we should render them. (Emperor Julian)

Love. Compassionate love. This is our calling. This should be the focus of our prayers. His love emanating through each of our lives, in each of our actions, in every sentence, and each and every moment of our lives for as long as we live. Let’s look at our Scripture for this morning found in 1 Corinthians 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. 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 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. 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:1-13 ESV)

I have read these verses over and over again, mainly at weddings. I bet you have heard a portion of 1 Corinthians 13 at a wedding you have attended or maybe you even had it read at your own wedding. The Scripture is beautiful, powerful, convicting, and inspiring no matter where it is read, but it is especially powerful when we read it with all we have learned about the church in Corinth. The people in the pews at Corinth were gifted, Paul told us they lacked no spiritual gift (1 Corinthians 1:7), yet they certainly lacked love. John MacArthur writes,

The health of spiritual living is not reflected in spiritual gifts but in spiritual fruit, the first and chief of which is love (Galatians 5:22). Without the fruit of the Spirit the gifts of the Spirit cannot operate except in the flesh, in which they become counterfeit and counterproductive...The fruit of the Spirit, like all of spiritual living, comes only from walking in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16, 25).  The Corinthian Christians were not walking in the Spirit. They were selfish, self-designing, self-willed, self-motivated, and doing everything possible to promote their own interests and welfare. Everyone was doing his own thing for his own good, with little or no regard for others (MacArthur, John. MacArthur New Testament Commentary: 1 Corinthians. pg. 328).  

Selfish, self-willed, self-promoting, and self-serving. That’s a pretty good description of the society in which you and l live today isn’t it? Or, it might be better for us to hold 1 Corinthians 13:4-6 up as the standard as we consider our daily lives and interactions with others so we can see just how twisted things have become in our day. Take a look at them with me one more time. 

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. (1 Corinthians 13:4-6 ESV)

As we go about our business from day-to-day we will learn that people are not patient with one another, but they are impatient. You will run into some people who are kind, but by and large people are unkind. We struggle with envying those who have what we don’t have, but wish we had, and then we turn around and boast about what we’ve done or what we have gained. We can be so arrogant and filled with pride. It seems to me that rudeness has been spreading faster than Covid during the past eighteen months. Love doesn’t insist on getting its way, but we sure do and we will do anything we have to do to get our way. Irritable and resentful? Anyone want to own those this morning? I will confess. Wrongdoing is celebrated while the truth has morphed into whatever definition we want to use to describe “our truth.”  Now, we as followers of Jesus know that none of this is right, none of this is God’s design for a community of individuals or for society on a larger scale. This leaves you and me with two options. First, we can cry out against the disintegration and downward spiral of society. We can rail against the forces of darkness, boycott companies, and march in the streets with the loudest voice in society. I’ve watched the followers of Jesus do that during the last 40 years. There is a second option, and in my opinion it is the best option, the option you and I should choose. Paul said, in 1 Corinthians 12:31, “I will show you the more excellent way.” What is that way? It is the way of love. I must be very specific and clear about the kind of love Paul is writing about as the more excellent way. We confuse “love” with that which makes me happy, that which gives me feelings of significance, or a sense of belonging. The kind of love Paul had in mind when he wrote 1 Corinthians 13 is a love with no strings attached. This kind of love never says, “I will love you if…” It simply says, “I love you.” The Greek word used to describe this kind of love is “agape” and it is found 8 times in 1 Corinthians 13 alone.This love, the more excellent way that Paul had in mind, is such a stark contrast to the love we exhibit in our own lives. That which we call love for someone or something can actually be a love for ourselves and a need for the person or thing. Alan Redpath, who was the pastor at Moody Bible Church in Chicago, told a story about a woman who came to his office one day. The woman said, “There is a man who says he loves me so much he will kill himself if I don’t marry him. What should I do?” Pastor Redpath said, “Do nothing. That man doesn’t love you; he loves himself. Such a threat isn’t love; it is pure selfishness.” Hopefully none of us would go to the extreme of saying we love someone or something so much that we would kill ourselves if we don’t get what we want, but the same principle of selfishness is at work in each and every one of us when we say we love, but our love is cluttered with strings. There is only one perfect example of the “more excellent way” and His name is Jesus. Pastor Spurgeon once wrote,

On the cross, Jesus Christ, completely embodying this love, looked down at people He was dying for, completely embodying the opposite, and He stayed. (Charles Spurgeon)

Love stays. The disciples failed Him again and again, but they were His disciples. You and I have failed Him again and again, but we are His people, people so dearly loved that He gave His life for us. Do you know that there is nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing that can ever separate you from His love for you? Paul wrote,

38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39 NIV)

Understanding God’s love for you and me is the most freeing, exhilarating, and motivating force in all the world! Knowing that He loves me even when I fail Him miserably, even when my love for Him is so weak at times, and even when I am absolutely unlovable makes me love Him all the more.  It also moves me to want to please Him, not so that He will love me, but because He loves me. Jesus says to you and me,

34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:34-35 NIV)

To be loved with an everlasting love, to experience His love which led Him to give His life for us leads us to love others with the love He has so freely showered upon us. This is the most excellent way--it is the way of love. Because this kind of love, a love with no strings attached, goes against most everything we know in our lives, we tend to use our understanding of love in relation to our understanding of God. Many of the followers of Jesus believe that they have to do right or God won’t love them. Many believe they have to avoid doing wrong if they want God to continue to love them. Doing “right” and doing “wrong” are conversations we can have another time, but they have nothing to do with the measure of love God has for you and me. I want us to focus on verses 1-3 in the time we have remaining so I can point out a couple of very important truths that Paul is trying to hammer home to the people in Corinth. Let’s read them together.

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. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3 ESV)

It is interesting isn’t it that Paul has intentionally listed the gift of speaking in tongues last on his lists of gifts given by the Holy Spirit up until now. We’ve already talked about why he chose to put speaking in tongues last on the list and it was because the Corinthians were overly enthralled with the gift. Paul had no desire to discount or diminish the gift of speaking in tongues. In the next chapter, 1 Corinthians 14, we will read where Paul told the people of Corinth, 

18 I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. 19 But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue. (1 Corinthians 14:18-19 NIV)

Here, in 1 Corinthians 13, Paul moves speaking in tongues up to the front of the list because speaking in tongues was the crown jewel to the Corinthians. And what does he say? Paul says, “If I can speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” At first glance we would say that Paul is trying to show them that speaking in tongues without love is just making noise. That would be true, but there is a deeper truth present here for us to draw out. In the pagan temples of Cybele, Dionysus, and other temples around Corinth, whenever worshipers would enter the temple they would bang on metal, blast a trumpet, or clang together something like a cymbal to make noise for the purpose of getting the attention of the gods. It was a way of announcing, “I’m here!” I’ve been thinking about this during the past week. I look around the Body of Christ today and am totally amazed at the gifts God has given to His people. I listen to Christian musicians and singers and can be moved to tears, I mean to the depth of my soul. That is a gift my friend. I have friends who are followers of Jesus who have been gifted artistically and here I am...I can’t draw a stickman. I have a friend who is an incredibly gifted architect and his fingerprints are all over this city and beyond. My friend has such a heart for the Lord and he knows that his gift is a gift of grace from the Lord. I could go on and on detailing the wonderful gifts God has given to His people, but I want you to know that we must never confuse gifting with walking in the Spirit. The enormous gifts found in the church at Corinth led them to become puffed-up, arrogant, and full of pride. We are every bit as vulnerable as they were. Our gifting and the success of our work can lead us to thinking we are something special. “God must love me because look at how successful I’ve become!” God gives gifts, but we must pursue holiness or else our gifts will eventually be used solely for the purpose of propping up our egos. Jonathan Edwards cautions us,

A spiritual gift of miracles or speaking, does not change a person’s inherent nature. A gift ability does not require a change of heart as love or holiness does. Gifts are like precious jewels with which a body may be adorned, but which do not alter the body’s form. But the grace of God and its fruit turns, as it were, the very soul into a precious jewel. (Jonathan Edwards)

  In verse 2, Paul uses one of the gifts that he has said is most necessary for the building up of the body of Christ. Yet, Paul says that prophecy minus love makes me absolutely nothing. Listen to what Paul wrote,

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. (1 Corinthians 13:2 ESV)

Paul’s ability to teach, preach, evangelize, and counsel God’s people was astounding. He was able to take the Old Testament, see it through the lens of Jesus, and then teach people how Jesus was the fulfillment of everything written long before Jesus was ever born. Yet, Paul wrote that if he was able to do all of these and lacked love--he was nothing. Nothing! I’m so grateful Paul loved those he shared the gospel with even though many of them despised him. I’m so grateful Paul loved the Jews, his own people, even though many of them wanted him dead. Paul wrote,

1 I am speaking the truth in Christ-- I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit-- 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. (Romans 9:1-3 ESV)

To possess the ability to communicate God’s Word is a gift from God. This gift, given by God, for the purpose of teaching people about God, is not immune from arrogance and pride. God has given me the ability to teach His Word. He has not only given me this ability, but He has given me great joy in having the opportunity to teach His Word. I am more than aware that my ability is a gift from Him because I barely got out of school. I didn’t go to Harvard, MIT, Yale, or even the two prestigious institutions of higher learning here in Oklahoma. I don’t have a degree in Philosophy, Neuroscience, or Quantum Mechanics. I’m no erudite scholar. Anything you hear this morning that sticks, anything that helps touch your heart or open your eyes, it didn’t come from me, but it comes from Him. With that said, I can teach God’s Word, but if I don’t have love for each of you, a burning desire for you to grow in your love and knowledge of the Lord, and a passion to see you come to know Jesus in an intimate way...then all of my words are for nothing and I am nothing. I want to be like Jesus who wept over Jerusalem. I want to be like the prophet Jeremiah whose love for God’s rebellious people oozed from his pen. He wrote,

My joy is gone; grief is upon me; my heart is sick within me... For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded; I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me… Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! (Jeremiah 8:18; 21; 9:1 ESV)

Love is the bedrock for the operation of the gifts God has given to His people. Jeremiah was a prophet and it was his love for the people that broke his heart when he delivered the painful message God had given him to deliver. It doesn’t matter what gift God has given you, if it is not used from a heart of love then it is nothing. It is not less than it would be if it were exercised from a heart of love, it is nothing. Last of all, take a look at verse 3 where Paul writes,

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. (1 Corinthians 13:3 ESV)

There are some Christians who have been given a special call to minister to those who are hurting. They will go without so that others can have their basic needs met. There are others who do what they do because of the good feeling they get from helping others. Those are two very different things. We are in the season where people, not just the followers of Jesus, but people from all walks of life seem to be more generous than at any other time of the year. They want to buy turkeys for others, they want to buy presents for families that will not have Christmas, etc. Is that a good thing? Before we answer the question, let’s apply Paul’s reasoning. “If I buy turkeys for everyone in need and give up my own Christmas so that I can buy presents for every child with nothing under the tree, but have not love, I gain nothing.” We don’t gain “brownie points” with God by doing good deeds. There is no inside track with God for those who make sacrifices for others, but are doing so simply to make themselves feel good or so that God will hopefully notice and love them more. I’m not encouraging anyone to be stingy or not to buy presents for those in need at Christmas, but I am urging us to examine our hearts and ask the Lord to show us why we are doing what we are doing? Any answer other than love, love for the Father, gratitude for the Father’s grace and Jesus’ mercy, love with no strings attached for those he leads across our path--is an answer that falls so far short of God’s desire for you and me. We are out of time, but can I make a confession to you this morning? I don’t have the kind of love we’ve been learning about from God’s Word this morning. I’ve tried and it is just not in me. So, if God desires for me to live a life of love, love with no strings attached, but I am incapable of such love, what am I to do? I’ve got good news for us this morning. There is a fountain, a deep, deep well that flows from the Father’s heart into the lives of all of His people who have trusted in Jesus and are willing to walk in the Spirit moment-by-moment and day-by-day. It is not our love, but His love that He desires to unleash through us into a dark and dreary world. Won’t you surrender your heart to Him this morning so this love which knows no bounds might flow through you?Mike HaysBritton Christian ChurchDecember 5, 2021