Most people who have read the book of 1st Corinthians, are familiar with the phrase from chapter 13, stating that if you do not have love, nothing else matters. Most people and most preachers for that matter present this in a way which makes it seem as though this verse is saying you must work up love, and do your best to love others – and most people tend to accept and believe that to be true.
However, what I want to share with you today is a different perspective. As we take a look at 1st Corinthians 13, through the lens of Grace and the finished work of Christ, we begin to see something different than what is generally assumed. Something less focused on our efforts to try and work-up love within ourselves, and something more (properly) focused on Christ, His finished work, and His love for us. By seeing this, you will have a new appreciation and application of the love of God in your daily life.
As we begin today we see something very enlightening right in verses 1 through 3 of 1st Corinthians 13:
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profits me nothing.”
As these three verses make clear, the focus here is on having love. If you don’t have love, nothing else matters. It’s not about your works. You can do all manner of works and service, you can have all sorts of knowledge, you can sacrifice absolutely everything – even going so far as to giving up your own body to be burned, but if you don’t have love it profits you absolutely nothing.
Believe it or not, that statement offends a great number of people, because they have been doing all of those things – but not from a position of love, but from a position of need and a position of I have to.
I’ve spoken with many people who preach and teach and try to evangelize, not because they truly have love, but because secretly they feel that they must do so, or God will not be pleased with them. But as we see in verse 1, even if we speak with the tongues of men or angels, if we do not have love, we become as sounding brass or a tinkling symbol, and as we know and have studied before, brass is a symbol of judgment and condemnation. Goliath’s armor was made of brass as mentioned in 1st Samuel 17; and such references were common as in Deuteronomy 28:23, and Leviticus 26:19.
Here in the context of this verse, it is telling us that without having love, even if we speak with the most elegant of words, it will become as judgment and condemnation, because the foundation must always be love.
Now, as I commented in the opening, this is not telling us that we must conjure up love within ourselves as is commonly believed, but this is actually speaking about divine love. The Greek word used for love in all of these verses is ἀγάπη, the divine love of God. This is not human love, or love through self-effort being spoken of at all in these verses. This kind of love does not come by trying hard, or by struggling to conjure it up… and I’ll take it one step further – this isn’t even talking about your love towards others here! Look at the specifics of what the verses are saying and the way in which they are phrased:
they all say “If you do not have love.”
This is talking about having love, possessing love, personally for yourself… this is not talking about doing love, or working love, or even giving love at this point, but it is talking about having love, and remember that this is the ἀγάπη divine love of God being spoken of here.
So the question becomes then, do you have His divine love for you, personally?
Because as we have seen having His love for you, is the proper foundation for everything; and as we have already read in the first three verses, without having His love for you first, everything else is meaningless and empty.
So to answer the question of whether you have God’s divine love for you, we must first understand what it actually means to have His love; and 1st Corinthians 13 doesn’t leave us guessing about this either. Take a look now at verses 4-7:
“Love suffers long, and is kind; love envies not; love brags not itself, is not puffed up,
Does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil;
Rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
Take a look at this list. Most people read this as a list of things that they need to do (or work on), but that is not the case at all.
What you are actually seeing in these verses here, is a description of ἀγάπη love, the divine love of God for you! So let’s take a look at these descriptors… the first being Love suffers long, which is basically an old English way of saying that the divine love of God is extremely patient. This is actually an important point, because there are quite a few people who have this picture and idea of God being very short-tempered… They see Him as being very volatile, and capable of lashing-out at any moment. Religious preachers and fire-and-brimstone legalists, promote this false image of God to try and keep their congregations in-line, saying things like “You had better be careful, because God is always watching!” and things like that. However we see here that you needn’t be afraid of an angry and short-tempered God, because He is actually extremely patient. I know that He has been and continues to be that way with me! So if I am still around and He hasn’t wiped me out yet – you’re in good shape!
We also see that love is kind. This goes hand-in-hand with love being patient, and again, many don’t see God as being kind. As we look at these things, I want you to see that the common image and idea of God does not fit the description listed here, so either God is a liar, or we have been believing a lie about Him. And it’s time that we start believing the truth instead of what man-made doctrines, ideas and religion have told us.
Look at the next few items… Love does not envy. Which means God isn’t going to look at you or your things and be resentful. Love doesn’t brag itself. That one seems obvious, but then stop to consider that this means none of what God has said about Himself has ever been a brag or a boast! All of His generosity, all of His goodness, all of His faithfulness, justice and mercy, all of His compassion and care, all of it has been absolutely one-hundred-percent accurate and on-point.
Love also isn’t puffed up. God does not have an inflated idea of who He is. Again if He says something about Himself, He can do it, He can back up His promises. And this again is a wonderful truth for us to latch onto.
Love doesn’t behave unseemingly. God will never act in a manner which is unbecoming. This really doesn’t need much explanation does it? Some very strange things are done in the name of God, but this verse make it clear that it is not really of Him; because love never behave unseemingly.
Next we have Love does not seek its own, and this is a big one. The ἀγάπη love of God is a love that is entirely selfless. The divine love of God needs no reciprocation. This is a giant departure from the way human love is. Human love says “I need you”, human love has conditions, and if the conditions aren’t met we can get hurt and offended. Not so with God. His divine love does not seek anything for itself.
I know that many people today think that God’s love does indeed have conditions, but it does not. His love was perfectly demonstrated by Christ on the cross (Romans 5:8, 1st John 3:16, 1st John 4:9-10).
Love also is not easily provoked. How many times do you think God gets irritated at your day-to-day life and behaviors? A lot of people think that He does, and that He scoffs at and scorns them. And while it may seem a bit of a small thing, it’s important to understand what is written here, that God does not actually do that. Because while you may realize it or not, dear friend, if you believe that God is easily irritated at your life, it will begin to erode the relationship that you have with Him, and it will drive a very subtle wedge between you and God that you might not even consciously detect at first. And this connects perfectly with the next item on the list…
Love thinks no evil. And this requires some explanation, because the English translation here is a bit blind to us regarding the meaning. The literal Greek for “thinks no evil” here is does not impute any evil, bad or wickedness. In other words, God does not record your sins! And this is another huge item on the list because there are many people who think that God is keeping a laundry-list of all of their sins, and that when they get to Heaven he’s going to play all the embarrassing parts of their life back on His 60ft projector.
No my friend, the reason why all of these things are true, especially the last two items about Him not getting irritated and not recording your sins, is because Jesus already handled the sin problem! Jesus already paid the full price and punishment for every single one of your sins, for your entire life! There’s nothing left to pay for! All of God’s wrath against sin has been spent on Jesus! There’s nothing left to record, because it has all been paid for and removed!
Now we see in verse 6 that Love does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. And again when people read this, they typically have sin on the brain and all they are thinking about is their sinful behaviors; but that was already dealt with in the previous verse. But look at this truth the lens of Grace and in-line with what we just read… It is iniquity (or injustice) for anyone (including yourself) to claim that you are still a sinner, still dirty, still unrighteous, in light of the fact that you are in Christ today.
For a believer in Christ, someone who has received His divine cleansing, to think or to be told that they are still unrighteous, is the greatest injustice in all of history… and it happens behind pulpits and in quite a few churches every single week.
God doesn’t rejoice in that injustice, but He does rejoice in the truth. Jesus is the truth. And His truth is that He has washed you completely, leaving nothing unfinished.
You see my friend, Love bears everything, believes everything, confidently expects everything, and endures everything. And God certainly does that for each of us.
And as we see at the beginning of verse 8, Love never fails.
Now some have used the rest of verse 8, as well as 9 through 13 to make the claim that miracles and gifts of the Spirit have ended… That is actually not the case, and we have done other studies on that subject, if you’re curious about that I would encourage you to view those. If I went into it here this video would be over an hour long.
As we close today, though We have seen today, the definition of God’s ἀγάπη love for you, and as we read at the start, if you don’t have that nothing else matters. And know your eyes are open to understand why…. Because the foundation is all on Jesus Christ.
What we have read today may have described things about God which you have never known or experienced. It doesn’t matter how long you have gone to church or been a Christian, because sadly, many places do not present an accurate picture of the love of God in the light of Jesus Christ and His finished work. But what we have read today is straight from your scriptures.
So we return to our question from before: Do you have the ἀγάπη love of God, for you, personally? Do you have the type of love that we read today in the scriptures? I’m not talking about your behavior towards others right now, or your performance or your works… I’m asking if you have received God’s love towards you! Do you know, without any doubt, that as we read, He is not keeping a list of your sins? Do you know that He is not angry with you at all? Do you know that His love requires zero reciprocation?
If so, then you have a great reason to rejoice right now and you should have a massive grin on your face.
If you’re not sure, you also should be getting a massive grin on your face in a second, because all you need to do to be sure… is to ask for it, and you can receive it and believe it. I’m not going to lead you in a sinners prayer or anything, because there is no such thing in the scriptures. I’m simply telling you what the scripture says: ask and you will receive. Ask God for Jesus. Ask God to give you His Spirit, and He will. Ask in your own words, with your own heart, and nothing will ever please Him more.
And I will close, by saying with all sincerity,
Be blessed.