There once was a farmer who was known as the greatest cusser in his community. As the story goes one day he lost the tailgate on the back of his wagon and spilled potatoes for a half a mile up a steep hill. While he was gathering the potatoes he did so in total silence. This astounded the neighbors. So much so that finally one of them asked him why he was not cussing. He said, "words are inadequate for this situation."
That is the way I feel when approaching this subject of love. How would you define love? It isn't easy. But we must define it if it is as important as the first three verses of this chapter tell us it is. We must understand something about how it works.
We saw last week that the most gifted person in the world produces nothing, is nothing, and gains nothing without love. Life minus love equals zero. That's how important love is in your life and mine. Do you think that maybe that is overstating it a little? Is love really that important?
Mark 12:28-31 (NKJV) Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, "Which is the first commandment of all?" 29 Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is: 'Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. 30 'And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment. 31 "And the second, like it, is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."
Paul says the same thing in Romans in a little different way.
Romans 13:8 (KJV) Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
Colossians 3:14 (NKJV) But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.
1 Peter 4:8 (NKJV) And above all things have fervent love for one another, for "love will cover a multitude of sins."
Leviticus 19:18 (NKJV) 'You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.
Those verses ought to make it clear enough that love is preeminent. Above everything else, we are called to love God and one another. What does it mean to love God? If we want to know what it is to love we must go to the Scriptures.
John 14:15 (NNAS) "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
John 14:21 (NNAS) "He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him."
John 15:10 (NNAS) "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.
John 15:14 (NNAS) "You are My friends if you do what I command you.
Based on those verses what would you say it means to love God? If love here is not formally defined as obedience, it is so closely connected with it that there seems to be no room for anything else.
1 John 2:3-5 (NNAS) By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 5 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him:
1 John 5:2 (NNAS) By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments.
It seems that the visible characteristic of love is obedience and love itself is a desire to obey. The Scriptures also make it clear that our love for God is validated by our love for others.
1 John 4:20-21 (NNAS) If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.
We cannot truly love God without loving one another. To recognize that there is someone I do not love is to say to God, "I do not love you enough to love that person." Love is truly preeminent, I hope that you see that. To not be a loving person is not some small character flaw; it is to break the greatest commandment, it is to not love God.
If that is in fact true, if love is preeminent, if life minus love equals zero, if to not be loving is to not love God, then we should all desire to manifest love in our lives shouldn't we? How many of you would like to be loving people? How many of you would like to love as God wants you to love? Stand up! Look around. That we all desire it is evident, so shouldn't that be enough? No! Does anybody know Proverbs 13:4? The soul of a lazy man desires, and has nothing; But the soul of the diligent shall be made rich. If we want to love we must become diligent in our quest for love.
What we are really talking about here is practical sanctification. Practical sanctification is spiritual growth; it is conformity to Christ likeness. It is becoming a loving person.
1 John 2:6 (NNAS) the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.
How can we learn to live like Christ lived? How do we do it?
How do we become sanctified? How do we grow into Christ likeness? How do we learn to love? These are really all the same question with the same answer. Sanctification is a matter of "dependant discipline." The word "dependant" emphasizes our need for God's power to work in us.
John 15:5 (NNAS) "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
Colossians 2:6 (NNAS) Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,
How did you receive Christ? By faith, so walk by faith. Sanctification is a matter of trusting God to work in you. But we have a part, God uses means to sanctify us.
Discipline: sums up our responsibility to grow in sanctification, in love. What is our part, what do we need to do? We need to apply the means of Sanctification. Let me give you the mechanics of our part in sanctification.
1. We must renew our minds.
2 Corinthians 3:18 (NNAS) But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
What is the mirror into which we behold the Lord's glory? The Word of God. As we spend time in the Word of God we are changed by the Spirit into Christ's likeness.
Romans 12:2 (NNAS) And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
Apart from a regular, consistent time in the Word of God you will never grow in sanctification, and you will never love.
2. We must confess and repent of our sins as they are revealed in God's word.
1 John 1:9 (NNAS) If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
3. We must watch how we live.
Ephesians 5:15 (NNAS) Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise,
We must be consciencious of all we are doing as if we were walking through a mine field. Illustration of clovers and bees. We must apply wisdom in every area of our lives.
4. We must choose to obey the Word of God depending upon the Spirit of God to provide the power. Our daily lives contain a constant stream of moral choices. We choose to lie or tell the truth, to forgive or to harbor resentment, to entertain lustful thoughts or to think on what is good. We choose to respond to opportunities or to ignore them. Life is a series of choices. The choices you make will determine how you live.
We are responsible to discipline ourselves toward spiritual growth, all the while trusting God to work in us. Perhaps the analogy of a farmer will help us understand this.
Consider the farmer and his crops. There are certain "disciplines," or tasks, he must do. He must plow, plant, fertilize, and cultivate. In some areas, he must irrigate. But he cannot make the seed germinate and grow. Only God can do that. The farmer, whether he recognizes it or not, depends on God both for the physical and mental ability to do his tasks and for the capital to buy his supplies and equipment. And he obviously depends on God for the growth of his crops.
In the same way, the Christian depends on God to enable him to perform his disciplines. But the performance of the disciplines does not itself produce spiritual growth. Only God can do that.
Growth in sanctification, in love is not then a matter of personal discipline plus God's work. It is a matter of dependant discipline, of recognizing that we are dependant on God to enable us to do what we are responsible to do. Then it is a recognition that even when we have performed our duties, we must still look to Him to produce the growth. Paul put it this way in 1 Corinthians 3:7 (NNAS) So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.
Since love is preeminent, since loving one another is a must if we love God, love demands description of some kind. So in verses 4-7 Paul describes for us the practice of love. After emphasizing how essential love is, Paul begins not by defining it, but rather describe the manifestations of it in our lives. He tells us what love will produce. He isolates the evidences, the products, and the manifestations of love in the life of a believer.
In verses 4-7 Paul personifies love. This is a methodology he uses often. In these verses we have a portrait of Jesus Christ. You could substitute Jesus Christ in these verses for the word love. Let's read it that way.
"Jesus Christ suffers long and is kind; Jesus Christ does not envy; Jesus does not parade himself, He is not puffed up; 5 He does not behave rudely, He does not seek his own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. "
This is a beautiful portrait of Jesus Christ. He provides the perfect model for helping us to understand how love acts. By seeing Jesus in these verses we also guard against misinterpreting these attributes. If Jesus were all-loving, but could clear the temple in righteous anger (Mark 11:15-18) or unleash a torrential castigation against the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of his day (Matthew 23), then our concept of love must leave room for similar actions.
In this description of love you have some very marked reflections of the description of love in Galatians chapter 5.
Galatians 5:22-23 (NKJV) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
The next eight words after "fruit is love"describe what love does and what it produces in the life of a person who has it. If we take those eight characteristics and compare them to 1 Corinthians 13 you will find that they are reflected here. The first one in Galatians is joy- love rejoices in truth. Peace- love seeketh not her own. Longsuffering - love suffers long. Kindness - love is kind. Goodness - love does not envy. Faith - love believeth all things. Meekness - love is not puffed up. Self-control - love does not behave rudely. These are parallel passages. But what you have in 1 Corinthians is a more extensive description. There are fourteen characteristics of love that are given to us in 1 Corinthians 13. They are given to us in seven pairs. The first pair is positive, the next four pairs are negative, the last of those four pair is given negatively and then positively and that is a transition to the last two pairs that are given to us positively. These characteristics of love are chosen by the Holy Spirit because of the experience of the Corinthians. Each one of these is aimed at a particular problem in the church at Corinth. What Paul is telling them here is that the real solution to their problems in the church is love. Love would solve all the problems that the Corinthians were having.
Paul wrote this to the Corinthians but it is just as applicable to us as it was to them. The real solution to the problems we face in our home, church, work place, school, is love.
The first thing Paul says about love is that it is patient. This is the Greek word makrothumeo, (mak-roth-oo-meh'-o) which is a word that almost on every occasion in the NT conveys the idea of having an infinite capacity to be injured without paying back. It is used with regard to people, not circumstances. It is having a long fuse. The loving person is able to be inconvenienced or taken advantage of by a person and yet not be upset or angry. Chrysostom, the early church father, said, "It is a word which is used of the man who is wronged and who has it easily in his power to avenge himself but will never do it." This love is very slow to anger or resentment, and it never retaliates.
To the Greeks it was a virtue to refuse to tolerate insult or injury and to strike back in retaliation for the slightest offense. To the Greeks of Paul's day vengeance was a virtue, and the same is defiantly true of our day. We make heroes out of those who fight back at the slightest provocation. In our society just as in the Greek society of Paul's day, patience is considered a weakness. But the Christian who walks in love is patient, he has a long fuse.
What are the things that keep us from being patient?
Mistreatment? How do you respond to ridicule, insults, and undeserved rebukes, or outright persecution? When you are a victim of office politics or organizational power plays do you respond in patience? When you are rejected or mistreated by a spouse do you respond in patience? How do you treat another believer who is rude to you or gossips about you? I think that if we are honest we will admit that we don't always respond patiently.
How can we grow in this aspect of patience? It starts with renewing our mind. We must consider the justice of God. Peter tells us to follow the example of Christ.
1 Peter 2:23 (NKJV) who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously;
We are not to retaliate but to commit ourselves to God, who judges justly. One of the thoughts that most disturbs a suffering Christian who has not learned patience is this issue of justice. He is concerned that his tormentor will escape justice. Look at God's promise to us in:
Romans 12:19 (NKJV) Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord.
Don't worry that the person who is treating you unjustly will get away with it, leave it to God, he is a just judge.
If we are going to be patient we must also understand the sovereignty of God. I will always act in a patient manner when I realize that God is in charge of everything. Every circumstance, from disease to death, from astronomy to acne, from the nat to the Navy, God controls it all. He is sovereign, nothing happens outside His control, nothing. And furthermore he controls it all for my good. So whatever happens in our life, God is working it for our good.
Romans 8:28 (NKJV) And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
One of the major problems in the church today is the wide acceptance of Armenian theology. It holds, among other things, that God's predestination was conditioned by human choice, that the gospel could be freely accepted or rejected, and that a person who had become a Christian could "fall from grace" or lose salvation. Armenianism in effect says that Man is sovereign and God is hopeful and helpful.
On the other hand traditional Calvinism or Reformed theology teaches that "God is Sovereign." To say that God is sovereign is to say that he is the Almighty, the Possessor of all power in heaven and earth, so that none can defeat His counsels, thwart His purpose, or resist His will.
Psalms 115:3 (NKJV) But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases.
If you don't understand that God is Sovereign you won't understand that every trial is under His total control. Our lives are not the haphazard result of the moving of blind chance. All that comes to pass in our lives is according to the eternal plan of the all-wise, all-powerful, and all-loving God.
Joseph understood the sovereignty of God. After he had been abused by his brothers, they plotted his murder but were talked into selling him into slavery instead, He was able to say to them:
Genesis 50:20 (NKJV) "But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.
God can and does take the deliberately harmful acts of others and uses them for our good. If you memorize and meditate on this verse it will go a long way to helping you walk in patience in the face of mistreatment. How could Joseph respond this way? He understood the sovereignty of God.
Genesis 45:4-8 (NKJV) And Joseph said to his brothers, "Please come near to me." So they came near. Then he said: "I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. 5 "But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6 "For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. 7 "And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. 8 "So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.
Abraham Lincoln also understood that His God was sovereign. One of Lincoln's earliest political enemies was Edwin M. Stanton. Fosdick points out that no one treated Lincoln with more contempt than did Stanton. He called him "a low cunning clown," he nicknamed him "the original gorilla" and said that Du Chaillu was a fool to wander about Africa trying to capture a gorilla when he could have found one so easily at Springfield, Illinois. Lincoln never responded to the slander. And when as President he needed a secretary of war he chose Stanton. When his friends asked why, Lincoln responded, "because he is the best man for the job." Lincoln treated Stanton with every courtesy. The years wore on. On the night of April 14, while attending a play at Ford's Theater in Washington, Lincoln was shot by assassin John Wilkes Booth. In the little room to which the President's body was taken stood that same Stanton, and, looking down on Lincoln's silent face, he said through his tears, "There lies the greatest ruler of men the world has ever seen." His animosity was finally broken by Lincoln's patient love.
When you have confidence in the justice and sovereignty of God you will be able to demonstrate patience in the face of mistreatment. Love is patient, are you?
I think another thing that keeps us from being patient is the shortcomings of others. People are always behaving in ways that, though not directed against us, affect us and irritate or disappoint us. It may be another driver who is driving too slow or in some way doing things that irritate you. It may be a friend who is late for an appointment. It may be a teenager whose pants are ten sizes too big and has a pierced eyebrow and a ponytail. It may be a fellow church member who doesn't raise their children as we think they should.
Impatience with the shortcomings of others often has its roots in pride. John Sanderson observes, "Hardly a day passes but one hears sneering remarks about the stupidity, the awkwardness, the ineptitude of others." Such remarks stem from a feeling that we are smarter or more capable than those with whom we are impatient. We may be smarter or more capable of doing things then others, but why?
1 Corinthians 4:7 (NKJV) For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?
Whatever we are or have is a gift from God so why be proud about it? Yet every day because of our pride we are tempted to become impatient with our friends, neighbors, and loved ones. Forbearance or tolerance in the Scriptures is associated with patience
Ephesians 4:1-3 (NKJV) I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, 3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Love will cause us to bear patiently with the faults and shortcomings of others.
A train was filled with tired people. Most of them had spent the day traveling through the hot dusty plains and at last evening had come and they all tried to settle down to a sound sleep. However, at one end of the car a man was holding a tiny baby and as night came on the baby became restless and cried more and more. Unable to take it any longer, a big brawny man spoke for the rest of the group. "Why don't you take that baby to its mother?" There was a moment's pause and then came the reply. "I'm sorry. I'm doing my best. The baby's mother is in her casket in the baggage car ahead."
Again there was an awful silence for a moment. Then the big man who asked the cruel question was out of his seat and moved toward the man with the motherless child. He apologized for his impatience and unkind remark. He took the tiny baby in his own arms and told the tired father to get some sleep. Then in loving patience he cared for the little child all through the night.
Patience demonstrates a willingness to take someone's unpleasant character traits in stride and to exhibit enduring patience.
God has limits to his patience, and so must we, but when I turn off suffering for the sake of my pleasure, I turn it off too soon. Neither does patience include the toleration of evil.
This is the passive side of the person who has suffered injury. The next one, kindness, deals with the active side of the person who has been injured.
Love is preeminent in the Christian life and it must be displayed in us if we are going to faithfully represent the Lord Jesus Christ. Love is patient, are you?
Let me say that if you have never trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ you cannot live like this. The only thing that the Lord requires of you is faith, you must put your trust in Him for your salvation. He loves you so much that he died to pay your sin debt. Will you trust in what he has done?
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