Maturity:
The Grace of the Spirit
1 Cor. 13:1-13
August,
2010
Jonathan Swift, the author of Gulliver’s Travels
is credited for saying, “We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not
enough to make us love one another”. The
name of our class is BYKOTA, which stands for “Be ye kind one to another”. The Bible is a book of love letters, written
from a loving Father to his children; from a Father who loved us enough to give
the life of His only Son for us. The
church at Corinth was in the category that had enough
religion to hate but not enough to love.
They had gone so far as to take those exciting and wonderful spiritual
gifts and turned them into useless and even destructive gift because they were
not being ministered in love.
There are three “body” passages in Paul’s letters. By “body” passages I mean passages where Paul
uses the human body as an example of the church and how it should function.
Unity
Diversity Maturity
1
Corinthians 12:1-13 12:14-31
13:1-13
Romans
12:1-5 12:6-8 12:9-21
Ephesians
4:1-6
4:7-12
4:13-16
The main evidence of maturity in the Christian life is a
growing love for God and for God’s people, as well as a love for the lost souls
of mankind. It has well been said that
love is the “circulatory system” of the body of Christ.
Few chapters in the Bible have suffered more
misinterpretation and misapplication than chapter 13 of 1st
Corinthians. If you separate it from its
contest, it becomes “a hymn of love” or a sentimental sermon on Christian
brotherhood. Remember, Paul is still
talking about the problems at the Corinthian church: the abuse of the gift of
tongues, division in the church, envy of others’ gifts, selfishness (remember
the lawsuits?), impatience with one another in the public meetings, and behavior
that was disgracing the Lord. Taken out
of context it is a beautiful piece of poetry but in context it is a cutting,
double-edged sword.
Christian love has to be the motivation behind our
spiritual gifts. Chapter 13 can be
divided into three characteristics of Christian love that show why this love is
so important.
1. This Love is Enriching (vv. 1-3).
In chapter 12,
Paul names five spiritual gifts. Can you
name them? They are tongues, prophecy,
knowledge, faith, and giving (sacrifice).
In chapter 13 he points out that they are nothing without love. Tongues without love
is just a bunch of noise. It is
love that enriches the gift and that gives it value. Any ministry without love cheapens both the
minister and those who are touched by it; but ministry with love enriches the
whole church. “Speaking the truth in
love” (Eph. 4:15).
Christians are “taught of God to love one another” (1
Thes. 4:9).
God the Father taught us to love by sending His Son (1 John 4:19), and God the Son taught us to love by
giving His life and by commanding us to love each other (John 13:34-35). The Holy Spirit teaches us to love one
another by pouring out God’s love in our hearts (Romans 5:5). The most important lesson in the school of
faith is to love one another. Love
enriches all that it touches.
2. Love is edifying (vv.
4-7).
The word “edify” means “to build up”. In 1 Corinthians
8:1 Paul writes, “Knowledge puffeth
up, but love edifeith (builds up). The purpose of spiritual gifts is the
edification of the church (1 Cor. 12:7; 14:3,5,12,17,26). This
means we must not think of ourselves, but of others; this demand love, real
agape love.
The Corinthians were impatient in the public meetings
(Read 1 Cor.
14:29-32), but love would make them long-suffering. They were envying each other’s gifts, but
love would remove that envy. They were
“puffed up” with pride (1 Cor. 4:6, 18-19; 5:2), but
love would remove pride and self-boasting and replace it with a desire to
promote others.
BYKOTA!
Have you ever been to a meeting where food was served
and as best you could tell, there was not going to be enough food to go
around? How did you feel? At the “love feast” and the Lord’s Table, the
Corinthians were behaving in a very selfish
manner. If they had known the meaning of
real love, agape love, they would have behaved very differently.
In verse 5 you will see the phrase “thinketh no evil” (KJ).
This means “does not keep any record of wrongs”. Some of the saddest and most miserable people
I have ever known are those who keep a record of wrongs done against them. Some even keep note books. Love, real agape love does not do that. Forgiveness means that we wipe the record
clean and never hold things against people (Eph. 4:21-26, 32). “But, Bro.
Barry! You don’t know what they
did”. Maybe I don’t and I sure don’t
want to know but think about this. It
was your sin that nailed Jesus to the cross and He does not hold that against
you. Do you know where your sin is? It is as far as the east is from the west and
God remembers it no more. You are
justified meaning it is as if you never sinned.
Don’t keep records of wrongs done against you. Let God take care of it for you.
Love does not rejoice in iniquity (sin), yet the Corinthians were boasting about sin in their church. Peter writes in 1
Peter 4:8 that “love covers the multitude of sins”. Like Noah’s sons, we should seek to hide the
sins of others, and then help them make things right (Gen.
9:20-23).
Read verses 4-7 and carefully compare them with the
fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians
5:22-23). You will
see that all of the characteristics of love show up in that fruit. This is why love edifies: it releases the
power of the Spirit in our lives and churches.
3. Love is enduring (vv.
8-13).
Prophecy, knowledge, and tongues were not permanent
gifts. Prophecy (according to Vines) is
the speaking forth of the mind and counsel of God. You might say it is preaching. Knowledge does not mean “book learnin’”. Knowledge
is the immediate imparting of spiritual truth to the mind. It is the understanding of what is right and
what is wrong. It is a moral wisdom that
brings forth right living. And tongues,
well, that could take a while. It is
speaking the Word in a language you do not know. It is also praying in a language you do not
know (prayer language); when you don’t know what to pray. With God, even our tears are a language; He
sees them, He read them, He even collects them and saves them in bottles. These were some of the gifts that the
Corinthians prized, especially the gift of tongues.
These gifts will fail, be abolished, and cease to be,
but love will endure forever; for “God is love” (1 John 4:8,
16). The Corinthians were like kids playing with toys that would one
day, just like toys, disappear. You
expect a child to think, understand, and speak like a child; but you also expect
the child to mature and start thinking and speaking like an adult. The day comes when he MUST “put away childish
things”.
There is maturing process that comes about through
prayer, study of the Word, and fellowship with other believers. This is both on a church level and a personal
level. In my opinion, there are fewer
and fewer mature believers because there are fewer and fewer believers who
really pray and really get into the word and who want to fellowship with other
believers.
We will not be completed until Jesus returns, but we
ought to be growing and maturing now.
Children live for the temporary; adults live for the permanent. Love is enduring, and what it produces will
also endure.
You might note that all three of the Christian graces
will endure, even though “faith will become sight and hope will be
fulfilled”. But the greatest of these
graces is love; because when you love someone, you will trust him and will
always be anticipating new joy. Faith,
hope and love go together, but it is love that energizes faith and
hope.
Remember that gifts are gifts and God is the giver and
He alone chooses who gets what gift.
Unity – diversity – maturity; and maturity comes through love.