“31 But eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way. 1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
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I hope that you want to make an impact for Christ. I hope that you want to make an impact for Christ because of all the impact he has made upon you. Not everyone does. A good number of people prefer to avoid any commitments and you can’t make an impact for Christ without making commitments. A good number of people prefer to avoid any obligations and you can’t make an impact for Christ without taking on obligations.
1 Corinthians 13 is about making an impact. You were created to make a difference and that difference is best described as love, as in loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength and loving your neighbor as yourself. That is purpose of life. That is also the purpose of salvation. As Paul explained, Jesus “gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.” You weren’t saved from sin and hell so that you could live like the world but a bit better; you were saved from sin and hell so that you could be eager to do what is good.
Now we will see that such love is difficult. We will see that the love that Paul has in mind is not natural to us. No unregenerate man can say he loves with this love we will study. This is a gift of the Holy Spirit and it comes to those who are born of the Spirit.
Make an impact for Christ. Love with the love of God. That is the claim of this sermon: make an impact for Christ. Love with the love of God.
We have two points in this sermon. First: love is a work of the Spirit of God. Second: the impact of love. For our first point, we will be studying verse 31 of chapter 12 to see how 1 Corinthians 13 relates to chapter 12. In our second point, we will be studying verses 1-3 of chapter 13.
First: love is a work of the Spirit of God. Today is our first study in this famous chapter on love, but love was secondary in Paul’s mind as he wrote this chapter. Paul was thinking about the Spirit of God. 1 Corinthians 12-14 are all about the Spirit of God and the gifts which He gives to build up the church. The Corinthians were very interested in spirituality and Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 13 to make clear that love is the hallmark of Holy Spirit-spirituality.
The Corinthian church thought they were quite spiritual because many of them spoke in tongues. They thought they were quite spiritual because, as a church, they had some prophetic experiences. Paul acknowledged these gifts but made clear that these were not the primary marks of the Spirit moving. Love is the primary mark of the Spirit of God. The Corinthians were not using the gifts of the Spirit for the sake of others—in other words they weren’t using their gifts in love. They were using these gifts to put themselves forward.
The Corinthians fell into a spirituality which is all about the self.
1 Corinthians 13 is a reminder that spirituality which is of the Holy Spirit is typified by devotion to God and others. This is the same love we studied in Deuteronomy—love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself; this is genuine spirituality. Now this spirituality can only come from being born of the Spirit; “I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”
People in our culture like to say that they are spiritual but not religious, as in spiritual but not moved to follow God’s decrees or careful to keep His laws. Such spirituality is not of the Holy Spirit; it will not produce 1 Corinthians 13 love, and it will never produce anything like the impact we see in this chapter.
The most outstanding sign of Holy Spirit-spirituality in any church is not a dynamic speaker; it is not fasting; it is not miraculous healings; it is love. Now this love might not strike you as all that remarkable but remember the audience of this letter. This letter was not written to soon to be lovers standing at the wedding altar. This was written to a church filled with people who didn’t always like each other. There might people in this congregation with whom you would might never choose to socialize, but you are called by God to do far more than socialize; you are called to love them as 1 Corinthians 13 describes love. There are people in this congregation with whom you might have some difficult personal history but the call of God upon you remains the same; you are called to love these people in all the ways 1 Corinthians 13 describes. That will require a work of the Holy Spirit. If we are going to love one another as God intends, we need the power of the Spirit of God.
You don’t have this love in yourself. If you think you have it in you to love every member of this church with 1 Corinthians 13 love, you haven’t dug very deep in your heart. If you dig down in your heart, you will find that it is selfish. You will begin to wonder if you should quarantine yourself from others for their sake. So, if you think you are going to apply what we will study in 1 Corinthians 13 in your own power, please don’t. You won’t be doing this church any favors. No one needs the best that I have to offer because the best that I have to offer is enough to damn me. I don’t have it in me to love this way under my own will power. This love is a gift of the Spirit of God.
If you aren’t born of the Spirit of God, first things first, be born again. Recognize your utter moral bankruptcy and put your trust in Christ crucified and him alone because anything else in which you trust will condemn you on the final day.
If you are born again, love by the power of the Spirit. We will see what that means over the course of this study but for now let’s recognize that Jesus was God and was also a Spirit-empowered man. If you want to know what a Spirit-empowered life looks like, look at Jesus. Don’t assume you know his life already; read the gospels again. Read and compare your love with his love. Compare your willingness to suffer for the sake of others with his willingness to suffer for the sake of others. Compare your patience with those who sin against you with his patience with those who sin against him. Compare your acts of kindness with his acts of kindness. When you recognize that difference, you will recognize how desperately you need to love not with your love, but with the love of God by the Spirit of God.
This love has an impact. We see that in our second point: the impact of love. Now to this point we have been putting 1 Corinthians 13 in its context. We have been studying the purpose and place of this chapter. Paul now takes this love we have studied and shows its impact. “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”
The Corinthians thought that having rather exceptional spiritual gifts like speaking in tongues made them exceptionally spiritual people. Paul disagreed. He said it had no impact because it was love-less. DA Carson summed up Paul’s thought well, saying, “By themselves your spiritual gifts attest nothing spiritual about you… you remain spiritually bankrupt, a spiritual nothing, if love does not characterize your exercise of whatever grace-gift God has assigned you.”
You can be incredibly spiritually gifted in a variety of sought after ways and be spiritually bankrupt and spiritually impotent. According to verse 2, you can be incredibly wise and still be spiritually bankrupt and impotent. According to verse 3, you could sell everything you have tomorrow and give all the proceeds to Justice for All and still be spiritually bankrupt and impotent. “By themselves your spiritual gifts attest nothing spiritual about you… you remain spiritually bankrupt, a spiritual nothing, if love does not characterize your exercise of whatever grace-gift God has assigned you.”
Unless you are doing your ministry out of love, your gifting says nothing good about you. Unless you are doing your ministry out of love, your ministry will have no Spirit-empowered impact. It is very possible for your teaching of Sunday School to have no Spirit-empowered impact. It is possible for your work with GEMS to have no Spirit-empowered impact. It is possible for your time as an elder to have no Spirit-empowered impact. It is possible for your work on the funeral work group to have no Spirit-empowered impact. It is possible for my preaching to have no Spirit-empowered impact. It will have no real impact unless it is motivated by love and aimed at the impact of love. It will have no impact unless it is done by the power of the Spirit of God, or, as Jesus put it, “without me, you can do nothing.”
Please don’t fulfill whatever ministry you’ve taken on because ‘after all, someone has to do it.’ Please fulfill your obligation out of love. Please listen in the coming weeks to see how the power of God can give wings to your work.
You need to inspect yourself. If don’t think you have any responsibility to build up this church by using the gifts God has given you, you are not acting in love. If a husband doesn’t think he has any responsibility to build up his wife using the gifts God has given him, he is not acting in love. If you see yourself in what I just said, ask the Holy Spirit to push you out of your comfort zone so that you will love these people. Love is always demonstrable. It isn’t about sentimentality; it is about behavior. It is about making an impact.
If you don’t think you have any gifts of the Spirit, you certainly do if you are born of the Spirit. You are gifted to build up this church. You might mourn well with those who mourn. You might be a wonderful listener who is happy to pray with anyone with any burden. You might be happy to help anyone in this church with anything they need doing. This church is filled with people with many gifts. Use your gifts. Use them in love for others.
You might be thinking, ‘anyone who does anything for others does it out of love.’ That simply isn’t the case. It is possible to sell everything you have and give it to charity without love. It is possible to die for the sake of the gospel without love. You should not assume that what you are doing is motivated by and aimed at the impact of love. You should inspect yourself.
It is possible to speak without love. “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” If you demonstrate your gift in order to display that you are gifted, which is what the Corinthians did by speaking in tongues without an interpreter, then you are not acting in love. If you are using your gift to show off that you are gifted, God hears you the way you hear a cymbal that crashes to the ground.
This means I should never preach with an eye towards anyone’s assessment of my preaching. I should preach because, ‘thus saith the Lord.’ I should preach with the purpose of putting you before God because that is the act of love in preaching. If I love you, I want you to see yourself as God sees you both in terms of conviction and in terms of assurance. I have a question that I ask myself on Saturday night: ‘why am I preaching this sermon?’ Unless my answer is immediate and convicting, I pray because if I don’t know why I’m preaching, I don’t know why you should listen.
If you are teaching Sunday School, ask yourself why you are teaching this lesson. Pray for your students. Pray that they would not be ever listening but never understanding or ever seeing but never perceiving. Pray that your work would have an impact.
If you are singing a musical offering, ask yourself why you are singing this song. Do you want to encourage us to boldness in the faith? Do you want to remind us that we are not our own but belong body and soul, in life and in death to our faithful Savior Jesus Christ? Do you want to remind us that we are born again to a living hope no matter how sad life might seem in this moment? You have a gift. Don’t use it to show us that you are gifted. Use it to build up the church. Use it out of love. Make an impact.
Make an impact with your gifts of wisdom and discernment. “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge… but have not love, I am nothing.” We don’t have time to fully explore prophecy in Corinth so we are just going to limit our definition to speaking God’s will into someone’s life.
Some of us are gifted with wisdom. We have a sense of how the ways of God and the lives of people intersect. Some of us are gifted with discernment. We know how to direct people according to the word of God. Parents are called to grow in this gifting. It is possible, however, to use these gifts without love.
Without love, the gift of discernment turns into arrogance and nobody wants to ask an arrogant man for guidance no matter how discerning that man might be. The saying is true, “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
Please recognize that however God has gifted the gift is to be used for His purposes whether that is in the church or in the world. If you are quite intelligent, that is a gift; that is not an entitlement; it is a trust to be used for the good of others. If you are handy and can help others do what they can’t do for themselves, you have this gift in order to fulfill your calling to love people. Now if you don’t have love, your gifts don’t make you special; they make you nothing. “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge…but have not love, I am nothing.” There are plenty of people who have used remarkable gifts in the church who are spiritual nothings because they didn’t use these gifts to love; they used these gifts for themselves.
Now you can even be a very spiritual person and still be a spiritual nothing. “If I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” Now Paul isn’t disparaging faith; he is simply saying that faith that doesn’t lead to love is really nothing at all.
Some of us are always consuming spirituality. We read devotions and that is good. We talk about matters of faith and we care about matters of faith. We have convictions, which are right, but we don’t make any attempt to make an impact in the life of anyone outside of our own comfort zone. I need to fight against this. I have had seasons in my life in which I have been little better than a spiritual swamp. I took water in but never gave water out. I was afraid to make an impact and so I didn’t. There might be someone here in that same situation this morning. Make an impact. You are called out of your comfort zone and into the obligations and commitments of love.
Now this love calls for all that you are. Remember this is the same call for total allegiance as we heard in Deuteronomy. “Love the lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.” You see the total nature of this love quite clearly in verse 3, “If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.”
It is quite possible to give all your money to those in need without loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength. It is possible to give all your money away without any love at all. Bernard Mandeville may be right, “Pride and vanity have built more hospitals than all the virtues [put] together.”
Simply because a man devotes something remarkable does not mean he has devoted himself. You are ultimately offering yourself. You can tell whether a man’s heart is in his activity. God can tell whether you are devoting yourself to Him. Unless you are devoting yourself to him, your greatest sacrifice will be meaningless.
You can sign up for every church work event, but if you are not devoting yourself to God you are spiritually bankrupt. God doesn’t want your service. He wants you and if He has you then, of course, He has your service.
Big displays of faith like the ones Paul talks about in verse 3 –giving everything to charity and even dying for the gospel—are meaningless without love in the rest of life. Holy Spirit-spirituality is loving the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength and your neighbor as yourself. That is just as obvious to God whether you are talking with your child or talking with the pastor. That is as obvious to God in what you do behind closed doors as what you do in this sanctuary.
This call to love is total. Even a man who is killed for his faith but does not love his killers makes no impact. “If I surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.” Richard Wurmbrand spent fourteen years in Soviet prison camps for his faith in Christ. After he was released, he wrote, “God will judge us not according to how much we endured, but how much we could love.”
Now let’s take a step back and consider that Wurmbrand answered the call to love his torturers in hopes of impacting them and others for Christ and then let’s recognize that we often have trouble doing good to people in this church because perhaps they hurt our feelings in the past. God have mercy upon us. God bestow His Spirit upon us in power so that we can love one another. Spirit of God, visit us so that we can have an impact the way Christ has impacted us.
Love is indispensable if you want to make an impact for Christ. Listen to Jerry Bridges, “write down, either in your imagination or on a sheet of paper, a row of zeroes. Keep adding zeros until you have filled a whole line on the page. What do they add up to? Exactly nothing. Even if you were to write a thousand of them, they would still be nothing. But put a positive number in front of them and immediately they have value. This is the way it is with our gifts and faith and zeal. They are zeros on the page. Without real love they count for nothing. But put this quality in front of them and they have value.”
Jesus was obviously gifted, but it was by the love of God that he made the impact. Being God, he loved with the love of God. He didn’t teach just to teach. He taught because he loved these people and he wanted them to understand. He didn’t heal just to heal. He healed because he loved people and was ready and willing to benefit them. He didn’t disciple his inner circle because that’s just what he was supposed to do. He discipled them because he loved them with the love of God.
Jesus was obviously gifted, but it was by the love of God that he made the impact. Now consider the impact that this one individual has had upon the world for centuries. Consider the impact that he has had upon you. That is the impact of the love of God. You can love with this love if you are born of the Spirit. That is why you were saved. You weren’t saved so that you could live for yourself. You were saved so that you could love with the love of God. This is the purpose of your life. Amen.