INTRODUCTION: This week our study is one of the most famous
chapters of the Bible: 1 Corinthians 13. Let's see what we can
learn about love!
I. THE IMPORTANCE OF LOVE
A. Do you remember last time we discussed Paul's
advice to
"eagerly desire the greater gifts?" (1 Corinthians
12:31) I
didn't ask you last week, so I ask you now,
what spiritual
gift would you like if you could choose any?
If that is too
personal, tell me what spiritual gifts you
would like to see
in our church? (List all of these. After you
make the list,
note to the class that if one Christian had
all of these gifts
together that person would be pretty awesome,
right?)
B. Now let's slide into this week's lesson.
Read 1 Corinthians
13:1-3. These three verses paint a picture
of contrasts for
us. Let's start out by listing what this theoretical
Christian
can do or has accomplished. What is on that
list of
accomplishments?
(1. Speak in
tongues. (This coming week I want you to
contemplate
what Paul meant in v.1 when he said, "tongues
of men AND angels."
This will help prepare you for next
week's discussion.);
2. Have the gifts of wisdom, prophecy and faith; and,
3. Be completely
unselfish, giving up your money and
even your
life!)
C. How does this list compare with our "awesome
Christian"
list? Pretty close?
D. What does Paul say that these gifts, of
themselves, mean?
(Nothing.)
1. Nothing!!? How can these gifts be nothing?
2. Let's explore
this nothing, because it seems that we
have three kinds
of "nothing" here. Verse 1 says the
nothingness
is a loud noise. What do you think Paul means
when he says
the gift of tongues, without love, is a loud
noise?
Does that make any sense to you? (Noise gets your
attention, but
it means nothing, does nothing,
communicates
nothing. Noise is sound without substance,
right?)
3. In verse 2
we are told that prophecy, wisdom and faith
are present
in a person who "is nothing." What does that
mean? And how
can that be? (These are important gifts,
yet they confer
no "status" on this recipient!)
4. In verse 3
we are told that the person has given up
everything.
Paul says that person "gains nothing."
Right! In the
world's eyes this person just gave up
everything,
of course they gain nothing! Is this the way
the Christian
views things? (No. Matthew 19:21 finds
Jesus telling
the Rich Young Ruler that if he gives up
"his stuff"
here, he "will have treasure in heaven."
That is how
the Christian looks at this. We might call
our offerings
here "seed money.")
a. With the Christian perspective, how does it make
any sense that this unselfish, generous person,
"gain[s] nothing?"
(In all three
examples Paul wants to convince us that we
get just the
opposite of what we expected! What a
Christian would
reasonably expect is not fulfilled.)
E. Let's go back just a minute and look at
the second half of
1 Corinthians 12:31: "now I will show you
the most excellent
way." The way to what? (Notice the first half
of v.31 speaks
of the "greater [spiritual] gifts." We just
found out (13:1-3)
that these gifts alone mean nothing. So the
"most excellent
way" must mean that love is an essential component
of
spiritual gifts.)
II. LOVE IS.
A. Read 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. We will
have two lists: "Love
is," and "Love is not." Tell me what
should be in each list?
Love Is Love is not
Patient
Envious
Kind
Boastful
Protection
Proud
Trust
Rude
Hope
Self-seeking
Perseveres
Easily angered
Recording wrongs
B. What are we looking at in these two lists?
What, as a
general matter, can you call the things on
our lists? (They
are generally attitudes.)
C. Where do you see yourself as you look at
these lists?
The other day I was speaking to someone and
they said
something like, "Patience is not my thing."
Do you like to
wait in line at the store? How did you
react if you were
running behind on the way to church and got
behind a slow
driver?
1. I see myself
in almost all of the "love is not" list
except being
easily angered and recording wrongs. Even
then I know
I remember certain "wrongs." How many of us
make "an exception"
for being easily angered when it
comes to driving?
2. Let me take
a poll. Do you feel generally good or bad
as you look
at this list of what love is and is not? How
does your life
"stack up?" Those who feel good, raise
your hand? Those
who feel bad raise your hand?
a. Let's read on to find out what we can do about
this.
III. THE ROAD TO BECOMING A BETTER LOVER?
A. Read 1 Corinthians 13:8-12. What do you
think Paul means
(v.8) when he says "love never fails?"
Didn't we just
discover that "love fails" in our own lives
pretty regularly?
1. Notice that
Paul says that the gifts that he mentioned
in the first
three verses (prophecy, tongues, and
knowledge) will
pass away.
a. When will they pass away? (v.10 "when perfection
comes.)
(1) When does "perfection come?"
b. Why will they pass away? (When we "know it all,"
knowing partially is no good. A blind man can
retire his seeing eye dog if his eyes become
perfect. No need for an "aid" to help him
understand. Prophecy, tongues, knowledge are here
to help us understand God and His will. When we see
Him face to face, we do not need these aids!)
B. Wait just a minute! Paul says that
our limited partial
knowledge will "go away" in the face of perfect
knowledge. Why
doesn't our limited partial love also "go
away" in the face of
the perfect love in heaven?
1. Why does not
the some logic and reasoning apply to
love?
2. Is not our present love imperfect?
(As usual, we are looking in the wrong direction.
We are
looking at ourselves and saying "our love
and our knowledge
are now imperfect." Why not look instead
at God? God will
give us the greater knowledge and understanding
when we get to
heaven. But you know what? Your understanding
of love is now
perfect because He already gave us His Son!
This is the
"perfect" understanding of love! The
perfect demonstration of
love!)
C. We have the vision, we have a perfect picture
of perfect
love. How do we get from our imperfect
love (remember our
list) to this perfect love? How do we
get from where we are
to where we should be in the love department?
(If you compare
Romans 5:5 (God has poured out His love into
our hearts by the
Holy Spirit....") with Galatians 5:22 ("But
the fruit of the
Spirit is love....") we see that our love
is also a spiritual
gift. Therefore it is a gift that we
need to pray about. A
necessary component of all of the spiritual
gifts that we need
to request. Next week we study 1 Corinthians
14 and it starts
out (v.1) "Follow the way of love and eagerly
desire spiritual
gifts...." This shows that love is not
only a gift of the
Holy Spirit, it is a component of all of the
gifts! Praise God
for His gifts!)
IV. NEXT WEEK: "WORTHWHILE WORSHIP" -- 1 Corinthians 14. Ask God to
help you to understand this difficult and important chapter. Think
about whether your church is missing one of the gifts of the Holy
Spirit as you study.