MCC Podcasts
Summer In The Scriptures Together - Ten Chapters We All Gotta Know: 1 Corinthians 13 - Love Never Fails | Jeff Mazzariello
Well, you guys were continuing on in our series of Summer and the Scriptures together. Again, I'm Jeff, one of the pastors on our team, and if you missed, by the way, if you missed our little couch time early on at the beginning of our time, I'd love to have you go on YouTube later today and watch the beginning of that, because we had a little family meeting, a first of three parts of a family meeting together. But we're preaching through 10 chapters that you've got to know, and it was so fun because how do you pick 10 chapters that you've got to know? Here's a question. What I said, I'm going to preach one of the 10 chapters you've got to know today is from the book of 1 Corinthians. What chapter do you think I might pick? 13. What? Did everybody just say 13? Did anyone say anything other than 13? Why would I pick chapter 13? Because it's still -- you also like bored Sunday school children, love. First Corinthians 13 is the love chapter. I actually have a -- we have like a piece of artwork in our house on like I think it's verses 4 through 7 of 1 Corinthians 13. Many people have it in their weddings. It's the love chapter. You know, I love weddings. We love weddings. We love the love chapter because it's about weddings. Here's -- look at this. This is a sweet -- this is the most recent wedding that I did right here. This is Anthony Maria. You guys know these guys? They sit here in like in the second row. Often. How sweet is that? You're happy I am, too. Now they didn't read. First Corinthians 13 in their ceremony, but we often do it's just -- it's just so -- because we love it. It's just love. Love is so good. A lot of theology is hard. A lot of the hard teaches is Jesus are hard, but the love chapter is so good. We love it. And it just reminds us of this kind of sweetness. Look at the awkward picture that came later. They're like, "Sit here." I'm like, "I don't want to sit there." They're like, "Sit here." That might be in -- like on a website, like Creepy Whiting Pictures.com. But look how -- look how awesome they are. Look how beautiful they are celebrating their love. Isn't that the best? They'll probably be here next hour and it's so -- it was so sweet. And as awkward as I look, look how cool Ben and Katie look doing the toast. Look at this right here. Look at that. How come we have one cool pastor? This is why I have a man crush on him, by the way. Look at that. So good. Anyway, this is this. But we're going to talk about 1 Corinthians 13 today because love never fails. And I want to get a fresh look. That's what's so good about 10 chapters you got to know, is that we don't -- aren't we getting kind of fresh looks at these passages? Like, what's this all about? So I'd love to have you turn with me. I'm going to come down on the floor. Actually, we're going to do a Bible study together. So I'd love everybody to have a Bible open, okay? And so most of you have your own Bibles or your devices or you can grab one in the chair underneath you and that page number is going to be 1152. Is that right? Now, we're going to take some time, you guys, and study this together. So I'm hoping you're going to feel comfortable interacting both with the text and the Lord but also with me so that you can engage with the text. This is 1 Corinthians 13. It's a relatively short chapters, 13 verses and it is all about the idea of love. But here's the thing. I showed the wedding pictures and God is thinking about wedding because when we think of a love chapter we get all warm and fuzzy about love and it's so fun. But this chapter, if you get a fresh look at it, is so not warm and fuzzy. The context -- here's a quiz that everyone can answer correctly. What's the chapter before 1 Corinthians 13? 1 Corinthians 12, exactly. You thought it was a harder question than that. No. And in 1 Corinthians 12, if anybody just glances at it, you look at the context. What's about what? Spiritual gifts. And we think that's a warm, fuzzy chapter but when you start reading all of the words in that chapter you realize that people were walking around thinking they were better than the other because of their spiritual gifts, thinking they didn't need other people because they had special spiritual gifts, feeling inferiority complexes because they thought other people were gifted more than they were gifted, right? And so now you've got this chapter on love going, and if you look at verse 31 of chapter 12, it's kind of the beginning of chapter 13. Do you see how it's included in the same paragraph? And it's like, but let me show you the most excellent way. In other words, if we're going to use our gifts, we're going to have to use them out of love. Now, here's another question. What's the chapter after 1 Corinthians 13? 1 Corinthians 14. Good. And what's 1 Corinthians 14 about if you look in your Bible? It's about propriety and worship. It's more about spiritual gifts because they were struggling with unity. They were struggling with judgment against one another. They were struggling with drama. They were struggling with all kinds of things. You read the whole book of 1 Corinthians. They were the worst church ever. And Paul started that church and they had all the raw material to be God's people, but they were dealing with all kinds of problems. And so he sticks this beautiful chapter about love in the middle to say, "The nitty gritty of becoming God's people is about love." And it isn't warm, fuzzy, romantic love. That's a different word in the Greek Bible, right? The Greek New Testament. That's a different word. This is the word love, which is agape, which is deep and unconditional and laying down our lives for one another as we'll talk about. So this is why it's a passage you all got to know because, ready, it's kind of a community communal rule of life for the community of faith. That's the context. So you shouldn't get out of this passage, "Oh, I'm so excited to be a better husband." Well, you should always get that. That's always a good idea. Men, always a good idea. And you might, because we're going to talk about love and so generally you're going to feel some prompt toward how you're not as loving as maybe you'd like to be or some joy about the people who love you well in your life. But the context is the body of Christ, a communal rule of life, saying, "How do we lay down our lives for one another?" Now, this is how we're going to do it. We're going to look at three sections of Scripture. I'm just going to ask you the question as we go through this passage, like, "So what do you see here? What jumps out for you, but also what questions does it raise?" And so let's just look at the very beginning of the text together through verse three. And I just want to ask you, what's it saying to us, you know, what are we, what insights are we getting and what questions does it raise for you? Okay, here we go. First Corinthians 13, actually starting with that last sentence, which is part of verse 31 of chapter 12. And yet I will show you the most excellent ways. Been talking about gifts, but he's like, "Oh, but here's the most excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but do not have love, I'm only a resounding gong or a clanging symbol. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, if I have faith, right, this is about gift of faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am what, nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor, if I give over my body to hardship that I might boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing." Just in those first three verses, what's Paul saying to us? Paul's saying to the church and/or what questions does it raise for you, still a little Bible steady together. Feel free to speak out. Love to hear you engage with the text. It's motives. Why are you doing it? Why are you doing what, by the way, George, to press the obvious? Well, why are you kind of serving the body of Christ or are you acting out your gifts the way you take God and calling you to act? Okay, why are you serving the body of Christ? Are you living the way God's called you to live? To act by what motive? Thank you. Good work. Yep, what else do you see that he's saying in this text, or what questions does it raise for you? If we're not doing good things out of love and what's in our heart and what's for the Lord, our deeds don't matter. If we're not doing what we're, did you hear what he said, if we're not doing what we're doing out of this heart of love, then our deeds don't matter. It's actually quite brutal. It's good Bible study, Jeff. It's brutal language, right? He's like, I am nothing. I gain nothing. I'm a clanging, what does he say? A resounding gong and a clanging symbol. Like he's being really brutal. He's like, your stuff that you're doing, if you're not loving, your stuff is, it's a waste. Wow. Now, parenthetically, some of you may have had experiences in religious context, Christian context, in Jesus context, where there were people who were so holy and righteous and who served God so intently and they were jerks. And all kidding aside, I probably shouldn't have joked when I said that because all kidding aside, that does a number on people. That's a form of spiritual abuse where we're like, why do I feel cruddy all the time in this place, but I'm being asked to do more, but I don't feel right? It's just because it's, to your point, Jeff, not done with love. Yeah. Good. What else do you see in this one section here, this opening section, where what questions does it raise for you? Yeah. Sorry. If God is love, if we don't have love, we don't have God within us. If God is love, if we don't have love, then we don't have God within us. Did you? Look at Zorak. Do you know how it's a Bible verse, Eric? Would you google that for me and then just yell it out later? There's a Bible verse. God is love. So if we don't love, then we don't know God. Yeah. Yeah. Good. It's verse John something. Yeah. Perfect. I mean, verse three is pointing out that even sacrifice can be your result in no gain. Verse three is pointing out that even sacrifice gains nothing. Yeah. Why does that one come up for you? What does that raise? Why did that one jump out for you? I think that for some of us, sacrifices may be an easier place to go for whatever we were raised or grew up, so it even checks whether you're doing that in the right way. Good. He said, you may not have heard that over there. He said for some of us, actually sacrificing may be an easier way to go than love, depending on how you're raised or what context you experienced. That is so true. Anybody else resonate with that reality? Yeah. I was with a woman, a woman of God in our church recently who shared, especially women, are so bent toward doing, serving, sacrificing, doing the right thing, doing the good work. And that can get in the way of actual love. Yeah. Really good insight. Okay. Let me tell you where I landed on this one, that clanging gong and resounding symbol is where I landed, that spiritual gifts really, or anything else, are nothing without love. This is what you said. I mean, that just, that, that, what a waste, what a noise, what a, you know, he's talking about about, you know, if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, some of you were like, what is that all about? He's talking about speaking in tongues and the, the argument they had around that. Oh my gosh, you should get a Bible with color in every page and read the commentary about that. Does anybody need one of those right there? You can learn a lot about the two chapters and, okay, I saw that I see that hand. That's like an old time evangelist. I see that hand. I'm so glad I get to give that to you. You're welcome, Charlie. Okay. But that whatever we do, our spiritual gifts, our serving, our sacrifice, are nothing without love. This is the core of a communal rule of life that we're going to be people who love one another. Now you're like, okay, it just still feels like I should generate some warm fuzzies, but now we're going to get into some nitty gritty and we're going to start looking at the words, the definition of love in verses four through seven. And it's a unique set of words and it's really interesting. I'm not sure it's how you would write it. Here it is in the Greek. I just, I just love the Greek. Let's just study the Greek. Shall we? Everybody. Let's read it together. Okay. Shall we? Hay agape macare throw mo. You know, I don't know. All right. So no, but as you look, no matter what word you use in the English, here's the translation of it. There we go. All right. That's better. We're going to get different English words for different translations. There's lots of ways to translate right from a language as we all know. But as we meditate on these words, we're going to get some really significant concepts. And I want you to look at those concepts right now of this stuff. And I want you to think about someone that has loved you well or a way in which you've experienced love in the past as you look through this. And let's share a little bit where have you seen one of these? Let me read it. And then where have you seen one of these at work in your experience in the body of Christ or with a deep friendship or with someone who loves you that's building you up? And what questions does it generate for you? Okay? So where have you seen this at work, one of these? Or what questions does it generate? I'll read it as we look at it together. Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It does not dishonor others. It is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects. It always trusts. It always hopes. It always perseveres. Isn't that good? That's the word of the Lord. How have you seen one of these? Let's just start going through the words. Let's just start talking about the description of love that Paul's giving. He's like, "Look, whatever you do, it's nothing if it isn't motivated by love." And he goes, "You want to know what love is? Here's his description." By the way, people, there's a big, there's a, I don't know what it is. There's a common understanding that Paul was kind of ornery and difficult and stubborn and strong-willed and all that kind of stuff. So look at his heart. You don't come up with these words without having a heart that has been touched by God's love and is full of love. So good. All right. Give me a couple. What stands out for you? And why? What have you seen? What challenges you? What questions do you have? Let's just go through some of them. Want to hear some of your take. Yeah? I was going to say as a collective, it's a masterclass because he starts by defining what it's taking you on a journey. Yeah. It's not this. It's not this. It's bringing you down. And then when you get to the end, it comes down, he brings you up to the crescendo. Yeah. It is definitely that. And it's 15 things that are packaged in a way and even in the Greek, it actually emphasizes that. That's really good. Right here. Yeah. The first one. The first one. You have parents, a lot of patients. As a parent. As a child, you're patient with your children, not because of the sick of being patient, but because you have a deep yearning for them to become something more. So good. Did you hear that? You're yearning to be patient as a parent with your child, not just to be patient because there's a deep yearning to love them. Well. Yeah. Keeps no records as well. Okay. Keeps no records of wrong fill light as I jump up for you. Wow. God's love is reflected in our love. God's love is reflected in our love and he didn't keep no record wrong. Coming this way. Yeah. Over the students. Verse seven, it always protects, always, always truths, trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Like you can be safe and love with God. You can be safe. What a great way to say that. So good. Thank you. Yeah. Hannah. Say with verse seven, all of those things come with trials doesn't just because you love something, but it doesn't mean that it's not going to be hard. Oh, do you hear that? In love, you get protection, trust, hope and fluids. That's such a great insight from both you, from both of you guys about that verse seven. It protects, trusts, hopes, perseveres, meanings that there's going to be a lack of safety at time in this world, but love is safe. And it doesn't mean it's going to be easy, but these things are going to be manifested in love. That's so good and so real. Yeah. Awesome. What else jumps out for you? Yeah. Two, back here. David, and then right behind you. So we're joining with the truth. Right. So truth could be hurt. It could be difficult. Right. And yet it's still part of the positive side of love. Yep. We're joining the truth. Truth could be difficult. You bring that up because sometimes in our warm fuzziness about love, we disregard truth, which is another form of abuse. It's totally unhealthy, right, to not tell somebody the truth and pretend that we're actually loving them instead. Those are not mutually exclusive. They go together. Thank you, David, for bringing that up. Yeah. We're on a different place in our journey with faith in Christ. Every single person is. And so this context of being patient is about recognizing that, being aware of it, and being okay with that, encouraging is a way to go about that. I love our mission statement is to engage with the spiritually hungry toward Christ. We're all pointed there. The same direction. We're going to move toward Christ, but everybody's moving. Every starts a different place. Everybody's moving in a different place. Some people are taking a couple steps backward, but we're helping them keep going forward. But there's a patience around that. That just feels missional to me that a mission rooted in love, which is rooted in patience just seems right. I hope we exhibit that, you guys. It's actually part of our core value to do so. We wrote it on the wall. Any last thoughts about verses 4 through 7? Yeah, Steve. And then one more way back to Artana afterward. One of the things I've always liked about this set of verses is that it's a set of instructions about actions and attitudes and not necessarily feelings that implies you could love someone you don't like. Did you hear that? It's about actions and attitudes and not necessarily feelings. And so I think I quoted you correctly. And so it implies that you can love someone you don't necessarily like, absolutely. I was going to get a joke, but I'm not going to say it like you, for example. Yeah, I know. Like you a lot, bro. Such a good insight. Wow. It just makes me think that, like it's a perfect picture of who God is, that God is love, God is patient, God is kind. He does not. He does not, but he's not proud. So good. Tana, it's like I placed you there as the last comment on this section. She said that it makes me look and go, well, this is, if it's about love, then these are the same things about God. This is where I landed here. You guys, the description in verses four through seven sounds a lot like Jesus. That's going to be our model through this thing. And if I forget to make it clear, I'm rushing at the end of my sermon, you know, we're going to come to the table today. Why do we come to the table? Part of why we come to the table is right. We rehearse the truth of what Jesus did. Jesus is unconditionally laid down his life for us in love, John 3 16, for God's so what? Love the world that he sent his son. And so this, our model is going to be God's love for us. And Phil, you mentioned that too at the beginning of our share. That's always going to be part of it. And so you guys, as we're talking about becoming more loving, we're actually talking about becoming like God. We're becoming like Jesus. That's our transformation. That's why we talk about being connected to the vine so that it produces fruit. Like this is us being more godly. That's what godliness is. That's what righteousness is. We're becoming more and more like God as we were designed to be. This is how we know what love it. I quoted John 3 16 for God's so love the world. Do you know, and it's a fun little parallel numerology, first John 3 16 says, and this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us. So is that the right, is that the reverse? Yeah. And lay down his life for us. Oh, no. The first John 3 16 says, and this is how we know what love is God laid down Jesus, laid down his life for us. And so as we're becoming more loving, we're becoming more like God, we're becoming more like Jesus, and we're laying down our lives more and more for the sake of other people. That's so good. Okay. Well, the third section here in 8 through 12. Love never fails. Where there are prophecies they'll cease. Remember, he's been talking about spiritual gifts, dramatic spiritual gifts, powerful manifestations of God's miraculous power. He's been talking about that in the chapter before he said, but these where there are prophecies they'll cease, where there are tongues, they'll be stilled, where there's knowledge, it will pass away, for we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child. I thought like a child. I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only reflection as in a mirror, and then we'll see face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. Now I know that's a lot of words, and if you read it before, you might be a little ahead of the curve. But what is he saying here, you guys? What questions does this raise, or what do you think that he's saying? Tell me what the sum of this section is all about. What's he getting at? Yeah? It's a kind of talk on the first bit, like love never ends, and I've been kind of looking at the book of Isaiah recently in the first, like, 39 chapters. You know, me is in the book of Isaiah's, verse 39 chapters, how are you guys doing in your time in the word? I'm so glad. That's awesome. And it's all about how the Israelites are going to get kicked out of it, Babylon, something like that. And all this stuff. And then the last 40 chapters are just all about this amazing survey of God, and someone who's going to come lay down their life. The Savior. Yeah. And it's just so, like, good to see, even back then when there was, like, so little open to people that know where to go, know where to be, there was hope that someone would come and show the love, show the grace, like, the love never ends. I love that. That love never fails. I love that you just got that first sentence, and you're like, oh, that's in the whole story of Scripture, including the Israelites who were in danger of being walloped and exiled and everything. Me, well done. Yeah. Love never fails. There's always going to be hope in that, that the God of love will come and rescue us. Thank you. What else is this passage teaching as it gets into it? Yeah, André? I mean, it speaks of spiritual maturity and the transformation that happens with the Holy Spirit. It kind of speaks to that. Okay. It speaks to spiritual maturity. There's a transformation that is happening, right, that someday we'll be fully known. We'll see in fullness. That's right. Might as be of Nicodemus. Why is it reminded of Nicodemus, Phil? Right? He was all about preaching and not acting, then he went to that thing you showed on. There's chosen. Yeah. He met the Savior and changed. So Nicodemus was all about teaching, and then he ended up meeting the Savior, and he was changed. Yep. There's changed there. Good. What else? What else does it teach us? Why is this in the context of a love chapter, you guys? What's it saying with regard to love? Well, back to that comment about love never fails. I think a lot of us are looking for answers of techniques or ways that we can succeed in our lives, right, and how do you work relationships with your family, your friends, your coworkers, blah, blah, blah, and I've found that sometimes I just, God, what's going to actually work? Love is not going to fail in this situation, how am I going to get through this? Yeah. And I just hear him say, you just got to love, just love your way through this, and it will not fail, and it will not fail, right? It's so great, you guys, you're recognizing that he starts that paragraph with that love never fails, and then he goes on basically to say everything else is going to not last, but love will. This is when we're talking about a rule of life, a communal rule of life for a church, when we're talking about how believers live together in the messiness that is a community of faith, exercising gifts, insecurities, all the stuff that we all carry, and the answer is we're going to be people of love, love will never fail, everything else is going to go away, the first few chapter verses talk about spiritual gifts aren't going to be enough without love, sacrifice is not going to be enough without love, all of these things that we're talking about here is going to be the thing that will be required. It's the only thing that will last. We'll go through transformation, we're going to go, but he's like all of that stuff, I want you to see that stuff, the heat talk about transformation for sure, but what he's really saying is you're so half baked, you're still half baked, you only know in part, you're making such a big deal about the book you wrote or the book you read or the Bible study that you're in or how awesome you guys are, he's just like we only know in part, someday we'll know fully the way we're fully known now, the way we're fully known, we'll know that much, but we don't know that much now. So he's saying in the absence of perfection, in the absence of knowing everything, in the absence of being fully adult-like, it implies spiritual maturity is coming, but essentially he's saying when I was a child, I spoke like a child, I reasoned like a child, right, all that stuff, but when I became a man, I put childish ways behind me, what he's saying is when the perfect comes, then we won't be children anymore, but for now, you're still a child, so you better love because it will cover a multitude of sins to quote another Bible passage. You see what he's trying to get at? The way I phrased it, the way I summed it up was this, love's going to be the language of the restored world, and we're living in the restored world now, so there's only one language that's going to last forever, and that last verse is these three things that are going to remain, faith, hope and love, he goes, but actually the greatest of these is love, because it's going to be the language that we will speak forever, and that begins now. The restored earth is not we're all sitting around, broken and messed up, thank God for forgiveness, and then someday we're all going to get whisked off to heaven. He has begun the new creation at the resurrection from the dead, and we are now by him living, walking, breathing new world people. It's now, but not yet, but it's now, and so love is the primary language. It's the thing that will last forever, and so if I just ask you, if I'm wrapping it up, and I ask you, so if this is true, the greatest of these is love, why is the greatest of these love? Why would you say the greatest of these would be love? Anybody have a thought? Faith, hope, those sound like awesome things, but the greatest is love? Anybody ever ask that question when they read this passage? Is it because of the restored earth, the other two, you don't need faith, you don't need hope, and you're living it? That's it, did you hear it? In a restored earth, you don't need faith, it's come, it's sight. We have the presence of Christ. Now we're not quite there yet, so it's going to remain, that's why it says they still remain. But less and less will faith be something we need until one day, we don't need it all, we're living in sight. And hope, same thing, we're longing for the coming of the kingdom, but it's already begun to come, and one day we'll have come fully, so we won't need faith and hope, but we'll always need love. It'll be the currency, it'll be the language of the kingdom of God, which we now live in. What's the implications of that, you guys? The implications of that are, and I'm just going to skip all that last teaching there, Micah, as I'm wrapping up here. The last, the implications of that has to be this, you guys, that if that's the language of the kingdom, no wonder the scriptures teach that people will know that we're His followers if we love. We have that passage of Scripture on the screen, the first John passage, can we do that? This is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. That's the definition of love, not our efforts, his effort. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one's ever seen God. Look at these words in verse 12. But if we love one another, God lives in us, and His love is made complete in us. No one's ever seen God, but if we love, they're going to see Him in us. That's why it's a communal rule of life. And so we land, friends, asking the question, I've got this John Mark Comer quote that I've read before you before. Band, why don't you guys come out, we're done, but I want to read this quote again. How are we doing in becoming more like Christ in our love? How are we doing? This book that we gave many of you, how many of you guys received a copy of this book? Excellent, that's so good. This is what he says. Did you guys hear me band? Hello? Did they just leave? They went home. I'm going to read the full context of this. He says, "An apprentice of Jesus, a follower of Jesus, is one who has arranged their life around becoming like Jesus, has expressed through their personality and gender and life stage and culture and ethnicity and so on. But if you had to summarize Christ's like character in one word, there'd be no competition. It's love. Love is the acid test of spiritual formation. The single most important question is, are we becoming more loving? Not are we becoming more biblically educated or practicing more spiritual disciplines? Or in Paul's context, you guys, from 1 Corinthians 12 and 14, exhibiting powerful spiritual gifts, manifesting miracles in our midst? That's not the question. Those are all good things, but the most important thing, but not the most important thing. If you want to chart your progress on the spiritual journey, test the quality of your closest relationships, namely by love. With the people who know you best say you're becoming more loving, joyful, and at peace, more patient, less frustrated, kinder, gentler, softening with time and pervaded by goodness, faithful, especially in hard times and self-controlled. Are you growing in love not just for your friends and family, but also for your enemies? When you were hurt, wounded, and treated unjustly as we all are, are you finding yourself increasingly able to emotionally release the bitterness to absorb the pain and not give it back in kind, to pray even for, and even bless those who curse you, this page 76 and 77. And is all this feeling more and more natural and less forced, more and more like this is just who you are becoming? Maybe lean as we go to the table, we lean into the love of God, the example of Jesus, and ask for the transformation of the Holy Spirit to be a community who truly and actually doesn't have just warm fuzzies, but lays down their lives for one another in love. Let's stand and ask the Lord for that as we worship and response.