1 Corinthians 13

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0:00 The really good story in the Gospel reading, if you took one of those cards, you know, we have on these footboards here little cards for the readings for the week and there's an Old Testament of Psalm, a New Testament and a Gospel reading for every week. And the Gospel reading is that story of Blind Bartimaeus, which is a great story, but I feel like I've told it a lot, Beverly. So we're not going to look at it this week.

0:30 I'll tell you about it, if you haven't heard it, come and get me afterwards and I'll tell you all about it. It's a great story. But what I'd like to look at for us this morning is the New Testament reading, the Epistle reading, which is in Paul's letter to the Corinthians in your copy of the Scriptures or if you're typing it into your phone, it's 1 Corinthians chapter 13. And before we get into it, I just want to remind you, I mean, I know that you know, but I just want to remind you about what we're looking at when we look at this book found

1:09 together with things. And specifically what we're reading when we read these New Testament books like 1 Corinthians Epistle, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, Titus, 5th and Hebrew, James. 1st and 2nd Corinthians. Remember that Paul, the Apostle Paul, that first missionary of the church, was walked

1:43 around Asia Minor at least three times, a significant walk through peril and hardship. And at each place he would go to the marketplaces and the synagogues and announce the good news about the Jesus of Nazareth, whom was killed and then death couldn't hold him, raised from the grave and then ascended and was returning. But in the meantime was reigning as the king over top of all kings, setting up a reign

2:16 that operated with justice and mercy and peace. And that all people in every place that Paul preached had the opportunity, if they were up for it, to live under the reign of Jesus first. Paul goes into all of these towns and announces this good news about Jesus of Nazareth. It's a real bummer for me that we don't have very many of those sermons. Remember, the 1st Corinthians is not the first time Paul has talked to Corinth. I wish we had a record of the first time Paul talks to Corinth, but nobody wrote that down.

2:52 Summer. Right? Because Paul throws into Corinth and finds a marketplace and a synagogue and starts announcing something new. No one knew Paul was not a compelling person supposedly. He was kind of diminutive and small. Supposedly he didn't have a great speaking voice. Right? And so when he walked into a town, he was some tent maker that had been stoned at least once, right? And stripped right to bunch. He was beat up. He'd been laughed. He looked rough. And when he started talking, it doesn't seem that at first people thought it was important

3:27 enough to take notes and write it down. It was after he announced the good news of Jesus, which we know now carries the generative power of the logic reason, the word of God out into the world, and generates faith in people. The Apostle Paul, for the first time throughout Asia Minor, goes and releases the word of God on humanity in cities like Corinth. And though he is diminutive and small, though he is derided and run out of town, it can't

4:00 stop the word of God creating faith in people over and over again. He walks around Asia Minor three times, releasing the word of God out into the world, and all these people come to faith. They said, oh, there is an opportunity to live under a just king, one who has set up a reign that endures beyond the grave, that invites me into life with that primordial creator God and sustains me with his spirit and usters me into eternity forever.

4:34 I'll take that now, please. Forget Dionysus. Right? Forget Aries. So Paul walks around Asia Minor, and we don't have those sermons. Bummer. But churches established in those towns, congregations of people, because Paul says that all people are living stones. We don't need big temples like Dionysus and Aries. We have each other, he says. So living stones huddled together.

5:05 Now, wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there is the presence of God. You all are the temple together, he says. And so in each town where he goes, he gathers people together, and they meet in homes and catacombs and quiet places out of, and they speak the word of God back and forth to each other, and God is active in their midst, and faith is sustained and new faith grows. And people persevere through suffering and hardship and await the return of Christ.

5:35 But if you don't know, people are the worst. People are the worst if you don't know. Even in first century Corinth, people are the worst. In Philippi, people are the worst. In Ephesus, people are the worst. And so Paul, he goes around, he announces this gospel. People are enamored.

6:06 The word of God works in their hearts. Generates faith, begins to change them from selfish to self-lifts, right? Moves them from greed to mercy and generosity. Moves them from anger and hate to love and service. The whole spirit begins working in them, but not all the way, right? It moves them from anger to love, but not all the way. There's still anger there. It moves them from greed to mercy, but not all the way.

6:36 There's still greed in there. It moves them from selfishness to self-liftsness, but not all the way. There's still selfishness in there. Yes? Yes. We are a long way from first century Corinth, not that far, right?

7:07 Because people are still the worst. I have a refrain in my head sometimes that goes like this. Why did I do that again? Why do I respond that way, right? And the refrain, the response in my head is because you're a big old sinner. Ah, yes. I apologize.

7:37 Listen, he says, of all the sinners, I am the worst. And so, as happens, what we have here is the people in Corinth and in Ephesus and in Philippi and in Galatia gathering together going, this is a problem because we can see that the word works. We can believe and glimpse a reign that is different and real manifesting itself among us, meaning we have experienced justice in fits and starts.

8:10 We have demonstrated love to one another in small and medium ways, but we also see that it is broken. Let's get together and ask Paul, what the heck is going on here? And so the letters, first and second Corinthians, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippians, Colossians, are letters. Paul writes back. He did write that down because he couldn't go back to all the places all the time every time they had a question. And so he would write it down. Somebody usually would come to him from Corinth, bringing the letter, going, here's our problem,

8:41 Paul. And Paul would write these responses and they would take him back. What's cool is the same thing happened from the letters that happened from his preaching. When they stood in front of the assembled congregation and read Paul's letters, holy cow, things happened. People got new insight that they didn't know before. People uncovered new capacities that they didn't know they had. They turned on and those lights stayed on so that they could come back to the things

9:16 they had learned day in and day out and find strength and capacity to change. They found that the written letters of Paul carried that same word of God that Paul announced in person, the generative action of God released into the world so that the scriptures that we have here are not dead letters but active. The good news of God released into the world to create faith amongst you all because you

9:49 all are big old sinners and the worst. You need it. Over and over again you need it. And we always have. So Paul wrote it down when they read it. They said this stuff is good and it worked here. And they made copies. They passed it around. So that by 300 when the emperor calls a council and says we need a definitive scripture for you Christians who are becoming the dominant religion in the empire, make a decision.

10:21 They went and said what books do we all have? What letters are we all using? And there was near unanimous agreement on almost all of Paul's letters. Hebrews, there was some disagreement on because it was clear Paul didn't write it in a couple of others. But we all had first and second Corinthians. We're all using Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. We've all got it. We made copies and passed it around all throughout the Roman Empire. That's how good these books were. So it's worth a little bit of your time every once in a while.

10:55 These books, they have made it through some serious trouble to get to you and buried in them is the generative word of God that has been creating and sustaining faith among the people of God for a long time. Right? Okay. And so we just have one little section here. It's kind of a longer section, but I'm going to skip around. It's in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Now you give us the whole chapter, which is verses 1 to 13.

11:26 But I want to start with verse 4. So we're at 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 4. And it's kind of a famous verse. If you encounter the scriptures at weddings or something, people read this one a lot there. It says, love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

11:56 Love bears all things. It leaves all things. Hopes all things and doers all things. That's beautiful. I just made a list here. Love is here's the things love is patient kind, rejoicing in truth, bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things, and then enduring all things. And love is not envy, boastful, arrogant, rude, insistent on its own way. It's not irritable, resentful, rejoicing with wrongdoing. The irritable one gets me.

12:27 I can be irritable. That's a regular problem for me. And so I think that one way we could think about this text and it would be valuable and worth our time would be to make the list and go, what really, how is Paul defining what love actually is and how is he saying what love is not? We could make that list and spend our time there, but that's not where I really want to spend our time today. But I don't think that Paul is writing this letter to the congregation gathered in Corinth

13:02 with the idea that says, everyone for all time, especially when they gather in weddings, will need a definition for what love is. Here's the definition for love. I don't think that's what he's doing. When you read the whole letter, remember that he wrote the letter to address a group of people and they probably read the whole letter. Like, here's what Paul says. In the context of the letter, he's stocking up all these reasons why the worst people in Corinth, why the church should quit fighting amongst themselves.

13:40 Like why they should put up with each other more than that, move toward each other. He's describing this thing of love because he's saying, look, y'all, in other places he has said, and I'm sure in his messages to him that we don't have written down, God loves you. And then you love in response. And he begins to describe this type of love because not that he's defining every instance

14:11 or example of love as though we should define it in a category and get it clean and neat. He's not doing that. He's saying, this is how you quit being so irritable with each other. I got to this when I was looking at the last part of it that says love believes, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, like believes all things. Bears all things. Oh, he's talking here.

14:45 He's saying, give each other the benefit of the doubt. Take each other at face value. I mean, he's not even trying to drive towards love your enemy here or bear suffering and persecution. He says that in other places. He's not even saying, please bear suffering. Do you think please bear with one another?

15:15 Like be church together? Please. The thing. This is what love is. He's mostly trying to get the church to live with each other, just to like be the church. In John's account of the gospel, Jesus says one time that the world will know that you belong to me in the way that you love one another. I mean, we know that verse, but Paul is saying that is first amongst your congregation.

15:58 That people might know the cross Orlando by the way those people love each other. Like they take care of each other. They just put up with each other. You know, they bear all things. They believe all things. They hope all things. They don't get irritable. There is love amongst them. And then he, if you go back to the beginning verses, he builds the case of why we should

16:29 care about this. Look at verse chapter 13 verse 1. If I speak in tongues of men, end of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gonger, a clingy simple. If I have a prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I give away all that I have, and if I deliver my body

17:02 to be burned, but have not love, I am nothing. He's describing this right after coming off a sexual war. He talks about all the spiritual gifts. He's like, listen, you can have all the spiritual gifts you want. But if you can't bear with each other, you've got nothing anyway. You can have faith enough to move mountains, but if you can't respond to one another with patience and kindness, you've got nothing to begin with. Love is the bedrock, the basis. And he's saying, here is some markers of how you know you've got love for one another.

17:37 You are kind. Here is the basis of how you love one another. You've got patience with each other. You give each other the benefit of the doubt. I was thinking. Oh, sadly, we all need a place where we are loved.

18:18 Where it doesn't matter the size or scope of your faith, the depth or breadth of your understanding, the incisiveness of your prophecy and insight. Your work does not matter. I need a place where I am just loved.

18:49 All has the expectation that the congregation of believers is a place where we are loved. This patience, things, beliefs, all things, hopes, all things. I think part of the reason that the church endures.

19:26 I mean, in every nation across every country, through wars, I saw pictures of Christians praying in T.E.A.V. Right? Through every battle and persecution, through every hardship, through every buffoonery of Christian leadership, the church endures. One because the gospel is real. And two because for heaven's sake, in little spots and corners in the church, people are loving one another. And we all need a place where we are loved.

20:00 You need a place where you're loved. You need a place where I'm loved. It's the bedrock. He says that it's the capstone. Look at the end of this section. It's the capstone verse 8. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away. As for tongues, they will cease. As for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part now, when we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

20:30 When I was a child, I spoke like a child. I thought like a child. I reasoned like a child. When I became a grown, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now in part, then we shall know fully. Even as we have been fully known, verse 13. So now faith, hope, and love abide these streets. But the greatest of these is love. He makes the case and he's building this because he's saying his very next phrase is perse to love. He's saying love is the bedrock and the thing that endures.

21:04 Everything else passes away, but love endures. And so he's saying for heaven's sake, perse to being a person of love in the world. Actually, he's saying, pursue being a person of love in the congregation of believers. He says, pursue being a person of love in the world in other places. Right here he's saying, pursue being a person of love right here. Being the congregation.

21:36 And I love his appeal like why he says that we ought to do this. I could think of reasons why he would say love some people. If I, he might say love is the most effective strategy to recruit more people to join your church. He might say that. I'd say love is right and hate is wrong.

22:07 Get on the right side, not the wrong side. I'd say love is the best way to get someone to love you back. You can push out love, then you'll get love coming back. It does not. In each case in his letter to Corinthians, not just here, but when he's talking about money separating them, when he's talking about theology separating them, when he's talking about arguments or disagreements separating them, we're talking about class separating

22:37 them. He always comes back to because we are tied together in a thing that is on a trajectory that will endure because this is what matters amongst and above all things. This is what abides what we are doing here together. Love when the pursuit of love takes you through this life with a thing that you need and then through the grave and out into forever. I just put how he caps off the letter in chapter 15, 55 when the perishable puts on the imperishable

23:18 and the mortal puts on immortality, then she'll come to pass the saying that is written death is swallowed up in victory. Odeth, where is your victory? Odeth, where is your sting? That we are safe to love. We can pursue love honestly and authentically because our eternity is secure. I don't have to exact revenge on you.

23:51 I don't have to compulsively grasp for what I need from you. I don't have to wallow in anger and get myself satisfied. I am secure. I am fully loved, protected and provided for so much so that I have an eternity set aside for me. I am loved. At least I can love you.

24:21 I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone.

24:51 I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone. I am not alone.