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The Supreme Importance of Love in Christian Life

Explore the significance of love according to 1 Corinthians 13, highlighting how love is essential in all aspects of faith, surpassing even the most powerful spiritual gifts. Discover how love transforms actions and faith into meaningful expressions of Christian devotion.

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The Supreme Importance of Love in Christian Life

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  1. The Most Excellent Way – Part 1 Studies in 1 Corinthians Series [29] 1 Corinthians 13:1-4 February 22, 2015 Pastor Paul K. Kim

  2. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW OF 1 CORINTHIAN 13 [THE “LOVE” CHAPTER] • CONTEXT: it is a part of Paul’s answer (1 Cor. 12-14) to the Corinthian problems and confusions regarding spiritual gifts. 31 But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.1 Corinthians 12:31

  3. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW OF 1 CORINTHIAN 13 [THE “LOVE” CHAPTER] • CONTEXT: it is a part of Paul’s answer (1 Cor. 12-14) to the Corinthian problems and confusions regarding spiritual gifts. • PITFALLS: it is NOT a poetic sentimentality, an unrealistic ideology, a list for moralistic goals, a mere concept/theology. • “AGAPE”: Greek love is “agape” which emerges from the loving not from the loved (unlike eros, phileo, & storge). • OVERVIEW: the apostle Paul expounds on 3 things about love. • 13:1-3 The Supreme Importance of Love • 13:4-7 The Characteristicsof Love -- Two foundational qualities & what love doesn’t do/does. • 13:8-13 The Permanence of Love

  4. THE SUPREME IMPORTANCE OF LOVE 1) Love is supremely important because without love, even the most spectacular spiritual gift is nothing. 1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. (vs. 1-3) • Speaking in tongues was the most spectacular gift that everyone desired—some did thought it was tongues of angels. • So, Paul took this gift in the most superlative form—even angel’s tongues—without love is a useless, annoying noise. • The point is NOTthat love is better than tongues but that love is indispensible in all areas of the Christian life.

  5. THE SUPREME IMPORTANCE OF LOVE 2)Love is supremely important because without love, even the most powerful gift to understand all mysteries/knowledge is nothing. 1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. (vs. 1-3) • Another culturally high value in Corinth was knowledge and ability to understand spiritual mysteries. • Knowledge is crucial in faith but as Paul already expounded, “knowledge puffs up but love builds up” (1 Cor. 8:1) • This applies also our own Christian culture that rightly seeks sound biblical knowledge—but without love it is still nothing.

  6. THE SUPREME IMPORTANCE OF LOVE 3)Love is supremely important because without love, even the most incredible faith that performs miracles is nothing. 1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. (vs. 1-3) • Paul moves onto the third kind of superlative things that all Corinthian Christians desired—a faith that moves mountains. • This kind of faith moves not only mountains/impossibilities but also people’s heart and mind in an eye-opening way. • We can also imagine and wish incredible miracles we might be able to do by faith, but this too, without love, is nothing.

  7. THE SUPREME IMPORTANCE OF LOVE 4)Love is supremely important because without love, even the most generous self-giving/self-sacrifice is nothing. 1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. (vs. 1-3) • Paul’s list is now at the final crescendo of the superlatives—i.e., self-giving and self-sacrifice without any reservation. • This might be, for example, selling everything and giving to the poor/cause, self-sacrifice, or even martyrdom. • But if the motive in such generosity or sacrifice is not love, this is also nothing, so we gain nothing from giving all!

  8. TWO FOUNDATIONAL QUALITIES OF LOVE 1)Love is PATIENT. 8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.1 Peter 4:8 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other...Colossians 3:13 • Why is the patience mentioned first as love? It’s because agape does NOT depend on the one whom we love as a reason. • This is how God loves us in Christ Jesus; if God’s love is not patient, Christ would have given up on us in a day! • Patience means forbearance, tenaciously believing in one whom love, forgiving, and accepting without strings attached!

  9. TWO FOUNDATIONAL QUALITIES OF LOVE 2)Love is KIND. 24 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted...Ephesians 4:32 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Philippians 2:4 • Kindness is the other side of the same coin as for how love responds to others—even those who are not lovable. • If patience is an internal side of love, kindness is the external seeking to do good to those whom we love. • Kindness is a choice and action but it eventually melts our hearts towards affection/compassion as well as the hearts of whom we love!

  10. To Become a More Loving Person • Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.” • ― C. S. Lewis

  11. THREE PRACTICAL QUESTIONS FOR OUR EVERYDAY LIFE • In what ways are you more convinced of the supreme importance of love? What will you do about it? • What insight about the first primary quality [Love is patient] was most helpful for you? How will you apply it? • What insight about the second primary quality [Love is kind] was most helpful for you? How will you apply it?

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