Some Applications of 1 Corinthians 13 – Part 2 – As Manifested in Church Relationships

1 Cor. 13:4-8, "Love is patient, love is kind; love does not envy; love does not boast, is not puffed up; does not behave disgracefully, does not seek its own, is not provoked to anger, thinks no evil; does not rejoice over unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails…"

 

Personally, most churches I have seen and been in fall into one of two sides of the love equation. There is on one side syrupy, saccharine niceness that is very shallow and superficial that is supposed to represent love is kind, but never addresses issues or shows genuine concern. On the other side is a view that sees that love corrects, but has a tendency to censoriousness and is more punitive than restorative. To bring a better balanced view of the love of God, since we are to love each other in Christ with a fervent heart more and more as His coming draws near (1 Pet. 4:7-8), I want to look at these attributes again and apply them to our church relationships.

 

1. Love is patient
   

Amazingly enough, while if we are honest we will admit that even when we see our own faults and desire to change our own progress can be slow, our natural reaction towards others is to expect instant transformation from them, especially if it is a problem that really irks us. Loving others as we love ourselves involves us being patient with them, if in spite of our desires we at times act worse than we wish, can we not believe that others also do so, or does failure on their part automatically constitute a lack of will? Patience will allow them time mature and perhaps change.

 

1. Love is kind
   

Perhaps this is the main attribute in the thoughts of Paul when he says "speaking the truth in love…" (Eph. 4:15). I personally must admit that many times I have said true things, but in an unkind manner. Unfortunately, some of them were not only unkind, but also humorous, which makes them memorable. The truth hurts, but not in an unkind way. Kindness comes from desiring to correct in goodness, not self-aggrandizement. Unkindness in speaking the truth springs mostly from vindictiveness or self-exaltation. Love desires to correct but in the most effective way for the good of the one being corrected. A good relationship and genuine concern can make the hardest things easy to take which would be impossible to take from another.

 

1. Love does not envy
   

If we loved each other as we should in the body of Christ there would not be all the political infighting and wrangling that often goes on, all of which flow from envy. Many times the first reaction when a new minister comes to notice is to question his faith or otherwise downplay him. While discernment is needed, sometimes that is just a mask for envy. If the Son has the right to quicken whom He will, does He not have the right to use whom He will, how He will, for what purpose He will. If we question another's ministry, first we should question if perhaps our reason for questioning is envy at another being used instead of us. Paul was able to rejoice even in the ministry of the insincere and even those hostile to his cause to the extent that Christ was preached.

 

1. Love does not boast
   

So much in the Church world today is based on self-promotion and self exaltation that it shows how lacking in love we really are. The widow's two mites were not given with a display, but were the greatest offering because of the motive of love and what she had left – nothing. Likewise it is not our deeds or giving that matters, but the motive. Boastful deeds done for the praises and applause of men receive their reward in that and are unrewarded in eternity, works done in the sight of God without reference to what man sees are rewarded by God.

 

1. Love is not puffed up
   

Because love is selfless, a superiority of any kind becomes not a means of exaltation in self-esteem, but an opportunity to share and uplift the other who is lacking. There are many things that cause natural men to look down on those who have less, be it education, wealth, power, intellect, or physical prowess. These things, while perhaps enhanced by our choices, are not given us by our choice. We could easily have been born in other circumstances and never had any of these things. Love lives by the rule that the greater our gifting the greater responsibility we have for them. Noblesse oblige – to whom much is given much will be required. Every advantage we have in this life should be viewed not as a source of self-worth, but rather as a responsibility that we must use well.

 

1. Love does not behave disgracefully
   

Mere civility and good manners can never make up for a lack of love, yet love will produce civility and good manners. Manners vary somewhat from country to country, but caring for others and a desire to please produced by love can overcome countless cultural hurdles. Love and doing unto others as you would have them do to you are the essence from which all manners are distilled.

 

1. Love does not seek its own
   

How many problems are caused in the church by our seeking our own way, putting forth our own opinion, or in some other way violating this precept of love. Many things which would be small in themselves are blown out of all due proportion because of seeking our own. As seen in First Corinthians, even the charismata were so abused as to be used to seek one's own rather than the edification of all. Prophecy was to be given one at a time since its purpose was to give God's message and edify the believers, the Corinthians were interrupting each other to show off the gift, which totally defeated the purpose of it (1 Cor. 14:29-33)!

 

1. Love is not provoked to anger
   

Rather than being provoked to anger by someone's actions, love covers a multitude of transgressions. The wrath of man cannot work the righteousness of God. Love enables us to so good seeds and produce the fruit of the Spirit in the lives of others. Wrath on one side will produce wrath on the other, but love on one side will also produce love on the other.

 

1. Love thinks no evil
   

Distrust and suspicion are not fruits of the Spirit. In the human body if a part is hurt than the whole body takes notice. For example if someone stubs his toe, the eyes go to investigate, the hands go to minister comfort, and the mouth utters cries on behalf of the voiceless toe. The other body parts do not snicker and think serves him right… If we are truly part of the body of Christ than the health of one member must effect other members, and by aiding them we are aiding our Head and also even ourselves. As much as possible we should think good things of people and give them the benefit of the doubt in their motives where possible.

 

1. Love does not rejoice over unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth
   

This brings out the corrective power of love, as opposed to the thought that love is solely a niceness. Love hates unrighteousness, and loves the truth. It loves what will truly help someone. Love is performing a painful operation upon someone that will save them from a more painful death. It was with love that Jesus spoke to the rich young ruler and gave one of the hardest precepts He ever gave (Mark 10:21). It was love that addressed his real need though it was not well received.

 

1. Love bears all things
   

Being easily peeved by the behavior of others is a sure sign of needing growth in love. Christ laid down His life for His Church, and it is our privilege to add our own miniscule part to that great sacrifice by laying down of ourselves for our brethren. If we find it hard to lay it down for them, then look beyond them to the Lord who bought them and lay it down for Him.

 

1. Love believes all things
   

Unless we have very good reason to do otherwise we should accept people's apologies at face value. God delayed His judgment against Ahab, merely because he humbled himself with ashes and sackcloth at hearing the judgment pronounced. It is very doubtful that Ahab came to any real contrition, and was later killed by God's express design, but yet God took his partial repentance at face value, and in the Psalms encourages those who do not want to serve Him to at least feign obedience for their temporal (1 Kings 21:27-29;Psalm 81:13-16). Likewise we should make the most of signs of repentance when they appear even if perchance they are just feigned.

 

1. Love hopes all things
   

What else but love could have seen a hero in Gideon hiding from the Midianites as he threshed wheat? What else but love could have seen a bold apostle in the persecuting Saul, or a rock steady Peter in Simon? Love hopes and thus draws the best out of people. God is a God of hope. He subjected Creation to the curse in hope of a new creation to come and every death croak of every creature is a cry for that better place. He also divided mankind into nations, so that perhaps they would seek Him. Leaving them together at Babel would have ensured victory for Nimrod's apostasy so God divided them. Though there are sheep and goat nations, yet from every nation Christ will have kings and priests. Love will hope for people, and thus produce results. People will often fail of your expectations, but they will almost never surpass them, so it is good to hope and have high expectations of people. The confidence Christ had in His all-too-human followers was amazing, even more amazing was what they became because of it.

 

1. Love endures all things
   

Jesus said that unless a seed falls to the ground and dies it bears no fruit. Love makes us fruitful by making us willing to fall to the ground and die. This is the key to fruitfulness and multiplication. It was in the rock being struck that water flowed out, and it was from Christ's wounds that our healing has flowed. Love will make us willing to be struck to bring healing to others.

 

1. Love never fails
   

Even if our recipient is proven unworthy of the love we give, we are still learning of the character of Christ. It often hurts to love, but it is never wasted.

 

May God grant us more and more of His love! Amen.

Some Applications of 1 Corinthians 13 – Part 1 – Seen in the Life of Christ

1 Cor. 13:4-8, "Love is patient, love is kind; love does not envy; love does not boast, is not puffed up; does not behave disgracefully, does not seek its own, is not provoked to anger, thinks no evil; does not rejoice over unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails…"

 

In this post I would like to look at the attributes of love as seen in the life of Christ on earth.

 

1. Love is patient
   

Christ manifested the patience of love on this earth especially towards His disciples. There were numerous times when He spoke and they did not understand what He meant. He spoke multiple times of His coming death and they were still totally blindsided when it happened. The sign of an excellent teacher is in how well He is able to be patient with the slow learners and see them through to understanding. Christ proves His superiority by His patience. He is still waiting even now for that which He intended for mankind from the beginning to be fulfilled. He is also still waiting for the Father's time for His full vindication in the eyes of the world for all of the calumny He has and still receives. It may seem that it should be easier for an eternally existent Being to be patient, because what is 2 or even 6 thousand years to eternity, but though we humans do not have an eternal past, yet we have an eternal future and that realization should produce patience in us.

 

1. Love is kind
   

Jesus' multitudinous miracles testified not only to His power, but also to His kindness. There are enough times in the gospels where it states that Jesus worked because He was moved by compassion to form a whole study in itself. Faith works by love, and the kindness and compassion of love should be the motive in our praying for sick and needy people. When we can pray for their needs with as much fervor as if they were our needs, because we feel with them, then we will also begin to see far greater results than we do now.

 

1. Love does not envy
   

Not only was Christ not envious of others or what they had, but He relinquished what was His own by right. He also lived not for His own glory but for the glory of the Father. He never begrudged the Father the smallest part of the glory which was gained through Him, nor was He envious of the temporal power exercised by the men He was subjected to, but committed all to His Father.

 

1. Love does not boast
   

Christ's favorite title was His most lowly – the Son of Man. He was the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, and many other things, but the title He most used was the one of His common humanity with us. He refused to work miracles which would have been solely evidences of His Deity. All His miracles were worked on behalf of others, with perhaps only the exception of temple tax. That miracle showed His humiliation in allowing Himself to be so poor that He was unable without the aid of the Father to pay the temple tax from which really He should have been exempt as a Son. Even most of His avowals of His Messiahship were low-key and extorted from Him by His enemies.

 

1. Love is not puffed up
   

It was with a full knowledge of who He was and all His rights and privileges as God, that Jesus took the towel and performed the part of the lowliest servant in washing His disciple's feet. It would have been beneath the dignity of any ordinary teacher to do that for his followers, but Jesus did it in full knowledge of His divine origin and destination as John realized when he reflected on it in writing his gospel.

 

1. Love does not behave disgracefully
   

Christ manifested the most self-control possible to be seen in a man. He never was undignified even when He was arraigned before the travesties of Justice that constituted His trial. He never rendered railing for railing. Even the Apostle Paul didn't fully attain to this mark when in his trial he called the unjust officiating high priest a whitened wall, but when he was informed of his error he responded meekly.

 

1. Love does not seek its own
   

Christ showed this especially when He silenced the weeping women who were bewailing His death and told them to weep for their own sons and daughters. He did not come in His own name, and on more than one occasion refused to be crowned as a king.

 

1. Love is not provoked to anger
   

Whereas King David had to be dissuaded by Abigail from avenging his ill treatment by Nabal, and James and John were only too willing to call down fire and incinerate a village for rejecting Jesus. Jesus refused to be angry at the ill conduct of people towards Him. The times when He manifested anger were not for His own losses and rejection, but when His Father's house was profaned, and towards hypocrites who were injuring others.

 

1. Love thinks no evil
   

Rather than focusing on the magnitude of the offense which was committed against Him at the cross He cried out to God and pleaded for His murderers on the grounds of their ignorance.

 

1. Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness but rejoices in truth
   

Christ was anointed with the oil of gladness because He loved righteousness and hated evil. He showed mercy to many sinners, but it was in saying, "go and sin no more." His death was a logical consequence of His removing the blindfolds of self-congratulation and showing men just where they really stood before God.

 

1. Love bears all things
   

It was likely Christ's humble demeanor and attitude toward the mockers that lead the one thief who had also mocked Him earlier to repentance and thus eternal life.

 

1. Love believes all things
   

Christ knew what was truly in man, He saw Peter's and all the disciples weaknesses and that they would deny Him or flee at the crucial hour. Yet He also believed their genuine expressions of love for Him. It was with love that He foretold Peter's failure and denial so that he would know that restoration would be possible. Cynicism towards the professions of people is a sure sign of a lack of love towards them.

 

1. Love hopes all things
   

Shortly before His death at the most trying time of His life, Christ pours out His hope. He tells His disciples of the Comforter to come, the mansions He is preparing and gives little glimpses of all the wonderful things in store for us that would be purchased by His death and resurrection. His hope kept Him buoyant in spite of the abysmal reception He endured from most of Israel.

 

1. Love endures all things
   

It is difficult to fathom all that Christ endured for us. The physical torture alone shows us how much more of a Man He was than we are. The whipping He received was enough to drive some to insanity, yet He maintained His wits, and was so composed that He was able in the act of dying to utter His seven sayings on the cross and thus fulfill ancient prophecies. We cannot comprehend well the endurance required in His soul to endure all the mockery, and have not even the slightest idea of His anguish at being abandoned by the Father whom He had delighted and was delighted in from eternity past.

 

1. Love never fails
   

This will ring out through all eternity as we see the trophies won by the Saviour's love. Truly He will see the travail of His soul and be satisfied. Finally after all the years that mankind has disappointed Him, because of His sacrifice we will be able to please Him as we were created to do because of His sacrificial love. Glory be to Him!

Some Applications of 1 Corinthians 13 - Introduction

I think most Christians are aware that we are supposed to love people. Even unbelievers are aware that Christians are supposed to love people. Christ summed up the law of God in Mark 12:30-31 as loving God and loving our neighbor. The Apostle Paul repeated this in Galatians 5:14.

This command to love is clear and unambiguous. However one difficulty we can experience is in the meaning of love. Many things pass for love in the world that are nothing like the love of God. Even worse much passes for love in the Church that has little to do with real love.

The Apostle Paul prayed for the Ephesians that they might know the love of Christ which passes knowledge so that they could be filled with the fulness of God (Eph. 3:19). If we are to know what passes human intellect we must have a beyond human experience in some way. Several years ago I had a small experience of this.

It happened totally unexpectedly at a youth group I was attending at the time. I was about 18 years old and a typical self-centered youth more interested in trying to fit in myself than in seeing others accepted. Because of the insecurity associated with the teen years, people tend to be less accepting of others at that time. We are still discovering ourselves and trying to find where we fit. At this service the youth leader lead us in singing "I love you with the love of the Lord." It isn't a song I usually look forward to, because most of the time when people sing it they are lying, but as I sang it at this time, I felt a love come into my heart for everyone there in the service. I knew it was a love beyond any that I could have in myself. It was a love that could look beyond all the differences in personality and all the pettiness that so often is in churches and receive and except everyone who was there. It has haunted me ever since, and ruined me for anything less, though I have failed to walk in its ways often afterwards. It embraced all, even many that I barely knew and had never taken the time to try to know. It is hard to describe this love.

Because of the way that the word "love" is misused, I believe it is important to study 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 which shows us the hallmarks of true love. This is the love we are to show, not only in word but in deed. I would like to do a few posts on this subject. The first one is comparing the life of Christ with this portion where we can see how He manifested this love on earth. Then I would like to apply it as a touchstone to our behavior in certain circumstances we may face (currently I am thinking of 2 specific ones, but I might do more). The purpose here even if you don't agree with all my applications of these principles is to stir us up to test ourselves and our day to day actions by the law of love.

May God grant us grace to do so!

Better than that of Abel

Heb 12:24 "…and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel."

 

The blood of Jesus is much better than the blood of Abel. Abel's blood bore witness to his being a righteous man innocently slain. It testified that he was righteous and his brother, Cain, guilty. Christ's blood not only testifies to His righteousness and innocent suffering, but it also makes righteous the guilty who trust in Him.

 

Abel's blood made Him a martyr and Cain a murderer, but Christ's blood makes even murderers clean.

 

Abel's blood cried aloud to God for justice and recompense for his unjust slaying, but Christ's blood cries out for mercy even for those who were His enemies.

 

Abel's blood gave a testimony to his faithfulness to God, and his life still speaks. Christ's blood not only testifies to His own life, but it pleads for ours and continually washes us from our sins.

 

Abel's blood was a testimony to his obedience. Christ's blood was also a testimony to His obedience to the Father, but even beyond that it produces obedience in those who are sprinkled with it.

 

Worthy is the Lamb!

Thoughts on 1 John 3:1-3

“Behold what manner of love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God. Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when He shall be revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope on him purifies himself, even as that One is pure.”

The love of God is unfathomable. It is inconceivable to the human mind why God would want to call any men, even redeemed men His children. As the psalmist says, “What is man that You are mindful of him?” Yet we are accepted in the Beloved – that is in Christ, and joined to Him, we partake of what is His. Thus we are called the elect (chosen) of God, yet Christ is the ultimate Chosen One, the stone which the builders refused, but elect and precious. We are the light of the World, because we are joined to the Light of the world. We are the sons of God because we are joined to the only-begotten Son of God, the temporal joined to the eternal, the finite to the infinite, the sinful to the Sinless. By virtue of this we are called sons of God, not only that but we are made partakers of the Divine nature and receive His Spirit to comfort, encourage, correct and form us into the image of Christ that He might bring many sons unto glory.

We have obtained a great privilege without any merit of our own in being called the sons of God, but it is not a privilege which the world recognizes. The world does not know us because they did not know Him. It is interesting that almost invariably Hollywood portrays Christians and especially Christian ministers in a negative light, while there is some truth in the portrayals, because there are tares among the wheat, yet they ultimately condemn not Christians, but themselves. When the world attributes motives of money seeking and other baser motives to true Christians who are following Christ and working out of love for God and man they condemn themselves. They show that they would never personally do anything of the sort and cannot understand why anyone would. Because they do not know Him and understand Him, they cannot understand real Christian behavior.

Not only are we called children of God, but we are so in reality. In the bleakness of fallen humanity there shines forth the light of God in His people, sometimes even to the surprise of the ones actually manifesting it. Too often we walk as men, it does not appear what we are, but at times something of the Christ nature shines forth, causing us to act in a way that is contrary to our own nature which we know so well. It is Christ in us the hope of glory.

When we look at our own shortcomings it is easy to be discouraged. Recently as I was pondering some of my own, I had this thought. Recently I acquired a new puppy. He is going to grow up to be a watch-dog. Currently he is still learning to bark and requires much training. However, I am not disappointed in him. I can look on some of his misdeeds with correction, but also with hope because I know that he will not remain a puppy forever. As he grows up, he will grow out of some things, and he will be trained out of others. In the same way God can look at us and our failings and because of the divine nature within us, He can accept us. He sees our failings and He corrects us, yet He knows that these failings will not remain forever, we have been predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son. When we see Him we will be like Him.

This is the great hope that we have as believers, because of this hope we can purify ourselves. We know that it is possible to live a holy life, because Christ lived a holy life. We know it is possible to have victory over sin, because we have been buried with Christ and are risen with Him. Though these things are obscured sometimes at present, still we work to purify ourselves knowing that when Christ returns the work will be completed. Even so come Lord Jesus. Amen.