•I Corinthians 13:1-3
•A Foundation of Love
•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.
(I Corinthians 13:1-3, ESV)
•Main Point
•The various gifts and forms of service and self sacrifice must have a foundation
•That foundation is agape which is love
•Without love all these various deeds lose their meaning and significance
•Application Points
•A Foundation of Love
•How can it be that practicing spiritual gifts…cause one to lose all personal value?
•Is this a gifts vs love understanding?
•It is easy to see why these kinds of questions come to mind
•The recognition of something gone awry is strong in these verses
•The gifts themselves are not meaningless
•The ability to speak in tongues is not a noisy gong or clanging cymbol
•The acts do not lose…the person does
•Application Points
•A Foundation of Love (2)
•It might be wise for us to separate the action from the person doing the action
•We can fake anything
•“We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” – Isaiah 64:6, ESV
•Righteous deeds are a polluted garment
•Whatever personal good comes from these righteous deeds ends up losing all meaning
•Imagine someone with leprosy
•The corruption of the flesh would cause all of us to wince
•Application Points
•A Foundation of Love (3)
•Let’s say we quickly do whatever we can for the individual
•We get the best clothes/best fabric and clothe them
•The corruption would seep through the fancy clothes and the fabric itself would become utterly polluted
•This is similar to Isaiah’s point
•Because of our sinfulness even these good things become corrupted so that they have no use to us personally
•Paul is saying something similar
•Seeking these good things without love leads to no true gain
•Because of the corruption it avails nothing to us personally
“ 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”
Matthew 7:21-23, ESV
•Application Points
•A Foundation of Love (4)
•These things are good aren’t they?
•Isn’t this what is expected and required?
•“I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”
•You who would do wonderful righteous deeds…without the foundation of love
•The kind of love only found in the Gospel of Jesus
•What would it look like for the knowledgeable to be nothing despite having great knowledge?
•It would look like arrogance and pride
•Does this mean knowledge is bad?
•Application Points
•A Foundation of Love (5)
•We can apply this to anything
•Maybe someone who helps feed the poor, or house the homeless
•During the whole time they have a grudge, make snide comments, doing the work…but not in love
•You can see how even righteous deeds can become filthy rags
•The person doing the blessing will gain nothing
•The Way is being rejected
•This is why Paul will continue this chapter to define what love is
•Application Points
•A Foundation of Love (6)
•Let us learn from the warning
•Let’s not allow that which is good to become corrupted because we are not personally following the more excellent way
•God is worthy of far more than our acting things out
•Let us eagerly seek to love, then, in service to one another
•Knowing the true glory of the Lord for those who seek Him and lay hold to this foundation of love
•Application Points
•The Gospel of Christ
•Origins
•Where it begins
•Fall
•What went wrong
•Redemption
•How it is fixed
•Glorification
•Where it at leads
