Spiritual Gifts, Part 6: The More Excellent Way I Corinthians 13:8-13

Spiritual Gifts, Part 6: The More Excellent Way

I Corinthians 13:8-13

Introduction: The font of all knowledge in this 4G generation, Wikipedia, in its opening definition of “love” illustrates some of the breadth of the term:

Love is a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes that ranges from interpersonal affection ("I love my mother") to pleasure ("I loved that meal"). It can refer to an emotion of a strong attraction and personal attachment. It can also be a virtue representing human kindness, compassion, and affection—"the unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another."  It may also describe compassionate and affectionate actions towards other humans, one's self or animals.

We’ve been looking at the “love chapter” in I Corinthians for a couple of weeks. Someone said, “A wise lover values not so much the gift of the lover as the love of the giver.” The Corinthians had gotten their eyes off of the Giver and were focused on loving the gift(s) rather than responding to the Giver’s love.  As we’ve seen in past weeks, if we love God, we will love His people and have compassion on the lost. Love God, love people. One of the most effective evangelists in history may have been D.L. Moody. He talked about the impact of loving our neighbors and said,

“The churches would soon be filled if people could find out people in them loved them when they came. This love draws sinners. We must win them to us first, then we can win them to Christ.”

If this is true, we can see how the lack of demonstrated love would stifle our mission and how making people feel loved might gain us a hearing as we seek to share Christ.  Gifts are good, in fact gifts are essential for carrying out our mission. We’ve seen that God sovereignly bestows gifts as He wills.  And in this passage we want to remember that they are temporary, an ad hoc provision for this moment in history. The one thing that we can pursue now, the one thing that is eternal, the one thing that reflects in some way the character of God, is love.  Refer for a minute to another “love chapter” in the Bible, I John 4,

⁷ Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.  ⁸ Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.  ⁹ In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.  ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  ¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another (I John 4:7-11).

Just in those five verses John used some form of the word “love” 11 or 12 times!  He wanted to make sure they got the point, and we need to hear it too. “Love” is the more excellent way that Paul has been expounding in I Corinthians 13. Without it, we are not ministering in the will of God. My son-in-law is a drummer, and pretty good at it I think. However when my one-year-old grandson Hunter starts banging on the drums, or clanging the symbol (as he loves to do) it is noise! (Ok, to me it is still music to my ears!). The point that Paul makes in this chapter is that love must motivate our ministry. It guides us to serve God by serving others. Gifts are temporary, love is eternal.

The Maine* Idea: God’s love is at the intersection of the present age and eternity. Gifts are essential for our mission, but the love that drives the mission is eternal. Love God. Love His people. Love the lost.

I. The permanent: Love is eternal (8a). “Love never fails...” We touched on this phrase in the last study as a summary of the preceding verses.

“Love never ends...” (13:8a ESV).

       Most English translations begin v.8 with “Love never fails.” The verb is literally “to fall.” The brisk evening air has finished off most of the flowers in your gardens. The word translated “fail” in this verse is used of withered flowers “falling” to the ground, or a sick person falling down. It can also be used in a more metaphorical sense, of a divided kingdom, or a divided household, “falling” (Luke 11:17).  Also in Luke we see the teaching of Jesus in 16:17 emphasizing the enduring Word, "And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail [fall].” Love never fails.

       Remember the contrast here in I Corinthians 13 is between spiritual gifts, which will “fail” or “end” at the time designated by God, and love, which is eternal, which “never fails.” Paul’s point is that we should pursue love over any spiritual gift because love is eternal. That is quite a statement. Love is eternal, it never ends. Henry van Dyke, a 19^th century clergyman and writer (and a distant relative of our own JVD!) said,

"Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity."

       We can see some impressive things that seem unshakable. The twin towers of the world trade center seemed like that when they were built. What a tremendous achievement of engineering!  In a day they crumbled to the ground. Paul says, “Love never falls (fails).”

       To say “love never ends” doesn’t mean that “love wins” in the sense that it overrides God’s justice. The same God who is love is also just. In love, He satisfied His justice by sending the Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Neither does the phrase “love never ends” give us a guarantee of “success” from a human perspective.

       Remember Paul was compelled to travel to Jerusalem in Acts 21 because of his love for his countrymen.  What did it get him? Arrested! Two years imprisoned in Caesarea and two more in Rome!  That doesn’t sound very “successful” does it?  Consider the fact that God is love, and Jesus is God. From a human perspective, many people would not view His earthly life as a success. He owned no real estate. He died at a young age, deserted by his closest followers. His own people, who he loved, rejected Him and handed him over for judgement and execution. He died an excruciating death; bloody, naked, and alone. From a human perspective it doesn’t look very successful! But we know that isn’t the end of the story. The passion of Christ was motivated by love and demonstrated love. “Greater love has no man than this: that he lay down his life for his friends.” That is what Jesus did! And, by the way, He didn’t stay dead, the tomb is empty, HE LIVES! 

       The commitment to the marriage relationship should be such that the Lord used His love for the church to illustrate it: “Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.” It’s love that never fails. A couple approaching the check out counter at the grocery store were heard by the cashier to be discussing plans for their 50^th wedding anniversary. Finally the cashier chimed in, “I can’t imagine being married to the same man for 50 years!”  The older woman leaned over and said, “Well Honey, don’t get married until you can!” Love never fails.

       God’s love is at the intersection of the present age and eternity. Spiritual gifts are essential for our mission, but the love that drives the mission is eternal. Love God. Love His people. Love the lost.

II. The provisional: Gifts are for a season (8b-11).

...As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.  ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part,  ¹⁰ but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.  ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 

            “They will pass away... they will cease...” Whatever else we can say about these phrases, we have to agree that Paul is contrasting the temporary nature of these gifts, or maybe gifts in general, with the permanence of love.  Think about it for a moment: Why were spiritual gifts given? To what end?  God is supernaturally enabling the church to carry out its mission.  The gifts are unique to the church age, and some of those gifts were unique to the foundational period of the church. Remember Ephesians 2:20 says the church was built on the foundation of the “apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the cornerstone.”  A foundation is only laid once. We don’t have “apostles and prophets” in the church today, at least not in the New Testament sense of being the authorized spokesmen of Christ and the channels of His revelation to the church.

       Chapters 12 and 14 of I Corinthians also make it clear that a particular gift, “speaking in tongues,” was a problem in Corinth, and it seems this gift was venerated and even abused. Yet it is striking that the only other places in the Bible that tongues is even mentioned are in three short passages in the book of Acts! In Acts 2 it is clearly a sign that the New Age had arrived in Christ. Peter explains what is happening on the day of Pentecost by quoting from the prophet Joel and saying, “this is that.” The last days, the age of the Messiah, had arrived. In Acts 10 and Acts 19, the only other two passages where speaking in “tongues” is specifically mentioned, new groups are being incorporated into the church, as the waves of Pentecost radiate outward from Jerusalem.  This demonstrated the unity of the one apostolic church. Why are tongues mentioned nowhere else? It seems this and other “sign gifts” had a purpose in the foundational period of the church, to validate the message of the apostles, and as a sign that a people group was accepted by God, but then ceased by the end of the apostolic age (e.g. Acts 2,10,19 and perhaps 8 [though there speaking in tongues is not mentioned somehow those present could see that the Samaritan believers received the Spirit]).

       There are two different verbs and two different verbal forms used here. I don’t want to push the grammar too far, as I doubt Paul was being overly precise in saying that “prophecy” and “knowledge” will be done away (future passive), and that “tongues” will “cease of itself” (future middle). It seems more likely that is merely a stylistic variation in this beautiful, almost poetic, passage. Paul’s point is that whether they simply “fade away” because they were provisional and slowly were no longer necessary (as apparently was the case with tongues) or whether God will intentionally act in ending particular gifts at some point in the future (maybe the case with prophecy and knowledge here) the point is that they are temporary, for a season, whereas love abides forever.  Think about it, there will be no need for teachers in heaven either, as we will “know fully even as we are fully known.”  We obviously won’t need evangelists, the mission will be over, the elect will be saved. You get the idea?

       “When the teleion (“perfect”) comes...” There is a lot of discussion about what the “perfect” is, and when it comes. Is it the “Bible,” God’s full revelation? Is it the coming of Jesus,  the Perfect One, either at the rapture or at the second coming?  It seems to me, in the light of the context, Paul is talking not about a specific event, but rather more generally about the eternal state, the New Heaven and the New Earth in which righteousness dwells—forever! When God’s plan comes to a culmination, the mission for which the gifts were given will be complete. “Perfect” can also be translated “complete, or mature.” When the perfect comes, the partial, the provisional, that which is temporary, will pass away. God’s plan comes to maturity, to completeness.

       “When I was a child...” I thought of this verse as I was visiting my daughter and her family last week. Hunter just had his first birthday, and his favorite activity in their play room is to just start pulling out one toy after another.  Grand Pa’s job was to follow behind him and “put away childish things”!  I could barely keep up! Paul said  “When I became a man, I put away childish things...” Paul isn’t talking about putting toys away! The language here is of maturity, of growing up. This emphasizes the “eschatological” interpretation of what Paul is saying here. Just as a child “grows up” over time, and changes come, things that were normal and necessary in childhood are set aside as we mature. In the foundational period of the church certain gifts were needed for a time, and then they “faded away” as the apostolic teaching was recorded in written form (the New Testament). When the church reaches its “mature” state in eternity, gifts in general will no longer be needed—we shall “know fully, even as we are fully known”!

      Erich Fromm, a German 20^th century psychologist and philosopher didn’t say a lot that I would want to quote but I liked this:

"Immature love says: 'I love you because I need you.' Mature love says 'I need you because I love you.'"

That is biblical love, agape love, mature love.  It’s love that never fails. The “Maine* idea” is that God’s love is one thing that abides at the intersection of the present age and eternity. Gifts are essential for our mission, but they are provisional. The love that drives the mission is eternal. Love God. Love His people. Love the lost.

III. The Purpose of Gifts and the Promise of God (12-13). Gifts were intended for the equipping of the saints and for the carrying out of our mission, that won’t be necessary in eternity—We will know Him as He is—Faith will be sight! Hope will be realized!

“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.  ¹³ So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love...”

“For now... but then...” At Bertie’s funeral, before leaving for NJ, I quoted from C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle, where at the end of the story Aslan tells the children that “...you are all dead, as you used to call it in the Shadowlands.”  The idea being that our world and Narnia were only reflections of Aslan’s kingdom. Paul in these verses is contrasting our life in the Shadowlands, our limited knowledge and understanding, with what we will one day see.  We were created for eternity.

       “...then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known...” Many of the spiritual gifts are given to help us know God and to understand His will for our lives. It seems that Paul is saying that in the eschaton, the necessity for the gifts will change since we will know Him without the dimming effects of sin on our minds and hearts. We will know Him as fully and as completely as a creature can know the Creator.

       “...So now faith, hope and love abide, these three, but the greatest of these is love.”  Faith believes that we are His, and we are made for eternity, hope looks forward to it with confidence, but love is greater. Why? Because love carries through from the present to eternity.  Love never fails.

What is God saying to me in this passage?  God’s love is at the intersection of the present age and eternity. Gifts are essential for our mission, but the love that drives the mission is eternal. Love God.  Love His people.  Love the lost.

What would God have me to do in response to this passage? Paul is not downplaying the importance of spiritual gifts. He returns to the subject in the next chapter. But he wants us to have perspective. Knowing and loving the Giver of gifts, treasuring Him as supremely valuable, has to be our heart’s desire, our first priority. We embrace His mission in the world because we love Him and want Him to be glorified.  As former Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple put it,

"The Church is the only society that exists solely for the benefit of its non-members."  

Love for God motivates our mission, concern for others, recognizing their deepest need, goes right along with that. As Jesus put it "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Gifts are to be used as we carry out our mission in the world. We seek to build each other up, to equip one another to reach the world with the Gospel.  The love that drives our mission is eternal.

       As we embrace the principle that drives our mission, as we love the God who we have not seen, that love is going to overflow in our relationships, first with God’s people—and also in the compassion that we feel for those around us, those in our sphere of influence who are “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a Shepherd."  Love God. Love one another. Love the lost. If we are going to really love them, we have to take a risk, we have to tell them the truth, we have to point them to Jesus. Have you identified your 8/15, that is, the eight to fifteen people in your sphere of influence? Who are those in that group who have either fallen away from church, or who don’t know Jesus? If you haven’t already, begin now to pray for them. Seek to reach out to them. Give them a tract or a Bible portion. Invite them to church, or to a small group... 

       We’ll be talking more about spiritual gifts in I Corinthians 14 next week. In the meantime, we need to continue to seek the Giver of gifts above all else. Love the Giver, treasure Him as supremely valuable. And then express your love for Him by “unwrapping the gift” He has given you, and using it for His glory. Think about that.  AMEN.

*”The Maine Idea” is my attempt to reflect our focus on a single “big idea” in the text that is applicable to our current situation as 21^st century believers in Jesus (in our case, living on the coast of Maine!).