1 Corinthians Chapter 13:1

So if you love somebody, what are some of the things you're going to do? Pray for them. Probably talk to them.

Reach out to them when things go bad. What are some of the things you're not going to do? Yeah, but you're not going to slam them. You're not going to gossip about them.

When somebody does those things, they are self-condemning. The Bible says if you don't love a brother or sister, you don't love God. That's strong, isn't it? Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is the senior pastor of the Bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. In our walk with Christ, what matters most is that we love, and anyone can love. Find out how to love each other rightly today as Pastor David continues in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Before we join Pastor David, we want to let you know about an outreach opportunity that could bring hope to countless prisoners. This month, Cross the Bridge is teaming with men and women like yourself in order to provide Pastor David's devotional book Cross the Bridge Every Day to inmates. When you call today and help support the ministry with a gift of $25 or more, we'll send you a book and also provide one to a prisoner in need. To take part in this important outreach, call 877-458-5508. That's 877-458-5508.

Or go online to crossthebridge.com. Now here's David McGee with his teaching for the love of God. 1 Corinthians 12 was talking about the gifts, and it's interesting because Paul, he's speaking to this church at Corinth. It's a great book because it's written to a church on how to be a church. So here's this book for us.

It's a book about how to be a church, and we can take it and know how to do it. He goes over these gifts. In chapter 14, he's going to be talking about how to use these gifts, and right in the middle is 1 Corinthians 13. Now Paul's dealing with all these problems in this church at Corinth. Division, there's abusing spiritual gifts, there's pride over spiritual gifts, there's all these things.

And right in the middle of it, Paul says here's the answer. He's pointing out the problem, and I know that each person listening has a lot going on. You got stuff. I understand. We all have stuff.

I'm about to give you the answer. Every one of us needs more love in our relationships. Every one of us. Now the cool thing is God is willing to give you more love if you're willing to ask for it. But let's remember something. This is, you may be tempted as we're in this chapter to say, oh man, I've got a neighbor who needs to hear this.

Well, go invite him, but you're here now. You're listening, so this is for you. And see, when it comes to love, you're tempted to think, oh yes, the world needs more love. Other people need more love. But see, you can't change everybody else. You can change you.

And let me tell you something, if you change you, other people may follow. And the awesome thing about this whole concept of love is this is a win-win. The only way you can lose with a message like this is to say, I'm okay. I don't need help in this area. If you do that, you lose. But for everybody who says, you know what?

I do need help with this. I do need more love. I do want more love.

Guess what? You win because God will answer that prayer and you will have more love. And the thing is, if you miss this chapter, if you miss this issue, everything else you do in life, it won't matter.

Seriously. You can have all sorts of fame, all sorts of glory, all sorts of money, all sorts of stuff, all sorts of career goals that you've hit. But if you don't have love, it is going to be empty. You can even be very religious.

Hello? But if you don't have love, it's meaningless. So that's why Paul goes through all this. And at the end of chapter 12, verse 31 says, but earnestly desire the best gifts, yet I show you a more excellent way. I want you to know something. Paul doesn't say, I'm going to tell you a better way.

I'm going to tell you what you did wrong. What does he say? He says, I will show you a more excellent way.

You know why? Love shows. That's what love does. Love says, let me show you what it looks like.

Love shows. You know, one of the things when we set up the schedule for me to go into the prison to talk with the guys, the opening was on a Thursday. So I know I had a choice to make. I could either come here and teach y'all, and I love y'all, I love hanging out here, or I could make the decision to go there and sit down with 12 guys. And I also knew that those 12 guys would then be talking to other guys and spreading the word.

Talked to leadership, prayed about it, said, okay, well, we'll get somebody else to teach here and I'll go there. And you guys that come on Thursday, you got it. You understood it. I don't think we had one person say, I don't know why you haven't gone to jail.

He should have been here. If you did say that, shame on you. And one of the guys said, look, man, you know, it's one thing to talk about the love of God, but we feel the love of God because you made the decision to come here. Because love shows. You can't hide love, especially the love of God. And the love of God is, it should be the guiding principle in all, all that we say and all that we do. This is a beautiful, beautiful chapter. And even people who don't like the Bible or don't believe in the Bible think this is one of the most beautiful written passages about love that exist, this chapter. Those who don't even know the Lord recognize the beauty of this chapter. And let me encourage you to, over the weeks that we're gonna be in this chapter, read it a lot.

Maybe even every day. And also I'd encourage you to read 1 John. Not the Gospel of John, 1 John, which is the Epistle of John. There's three, first, second, third John. 1 John talks a lot about love.

It can change your life. 1 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 1 says, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I've become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. So all this stuff that's going on in the Corinthian church, Paul says this is the answer, love. All the problems, all the divisions, all the disputes, love. And I'm telling you gang, you can get everything else right in your life, but you get this one wrong. Life is not gonna be what God has designed and planned for your life to be. And you're gonna be empty and you're gonna be alone.

Because no matter what you achieve or what you do or accomplish or you accumulate, if you don't have somebody that you love to share them with, it's gonna be empty. And let's understand too, sitting here we're talking about love, nobody here does it perfectly. You don't do it perfectly, I don't do it perfectly. But everybody can do it better.

Everybody can do it better. And we have the chance here in this place, the bridge, to do it better. We have a chance to do love better here.

Because gang, if we can't do it here, we don't stand a chance out there. How can we do what Jesus says in loving our enemies if we can't get along and love the people we go to church with? See, we've got this spiritual, loving, forgiving, gracious family in this church. There's an amazing opportunity right in front of us, a chance to love, a chance to do it well, a chance to get it right. So what we need to do is we learn through God's word and we live and let it play out and we love.

Learn, we live, and we love. Jesus had a real issue with the Pharisees. The Pharisees were, well, they were legalists. And they really knew the law. They really knew the Bible.

But somewhere along the path, something started to go off and got further and further off. The big issue was love and love people. Paul opens up, he says, though I speak, though I say this, Pharisees, they were great speakers, orators, experts in the word of God.

But they were very unloving, very unkind, especially towards people who weren't getting it right. We as Christians can go down that path if we don't have love. See, if you get the truths of the Bible, and I will make sure you get the truths of the Bible. We teach verse by verse, chapter by chapter.

If you hang with us, I have committed my life to helping you understand and apply the truths of the Bible. As you do that, make sure you're walking in love. Because the more you learn, the more you want to look at everything through, well, if you don't have love, you're going to wind up as a Pharisee, figuring out what's wrong with everybody else. And when you start doing that, what you're showing is how unloving you are becoming.

Now, he says the tongues of angels, and there was a belief that, you know, when Paul talks about the unknown tongue, and we're not talking about that today, we talked about in chapter 12, we'll talk about it again in chapter 14, but that that unknown tongue was the heavenly language or the angel's tongue. So, and he says, even though you do that, if you don't have love, it doesn't matter. In Matthew chapter 15, verse 18, it says, but the words you speak come from the heart. That's what defiles you. You ever been in a situation and you respond in a way that's unloving or unkind? A few in here. Everybody. Now, what you need to understand is a lot of times when that happens, we go, oh, I can't believe I said that. That's really not like me. That's really a weird saying, because it's you that just said it. And then you say, oh, that's not really like me. What, is there somebody else sitting there? I mean, you got some schizophrenia going on?

You know what's going on? No, that is like you. And what can happen is sometimes we can get in a situation, a trial, a temptation, a tribulation, and what's inside comes out. And then we look at it and we go, ooh, that is ugly.

But that is you. And in that moment, God's going, wow, look what is inside you. Now he doesn't say, he doesn't show you that to gross you out. He shows you that to say, look, there's an issue here.

You need to deal with this. Scott, I don't want to respond like that in the heat of a trial. You're listening to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. We'll be back to the teaching in just a moment. This month, we're focusing on prison ministry. And I have the chance to sit down with Pastor David. Pastor, what is Cross the Bridge prison ministry all about? Cross the Bridge prison ministry is consistent with Cross the Bridge itself. We believe that we need to share an effective presentation of the gospel to invite people to have a relationship with the Lord. And then for those who do have a relationship with the Lord, that we would teach them the word of God, to equip them, to walk in that life, that abundant life that Jesus talks about.

Thank you for sharing, Pastor. If you're listening and agree with David about our need to help those in prison, we would love to hear from you. You can call 877-458-5508. That's 877-458-5508. And when you give $25 or more, we'll send you a copy of Cross the Bridge every day. Not only that, but we'll match your gift by sending another copy of David's devotional to an inmate in need. Also, your gift of $200 or more will provide a case of 10 books that will be used to help change lives for eternity. Again, that number is 877-458-5508.

Or go online to crossthebridge.com. Now let's return to Pastor David's teaching. Luke chapter six, verse 45, the Bible tells us, a good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart. And an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart. So what's in your heart comes out your mouth.

So when you say something ugly about somebody else, you're revealing you've got heart issues. We talked before that when you talk about another person that's a brother or sister in the Lord, God looks at them and sees them as righteous. When you talk about their sins, you're actually bearing false witness against them.

And let me ask you a question. If God looks at a person and sees them as righteous, who are we to look at them and condemn them? I mean, are we as righteous as God? Are we holier than God?

That's a no. They asked Jesus, said, what's the most important commandment in Matthew chapter 22, verse 36? They said, teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?

This is another one of those moments where they thought, ah, we got him. We're going to ask him, what's the greatest commandment? He's going to have to name one of the 10, and then we can say, well, the other nine are more important.

We can shoot him down and argue about this. Jesus obviously is pretty quick on his feet. And Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment.

And the second is like, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Now you need to understand when he says all the law and the prophets, the Hebrew scriptures, now do you understand that when Jesus was here, he didn't have the New Testament.

It wasn't written yet. So what he had was the Hebrew scriptures, the Old Testament. That Old Testament was made up of two basic sections.

What are they? The law and the prophets. So what Jesus was saying here is the whole Bible is wrapped up in this. All of theology is wrapped up in this. The whole plan of salvation is wrapped up in this.

Love God and love people. Matthew chapter seven verse 12 says, therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets. There's only two places where Jesus says the whole thing's wrapped up in this. Those two places are when he says, love God, love people, and treat other people the way you wanna be treated. It's all wrapped up in that. Now, of course, we sit there and I love the Bible, I'm a student of the Bible, and my mind goes, well, it's a little more complicated than that. But it's really not. Think about how many problems in your life and relationships you have that would be solved by those three things. You know what?

Almost all of them. By loving God more, loving people more, treating other people the way you wanna be treated. That would solve almost all your problems, all your issues.

It would solve the issues in the church. The life lesson here. If I do not love people, it doesn't matter what I know or what I do, I am just religious noise. If I do not love people, it doesn't matter what I know or what I do, I am just religious noise.

I'm so glad. You know, all of us can mess up, and I have realized that there's a temptation as you get to know more about the Bible, to look at everything in a black and white way. I also recognize that I have, in the past, I've fallen into that to a certain degree.

Now, before you go, hey, I knew it. We've all fallen into that. But I don't wanna sit there and go, look at everything like that.

There's a time for that. No doubt to say, well, I'm not sure that's theologically sound. But you need to understand something else. You need to understand something else.

But you need to understand something. In this verse, the pagan worship of the day, they used the symbol and the gong and the pagan worship. So what Paul is saying is if you don't have love, you're like a pagan.

You're like a pagan. And somebody that does not believe and does not follow God. You know, I talked about reading 1 John. 1 John says some strong things about love. In 1 John 4, verse 20, it says, if someone says, I love God, but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person's a liar. For we don't love people we can see. How can we love God whom we cannot see?

And he has given us this command. Those who love God must also love their Christians, brothers and sisters. So if you love somebody, what are some of the things you're gonna do? Pray for them? Probably talk to them?

Reach out to them when things go back? What are some of the things you're not gonna do? You're not gonna slam them. You're not gonna gossip about them.

You're not gonna talk about them on websites and Facebook and stuff. When somebody does those things they are self-condemning. The Bible says if you don't love a brother or sister, you don't love God. That's strong, isn't it? As a matter of fact, the New Testament, the New Living Translation of the New Testament, talks about love 646 times. That's a lot.

It's important. Actually in 1 John it talks about love 36 times. Just in 1 John it's just a short little bump. I encourage you again, read this chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, a lot over the next few weeks or however long we camp out here.

Read 1 John a lot. And one of the frustrations you and I share in life is that we want to be loved by people more. All of us.

Every one of us. That's not unique to you. You want more love.

That's a good thing. Here's the frustration. You can't make somebody love you more. So there's this antagonism, this conflict, this dichotomy that theologians would say of you want to be loved by people more, but you can't make people love you more. People love you more. And some of us fall in the trap of trying to get people to love us more.

You can't. It doesn't work. What does work is for us to become more loving. Because friend, when you become more loving, guess what's going to happen?

People will love you more. Amen. I mean, it's not. And that is, I mean, that's serious revelation. That is, you know, yeah, it's simple.

It's not complicated. But some of you are in extreme conflict and this is the answer. Our homes, our families, our friendships, our relationships, this church can all bear the fruit of loving people more, being more lovable. And to remove the things that keep you from loving people more. All of us have a problem with our mouth, about being unloving with our mouth. Every one of us, every person watching, listening, begin to correct that, begin to change that.

Why? Because you become more loving then. And when you become more loving, you become more lovable. You become more lovable. And people will love you more.

Now let's understand. We talk about love. We've got basically one word in English, love.

We use it for everything. I love this. I love you. I love pizza. I love TV. I love this.

I love cable. I love that. You know, we just use one word for all of it. I love God. Well, do I love God more than I love pizza? Well, certainly hope so. But I use the same word.

So how do you know? It's unlike other languages. Spanish has a lot of words for love. The Greek, the Old Testament was written in Hebrew and then translated into English. It was translated into other things, but Latin. And then the New Testament was written in Greek, with the possible exception of the book of Revelation that I think perhaps was written in Hebrew, but that's a whole nother subject for a whole nother time.

And I do have very strong reasons why that. I believe that. But it was written in Greek. So Greek has four main words that are used for love. And we need to understand those four words.

One is storge. And that is, it's fondness. It's affection. It's like a friendship.

It can be sort of a friendship thing. Often when we talk about friendship love, that word is phileo. Phileo means friendship, committed. Phileo is where we get our Philadelphia, city of brotherly love.

Phila, phileo. That's where we get that word. Then we have the word eros, where we, a lot of us identify with love, but that's erotic, sensual, sexual love. Some of us might define that not as love, but as lust. And then you have agape. Agape is unconditional love. This is a love that does not exist in normal Greek language of the time. It was introduced through the Bible.

Why? Because you can't experience it outside of God. It's unconditional love. It's not, I will love you until we disagree. Unconditional love is there. I put it out there. It doesn't matter what you do, what you say, how you act, whether you return it or not, I'm putting it out there.

Now that's a little scary. Why? Because you can get hurt. You will get hurt, but I tell you what, the blessing of putting out agape love far exceeds any pain that you will feel. And let's understand, love in the truest sense doesn't originate with us. It originates with him.

So you don't have to drum up love. You simply have to, as a vessel, be more open to God, more open to his Holy Spirit. We've been talking chapter 12, God, fill us with your Holy Spirit. And then we read in the Bible that the fruit of the Spirit is love. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking him to help you to live for him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me, that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead, that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned and I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name.

Amen. And friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. Jesus said he would not turn anybody away who comes to him. And he came for those people who knew they needed forgiveness.

Those who were sick, not the righteous. So congratulations, friend. You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we would love to hear from you. You can call us toll free at 877-458-5508 to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ. God is using Cross the Bridge to impact lives across our country, including the lives of those currently serving time in our nation's prisons. While materials provided by Muslim organizations continue to increase within our prisons, our distribution of Pastor David's book, Cross the Bridge Every Day, has been making a significant impact for Jesus with prisoners. And you can help continue that outreach by calling today. When you call today with a gift of $25 or more, we will send you David McGee's devotional book and then match your gift by sending a copy to a prisoner in need. And if you're able to give a gift of $200 or more, we will send a case of 10 books to inmates who are without hope. Help us reach those in prison. Call today at 877-458-5508. That's 877-458-5508. Or go online to crossthebridge.com. Your gift is changing lives. Thanks again for listening. We hope you'll join us next time as we continue to cross the bridge.