Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Love is the glue that binds the body of Christ together and makes it a place of mutual service. Without love, our best efforts are without true purpose. Today, turn with us to 1 Corinthians chapter 13 as we learn why love is the highest motivator of all. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, give us a preview of one of the best-loved passages in the Bible. Well, you know, Dave, the best way to do that preview is to simply open the Bible and read it. 1 Corinthians chapter 13 is such an incredible chapter about love that I insisted that our grandchildren memorize it, and I hope that they remember it for the rest of their lives. In a moment, I'm going to be expounding on this passage of scripture that has gripped my heart many times.
Let me ask you a different question. Have you ever wondered about the silence of God in the midst of disaster? Are we able to continue to trust his love when we see pandemics, plagues, natural disasters, when we see earthquakes take place throughout the world and people suffering? What is God's relationship to these kinds of events that have been so destructive?
Those are the kinds of questions I answer in the book, Pandemics, Plagues, and Natural Disasters. What is God saying to us? It's a new book, and we are offering it to anyone today for a gift of any amount. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com.
That's rtwoffer.com, or call us at 1-888-218-9337. And now let's go to the pulpit of Moody Church. Let's open those Bibles as we expound this beautiful passage of God's holy word. What is it that should distinguish us from the world?
Good question. Is it that we should have more money than the world? No, we don't, and we shouldn't. Is it that we are more content than the world?
Well, we should be, but that's not the distinguishing characteristic. Jesus made an amazing statement when he said, by this shall all men know that you are my disciples by the love that you have for one another. It's the kind of love that is visible enough for the people of the world to see.
It is so countercultural that people pick up on it. Now, the minute we begin to speak about love, many of us become a little bit nervous. We're nervous because we know that in church history, oftentimes love has become everything and therefore truth has been swallowed up in the presence of love. So we have all these people who say, well, it doesn't matter what you believe, doesn't matter how you live, because after all, God says just to love one another and love covers all kinds of things, including truth. For example, in the early centuries, there was a big debate on what to do with people who during persecution lapsed and denied the faith. When the persecution was over, they wanted to be welcomed back into the church and people wondered whether they should be. On the one hand, you had those who said, of course we should welcome them back as long as they confess and repent. After all, the man upon whom supposedly the church was built, Peter, whom some believe to be the first pope, he denied Christ under pressure. So who are we to deny forgiveness and restoration to those who do?
Others said, wait a moment. If we allow these people back into the church, we will be dishonoring martyrdom. And furthermore, what a what a witness, what a testimony to young people who say, well, when persecution breaks out, I can deny the faith and they'll have me back.
No big deal. So you had the truth people and you had the love people. And it basically put tension in the churches and almost split the churches. Truth versus love. The Bible says that there must be both. The truth must be spoken in love.
But the balance is difficult. Well, today the pendulum is going to swing in the direction of love. Love. 1 Corinthians chapter 13 is the chapter and with your Bibles open, as I know all of yours will be, we want to begin the chapter by looking at the last part of chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians. The Apostle Paul at the end of the chapter lists the various gifts in order of importance and he puts tongues last. By the way, next message in the series is 1 Corinthians 14. It's on the doctrine of tongue.
So if you wonder what all that is about, show up next time. So the Apostle Paul says that and he asks in verse 30 of chapter 12, do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? The obvious answer is no. Do all interpret?
No. But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you still a more excellent way. Paul says that what he's going to write now in 1 Corinthians 13 is greater really than all the gifts.
It's more excellent than being a good prophet or being a good teacher or even the supernatural gift of tongues that we shall talk about. It is more wonderful than that. It is the way of love. So because this is a chapter on love, would you let me take your hand today and let us lovingly take a tour through this very famous and wonderful chapter. In verses 1 to 3, the Apostle Paul says that love is necessary.
Love is necessary. He says if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, I don't think anybody's ever spoken with the tongues of angels. Paul is just speaking hypothetically. He says even if you could speak with the tongues of angels and you have not love, he doesn't say I sound like a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. He says I am a noisy gong and a clanging symbol.
That's what I am. If I exercise a supernatural gift without love. And then he continues and if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge. I want to stop there for a moment because as I was looking at this, I thought what if we here at the Moody Church were able to hire someone on the staff who had prophetic powers and understood all mysteries and had all knowledge. Could you imagine how busy his counseling sessions would be?
People would sign up from all over the country. At last somebody who understands all mysteries. Somebody who has all knowledge, he has the gift of knowledge. He would know exactly what to say in this situation. Wouldn't he be wonderful?
Awesome. And then if he came also with a gift of faith so as to remove mountains. Wow, we'd say that is really, really an important staff member and shouldn't he be honored. Paul says if he can do all that and has not love, he is nothing.
He is a zero. Ouch. And then Paul continues on something that really almost confuses me. I mean this is difficult to get your mind around.
He says now, he says something else. Verse 3. If I give away all that I have and if I deliver my body to be burned but have not love, I gain nothing. If I give away everything I have and if I'm willing to be a martyr, I thought that that was the quintessential example of what love is. Love does. Love gives.
And love sacrifices. During the days in France during persecution, whenever I travel to Europe I always like to go to the places where the persecutions took place. In England this past summer I wanted to go to Smithfield. I wanted to go to the prisons where the Christians were kept.
There's something about that that fascinates me. The fact that there were so many hundreds and hundreds and hundreds in England, not to mention other countries that were willing to give their lives for the gospel and the Bible. In France during times of persecution when Christians were being martyred, sometimes they sang choruses so loudly that the authorities hired a band to drown out the singing of the martyrs on their way to the stake. Paul says, you know, even if you did that and had no motive of love, you would be a nothing. And I want to say, Paul, this is tough to take, but it's God's word. You and I might be able to say this, though I sing in the choir, though I volunteer for Sunday school, though I am willing to be on the parking committee and miss some Sunday services, though I am a greeter, though I am an usher, though I am involved, though I am generous, Paul says if you do it all and the motivation isn't love and you don't know anything about the love of God shed abroad in our hearts, it amounts to zero. Love, Paul says, is necessary. Could that be any clearer? Second, the Apostle Paul says love is special.
It really is very special. Talk about contrary to human nature. Now, Paul doesn't define it. I want to say, Paul, give us a definition of love. And Paul is saying, no, I'm not going to give you a definition of love. I'm going to describe it to you. And maybe that's the only way that love can really be defined is through a description. And so he gives us two positives, eight negatives, and then he picks up some positives again.
Look at what he says. He says, love is patient. It is able to endure without retaliation.
It is patient. Love is kind. It pays back hurt with kindness.
It's not this kind of a response that says you do this to me and I'll show you a thing or two and I'll do that to you to get even. Love doesn't have to get even. It is irrational.
Then the negatives come. It is not envious. It delights in the success of others. Love is not jealous. Love doesn't say, you know, somebody else is more successful than I and you resent it or they have more money than you do or they have a better family than you do.
No, no, no. You rejoice when there are those who are above you and those blessed more than you do. That's what love does. And also it does not boast or brag. Have you ever met a braggart? Can't stop talking about themselves. Maybe you heard the story of a man who just spoke about himself, talked about himself all during the meal and it was almost to the end and he said to his friend, well, enough about me. Let's talk about you.
What do you think about me? You've met the kind, haven't you? Hope you didn't marry the kind, but they're out there. Love isn't like that. Love isn't a braggart. Love is not rude. It is not arrogant. It is not rude.
And that word rude is used elsewhere in 1 Corinthians to refer to someone who leads a woman along. He pretends that he loves her. He gives her ideas in terms of their future and then he just drops her.
He acts in an unbecoming way. Love isn't like that. Love doesn't do those sorts of things. Love does not insist on its own way. Love can enable a man to go along with his wife's idea.
Even if he believes deep in his heart, she may be wrong and like most men think, that they are right. Love says, I don't need my own way. Love is not irritable, doesn't lose its temper in heavy traffic. And by the way, don't you ever lose your temper in heavy traffic if you have a I love Jesus bumper sticker, all right? Don't do that. It's bad.
Better that nobody knows you know Jesus. Love is irritable. Love can let somebody in in your lane even though you have a right to continue going because you're not irritated. Love is not resentful. It doesn't keep a record of wrongs, no private file of personal grievances that is stacked up for years that can be accessed with a click of a mouse. It does not rejoice in wrongdoing. Doesn't get on the phone and say you won't believe what so and so did, but it's just like them, isn't it?
Did you hear about this? Love does not slander. Love does not does not spread stories even if they are true, if they are negative about people. Love prays. Love endures. Love protects. Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing.
Therefore it never spreads wrongdoing or talks about wrongdoing unless it's to people who are part of the problem. You'll notice now the positive qualities. Again, it bears all things. It believes all things, always giving people the benefit of the doubt. It hopes all things and hopes for the best. It endures all things. Let that sink into your soul. It endures all things.
Now, I do want to put a parenthesis there and say that if you are being abused, then go for help. But love has a way of enduring beyond natural, rational expectations. And then you know, of course, that as Paul ends this, it is very clear that this is not the kind of atmosphere that you have in the offices in the loop.
Have you ever noticed that? And this is not the kind of atmosphere that is in most homes, though it should be a part of Christian homes. This is a supernatural kind of love that runs counter to every fiber of our natural born nature. Supernatural love. Paul then says also that love is eternal. It's eternal.
You'll notice it says in verse 8 and following, love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away. All those wonderful sermons, all the cassette tapes, all the CDs, they'll be gone. Boom.
Thank you very much. As for tongues, they will cease the gift that everyone in Corinth wanted, the one that we will talk about next time. As for tongues, they will cease. As for knowledge, that is the gift of knowledge, it will pass away.
Why? Because we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when the perfect comes, when we're in the presence of Jesus, these things will not be necessary. They are only glimmers. We see through a mirror dimly, he says. When I was a child, I spoke like a child. I thought like a child. I reasoned like a child. But when I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
I began to understand the value of things and the things that I considered to be important as a child no longer are as important to me as an adult. And I now begin to see more clearly what reality is. And when the perfect is come, we will finally know even as we have been known. Verse 12, for now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face, now I know in part, but then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. This gives us hope that when we get to heaven, we are going to find an answer to many of our questions. And the knowledge that we have in our hearts, the desire, the desire that we have to be able to understand indeed, God may grant it to us. I also believe that when we get to heaven we won't have to wear name tags.
We'll know each other intuitively. Just like Peter, James, and John on the Mount of Transfiguration where they, I don't think they had to be formally introduced. Now this is Moses and this is Elijah and be sure to keep them straight.
I don't think so. Because at that time we're going to have knowledge that we do not have today and notice that the text says, I am in, verse 13, so now faith, hope, and love abide these three, but the greatest of these is love because the day is going to come when faith is going to be unnecessary. Faith is going to give way to sight.
Hope is going to be unnecessary because hope will be reality. But what's going to abide forever is love. That's what God says is the more excellent way. Love is at the heart of it all. Now as you look at this, you are aware of course that we're talking about a supernatural kind of love. That's why it is so important to realize that love is the distinguishing mark of the church because we don't have this kind of love naturally.
There's a big difference and you must contrast human love and divine love. Human love is dependent upon the one who is loved. I love you because you are lovable. I love you because of what you do for me. I love you because the way in which you make me feel. I love you because I think that you can help my career.
I love you because of what you do for me. That is human love. And there are two things that attract us to other people.
The first is appearance. If you were born beautiful, and I'm looking over the congregation right now to see that indeed there's some of you who fit into that category, you had all kinds of advantages. When you were a little child, your mother got stopped in the supermarket because people wanted to look at you and to see you smile.
Whereas the rest of us just had to keep on going in the shopping cart. Beauty is a tremendous advantage. It is also in our culture a tremendous curse, particularly young women who get lured into relationships because of their beauty. One time I was speaking at a college and I was explaining this in more detail and I said beauty is a curse.
And I explained what I meant. And I'm told that later one of the young women went into her room, looked into the mirror and said, Oh God, if beauty is a curse, would you smite me with it? And may I never recover. You know, it's so easy in this world for us to forget that there's more to love than simply attraction because of beauty. That's why first Corinthians chapter 13 is so significant because what God is saying there is, there is a kind of love that endures.
Even if you aren't pretty, even if you have changed, it is an unconditional kind of love. Let me ask you a question. Would you consider helping us with your prayers and with your gifts? Would you consider becoming an endurance partner? You know, running to win is heard in more than 20 different countries of the world.
In Arabic, it is heard throughout many Middle East countries. Thank you in advance for helping us. If you want to know how to become an endurance partner, here's what you do. Go to RTW offer.com. That's RTW offer.com.
Click on the endurance partner button, or if you prefer, call 1-888-218-9337. That's 1-888-218-9337. It's time now for another chance for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. The Bible warns us often about the perils of mixing light with darkness, and Steve in Pennsylvania is concerned about someone he thinks may be trying to do just that. He asks, I have a friend who claims to be a Christian, yet he takes spiritual advice from a fortune teller.
Is this occultism? What does the Bible say about this? Well, Steve, the Bible is very clear about this.
Let me give you Deuteronomy chapter 18. It lists there the kind of occult practices that we should avoid. To go to a fortune teller is wrong. Fortune tellers oftentimes are fakes. They have ways in which they pretend to predict the future, and they are incorrect. They're wrong, and sometimes you can see that what you need to do is to buy a magazine on January 1st with all of the predictions that will come to pass that coming year, and then pull it out a year or two later and see how many have come to pass. But also there are some fortune tellers who are plugged into the spirit world. They may be receiving information from occultic spirit powers, evil spirits, and even they cannot predict the future with absolute accuracy because the devil doesn't know the future the way in which God does. He has a good hunch. He knows more than we do, but the bottom line is this, that spiritism is wrong, and you need to encourage your friend to stay away and to trust God. God judges those who go to the occult for information.
Steve, thank you for your concern for your friend, and thank you, Dr. Lutzer, for your helpful answer. If you'd like to hear your question answered, you can. Just go to our website at rtwoffer.com and click on Ask Pastor Lutzer, or call us at 1-888-218-9337.
That's 1-888-218-9337. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life. Our motivation for service in the body of Christ and for serving our marriage partners must be found in what the Bible calls agape love, the love that comes from God. Only then can we endure life's tough times and remain faithful to our commitments. Next time, we learn more about being motivated by love and discern the difference between human and divine love. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-02-23 11:46:45 / 2024-02-23 11:55:24 / 9