Lesson 28 – 1 Corinthians Chapter 13:6-13
Paul opened his chapter on love showing us some important things that we need to think about when it comes to serving God. When we exercise the gifts which God has blessed us with and start serving Him, we can get absorbed in the mechanics of ministry, and the basics of just the “doing” of ministry.
Paul has reminded us that we can do all these grandiose things for God, but if love is missing, we’re really just spinning our wheels.
I was involved in homeless ministries for some 24 years, and after all that experience I can say with certainty for the ministry to be effective, the people you serve have to know that you really care. If there was no caring or love involved, all you were doing was just being a nice person feeding hungry people. On the other hand, if you showed them that you cared, that would sometimes give you an open door to tell them about Jesus.
So, Paul is saying you can have the most wonderful gift that God has to give you, but for it to have any eternal value whatsoever, love must be a part of it. To understand this, all we have to do is look at Jesus and see how He did things.
In verses 4 and 5 Paul describes for us what love is and what it is not. Remember, the love we’re dealing with is agape love… we continue with verse 6.
1 Cor. 13:6:
“Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth…”
The (NIV) says, “Love does not delight in evil” which I think gets right to the point. Love can never take satisfaction from sin. For us to rejoice in unrighteousness is to approve of wrong doing.
As an example, I’ve had many conversations with people who have been placed in the awkward position of being invited to a same-sex wedding. The problem is, they might care deeply about the people involved, but they feel morally bound about the actions these people are taking.
When Paul says, love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, to me, it makes the decision pretty clear. Doing wrong things is bad enough in itself, but to celebrate it makes the sin even worse.
Isaiah 5:20:
‘Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”
One commentary writes; “Among the most popular books and TV programs are those that glorify sin, that literally rejoice in unrighteousness. More and more explicitly they declare
that anything goes and that every person sets his own standards of wright and wrong. What is right is doing what you want. Even much of the news amounts to rejoicing in unrighteousness because violence, crime, immorality, slander, and the like are attractive to the natural mind and heart. Christians are not immune from enjoying such things, either because we find them entertaining or because we feel self-righteous about not doing them ourselves.”
Most certainly God does not rejoice in unrighteousness. Then it makes sense, that whatever offends God, it should also offend us.
Back in chapter 5, Paul showed us that we shouldn’t associate with the unrighteous.
1 Cor. 5:11 (NIV):
“But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.”
Do we care about such people? Do we pray for them? Definitely! But do we hang out with them? No. Back to the wedding scenario, by just attending this unrighteous wedding, we are signaling our acceptance of the unrighteous act whether we realize it or not.
Matthew 5:14-16:
“You are the light of the world… like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.”
Love cannot rejoice in unrighteousness, evil, or sin in any way.
2 Thess. 3:6 (NLT):
“And now, dear brothers and sisters, we give you this command in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: Stay away from all believers who live idle lives and don’t follow the tradition they received from us.”
Paul is giving a command not to associate with believers who do not abide in Christ, and this would apply to worldly people as well. The only time we do is when we’re trying to present God’s truth to them.
But love rejoices with the truth…
Here we have a clear contrast to unrighteousness, and that is God’s truth. Righteousness is grounded in God’s truth and cannot exist apart from it. Love cares about truth, it cannot tolerate any false doctrines. Love is on the alert as to whether or not the people we care about know the truth of God’s Word, or are they being deceived by some falsehood.
It’s so hard for us when we know a family member doesn’t rely on God’s truth, or they are locked into their own self-sufficiency where they don’t think about God at all.
2 John 1:6:
“And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.”
What John is talking about here is when it comes to God’s truth, there is no compromising, plain and simple. We are to stand up for the truth regardless of any consequences. When it comes to family, we handle them with gentleness and kindness, but never compromise.
Love rejoices in the truth and never in deception or unrighteousness. We can also say that love celebrates in truth, but does not celebrate when it sees the wrongs of others. In this context, love looks for the good, hopes for the good, and calls attention to the good.
Love bears all things…
To bear: (steg’-o) it means to cover, by covering to keep off something which threatens, to bear up against, hold out against, and endure. It also means to support and therefore it protects. The (NIV) says, love always protects…
Love never protects sin, but is willing to protect the sinner. It’s like when a teenage boy gets arrested, and his mother says to the police, “He didn’t understand what he was doing, he’s a good boy.” The mother is acting as her son’s cover.
True love is protective and enduring, able to withstand difficulties and challenges without giving up. It emphasizes the idea of covering and thus safeguarding others from harm or negativity.
When Joseph learned of Mary’s pregnancy, he was faced with a choice: “expose her to public disgrace” or “divorce her quietly” (Matthew 1:19). Joseph, being a righteous man, was planning to keep the matter quiet. In other words, he was covering over what he saw as a fault in Mary, and he protected her from public shame. This is love.
We see “a covering” with the mercy seat; the high priest would sprinkle the sacrificial blood on top, it served as a covering of sins.
Romans 4:7:
“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered.”
John MacArthur says, “In the cross God threw the great mantle of His love over sin, forever covering it for those who trust in His Son.”
Love bears the pain of those it loves, and helps carry the yoke of those who are hurting.
Love believes all things… off the heels of love bears all things, love isn’t suspicious or skeptical.
When it comes to guilt or motivation, love will side on the best possible outcome.
Take for instance, a husband and wife have been married for many years, they love each other, they trust each other. Something happens, the husband is arrested, and a young woman has accused him of rape. The wife goes to her husband in jail, and he looks her in the eye and says to her, he didn’t do it… the wife believes her husband. Love believes all things.
When love believes all things, it’s not inferring that love is naïve, but that it is ready to trust.
Love hopes all things…
The path of love’s hope never comes to a dead end. When all seems to be lost, when a loved one’s goodness has evaporated, love will still hope.
Hebrews 10:23 (NLT):
“Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.”
Romans 5:5:
“And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
When the world around us says all is lost, that we should just give up, hope whispers to our heart, give it another chance.
Charles Dickens, “I hope that real truth and love are stronger in the end than any evil or misfortune in the world.”
James 1:12:
“Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.”
There’s hope in those who persevere.
I heard about the story of a dog who stayed at the airport of a large city for over five years waiting for his master to return. Employees and others fed the dog and took care of him, but he would not leave the spot where he last saw his master. He would not give up hope that someday they would be reunited. If a dog’s love for his master can produce that kind of hope, how much longer should our love make hope last?
Love endures all things…
Endures: (hoo-po-menō) this was a military term, which meant to hold on to their position at all cost. Enduring the onslaught of the enemy attack.
By enduring, love perseveres.
In the wedding vows, a husband and wife take each other “for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, from this day forward until death do us part.” Love doesn’t quit or give up. Love lasts.
During good times and bad, the love of God’s people endures the challenges of life and remains steadfast.
Hebrews 12:2:
“Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Jesus endured the cross, He stood firm as it were… His perseverance was the result of His love for us.
John 13:1:
“Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.”
Jesus bore the cross for us, when for anyone else it would’ve been unbearable. Jesus believed in the power of His Father. Jesus’ hope was in the resurrection, and the glorification of Him and His Father. Jesus endured the mocking and the torturous pain of the cross. Through it all, Jesus’ love for us never ends.
1 Cor. 13:8:
“Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.”
Love never fails… more importantly in this context, God’s love never fails.
We’ve gone through the descriptions of what love is and what love is not.
As I was lying in bed last week trying to go to sleep, the Lord reminded me that every portrayal of love was a description of His love for us… that Paul was truly painting a portrait of Jesus.
The first two characteristics of love show that God’s love for us is patient and kind. It’s important for us to remember this, especially when it comes to some besetting sin that we’re dealing with. Satan would have you believe that you’ve exhausted God’s patience, and that you might as well just give up.
God’s love never fails, therefore His patience with you never fails. Don’t ever let satan keep you from your fellowship with God.
1 John 4:7-8:
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
Because God is eternal, love will also be eternal. Love will never fail.
Romans 8:38-39:
“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Just as when we gave our life to Christ, He gave us His Spirit, all of His Spirit… and with this, He gives us all of His love, and nothing can diminish His love for us.
Jeremiah 31:3 (NLT):
“Long ago the Lord said to Israel: “I have loved you, My people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to Myself.”
Love cannot fail because it shares God’s nature and God’s eternity.
But if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away…
These things will fail.
The word fail or fails is (piptō) and it carries the meaning of “falling.” It refers to a “final falling.” In nature we see it with a flower or a leaf, it falls to the ground, dries up and decays.
So when we say love never fails, its not talking about successes or triumphs, but of long lasting, having a permanence.
Prophecy, tongues, and knowledge were never meant to be permanent. Paul says, they will cease, they will be done away with. Why? Because in heaven there will be no need for prophecy, tongues, and knowledge.
Each of these gifts will eventually fall and drift away, but we need to dig a little deeper here.
The term done away (katargeō) means, “to reduce to inactivity.” As it applies here, prophecy and knowledge will be made inoperative, out of action. Not to go too deep into the weeds, the way this verb is being used puts it in the “passive” form, which just means something or someone will cause them to stop!
The word cease (pow’-o) is a little different, it means “to stop, to come to an end.” When God gave the gift of tongues, He built into it an automatic-stop. It’s just like when you get in to your car or truck and try to start it… nothing happens, the battery is dead… it has come to its end.
Paul is telling us this gift of tongues will stop by itself. Some believe this ended at the end of the apostolic age.
1 Cor. 13:9-10:
“For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.”
(NLT) “Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.”
God’s gifts are complete, but those to whom He gives them are limited… because we have a fallen nature. Even the apostles knew in part and prophesied in part.
But when the perfect comes…
Perfect… (teleios) it means, brought to its end, finished. Jesus’ finished work on the cross was perfect.
This verse has been debated over the centuries… when the perfect comes.
• One suggestion is that perfection described the completion of the New Testament.
• A few have suggested that this state of perfection will not be reached until the new heavens and new earth have been established.
• Another point of view understands perfection to describe the state of the church when God’s program for it is consummated at the coming of Christ.
• Many interpreters hold the coming of the perfect to be the rapture of the church.
• A relatively new interpretation is that the perfect refers to the maturing of the church, or completion of the church.
• Many believe that the perfect means the Second Coming of Christ.
• The last thought is that the perfect is the eternal state, the heavenly state of all believers.
Whatever it is, you get to choose for yourself. Personally, I’m leaning toward Jesus’ return and the eternal state.
1 Cor. 13:11:
“When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.”
For a Jewish boy there is a day of transitioning that takes place, it’s referred to as his “bar mitzvah.” When he goes through this ceremony, he is then considered a man. One moment he was a boy, the next moment he is a man.
When we come to our perfection in Christ, it will be like our “spiritual bar mitzvah.” As we look at our earthly lives as Christians, we realize that we are mere children when compared to what we will be like in our glorified bodies.
There will be no immaturity, along with no imperfections whatsoever. Any kind of mortal frailties will be gone, with no limitations to our knowledge and understanding… except one thing, I don’t think we will ever know God completely.
Romans 11:33:
“Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!”
1 Cor. 13:12:
“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.”
Wait a minute, where did Paul get his hands on a mirror? Mirrors didn’t even exist until the mid-1200’s. A mirror back in Paul’s day was made of polished steel or bronze, which was good in a way, because you couldn’t really see your wrinkles. 😊
A little side note; Corinth was known for its bronze mirrors.
What Paul is saying, although we do indeed see things spiritually, we just can’t quite see things clearly. In other words, we still have questions, and we will wait until the perfect comes. Everything will change for us when we see the Lord “face to face.”
1 John 3:2:
“Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.”
In our present state, we only have an indirect and imperfect knowledge of God’s infinite wisdom, glory, and love, thus now, we cannot see God as He is. Be patient, the day is coming.
I will know fully just as I also have been fully known…
Paul’s talking about the contrasts in which we live. Today we live with imperfections; it’s like looking at yourself using a bronze mirror, it’s just not as clear as you would like it to be. The day is coming (the perfect) when we will see Jesus face to face… our future is very bright, and it will be the clearest you’ve ever seen.
On that glorious day, the light of God will shine upon us, and we will be free from all darkness, imperfection, and error. We will know Him fully, even as we are fully known by Him.
Matthew 5:8:
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
This hope for a face to face encounter with God gives believers peace and comfort, even during the most difficult of circumstances.
So, what do we do in the meantime?
1 Cor. 13:13:
“But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
Faith…
Hebrews 11:1:
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
Genuine faith involves leaving all our dependency on self-efforts behind, then placing our total dependence upon God’s character, His actions, and His promises. Rather than looking at life with our earthly eyes, faith sees it through the lens of God’s promises.
Faith allows us to embrace all of what Jesus did for us at Calvary. Faith reminds us that all our sins have been forgiven. Faith tells us that we are a new creation in Christ. As believers, our complete trust and confidence has been placed in the finished work of Jesus.
Our faith is the seed that grows into a tree of hope. It is the Holy Spirit who waters that seed. Faith has the power from the Spirit to nurture and sustain us, like a seed transforming into a tree. With faith as the foundation, our hope grows steadily, providing shelter, strength of mind, and resilience as we finish the race set before us.
Hope…
Faith and hope are different yet they are related. Our hope is built on faith.
Romans 8:23-24 (NLT):
“And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. We were given this hope when we were saved. If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it.”
Contrary to the world, the hope that we have is not a case of “wishful thinking.” Like we saw in Romans 8 it is a “confident expectation” that comes from the Holy Spirit. Hope is woven into the life of the righteous, giving us the sustainable endurance to keep going.
Without hope, the Christian life loses its meaning.
Psalm 71:5:
“For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth.”
Hope has a confidence in God, that God is on our side.
Jeremiah 29:11:
“For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”
Hope is the sum and substance of all that Jesus Christ has done for us. Our hope is rooted in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This hope offers comfort, purpose, and strength, serving as a reminder of grace, redemption, and promise of eternal life.
Gal. 5:5:
“For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness.”
Hope is the richness of God’s promise of eternal life spent with Him, that He will do that which He has promised to us.
Hebrews 6:18-19 (NLT):
“So God has given both His promise and His oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to Him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary.”
It is good to meditate on hope, because as we do, it reminds us of our future… thinking of all the glorious promises yet to come. Hope can make our hearts soar like eagles.
Romans 15:13:
“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Love…
Paul begins this chapter with love, and ends with love. Love surrounds faith and hope. Remember love “believes all things” and love “hopes all things.”
faith, hope, love, abide these three…
To abide is to remain, to continue to be present in one’s life, to be held, and kept continually.
In other words, don’t let go. Hold on to faith, hope, and love with the time you have left. These are to be a constant in the believer’s life. The time is coming when faith and hope will cease to be.
But the greatest of these is love… this is another “big but” in the Bible. But love is the greatest. Love will outlast everything, love is eternal… it is only through love that we can respond to God.
1 John 4:16:
“We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”
To say that God is love does not just mean God loves. It means that His loving actions are the same as His very essence and nature. God doesn’t have to decide to love… He is love.
His love for us is the cement that bonds us together for all eternity, making us “one” with Him.
John 17:20:
“I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.”
We’ll close with a word from John MacArthur,
“Gifts, ministries, faith, hope, patience, all one day will cease to exist because they will cease to have purpose or meaning. But in that perfect day, when we see our Lord “face to face,” love will for us be just beginning. But our showing love, practicing love, living love now are of utmost importance, more important than having any of the other virtues or gifts, because love is the link God gives us with His eternal Self.”