Love M.O.T
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If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
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21 [Jesus] began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.
23 Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”
24 “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25 I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 And there were many in Israel with leprosy[g] in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”
28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.
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Series
Context
Paul did not sit down one evening and decide to write a definition of love so that he could become a best seller! Weddings and funerals have made 1 Corinthians 13 a stand-alone chapter, but it is not meant to be taken in isolation.
1 Corinthians Chapter 13 was part of a letter to the church at Corinth. A young church (just six years since formation) and a specially gifted church in preaching, teaching, healings and prophecy but it was a church with issues. Some things have crept into the church fellowship that was tarnishing their witness as a loving church and a charitable people.
Paul has already mentioned some of the issues in the Corinth church earlier in the letter. In Chapter 7 - He deals with them being rude, Chapter 8 is about them being puffed up (proud) Chapter 9 deals with self-discipline (physical and spiritual exercise), Chapter 10 is about sinful living. Chapter 11 mentions not being in right relationships while taking Holy Communion. Chapter 12 deals with many gifts of the spirit, (some of the church had come to think of tongues as speaking ‘angel’ language, hence verse one ‘Though I speak with the tongues of humans and angels…’
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
We arrive at Chapter 13 which deals with issues in this young gifted church to ensure they keep on in their Christian discipleship and in their witness in the town of Corinth. Notice how it is quite possible to be gifted and busy in the church and not be loving, be a noisy gong or dead spiritually.
M.O.T. (Ministry of Trinity)
So what does 1 Corinthians 13 love look like?
In our fellowship, friendships, families?
‘By this shall all know that you are my disciple, if you have love one for another.’ John 13v35
Dare we take the test? A 1 Corinthians 13 Love MOT, here goes……
Patient. Sometimes you will be stressed out or frustrated. Sometimes you might want to give harsh criticism when someone does something wrong - “Love is patient.” Try this little test, put your name in there instead of love and how does it look – [Your name] is patient
Kind… when is the last time you did something kind for another person (a friend a relative or a neighbour) without anyone asking you or without anyone knowing you would do it? How can we as a church fellowship bless our community here or further afield? Acts of kindness is a special way of valuing others. It shows that you were thinking of them and sent a text or a card or a food parcel. It may be the icing on the cake at the end of a hard day. love is KIND
Not envious …envy and jealousy does damage to you. 1 Corinthians 13 love appreciates the other and is glad for the blessings that comes to others.
Not proud or arrogant: Sometimes it’s hard to love when you have been successful especially if you are more successful than the others. Say in music, in finance, in family. Let me suggest an alternative - Be proud of the other person, build the other person up, learn to praise their gifts.
Love is not rude. Today, in society I see an abruptness and a bare faced rudeness a ‘I couldn’t care less what the other person thinks’ - it’s rude… Love doesn’t cut people off, carve people up – that’s rude. Love is not rude.
Love is not Selfish: Quite often our love says ‘I love you because of what you do or can do or will do for me,’ that is selfish love (how I benefit from the relationship). 1 Corinthians 13 love is Agape love and it is based on what we can give to the other person not what we can get from the other person. Agape Love says I am going to love even if you won’t love me back.
Love is not easily angered, Is not irritable or resentful.
Oh dear, I am an Irish hot head, when it comes to anger (I’m gifted! (ask my family). Love has a long fuse and a short memory. 1 Corinthians 13 love is quick to forgive [family values on our fridge door, say sorry quickly and always forgive.]
Love keeps no record of wrongs. I am an accountant. The Greek word for ‘record’ is the same word for an account’s ledger.
1 Corinthians 13 love keeps no ‘ledger’ of the other person’s mistakes.
Does not rejoice in wrongdoing but Rejoices in the truth. This is VIP, a loving fellowship, with 1 Cor 13 love, can tell a home truth, something that needs to be said to take corrective action even if is painful to hear it (prophetic). 1 Cor 13 love says it and receives it in the right way (if they take the hump or if you speak to wound it isn’t 1 Cor 13 love). A true loving fellowship can speak the truth in love
Bears all things believes all things hopes all things endures all things.
There’s a word that appears 4 times in this verse… ALL. In other words – in all things: Love hangs in there. Love holds on.
v8 Love never fails Many things will let you down people, cars, business, even health but love never fails just like Jesus’ love for you never fails. If you practice this 1 Corinthians 13 love and if you do what you ought to do and stop what you ought to stop it will never fail you - not in your family, not in our fellowship – this 1 Corinthians 13 love will never fail.
How was the M.O.T?
Do you feel like you failed the MoT (Ministry of Trinity Test) with X’s instead of ticks for your 1Corintrhians 13 Love MOT?
Take heart, Paul was actually pointing us to one whose love never fails, who endured all for us, one whose name can be put before each of these sections in the M.O.T. and in Christ we can be forgiven and press restart as many times as you need, that’s how gracious our Lord Jesus is.
Yes it was a warning to the church in Corinth and it is a warning to us today. You can do gifted in many ways and even doing good, and those doings can make you special to others but it still may not be Agape love and therefore it is hypocritical. But you may say ‘Lord I am giving my body to be burnt-out’ (v3), surely that must worth be something? The answer that comes back is it is worth nothing. 1 Corinthians 13 is not about something it’s all about someone.
The Pharisees in Luke 4, so good at religious somethings but would not receive the someone, son of God in their midst Luke 4:29 They got up, drove him out of town and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way. How sad is that, they missed it!
Paul is saying to this church (& us), you don’t get your salvation from your doings. It’s all about what Jesus is doing – paying -forgiving, freeing, undeserved favour grace.
I will conclude with a story about Scotland's Tom Stoltman who won the 2021 World's Strongest Man in California. He was the first Scot ever to win it. Think of the endurance. The Giant's Medley. Titan's Turntable. Keg Toss. Max Log Lift. The Deadlift. Atlas Stones. His arms and legs shake under the stress and strain yet he endures, bears it all, he raises his arms. he did it, he endured under tremendous pressure. Paul says 1 Corinthians 13 love endures.
I wonder what weights and burdens are pressing down on you today? Did you fai the Love MOT? Take heart Jesus endured all things for you. He felt the full crushing weight of sin, yours and mine and cried out
‘why have you forsaken me?’ Psalm 22
His arms remained outstretched enduring like the world’s strongest man, but Jesus was the strongest in the cosmos, bearing the sins of the world, yours and mine.
The Lord says to you I don’t love you because you are gifted, I love you because I do!
In Matthew 28:20 he says: ‘I am with you always’
