Bible Question #38 - The Love Chapter

Good evening, brethren. Welcome to another Wednesday night Bible study. We are continuing with our Bible literacy test. We are on question number 38. Uh and if you're looking at the quiz, and I do provide a link to that if you look at the posts on the YouTube channel, you'll see a link to the quiz itself.

And I try to remember to put a link in the message itself. So when you're looking at the actual video, you can see it in the in the comments or above the comments in the description field. Uh I'll try to remember to do that. So if you look at that and you're looking at question 38, it simply says the love chapter. And you many people know it's very widely known.

It's 1 Corinthians chapter 13. To me, as I as I attempt through all of the quizzes or all the questions within the Bible study quiz series that I've been doing, I've been trying to answer the question why is this important to know? And one of the things that I've I've noted Look, you can go online and you can search You can search for pretty much anything on love, agape love. And someone's taking you here.

And then if you find if you find people are spending time in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, then you may also find there are some who do many series on this. You you'll find a number of messages within a single series that covers this. I Years ago, I did three sermons on on this in just just this chapter.

So there's a lot of depth here, a lot of material here, lot to understand. And I'm not going to try to cover, you know, that kind of depth in this message because it just would be impossible in one as I said you could do I know one minister gave gave like 10 or 11 in the in a series on on what is love and and didn't and no one I would think felt that it was a overdone.

So, there's a lot here but what I thought I'd like to do here in covering this is to present the context of it. It's not it's not a chapter that comes at us. Well, of course Paul didn't write it in chapters. So, the segment of his letter from his perspective it didn't just you know, it's it's not some let's say it's not some piece of poetry he thought just sounded really nice and let me just toss this in.

What's funny about it is he actually begins and gives the background to all of this in chapter 12. In other words, he's in chapter 12 our chapter 12 but this section of his letter and he's he's he's dealing with he's dealing with an issue that the church is struggling with the church at Corinth and so he he wants to deal with that issue specifically and he wants to help them to understand that love is the solution.

There's no there's no other solution. It's love and so he is going to he's going to then he's going to what I want to let's do it this way. I want to walk through what the issue was help us to have that framework and then when we get to 1 Corinthians 13 what he has to say begins to make sense. He actually makes a case and he gives a logical layout to the case that he makes.

And so I want to present that to you this evening. So, I want to begin over in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and I've already given you that it's the love chapter 1 Corinthians chapter 13 so but I want to begin in chapter 12. Because the what you're going to see is that that the brethren in Corinth had a wrong understanding of what gifts were.

So let's look here. Uh, I'm just going to begin at chapter 12 verse 1. It says, "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant." So immediately we know what he's going to be talking about next. He's not He's not He's not hiding the subject. He's not going to surprise us later. He tells us right away.

He says, "You know that you were Gentiles carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led." This is the background. This is what you've come out of. So he he wants to remind them of that. He says, "Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed.

And no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. You don't know and you don't understand who Jesus Christ is unless God has given you his spirit." That's Paul's argument. Okay? Now he makes a comment verse 4 where he begins to talk about what he wants to deal with. He says here, "There are diversities of gifts but it's the same spirit.

" Okay. So God gives his Holy Spirit to here Paul is saying, "You are Gentiles, but God has given you his spirit same as he has given it to the Jews. So you you have his spirit. With that spirit comes gifts." Now these gifts were given by God and they were given by God through that Holy Spirit.

Then he says that there are different gifts. Now he says, "There are differences of ministries, but it's the same Lord." So we have different men have various different talents within God's ministry, yet we all have the same boss if you will. We all answer to Jesus Christ. He says in verse 6, "And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works in them all.

" So even within a congregation, people fulfill many different roles within the congregation and that's that's what God intends. But it's the same God through the spirit that works in every single one of us. Now, he says here in verse 7, "But the manifestation of the spirit, how it manifests itself, is given to each one for the profit of all.

" That is a very important concept. It helps us to understand why God gave the gifts that he gave to the brethren in Corinth. It was not for themselves, it was for everyone. In other words, it was it was to give them the ability through that gift to serve their brothers and sisters in Christ. This is what Paul wanted us to know.

The gift wasn't given to make you great. It was given so that you could serve with the gift. Now, if we think about some of the gifts that that Paul reveals, and which course he does give and touch on a number of those gifts as you read through all of this. But a gift can teach. What what, you know, so if you ask yourself, "Well, what kind of gifts do we have in even in the church today?" Well, we have teachers, we have those who are particularly good at encouragement.

Uh we have those who are organizers, we have those who just really good at helping, they're assists. We have those who have the gift of healing. Those who can guide, those who do a great job of supporting. But all of that doesn't mean that if you if you have one of those, if you're gifted in some particular area, that this was given to you because God wanted to make you great.

Uh he wanted to make sure that each of us had the ability to serve one another, and that was the purpose of being given a gift. Verse Verse 12 says, "For as the body is one, so we are one collective body called the temple of God. So, as the body is one, but it has many members." Okay, we can see that. That's pretty clear. But all the members of that one body, while there are many, being many, it says, still are one body.

And so also is Christ. Okay, so verse 13 says, "For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and all have been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact, the body is not one member, but many." Now, he goes on here to to to make a really important point to say, "Look, you you all have these gifts.

They're different. They're supposed to be different gifts. A gift doesn't make one better than another. That's why he goes into this, and he says in verse 15, 'If the foot should say, because I am not a hand, I am not of the body, if somebody in the congregation, we're not talking about any modern congregation, we're talking here about Corinth, if somebody in the church at Corinth is literally treating other people as inferior before God, like literally believes that you are inferior because you don't have their gift,

whatever their gift may be. This is Paul's point. Oh, really? So, if they don't have your gift, they're not a part of the body? And of course, they are part of the body. That's what God's whole point is here. And he And he goes on here in verse 17 to make a good point. He says, "If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were the hearing, where would be the smelling? We we need each of the parts doing their own functions, which serves the whole church.

And so, we don't need everyone to be an eye. We don't need everybody to be the ears. We need people to be their own part within the congregation. And this, of course, is what Paul is trying to deal with. Now, we get to verse 18. He says, "But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body, just as he pleased.

" And that's the point. The gifts come from God. He places them within the people that he wants to to have that particular gift, and he places them because that's what pleases him to do. It is his It's how he makes us useful in his eyes. For his church. It is not our church. So now we get to verse 21. It says, "And the eye cannot say to the hand, so here's here's where he's getting to the point.

" So those of you who have, you know, a gift that you think is better than everybody else's gift. He goes on to say here in verse 21, "And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you." Nor again, the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." And if we picture a human body without a head or without the feet, we understand the the dysfunction all of a sudden that exists with the body.

In particular, if there's no head making a point there. But he says in verse 22, "No, much rather those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary." And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we we bestow greater honor, and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty.

But our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body having having given greater honor to that part which lacks it. That there should be no schism in the body. A schism is a is a fracture, a break, a you know, well, he explains it. He says, "But that the members should have the same care for one another.

" That's the point. No division within the church, especially over the subject of gifts. This is what Paul was correcting then. All of this is what gives us the foundation for 1 Corinthians chapter 13. So, Paul wanted the brethren to know that a wrong view of gifts could actually divide the congregation. That's and that's what was happening.

Division within the congregation because some people thought their gifts were better than others and Paul was having none of it. God did not give you a gift to make you great. He gave you a gift to serve the brethren. So, having gifts is not some sort of a a ladder climbing effort for congregations and the the members of the church within a congregation.

You know, I I need to I need to I fit here within the congregation and and somebody's better than me and somebody's worse than me and all of that sort of view Paul says is worthless. It's worthless. Now, what's interesting is as Paul goes through chapter 13. Now, you with that understanding and that background, that's what leads us to Let's Let's pick this up here in verse 27 of chapter 12.

Just so so that we really finish this this complete thought here. Now, he says, "Now, you are the body of Christ and members individually. Okay, so we've got eyes and ears and we've got feet and head and so forth. And verse 28 says, "And God has appointed these in the church." Now, he goes on to describe various roles within the church because men have different gifts.

He says, "First, apostles. Second, prophets. Third, teachers. After that, miracles. Then, gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues." "Are all apostles?" No. That is That is a fact. "Are all prophets?" No. "Are all teachers?" No. "Are all workers of miracles?" Uh no. "Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But here's the conclusion he's trying to get us to get to.

He says, "But earnestly desire the best gifts." It It isn't wrong to desire to be able to heal, to speak in foreign languages, for example, which is what speaking in tongues is all about. He says, "It isn't wrong to desire to be an apostle or a teacher. None of those things is wrong. You should desire the best gifts from God, but not to make yourself great.

" He says, "You should desire this to serve the brethren because the gifts are given for all." That's what he wanted. But now notice how he ends this chapter. He says, "And yet I show you a more excellent way." This is his launching pad for chapter 13. I'm going to show you a more excellent way than boasting about gifts. Now we get over to 1 Corinthians chapter 13.

He's going to take the gifts and the acts that people might admire most, and then he's going to show how they fail when love is absent. These are not weaknesses. This is literally, let's take your gifts, and let's look at what happens when love is not present within that gift. That's a really important concept here.

And so we begin here, 1 Corinthians chapter 13, we'll read verses 1 through 3. He says, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels." Wow, what a What a thing to be able to have said about you. This This is the greatest orator of our generation. Incredible Incredible speaker. Very gifted. Speaks multiple languages.

Fluent across the world. Can speak anywhere. Paul says, "Okay, let's say you are literally the greatest speaker on the planet. You've got You can speak a hundred languages fluently. You are effective with every single audience. Uh you can reach any audience you want to. That would be having having the tongues of men and of angels.

He says, "But let's take love out of that." But if you don't have love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. What an interesting thought that is. You You if you if you think that through, clanging a clanging cymbal like you know, if you're into if you're into music and you you like to hear a a full band and you got a drummer in there and he's he's he's working on that cymbal, then you get the idea that, you know, that sounds kind of nice within that within that context.

But if you just take that cymbal by itself and you start banging on that thing, if somebody, I don't care who, starts just banging on that thing, after a while you've had enough. You don't even want to hear any more of that. And And that's the description Paul is saying, you know, if you could be that great orator but you don't have love, what you say sounds like that.

People don't want to hear it. That's a a remarkable point he's making, isn't it? Verse two he says, "And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and have all knowledge and though I have all faith, I am living perfectly before God." That's what he's saying. You understand everything, you can teach, you're very good, you know the scriptures, you live a life that looks fantastic.

I mean, you are the epitome of being a Christian. He says, "If you have all of that so that you could remove mountains." Literally, you just like Christ, you could just remove a mountain. What an incredible thing. Let's take love out of that. But have not love, I am nothing, he says. If I have If I could do all of that, and I don't have love, I am nothing.

You know, nothing is empty. It's useless. That's what Paul is saying. All of that ability without love is useless. It's worthless. Verse three, he says, "And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, in other words, I I I view all of my possessions as just I'll just use them as a tool to serve the poor, and I'm willing to lay down my life for my beliefs, okay? That doesn't mean you have love.

And if we take love out of that, what happens? But profits me nothing. There's no value. If you don't have love, there's no value. That's where we are. That's where Paul begins to explain the value of gifts. Why do we take your gifts, and let's take love out of them, and see what the value is of that gift. And we find that it's worth nothing.

That's Paul's point. We read earlier that the manifestation of the spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. And so, we have to be thinking about our gifts. We have to be thinking about talents. We have to be thinking about how we serve, how we help one another in the context of not that it makes me better in terms of I'm superior.

We have to view that in in how we are benefiting our brothers and sisters because we love them. That's Paul's point, because we love them. You know, Jesus Christ raised the same issue with his disciples. He goes over here if we go over to John chapter 13. Let's Let's notice that. John chapter 13. I'm going to I'm going to grab verses 34 and 35 where where Christ says to his disciples, "A new commandment I give to you that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

By this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another." Isn't that interesting? Now, notice he doesn't say how you're going to be known is by the gifts that God gives to you through his Spirit. He will know you're a disciple because you can speak in tongues. He's going to know you're a disciple because you have the gift of teaching.

He's going to know you're one of my disciples, people will know that because of the gift that God has given to you that you proudly display before everyone. No, he says it's love. "By this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another." That's what's critical. So, Paul's words fit the way that Christ warned about outward works.

It's not the outward works that proves that you are a disciple of God. It is whether you love. In other words, it isn't Well, again, it's just the gift itself isn't the proof, it is the love that is the proof. Matthew chapter 7 makes this point a little bit more clear because many believe that they are a disciple of Jesus Christ.

And yet he says here in Matthew chapter 7 verses 21 through 23, he says in verse 21 of Matthew chapter 7, he says, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven." And yet, notice verse 22, "Many will say to me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? Haven't we cast out demons in your name? Haven't we done many wonders in your name?'" Christ says, "And then I will declare to them, I never knew you.

Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness." This This is the whole concept that God gives us law to obey and to test our obedience. And here, many people think they're doing that, but they only partially obey. And Christ is saying, "Sorry, to me that's lawlessness. You're either all in or you're not. All in or not, not partially in.

And so, picking and choosing how you will you know, how you will obey isn't the same thing as obeying. God wants us to obey from the heart. And he wants us to be filled with love and to come at our calling from that perspective. And so, in that way, the gift should mean nothing to us. It should say It should literally be, "How may I serve you? How may I serve the congregation?" And of course, here he says lawlessness, which, you know, in today's society, we have to be really mindful that that is exactly what this world is pushing us to

do, is to cast away God's law, to get rid of obedience to what God says is the way that we're supposed to live. And yet, love, true love, which God is love, remember, God is love, 1 John 4, here, let's just be reminded. 1 John chapter 4 and verse 8, >> First John chapter 4 and verse 8 says, "He who does not love God Excuse me.

He who does not love does not know God, for God is love." So, John is telling us that God is love because that word gives that connection. To say that God is love gives the weight behind the word love that's intended here. We know what that word is. And I I will give I'll I'll come back to giving you the full meaning of that of that here in a just a second, but I just wanted to make sure that you understand the term itself, and that word is the word agape, a g a p e, the the Greek word agape.

That when it says that God is love, he is that word, that Greek word, love. And that tells you the weight of the word, how important that term is. And yet, that's the very word used throughout 1 Corinthians chapter 13 that says, "If you've got all these wonderful gifts, but you lack that word love, if you lack that form of love, it's worthless. It's meaningless.

" Christ wanted us to know that how we would be known is because we have that form of love towards one another. That's how we would be truly known as disciples of Jesus Christ. Now, after So, let's go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. After Paul shows that the gifts that people had been given by God through the Holy Spirit, that they are empty gifts without love, he defines what love does in daily conduct.

That's what he wants to to show us next. So, we're in chapter 13, verses 4 through 7. He says, "Here's what love looks like." Love suffers long. That's what we That's the word long-suffering. And I think a lot of us don't understand long-suffering. It's not patience. It means to suffer a long time. It has an element of patience, clearly. But but patience means something different than that.

So, it says that love suffers a long time and is still kind. Love doesn't envy. You know, envy at the at the root of envy is the desire to not just have what somebody else has, but to take from them what they have that we would desire for ourselves. It is truly an evil. And it says, "That's not love." Love does not parade itself.

It's not It's not vain and puffed up, seeking glory for the self. That's not coming from love. It's not puffed up. It Verse 5 says, "It does not behave rudely." I I doubt any of us can say that we've never behaved rudely, but that but the love that doesn't come from love. It says, "It's not It does not seek its own. It's not provoked and it doesn't think evil.

" Remember, this is what This is This is the description of the word that said that John said is God. This is God. And so, of course, we can see in these descriptions that truly that is right. That makes sense. This is not what God is. In verse 6, it says, "It does not rejoice in iniquity." When we see sin, it does not celebrate it.

It does not It does not, you know, value it appreciate it it doesn't think it's wonderful and fantastic it's diverse and that makes us all great it doesn't that is not coming from love either. It says it rejoices in truth. In verse 7 it says it bears all things. It believes all things it hopes all things and it endures all things.

What a remarkable thing this this form of the word love truly means for us. And notice if we go all the way back to Exodus let's notice a description that's given about God himself. I'm going to move my marker here so I can find my place quickly. You might want to do the same thing mark where we're in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 and we're going to be coming back.

But for now I'm going to go over to Exodus chapter 34. Exodus chapter 34 verses 6 through 7. In verse 6 it says and the Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious. Notice these characteristics he is long-suffering. As Paul just described for us what is love. And he's abounding in goodness and truth.

Keeping mercy for thousands and forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. It's not saying permitting it says forgiving on repentance. By no means clearing the guilty those who fail to repent. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation.

And so we see how God describes his own conduct. This is who and how God is visible to us. This is what he is. This is who he is. Paul then says love doesn't envy or parade itself. He doesn't become puffed up and all of that is very true, but you see that that's all filled in behind God God's own description of himself.

Those are also present elements of who God is. And notice let's go back here again to 1 John. Here we're going to go to chapter 3 and verse 18. 1 John 3:18 where John says, "My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue." In other words, not let us not just say, "I love you." No, I love you. I love you like crazy.

Oh, big fan. He says, "Let us not love in word or in tongue." He says, "But indeed, that is in actions, let us prove that we love indeed and in truth." So, that what we're doing is in fact who we are. It's the truth about us. And that truth is evidence in how we behave, how we treat one another. This is Paul's This is Paul's point.

Proverbs chapter 27. Yeah, let's go back to Proverbs chapter 27 here. Verses 5 and 6. As we just kind of touch back on these each of these points that Paul was trying to make. Proverbs chapter 25 verses or 27, excuse me, verses 5 and 6. Here he says, "Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed." "Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

" This shows us that if we're going to truly have love for one another, that we must be honest with each other. Now, that is very challenging to do. Um I recently received an email from someone who wanted to help me to see something I wasn't seeing the way that that they thought I should, or at least they were worried that I might not see something.

And yet how apologetic they were in saying the things that they were saying, because they worried that I would become offended. That a brother or sister in Christ would be willing to come, first of all, is a very hard thing. And they said many times that I almost didn't make the comment because I was afraid of how you would respond.

And that's just human being to human being. That's normal. Most people are genuinely worried that if I say the thing that you need to hear, you'll be so offended that our relationship will be over. And yet, if we just understand what the Proverbs were saying, that this kind of rebuke, that from somebody who really loves us, and we know they love us, that's different from the criticism that comes from the world or from someone who's angry with us.

You can see the difference between those two things. The attitude behind it, the spirit behind it, the vindictiveness that can come out in it. You can see it when it's coming from someone who doesn't genuinely love us. Therefore, we should see it when someone does. That they care enough to say the hard thing, and that we're open to that.

We have to be open to that, and really look at ourselves, and be willing to say, "Maybe they're right." And maybe that's a a refinement I need to be working on. Maybe that's something that I should carefully consider. And be open to that because it does come from the right place of love when you know the person's coming from the right place of love.

It doesn't mean we have to believe everything that's said, as I said before, could be coming from someone who doesn't have our best interest in mind, but maybe their own wounds. But again, if we have the Holy Spirit, Paul tells us over in Galatians chapter 5, he reminds us in Galatians chapter 5 verse 22, beginning here, it says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is first love.

" We went through that in a recent one of our Bible literacy quiz questions. The fruit of the Spirit is love. Agape, that form of the word love. And so, the qualities that follow that help show how love appears in our conduct, how we treat one another, what's behind our our you know, what's behind these old eyeballs in our mind and in our attitude towards other people.

If it's coming from love, then it will manifest itself how we treat people, cuz it's how we feel towards other people. And so, Paul gives the church a way to examine whether God's love is truly governing the gifts, how we speak, our knowledge, how we serve one another. Love is patient when people are difficult. It is kind when help is needed.

It's humble when somebody has great abilities. It's truthful when wrong has to be faced directly, it's honest about it. It's steady when service becomes very difficult and let me tell you, there are so many of God's people who serve tirelessly, and it is so appreciated. I myself should be thanking you more in in in the Olympia and Tacoma congregations because there are so many willing servants who who just faithfully every week show up and do the hard things to make sure that we have services together, that we're able to

congregate together, that the service runs so that we can honor and worship God together. So, many many people do that and I really do appreciate that. Gifts are temporary tools. This is what I'd like us to be thinking about on this subject as we as we look at the remainder here of of of chapter 13 of 1st Corinthians and I'm going to go back there now.

Gifts have value. They have value to the extent that they allow us to serve one another. That's the point. Let's go back here to 1st Corinthians chapter 13 verses 8 through 12. Let's let's notice what Paul has to say. He says, "Love never fails. But you know, whether there are prophecies, now this isn't talking about literal biblical prophecies in the sense of oh, God foretold something and those things may not come true.

It says, "Whether there are prophecies, they will fail. Whether there are tongues, they will cease. Whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away." He's talking about the gifts themselves. Whether these abilities in a human being pass away because that person passes away or simply they no longer possess this the the gift, let's say that.

If they no longer have the gift of teaching, if they no longer have the gift of speaking in multiple languages or something like that. They they know they lose maybe some of the knowledge that they've had which they so were were so proud of before or maybe that would they were just very effective with before, but Paul is using love as the foundation for evaluating those gifts.

So, he says, "Whether there are these things, whether they that they will cease. Whether there's knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child.

I understood as a child. I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I am known. So Paul names prophecy, which is a a form of teaching, uh tongues, knowledge, because those were the kinds of things that the church in Corinth noticed and prioritized as being the greater gifts that made people superior to other people in the church.

And Paul says that each one has a finite benefit. Prophecy is going to fail, tongues are going to cease, knowledge is going to vanish away because these gifts serve people while they still know only in part. That means while we are still physical. Even the person who speaks in tongues doesn't speak in every tongue.

Even the person who has great knowledge doesn't have all knowledge. Even those who teach can't teach everything. We're just limited human beings. And the very best of us is still limited. And Paul says all that's going to vanish away. It's all going to go away with your the ending of your life. So of what value were those things if you didn't have love first? That's really what he wants us to understand.

See, and he explains that by saying we know in part and we prophesy in part. That means the gifts do not give God's people the full picture now. They're useful, but they serve a temporary need while God's people are still learning, while we're still growing, while we're still waiting for for that return of our savior Jesus Christ.

While we wait and endure our time on this earth, these are temporary tools. They're useful, but in a context. Paul's picture of childhood and maturity also helps us to understand what he's trying to make as a point. A child needs tools of learning because he's not yet reached full understanding. So, in this life God's people still speak, still understand, and still think, but within limits.

Gifts help within those limits, but they're not the final goal God is bringing his people toward. They're just tools. Let's go back to 1 John chapter 3. I'm going to read here verses 1 and 2, I think. It says "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God. Therefore, the world does not know us, because it did not know him.

Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when he, that is Jesus Christ, is revealed to us, because that's what's going to happen when he returns. When he is revealed, we shall be like him. For we will we will finally see him as he is, and we're going to be like he is, resurrected spirit beings.

And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he, Christ, is pure. So, that's our future. That's our hope. We're going to be like Jesus Christ. We will finally be as Paul was describing us in in physical terms, the comparison between children and adults. That's the difference between being a human being and being a spirit-born child of God.

But we haven't yet received the full reward. We haven't received all that's waiting for us. So we are here in part, understanding in part, knowing in part. So that's why gifts have to be kept in their proper place. They're tools God gives for service while his people still learn to work and to suffer and to grow and to wait together.

And to do all of that in love and and to do that with one another. Love endures because it is part of the thinking and the conduct that God is building for us and in us for our future work in his kingdom. Love is the greatest of all three things as we read in back in 1 Corinthians chapter 13.

Notice the final here, how the how Paul finishes in verse 13 of chapter 13. He says, "Now Now abides faith, hope, and love. These three. But the greatest of these is love." Paul's conclusion follows everything that he's already walked us through and proven about the value of gifts versus the value of love. We read over in 1 John chapter 4 and verse 8 where God himself is defined as love.

And because God is love, so his people must learn to also become that love. Over in 1 John 4 again, 1st John chapter 4 once again, uh verses 16 and 17 now. Verse 16 of 1st John 4 says, "And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love. And he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

" Verse 17 says, "Love has been perfected among us in this, that we may have boldness in that day of judgment when Christ returns, because as he is, so are we in this world." We are supposed to be that form of love in this world right now. That's what God wants us to learn to do today, to become that form of love which Christ himself is.

He was when he walked this earth, and he is today as our high priest sitting at the right hand of God. So, that future of service is part of the reason why chapter 13 is very important to for us. It's our teaching chapter for prioritizing what's supposed to be the most important thing for us in this life. It isn't the gifts that we have.

It is love that we are supposed to be building in ourselves to become like Jesus Christ. The first fruits are being prepared to serve with Christ when he rules on earth over all mankind. We need to learn right now how to love our fellow man, because we're going to be ruling with Jesus Christ and helping him to establish the kingdom of God over the whole face of the world.

It is that very government, and from that government love is the anchor. It is the foundation of God's government. It is love because that's who God and Christ are. We need to become that same thing. We will never fully get there. But our full work needs to be in in getting there to the best of our ability, as close as we can.

We read earlier here in 1 John 3:2 that we are the children of God. Because we're going to be like God, we need to become like him now. Try to come out of and grow up out of our childhood form of man and to become as much like the adult form of Christ as we can become. And all of that helps us to see that gifts were the Remember, it was gifts from chapter 12 that Paul was trying to deal with.

It was the Corinthians' misunderstanding, misapplication, abuse of the concept of gifts in the church that Paul needed to help them to see that love conquers all of that. Love is more important than all of that. And if they can't see that, all of those gifts are worthless. That was Paul's final takeaway. So, we know our role as kings and priests in the millennium, in the kingdom of God.

Because we're told that over in Revelations. Let's just finish with this. Revelations chapter 5 Revelations chapter 5 in verse 10, uh where the future of the first fruits is described, and we're in that first fruits season right now. Verse 10 says that that Christ as begins here in verse 9 where it says and they sang a new song about Jesus Christ that you are worthy to take the scroll.

When we get to verse 10 and it says and that he has made us kings and priests to our God and we shall reign on the earth. That is our future and so that reigning means we are over our fellow man today. It won't be our fellow man then, we'll be fellow spirit beings with our elder brother Jesus Christ, our high priest. And we will be the representatives of God in that government that is yet to come.

First Corinthians 13 tells us what's the most important thing that we should be focused on in this life. It is building and growing in godly love.