And The Greatest Of These...

At the church where I'm the Worship Pastor we have been in a series of teachings called FIRST. Where we as a church are seeking to place God first in all aspects of our lives, through prayer and fasting.  Last week our Lead Pastor spoke a message about God being first in our "GIFTS". This lead me to really study the spiritual gifts spoken of throughout Scripture.  So naturally this lead me to 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12 and Ephesians 4.  As I was reading and studying something struck me very powerfully... and it isn't the first time I've read this scripture.  Actually, I've read it or heard it taught numerous times. I will share my thoughts on this in a minute.

Part of my passion is to help other find where they're gifted and then help them use those gifts for God's Kingdom.  So naturally I began thinking about the amazing people of our church and how incredible it will be for them to find what their God given CHARIS is and begin using it and then "it" happened... I was busy thinking about how I was going to help them find their CHARIS then God spoke. I was reading about these amazing gifts that God blesses us with for His purpose. Wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discerning spirits, kinds of tongues and interpretation of tongues... Then it was as if God cleared His throat in front of me.  "READ THE END", He said. So I did... 1 Corinthians 12:31 says, "But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way." 

What is the highest gift?  It is so high in fact that Paul spends the entire next chapter of 1 Corinthians teaching us about it.  The highest gift is LOVE.  This is the gift we should all seek above all the others.

There are four kinds of love in the original Greek language that we just translate to the word love.

• STORGI: Which means affection.  This is the kind of love we feel towards a pet cat or dog.
• EROS: Which is where we get our word "erotic".  This is a sexual or physical kind of love.
• PHILEO: Which is where we get our name Philadelphia as in the "city of brotherly love".  This is the kind of love that means, "if you're nice to be I'll be nice to you." This is a brotherly kind of love.
• AGAPE: This kind of love is very special... This is a love that is given simply for the sake of giving, expecting nothing in return.  Agape love is only found in God and in God alone.  Jesus showed this kind of love by walking up Calvary and laying His life down for us. This love is expressed and shown by sacrifce.

Now I'm going to share with you my thoughts and daily Bible study form 1 Corinthians 13 to help us all understand this amazing gift of LOVE.

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V1-2:

·      Jesus said that we could move mountains by faith even if we just have faith in the amount of the size of a mustard seed.  But Paul here tells us that we can have EXTREME, THE FULLEST POTENTIAL OF FAITH and not have love and it doesn’t amount to anything!

·      Paul tells the Galatians in Galatians 5:6 that, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.” God can only entrust us with true faith if we are able to love (agape) because the gift of faith would be dangerous in the hands of someone who doesn’t love... Look at the disciples example here... Luke 9:54, “And when His disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”

V3:

·      Even if someone was so passionate for the Lord and were murdered for their faith, his zeal would mean nothing without love.

·      NOW IN THE REST OF THE VERSE PAUL GIVES US HIS DEFINITION OF WHAT AGAPE LOVE IS!

V4:

·      Love is patient.... The definition of patience or long suffering as it says in some translations is found in Matthew 18:21-22, “21 Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.” In other words we are to keep being patient and forgiving until we loose track of how many times someone has offended us.  Love never says, “I’ve suffered enough.  It suffers indefinitely.”

·      And kind... This is important... while love is suffering it remains kind.  It doesn’t get burnt out or become cynical or bitter.  It remains kind no matter what.  

·      Love does not envy... love never asks why someone else is promoted or exalted instead of them.  

·      Or boast; it is not arrogant... Love doesn’t try to prove itself.  It doesn’t say, “Watch how loving I can be!”  instead it works behind the scenes never drawing attention to itself.

V5:

·      Or rude. It doesn’t insist it’s own way;... Love doesn’t demand its own way.

·      It is not irritable or resentful...  Love is not provoked... STORGI, EROS and PHILEO love can become irritated, aggravated, and provoked but not AGAPE! AGAPE love also doesn’t think evil of people because it has absolute trust in the faithfulness of the Father.

V6:

·      It does not rejoice at wrongdoing...  True love doesn’t rejoice when trouble or problems come upon someone else... even if they are a result of their own stupidity or sin! 

·      But rejoices with the truth...  Love rejoices when others do well, when others are blessed.

V7:

·      Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things...  If this is you people will accuse you of being blind to certain situations. AGAPE love isn’t blind... actually it sees all... it see way more than most see! AGAPE love see’s the price that was paid on Calvary for the person or situation.

·      This love is nothing less than the Fruit of the Spirit.

V8:

·      Prophecy, tongues, words of knowledge will one day all vanish.  Why? In heaven there will be no need for prophecy - words of encouragement, exhortation or comfort because everyone will be perfectly comforted and encouraged in heaven and will no longer need to be exhorted. Unknown tongues will not be needed because everything will be known in heaven. And words of knowledge will be swallowed up in the perfect knowledge we will receive when we see Jesus face to face.

V9-10:

·      THE PEREFECT COMES is speaking of Jesus! When Jesus returns... when He comes there will be no need for these things.

V11-12:

·      We are able to see things spiritually but we still have questions.. we see it dimly. Yet when we see Jesus face to face we shall be Him as 1 John 3:2 tells us.  At that moment, in an instant we will see everything clearly.  We will have completed knowledge.

·      Jesus knows every details of my life... even the numbers of the hairs on my head! And when I see Him I will see Him the same way! How amazingly exciting is this!!!

V13:

·      FAITH looks back. Faith tells me that Jesus came. Faith allows us to receive what Jesus did for us on the cross. Faith reminds us that our sins are forgiven.

·      HOPE looks ahead. Hope tells us that Jesus is coming again.  Hope reminds us that we don’t have to be uptight about the future.

·      LOVE looks around.  Love tells us that Jesus is here with us know! Love frees us in the present.

·      Love is so important because it is only in AGAPE (love) that we can respond to God and to others presently. The person who lacks faith will not be able to love in the present because he will be paralyzed by the hurts and sins of his past. The person who lacks hope will not be able to love because they are too worried about his retirement account in the future.  Only the person who pas put his past him through the power of the Cross, only the person who looks forward to the future through the promise of heave can truly love in the present!!! Love frees us in the present!!!

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Now let's all seek this gift together!  John 13:35, "By this ALL people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."