The Most Excellent Way Part 3 Studies in

RECAP: WHAT LOVE DOES NOT DO & WHAT LOVE DOES • Love is indispensible:

RECAP: WHAT LOVE DOES NOT DO & WHAT LOVE DOES NOT DO. . .

1 Corinthians 13: 8 -12 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass

LOVE NEVER ENDS 1) Love never ends, but all spiritual gifts will end eventually.

LOVE NEVER ENDS 2) Love never ends, but when the “perfect” comes the “partial”

even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— 7 so that you

LOVE NEVER ENDS 3) Love never ends, therefore love gives us a more mature

LOVE NEVER ENDS 4) Love never ends, therefore love gives us an eternal perspective.

A Call to True Spirituality By this we know love, that he laid down

THREE PRACTICAL QUESTIONS FOR OUR EVERYDAY LIFE 1. In what ways are you more

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The Most Excellent Way – Part 3 Studies in 1 Corinthians Series [31] 1 Corinthians 13: 8 -12 March 8, 2015 Pastor Paul K. Kim

RECAP: WHAT LOVE DOES NOT DO & WHAT LOVE DOES • Love is indispensible: Without love even spectacular gifts, prophetic powers, incredible faith, and unreserved selfsacrifice are nothing. • Love is patient and kind: Two qualities that undergird all other characteristics of love are PATIENCE and KINDNESS. • Love doesn’t do. . . but Love does. . . : Love is more of a verb than a noun.

RECAP: WHAT LOVE DOES NOT DO & WHAT LOVE DOES NOT DO. . . Does not envy. Does not boast. Is not arrogant. Is not rude. Does not insist on its own way. Is not irritable Is not resentful. Does not rejoice at wrongdoing. LOVE DOES. . . Rejoices with the truth. Bears all things. Believes all things. Hopes all things. Endures all things.

1 Corinthians 13: 8 -12 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 8

LOVE NEVER ENDS 1) Love never ends, but all spiritual gifts will end eventually. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. (v. 8) 8 Ø The word for “end” here means literally “to fall” [Gk. piptó]; the implication is more than existence but essence of all. Ø Unlike what the Corinthian Christians thought as lasting power of the Christian life, all spiritual gifts (especially the three most desired) will end and be no longer needed. Ø Applying to today’s world, we can put anything we value so highly (e. g. , career, ability, possessions, fame, power, etc. ) in place of these three superlative gifts.

LOVE NEVER ENDS 2) Love never ends, but when the “perfect” comes the “partial” will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. (vs. 9 -10) 9 Ø Why will the superlative spiritual gifts pass away? It is because they are incomplete necessities before the perfect comes. Ø What is this “perfect”? It means the culmination of our salivation at the second coming of Jesus Christ. Ø When the perfect comes, we shall see Jesus face to face and incomplete gifts will no longer be needed in Christ’s presence!

even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— 7 so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians 1: 6 -7 6

LOVE NEVER ENDS 3) Love never ends, therefore love gives us a more mature way to live our Christian life here and now. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. (v. 11) 11 Ø Paul’s first illustration of the truth that love is the neverending essence of life in the Kingdom of God is from his own recollection of childhood and adulthood. Ø Like his growth, spiritual gifts (or anything we value) compared to love is like children’s toys (vs. the future life). Ø But Paul’s intention seems more than illustrating—he charges us to look to love as mature ways to live out our everyday life.

LOVE NEVER ENDS 4) Love never ends, therefore love gives us an eternal perspective. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. (v. 12) 12 Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 1 John 3: 2 2 Ø The second illustration is to look into a mirror; unlike modern ones, first-century mirrors were shined metals (blurry image). Ø Now, we see blurry reflections of real things by faith; but “then” (Jesus’ return) we will see face to face and know fully. Ø The charge is clear: we are to focus on the eternal perspective and pursue love wholeheartedly.

A Call to True Spirituality By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. 1 John 3: 16 -18 16

THREE PRACTICAL QUESTIONS FOR OUR EVERYDAY LIFE 1. In what ways are you more convinced of the permanence of love? What will you do about it? 2. What will you give up as childish ways if love is the indeed indispensable essence of the Christian life? What is your first step? 3. How will you grow in love more with the eternal perspective of love? What is your first step?