1 Corinthians 13 The Nature of Love

Last week I talked about the need to have love when using our Spiritual Gifts. Yet no study of 1 Corinthians 13 would be complete without a study of the nature of Biblical love.

1.     Greek words for love

a.     Eros: erotic, sensual, sexual

b.     Phileo: friendship, to value, care for, to like someone

c.      Agape: Honor, respect, Jesus transforms this word.

d.     John 13:1

e.     John 13:23

f.       John 13:35

g.     John 15:12&13

h.     1 John 4:8

i.        John 3:16

2.     Eros and Phileo are takers, Agape is a giver

3.     Eros and Phieo are powerless to change the world

a.     at best temporary

b.     what the world needs now

4.     Agape is what you do when you do not feel Eros or Phieo

5.     Agape is what you do

a.     On your knees washing someone’s feet

b.     Carrying the cross through the street

c.      When your friends throw stones at you

d.     As you hang wrongly crucified on the cross

6.     Agape is the mission of the church

a.     The command of Jesus

b.     The identity of Jesus Followers

c.      Agape is our goal, our purpose in living

Keep on loving. Grow in your understanding and ability to love. We must prove our love to the world before we will ever change the world.

1 Corinthians 13 Learing To Love

Chapter 13 is the love chapter. It is read at weddings and put on wall plaques. The thing is this chapter was written to address the most unloving of situations. The Corinthian problem was that they lacked love. We see earlier in 1 Corinthians that people are gluttonous and getting drunk during the Lord’s Supper, while others are starving.

This lack of love also showed up it the use of Spiritual gifts. Verses 4 through 7 is not Paul’s exhaustive list of what love is. This is a list of what the Corinthians fail to show toward each other. This lack of love has to do with Spiritual Gifts which is why it is placed in the middle of chapters 12 and 14.

1.     Claims being made

a.     Speaking in the tongues of men and angels.  Romans 8:26

b.     Prophecy

c.      Knowledge

d.     Faith

e.     Give away all I have (asceticism)

2.     How they were acting

a.     Patient and kind

b.     Envy and boastful

c.      Arrogant and rude

d.     Rejoicing in the failures of others

e.     Bears, believes, hopes, endures

3.     What they need to know

a.     They will pass away

b.     We only know in part

c.      Stop acting like children

d.     Our best sight is but a poor image

The person who is truly spiritual is not the person who has the brightest and shiniest gifts of the Spirit, it is the person who has learned to live in love toward others. All the gifts will end, they will not last. But love will never end. More important than your faith, more important than your joy, is the ability to love.

1 Cor 12:7-11 Your Super Power

1 Cor 12:7-11 Your Super Power

Last week I talked about how Spiritual gifts are given for the common good. Today I am going to talk about discovering and beginning to use your gift or gifts.

To each is given a manifestation of the Spirit (vs 7)

Empowered by one and the same Spirit (vs 11)

1.     You are given gifts from God

a.     Gifts or abilities

b.     Empowered by God

c.      Super power not supper power

2.     Finding your gift

a.     What has God placed on your heart

b.     What have you done and how did it go?

c.      Try opening the doors

d.     Don’t be list limited

e.     Investigate Learn more

3.     Earnest desire

a.     Vs 31 earnestly desire

b.     Make reasonable steps

c.      Stop Praying, Start doing

God has given us gifts empowered by the Holy Spirit. When you use your gift or gifts you experience joy unmeasurable. When you use your gift, you discover a new intimacy with God.

1 Cor 12:7-11 “For the Common Good”

1 Cor 12:7-11 “For the Common Good”

“To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 
To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.”

Previously, I talked about who the Holy Spirit is, and that the one Holy Spirit gives many different gifts to us. We should not expect to have the same gifts as someone else. Nor should we judge someone else because of gifts they have received or not received.

Today I want to look at why we have spiritual gifts. Vs7 “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”

Ephesians 4:12 “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”

God’s desire is that the Gifts of the Spirit equip, grow, and mature the church. Therefore we must be careful in the use of our gift.

If you have the gift of discernment-
If you have the gift of knowledge
If you have the gift of preaching

Any gift of the Spirit is a powerful thing like a gun, sward, electricity, or a lazer.

In the very nature of their power lies a danger, because the receiver of the gift is still influenced by the sinful nature. So we must ask how our Spiritual gifts can be used for the “common good”. We must insure that when we use our gifts that we have the common good in mind.

Again God’s desire is that the body of Christ is equipped, grow, mature, and minister. What happens if we neglect our gift?

If you have the gift of healing
if you have the gift of teaching
if you have the gift of leading
if you have the gift of giving

Favoring one hip forces the damage of the other hip as well as the knee, foot and even your back. When one part of the body fails to use their gift, stress comes to the rest of the body.

When any one person does more than they should they break down. “You can not ride a dead horse.”

God calls each of us to carefully use our gifts for the common good.