Love - it never fails

Text 1 Corinthians 13:8-12 Time 05/10/14 Place Childs Hill Baptist Church

We are currently looking at one of the most wonderful chapters in the Bible – 1 Corinthians 13. So far we have looked at the first seven verses and we have said two main things.

Firstly, that Paul is showing here that love is absolutely essential – no gifts from God or any zeal for God can possibly ever compensate for a lack of love. It is vital.

Secondly, love itself is not a vague thing but something definable. In verses 4-7 we read that it is patient, … kind. It does not envy, ... or boast, it is not proud ... it's not rude, ... not self-seeking, … not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

In some ways this defining of love is a digression because the main subject is spiritual gifts and the use or abuse of them, which he comes directly back to in verse 8. Here Paul makes a further statement about love - Love never fails he says. He then goes on to expand on that, saying that where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away and so on.

Now it is still beautifully written but what does it mean? There have been some disagreements over it. So first I want to ask the question with you

1. How should I understand what is said in 1 Corinthians 13 about when perfection comes?

1. An obvious understanding

Some have supposed that Paul must be talking about the coming of the Christ and the end of the world. What else could it be? When he says that prophecies will cease, tongues be stilled and knowledge pass away, he must be thinking of the end of the world. His when perfection comes (10) is a reference to the coming age when the new heavens and earth will be brought in. So we are now children but we will then be men (11) and our seeing now but a poor reflection as in a mirror will be replaced by seeing face to face and our knowing in part will be replaced by full knowledge (12) when the new age dawns.

2. An alternative understanding

Others have suggested that in fact what Paul is talking about is the cessation of the supernatural New Testament gifts – prophecy, tongues, supernatural knowledge, etc. Clearly there were certain gifts in operation in the New Testament period before the New Testament was completed that, I would argue, are not in operation today. When Paul says that prophecies will cease, tongues be stilled and knowledge pass away, he is talking about the time when the gifts would cease and the New Testament be complete. His when perfection comes (10) is when the New Testament is complete. So they were children then but now we are men (11) and their seeing then was but a poor reflection as in a mirror that has been replaced by today with the seeing face to face of the Scriptures and their knowing in part has been replaced by the full knowledge (12) of today.

3. A third way to understand it

A Presbyterian writer called James W Scott (WTJ 72:2) has looked at the chapter again more recently and he suggests that neither of these views is correct. Rather, he says, what Paul is writing about is the use of supernatural gifts in the personal experience of those who he is writing to. I think you can establish from the New Testament that the supernatural gifts of that time have ceased long before today. This passage, though sometimes used for the purpose, does not really deal with that issue. Rather its concern is to show that in the experience of all there will come a time when spiritual gifts of all sorts cease and when only love will remain – either at death or with the coming of Christ. This is what Paul wants the Corinthians and us to see. He is not really addressing the question of when the supernatural gifts might seem to operate.

Now you may disagree with me on this but I want you to accept this morning, nevertheless, that the message of this section is that we should not put love above any spiritual gift but see that love goes on beyond them all. It is unfailing. If we do that we will give love the highest place of all in our thinking and that is how it should be. That leads me to say secondly

2. See that love never fails and will remain when you die and when Christ comes again

1. Realise that love always remains

Paul's point is not that there will always be someone around who loves but that if you have true love then that love will never disappear. It will go on. The loving will continue. It will never fail. Other gifts of the Spirit will eventually disappear, including the gifts he mentions here - prophecy, tongues and knowledge, which we understand as a reference to the supernatural ways God would speak through individuals at that time - sometimes by direct revelations in a common language, sometimes by direct revelations in unknown or relatively unknown tongues and sometimes by revealing certain knowledge of what to do to individuals, knowledge they could not gain except by revelation. These three are representative all the supernatural gifts common at that time.

Now we would argue that these supernatural gifts ceased or passed away once the need for them passed, when the church was established and when the inspired New Testament was complete. Paul does not go into when they would cease or pass away altogether here, he simply asserts that they will at some point in the experience of those he is addressing disappear. Love, on the other hand, will continue. It will never fail.

The words where there are prophecies, ... where there are tongues … where there is knowledge …. might be better translated if there are prophecies, ... if there are tongues … if there is knowledge …. Not everyone had these gifts even in Paul's day but if they did, they needed to know that such gifts of the Spirit would not last forever - but the spiritual fruit love, on the other hand, does.

Remember that love always remains. This is another reason why we must have the very highest regard for it. It is essential; it is marked by patience, kindness, a lack of envy or boasting or pride or rudeness or self-seeking, constant protecting, trusting and hoping, etc, and it will never fail.

2. Realise that though many things disappear, love remains even when perfection comes

In verses 9 and 10 Paul says For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. Previously Paul spoke of prophecy, tongues and knowledge. A little later he speaks only of knowledge (Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known). He is narrowing down. Tongues is really a form of prophecy so he doesn't have to say here For we know in part and we prophesy in part, “and we speak in tongues in part”. His point is that although we know certain things and we have had certain things prophesied by the grace of God, not to mention messages in tongues, many things are still hidden from us.

However, the day is coming when we will know fully and when the full picture will become clear. Perfection will come and the imperfect will disappear. Partial knowledge will be replaced by full knowledge. It is not that partial knowledge will culminate in full knowledge but that it will be replaced by it.

Nevertheless, even when that perfection or completeness comes love will remain – even then. This underlines yet again the importance of love.

3. Take note of these two pictures here to help us

In order to help us grasp his point Paul uses two pictures, both fairly easy to grasp.

1 The picture of childhood and becoming an adult

First of all, in verse 11, Paul says 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 childish ways behind me.

So think of a child. The child talks and thinks and reasons in a certain way. It can be quite funny sometimes – what children say, how they think and reason.

A child says to his brother in bed one night “Tell me when you're asleep”. Another, seeing a passing funeral, says "I wish someone we knew would die so we could leave them flowers." An eight year old says "I'm glad I'm finally eight. This is the oldest I've ever been in my entire life!" A child watching fireworks says “mummy can you pause it. I need to go to the toilet.”

A child overhears a conversation about a medical student being asked if he is a doctor. The student says “Yeah, I will be soon, I'm taking medicine now.” The child says, rather puzzled, “What kind of medicine do you have to take to become a doctor?”

I noticed on Facebook yesterday someone we know saying her young son watched his daddy cutting his toenails and asked, 'Did your feet growed in the night Papa?'

There was no sentimentality towards children in Paul's day, however. Childhood was something to survive and get out of. Certainly when you become an adult then as now you were expected to put childish ways behind you. It is not that everything changes at this point, of course, just as earthly prophecy and knowledge is real the child is still father to the man as we say, but great changes come about.

2 The picture of a reflection and seeing face to face

The other picture depends partly on a realisation that in the first century mirrors still only provided a rather hazy reflection. The silvered glass mirror we know today didn't come in until the nineteenth century. In Paul's day people used polished copper or bronze and so on. The difference then between seeing but a poor reflection as in a mirror and seeing face to face was quite a contrast then. Yes, the former is a true image and is dictated by the form it captures. However, seeing face to face is something much greater and corresponds to the perfection Paul speaks of. It also picks up on the idea in 1 John 3:2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Also Revelation 22:4 They will see his face.

Yet once again then, love never fails. It always shines through. The clearer things get the more love is seen to be essential.

4. Realise that we now know only in part but one day we shall know fully

So Paul he says Now I know in part; whether we live in Paul's day or our own but then at some future point I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. Just as God knows me in the fullest sense so in a very full sense, I will know God. This will come if I am alive when Christ returns and if I die before then at that point. Of course, the words know and love are intimately connected and so just as God loves his own, those he knows, so their love to him and to others must reflect that and never fail.

Always keep in mind that at present we only know in part. Part of the arrogance of the atheist is that he says he knows there is no God but he does not know everything, no-one one earth does, and so he is foolish fore thinking that because he does not know God there is no God. We can make the same sort of mistake when we think we know everything. We don't. We know only in part. However, one day we will know as we are known. What a day is coming!

3. See what a wonderful place heaven must be – a world of love

Jonathan Edwards in his wonderful commentary on 1 Corinthians 13 writes of heaven being a world of charity or love and expounds this idea very powerfully. We can see what that means by asking a series of questions.

1. What is at the root of the existence of love in heaven? Heaven is where God's throne is and as God is love, heaven is a place of love.

2. What adds to this love in heaven? Of course, what adds to this is that all those in heaven are lovely or loveable by the grace of God, indeed perfectly loveable. All the loveliest things are there.

3. Who is loved in heaven? Obviously because God is love, the Father has always loved the Son and the Son the Father and the Holy Spirit but that love is also known by all the citizens of heaven.

4. What is this love like? Of course the love we are talking about is a holy and God-wrought love and a love that is perfect and without deficiencies.

5. What else can we say about this love? There is no unrequited love in heaven. Rather there is mutual love everywhere. Envy and jealousy never raise their heads or anything of that sort. In this world our expressions of love are held back – some times for wrong reasons, sometimes for good ones but there, there will be nothing to get in the way. We are told too that in heaven there is no sea, which in part teaches us the end of troubles and the end of those external barriers that can often intrude – we know that long distance love is never easy. In heaven we will all be brothers and sisters and so we will all belong to each other and have a vested interest in each other's prosperity. There will be such prosperity too that nothing will hold back our expressions of love as they often do here. The most lavish gifts will be possible then. We also know that love in heaven can never end. There is no sorrow of parting to cast a shadow over it all.

6. What does this love lead to? Obviously in such a relationship of love there can be nothing but good arising out of it. In heaven they only do good to one another. Further, it is a place of peace and joy. That is what love produces and that is what marks the character of heaven.

Some obvious applications. If heaven is such a wonderful place, as we have described, and we are expecting to go there then we ought to love more and more. What a privilege to be going to that place and it is the case if you are trusting in Jesus Christ. If you do not trust in Christ then you are going to miss out on this wonderful indescribable place. But there is time – at least today. I urge you to repent and trust in Jesus Christ. You will never ever regret it. Quite the opposite.