The Bible Study Hour

Mark Daniels: When the Apostle Paul told the Corinthians that he would show them a more excellent way, what he would show them stood in stark contrast to the so-called spiritual gifts, which so preoccupied his audience. Welcome to the Bible Study Hour, a radio and internet broadcast with Dr. James Boice, preparing you to think and act biblically.

What Paul was explaining is that the Corinthian church could have knowledge, do good works, and possess the most exciting and coveted of the spiritual gifts, but without love, they profited nothing. Listen now as Dr. Boice explains the meaning of the kind of love Paul spoke of and its vital importance in the life of a true believer.

Dr. James Boice: Sometime during the last half of the 19th century, a Scottish author and evangelist by the name of Henry Drummond wrote a classical sermon called *The Greatest Thing in the World*. Most people know that sermon; many have read it. It was about love, as I'm sure you know, and it was based on 1 Corinthians 13 which, if love is the greatest thing in the world, is certainly one of the greatest chapters in the Bible.

If people know anything at all about the book of 1 Corinthians, this is probably the chapter that comes most to their mind. In any collection of great chapters, this is one that must necessarily be included. This chapter teaches in a way which perhaps is surprising to many of us that love is greater than faith, that love is greater than hope. If that is the case, then 1 Corinthians 13 is greater perhaps than that magnificent 11th chapter of Hebrews that talks about faith at such length or greater than that magnificent eighth chapter of Romans that expresses the Christian hope.

Not every theologian thinks this. I was reading in Charles Hodge and his great commentary on 1 Corinthians, and he was very concerned at this point of his exposition to defend Romans 8. He said this is a great chapter, this 1 Corinthians 13, but it's not like Romans 8, which has the great sweep of God's redemptive plan in history. I think he was approaching it as a theologian and maybe rightly so, but by any measure, this chapter to which we've come in our exposition of 1 Corinthians is magnificent.

Whenever I think of this and particularly that verse with which the chapter ends, "And now abideth these three, faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love," I think of another sermon that the Swiss theologian Emil Brunner preached some years ago. Brunner lived in Zurich, Switzerland. He preached often in the Fraumunster church there in the city. Stories of his sermons would circulate in Switzerland through the newspapers and in other ways and were often talked about in Basel, some short distance away where I spent a period of three years.

One of these sermons that Brunner preached was on this text, "faith, hope and love," and his outline went like this. He said all of us have a variety of problems with which we deal, and among those problems, the chief are these three. We have a problem in our past and the problem in our past is sin; we're sinners. The question is, how do we get rid of the sin or the punishment that is due us for the sin?

All of us have a problem in the future, and the problem that we have facing us in the future is death; all of us must die. How do we deal with that? Finally, he said, all of us also have a problem in the present, and the problem in the present is how do we live with one another? We don't get on very well. We have difficulties in our relationships; life is filled with estrangements. How do we deal with these three problems: the problem in the past, the problem in the future and the problem in the present?

He turned to this text and he says, this is God's answer. God's answer to the problem in the past, that problem of our sin, is faith. It's faith in the work of Jesus Christ who died for our sin in order that our guilt might be removed. The answer of God to the problem in the future, our problem of death, is hope, the Christian hope, that though we die, yet through the power of Jesus Christ we shall live again.

Finally, he said, God's answer to the problem that we have in the present, the problem of alienation and estrangement, is love, the love of the Lord Jesus Christ that works through us. I suppose it's because of that that this chapter has been so popular in the church. We have a problem in the past, but it's easy not to be concerned about the past. We forget about the past. We have a problem in the future, but we tend to push future problems from our minds.

We can't do that with the present because we live in the present. Every day and everything we do, where we go, to whom we speak, what we're trying to accomplish, what we fail to accomplish, everyone we meet with and try to work with, brings this problem freshly to our minds. Christian people down through the ages have turned back to this great chapter of the Apostle Paul and have read it as an inspired expression of the kind of life that we should each exemplify and that should be seen in a dramatic way in the church of Jesus Christ.

It's not a hard chapter to analyze. I think it's a hard chapter to preach on simply because it's so profound, but it's not hard to analyze. There's a preface in the New International Version; it's carried over from the last chapter and printed properly with this one where Paul says, "Now I'm going to show you a more excellent way." That's his introduction. He has three points and, in my Bible, it's the three paragraphs. Very easy to follow.

He talks about the importance of love in verses 1 to 3. He talks secondly about love's nature in verses 4 through 7. Finally, he talks about love's permanence in verses 8 through 12. He wraps it all up in the summary, the coda, which is the verse that I've already mentioned and which is so popular: faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love.

When he talks about the importance of love, his first point, it's evident because we've been studying this in the context of the entire book, that he is setting love over against the kind of things about which the Corinthians were so preoccupied and which they obviously thought were most important. You see, he contrasts love with these so-called supernatural gifts, the gifts of tongues, speaking in tongues, or prophecy. That's perhaps part of it, being able to stand up and declare in some special way something that they believed had come from God.

He contrasts it with the knowledge of the mysteries of God, this idea of wisdom, which we saw earlier in the book. These people in Corinth thought they possessed unusual degrees of wisdom and they were dividing up in the church over their supposed wisdom. Paul had to knock that down in the first chapter and say the only wisdom that counts at all is the wisdom of God, and it's not a wisdom that expresses itself the way you have been expressing it.

In the end, verse 3, he contrasts it with the doing of good deeds, even to the point, he says, of surrendering our body to the flames, actually being a martyr for the sake of something good. He says, you see, you can have each of those other things. You can have the supernatural gifts. You can have knowledge to an eminent degree. You can be noted all over the city and among your friends for somebody who does extraordinary good works. but if you have not love, it does not profit you anything.

You say, well, that doesn't sound right. Certainly it's important to have knowledge. We believe in that; it's good to have knowledge of spiritual things. We spend a lot of our time reading books, studying the Bible, going to church, listening to lectures in order that we might know these things. Paul is not saying that knowledge is unimportant. Of course he isn't. Paul is writing a whole book filled with it for us to learn. He's not saying it's unimportant, but he says if you have that without love, it doesn't count for anything.

Somebody else will say, well, what about these supernatural things? What about tongues and prophecies and healings and all these things that they were so concerned about? As I read these chapters, I think Paul is not even saying that these are unimportant. But you see, he is saying that you can have those things which appear to be evidence of the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit in your life, but if you don't have love, you don't actually have the Holy Spirit in your life, and therefore it counts for nothing.

Isn't it important to do charitable things? Isn't it important to do good works? Yes, it is. If you don't do good works, which the Bible says you're ordained by God to do if you're a Christian, if you don't do those good works, you're not born again. But you see, there's a difference here. Paul says it is possible to do those things and not be born again. Therefore he's right when he says if you have not love, if you don't have the love that comes from the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life, you can do all those things and it counts you absolutely nothing at all.

During the Puritan age in America, the Puritans were very strong in trying to disabuse men and women of any kind of false confidence that they might have in spiritual things. From my perspective, and of course I'm formed by my own culture and by those who have trained me, I look back and read that material that the Puritans have left behind, and it seems to me that it was one-sided, that it was overdone. It didn't seem that way to them.

They lived in a culture where people were all too ready to believe that things were right between them and God, them and the Almighty. So the Puritans spent much of their time disabusing their listeners of the idea that just because they knew certain things, just because they could recite the creed, just because they could be models of piety, that therefore, ipso facto, without any question, they were in a right relationship to God. They spent all their time disabusing them of that and say you can do all those things, you can be a model in your community and still be lost and go to hell.

Consistency with what the Apostle Paul is saying in this chapter is that you can know you are saved if the love of Jesus Christ is found within your heart. You can look down in your heart and say, regardless of my sin, regardless of my failure to understand spiritual things properly, regardless of my failure in the area of charity, I nevertheless really love Jesus, and I want to serve Jesus. By His grace, I find that I'm also able to love the brethren, those in the church and also those outside of the church. Then you can know that God has done something supernatural in you and you're saved.

In the Apostle John's writings, the first of his letters, he deals with this. He dealt with a group of people in that day who were unsettled by these things. People had come into their midst who, as I read the book, seem probably to have been more worldly-wise than they were. They said, oh, the things that you've believed so far are just rudimentary. You have to go on from that to a greater knowledge. They were probably Gnostics or at least they were in that stream of tradition that gave rise to Gnosticism later in the church.

These Christians said, well, maybe that's true. Maybe we haven't understood things perfectly enough. Maybe we're still outside the kingdom. Maybe we need to go a little further, delve a little deeper into knowledge in order that we might enter in. The Apostle John wrote to reassure people like that, and he gave them three tests by which they could know they were Christians: by whether they believed the right things about Christ, because if you don't believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the Lord, you're no Christian; and by whether you're obeying His commandments. John said, are you doing that? Are you striving to obey the commands of Jesus Christ?

Reading these different things that he talks about in dealing with the importance of love, it strikes me that they correspond to three kinds of Christianity we have in our day. The first of these are the supernatural gifts, prophecy and healings and that sort of thing. That corresponds roughly to the charismatic people in our day. The second thing is this knowledge of the mysteries of God, this doctrinaire, theological kind of approach. That corresponds to people like us in the Presbyterian traditions, those who think they really know the mysteries of God and can expound them perfectly to the charismatics.

There's the third area, this idea of good deeds, and that corresponds to the social gospel churches, which is what most of the main denominations are. If that's a fair analysis, wouldn't Paul say to Christians in America, divided up among these different factions of the church as we have them, look, you can be as charismatic as you please and go to hell? You can be as theologically knowledgeable as you please and go to hell. You can be as social gospel oriented as you please and go to hell. What you need is the love of Jesus Christ.

Would he not also say that if the love of Jesus Christ, by the work of the Holy Spirit and regeneration, is in our hearts so that this is what matters and we really do say that this is the most important thing, then some of these divisions we have would appear far less important in our eyes? We'd find ourselves able to bridge those chasms and fellowship in a constructive way with those who perhaps don't just see things the way we do.

In the second paragraph, he talks about love's nature. I think this is the hardest thing to talk about. It's easy to analyze. He uses the word *agape*. You know that. It's the great word for love that's used in the Bible of divine love. Love of which we're capable by the grace of God, but nevertheless, love that has its source in God. You know there are a number of words for love in the Greek language. The best known are *eros*, which gives us our word *erotic*, it refers to sexual love; and *phileo*, which is an intense love between people, family love, relational type love; and then *agape*, which is from God.

Interesting thing is that the only word that the Bible and Greek culture had in common was *phileo*. Now, it's not that the Bible writers didn't know the other words. Certainly the Bible writers knew that word *eros*, but it doesn't appear in the Bible. The reason for that is that it had become so debased in the Greek culture of the day that it's almost as if God was saying, I don't want a word that's as tainted as that word is in my Bible. Of course sexual relationships are described quite explicitly in the Bible. It was that it had become so corrupt in the Greek culture.

The Greeks would have said, oh, you can't have any love unless it's sexual. God says that's important in its place, but you can have great love, deep love without that. Above all, you can have the love of God, which to have in this personal way is salvation.

Nature of love in these verses gives a couple of negatives, a couple of positives, and talks about actions. It breaks down like this. First of all, two positive things: love is patient and love is kind. You know the list of the fruit of the Spirit that you have in the fifth chapter of Galatians; you know those two words are there. So this is the fruit of the Spirit. Love expresses itself in this way in patience and kindness. There are eight negatives. It does not envy, it does not boast, and it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. It does not delight itself in evil but rejoices with the truth.

Four final items show love expressing itself in action: love protects, love trusts, love hopes, and love perseveres. Inclined to ask whether we know anybody like that. Sometimes I read that and I answer in a very negative way. I say we don't know anybody that measures up to that description. I think maybe that's not quite fair. When I look at it in another light, I say, yes, you do see those things in Christian people. Talk about patience, and you see many people who are patient because of the presence of Jesus Christ in their lives. I'm surrounded by people like that. They're the ones that are very, very patient, and so I can vouch for that personally.

Love is kind. As I look around the Christian church, I see Christian people who are eminent for their kindness. I'm delighted that they show great kindness to other people, especially people that need it. They take them in, they comfort them, they minister to them in a personal way because they're kind. They don't deal with them harshly, even though they brought terrible things upon themselves because of the way they live. Christian people are able to do that. You see, there are people like this. There are those who don't envy, those who don't boast, those who are not proud. That's true.

Problem is getting them all together. Is there anybody who's really got it all together? Standard from which we all fall short except for Jesus Christ. Isn't this a portrait of Christ? Take out the word "love" and put in the name of Christ and it reads as a perfect description of His character. That's why He's so lovely; it's why we love Him. Jesus Christ is patient. Oh, Jesus Christ is so patient. He's patient with us. You know what we're like. We produce anything but patience in the reaction of other people, and yet Jesus Christ is so patient with us.

Haven't you found Jesus Christ to be kind? If there's anyone who knows your heart, if there's anyone who can expose what you really are, if there's anybody who can point the finger and say, "Ah, look at that sin," it's Jesus Christ. I've had people do that with me, and even though it hurts, I thank myself internally that they only see the surface. Jesus Christ sees below the surface. Yet He doesn't do that. Does Jesus Christ point the finger at you? Does He mock you? He doesn't do that. Carefully He works with us. Bruised reed He will not break and a smoking flax He will not quench, but He works with what you are, kindly, to bring out the character which He Himself has placed within.

Portrait of Christ is marvelous: Jesus Christ does not envy. Jesus Christ does not boast. Jesus Christ is not proud. Jesus Christ is not rude. Jesus Christ is not self-seeking. Jesus Christ is not easily angered. He keeps no record of wrongs. Aren't you glad of that? Jesus Christ does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. Jesus always protects. Jesus always trusts. Jesus always hopes. Jesus always perseveres.

Absolutely marvelous. It's the recognition that our God is like that. Our Savior is like that. This was what life is about. Everything else, the envy, the boasting, the pride, the rudeness, all of that is an aberration. That's not what God intended; that's not what life is all about. Reality is this, the character of Christ. It's a knowledge of that that draws us on to be like it by His grace. Henry Drummond, whom I mentioned earlier, analyzed these things very carefully. Get these ingredients into your life. Then everything that you do is eternal.

Everything that you do is eternal. If love is going to abide, if love is not going to die, then these things which are the expression of love are not going to die either. So if what you do is characterized by patience and kindness, if what you do flows from love, then what you do not only matters, but endures for all eternity. Why is it then that we spend so much time trying to do the opposite? Knowledge is what we Presbyterians are so proud of. We spend so much time acquiring knowledge because we want to be thought wise. We say when someone praises us for that, "Ah, I have made my mark. I'll be remembered." Paul says it's going to pass away.

Significant if you stand up and speak in tongues and endow with the gift of healing. Paul says that'll pass away. I don't know that people are used by God in healings today. I suppose it's possible; I've not seen it. But you know, even if you are, the person you heal is going to die. Or you say, well, how about these good deeds? I want to be known as somebody who is so good in dealing with other people that I am so good, people will remember me after I'm gone.

Work of God remains eternally. If we could just see that, I suppose that one thing alone would so radically transform us and our churches that the world would actually sit up and take notice and say, there is something which really is supernatural and that the world doesn't have.

Last point is exactly where Paul himself is going. He's talked about the importance of love and the nature of love, and he says if you understand the importance of love and the nature of love, it follows that love never fails. All these other things are going to fail. Prophecies will cease. Tongues will be stilled. Knowledge will pass away because all these things are partial. but where there's love, love will not pass away.

Sums it up when he puts faith, hope and love together and he says these three remain. I guess he means they remain through life and they remain through eternity. But I can think of at least one situation in the Bible where faith, which was genuine, and hope, which was also genuine, died, at least for a time, and love alone remained. It grows out of the Easter story. At the time of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, those who had gathered around him began to scatter because they had had faith in him. Peter had expressed his faith, John, all the other apostles.

Thomas especially indicates the death of faith. They thought Jesus was the Son of God, the Messiah, and they had a certain idea of how that Son of God and Messiah was going to function. When Jesus died on the cross, that just didn't fit their idea. So faith died. When the disciples came to Thomas after they had seen the resurrected Lord and he had not, and they said, "The Lord is risen," Thomas said, "I just don't believe it." What clearer expression of the death of faith could you have? Faith died in them when Jesus died.

Emmaus disciples were on their way home after the crucifixion and for that matter, after the resurrection about which they had heard reports. They didn't have any hope in those things. He had died, and dead men don't come back. When the Lord himself came to them along the way and said, "What is it? Why are you so sad?" they told him all the story about Jesus and then they said, "We had hoped that it was he who should have redeemed Israel." We had hoped once upon a time. Hope died when Jesus died.

One thing didn't die, and that was love. They still loved him. Mary had no doubt that he was dead. All she had in mind as she went to the tomb on that Easter Sunday morning was the body. She didn't expect to see Jesus alive. She just wanted to minister to the body because she loved him. She didn't have any hope that there was going to be anything like a resurrection. When Jesus appeared first and she thought he was the gardener, the only thing she could ask him was, "Tell me where you've put him," and I'll bear it away. She was offering to do the impossible. It was a body of a full-grown man. She wasn't thinking about that. She loved him. Love did not die.

Jesus spoke her name and she recognized her name from the lips of him she loved. Other things just came along. Hope revived and faith revived and as the story of the resurrection passed through the company of the disciples, all of them came alive. But it was chiefly because of love. I close by asking whether you really know anything of that love. Experience something of the love of Jesus Christ? Can you say, "I love him"? Years ago, a preacher was preaching on love for Christ, and afterwards a little girl in the congregation came up to him and said, "I don't know that I really can say that I love Jesus. How can I love him?"

God commends His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ Jesus died for us. Jesus loves you. Understanding that makes you begin to love Him. Where that has happened, salvation has crashed into your heart and you've been made alive in faith and hope and love forevermore. Let us pray.

Our Father, we read a chapter like this and we confess we know so little about it. Everybody talks about love and it's glib with us. We understand so little about it. but our Father, we believe that by the grace of Jesus Christ and through the channel of His love for us, we do know something of this love.

Grow in it, change our perspective about things that we'll no longer find ourselves thinking primarily as the world thinks, and instead might learn to love. In learning to love, express patience and kindness and hope and perseverance and all these other things and thus do that which, by Your grace, endures everlastingly to the praise of the glory of Him who gave Himself for us. Amen.

Mark Daniels: You're listening to the Bible Study Hour featuring the teaching of Dr. James Boice. If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. Sadly, we don't always see that love manifested even in the church. Discover the most important key to loving others in our free CD offer entitled *The New Commandment*. It's also by Dr. Boice. This free CD offer is our gift to you.

To receive it, call 1-800-488-1888. We'll be pleased to send you a copy of *The New Commandment*. That number again is 1-800-488-1888. Listeners like you make it possible for us to continue broadcasting our beloved Bible teacher's profound and insightful messages. You can make a one-time contribution or even a monthly pledge by calling us directly at 1-800-488-1888.

That mailing address, if you prefer: 600 Eden Road, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 17601. The message you just heard as well as audiobooks and more from Dr. Boice and many other reformed teachers, authors, and speakers is available at reformedresources.org. That's reformedresources.org. I'm Mark Daniels. Thanks for listening today. While every part of the Bible is relevant, some parts speak to contemporary issues more directly than others, and the 14th chapter of 1 Corinthians is one of those. Join Dr. James Boice as he reveals why the danger of people within the church doing what they want to do is both an ancient and contemporary problem and presents Paul's remedy for it. That's next time on the Bible Study Hour, preparing you to think and act biblically.