LOVE SUNDAY
LOVE REDEFINED
Text: 1 Corinthians 13
INTRODUCTION:
(1 Cor 2:9 NIV) However, as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him"--
(1 Cor 4:21 NIV) What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a whip, or in love and with a gentle spirit?
(1 Cor 8:1 NIV) Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
(1 Cor 8:3 NIV) But the man who loves God is known by God.
1. Eros- Love of deep desire, passionate, and sensuous.
2. Storge-it is a family love.
3. Philia—it is used to describe different types of love.
4. Agape—Unconditional love for the unworthy which is unmerited and undeserved.
Raymond Bryan Brown “Agape is used to express the spontaneous, creative, caring love that is expressive of God’s nature and that extended to undeserving men in Christ.”
LOVE REDEFINED
1. THE PICTURE OF A LIFE WITHOUT LOVE. 1cor 13:1-3
(1 Cor 13:1-3 NIV) If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. {2} If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. {3} If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
(1 Cor 12:7 NIV) Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
(Psa 150:5 NIV) praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals.
(John 13:35 NIV) By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
2. THE PORTRAYAL OF GENUINE LOVE. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
(1 Cor 13:4-7 NIV) Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. {5} It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. {6} Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. {7} It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
a. What Love is:
Patience. The Greek makrothymeo-waiting patiently, longsuffering.
Kind. The word coveys the idea of being "sweet to all."
b. What Love is not:
Not envy. The Greek word zeloo—have positive and negative use. Enthusiastic, desire, jealous, envy, eager.
(1 Corinthians 3:3 NIV) You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?
Not proud. The Greek word physioo—inflated, inflated with pride. It does not boast or brag.
Not rude. The word used in Greek conveys the idea of acting improperly.
Not self-seeking. Love that insists its own way is not love, but selfishness.
Not easily angered. Love is not resentful or irritable.
"You, a doctor?" she asks. "How can you be a doctor? You don't love mankind."
Linus replies, "I do love mankind. It's people I can't stand."
Not a record keeper of wrongs. It is not resentful.
Not delight in evil. Does not feel happy with anything that is evil.
c. What Love Does:
Rejoices with the truth.
Always Protects.
Always trusts. Raymond Brown says “Love prefers to be overgenerous rather than over-suspicious.”
Always hopes. (Rom 5:3 NIV) Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;
(2 Th 1:4 NIV) Therefore, among God's churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.
Always persevere. (Rom 8:38-39 NIV) For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, {39} neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
3. THE PERMANENCE OF CHRISTIAN LOVE. 1 Corinthians 13:8-13
(1 Cor 13:8-13 NIV) Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. {9} For we know in part and we prophesy in part, {10} but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. {11} 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. {12} Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. {13} And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
(Song 8:7 NIV) Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned.
(1 John 4:19 NIV) We love because he first loved us.
CONCLUSION:
(1 John 4:8 NIV) Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
