Maybe one of the most well-known
chapters in all of scripture Often memorized and quoted Understandably so Beautiful language of it is It stands out In the narrative
of this letter And this portion stands out and it has a clear, distinctive,
single theme. And the title of the message
tonight is Love or Nothing. That's the clear message of these
first few verses. And then you see a change in
verse four that we'll identify as we go through this. Verse
one again, though I speak with the tongues, that is the languages,
that's what that is, with the language of men and of angels
and have not love, and we say love there because the word charity
here is agape, which by far most often in scripture is translated
love. The idea of charity, and I think
the reason that they use the word charity in this translation,
Becomes somewhat clear in in verse 3 and Charity is love in
action. It's it's love doing something
And there's not a thing wrong with that word. It's just we
use it a little different nowadays and it almost has a bad connotation
to me anymore because of the way it's abused and and Dishonest people what they've done in the name
of charity, what churches do in the name of charity, but so-called churches, I should
say. But there's a couple of things
I want us to remember from chapter 12 as we come into chapter 13.
Remember how that the last verse of chapter 12 ties this chapter
to that one. And I think that's important
to see. So look at the verse 31 of chapter 12, where Paul
says, but covet earnestly the best gifts, and yet I show unto
you a more excellent way. So chapter 13 is compared. This is more excellent. This
is more important. And it doesn't supersede chapter
12. It's not that the gifts themselves
are inferior. It's that the gifts apart from
this truth, apart from love, are useless. They're useless. And so the approach to the gifts
changes. We'll see if that makes any sense
as we look through this. But he says, covet earnestly
the best gifts. That's a good thing. That's commendable. But we see here that it is in
the discussion of gifts and the body of Christ, the unity of
the body of the church is the body of Christ and how necessary
we are to one another. It's in that context that love
is showcased here and defined. So keep that in mind. It's all
regarding how God runs his church. Gifts, unity, but most of all,
and necessary to all, love. Second thing about chapter 12
that I want to bring in is that Paul emphasizes the purposes
of the purpose of the gifts and the unity in chapter 12 in verses
four through seven. So look at that with me, if you
would. Chapter 12, verse four. It's important in understanding
the gifts and the arrangement of the body, the unity of the
body, and how love impacts that to see what the point of it all
is. Why does God give gifts to his people? Verse four. Now there
are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit. And remember
what spirit he's talking about, the one that calls Christ. sovereign. And there are differences of
administrations, verse 5, but the same Lord. And there are
diversities of operations, gifts, administrations, operations,
more specific each time. But it is the same God which
worketh all in all, but the manifestation of the Spirit, that is these
gifts, Spirit glows worthless if you can't tell where he came
from or where he'll go You can hear the sound there of though.
There is a man if there are manifestations of his spirit in the church in
these gifts The spirit is working these things and these manifestations
of the spirit the manifestation of the spirit in these various
ways is given to every man to profit with all and And we think
of profit, we think of, well, you know, sell high, buy low,
sell high. That's not what this is talking
about. The word profit here means to bear together, to carry with
others, to be in on it, on the business of the church, to be
a help. That's the actual language of
the, of the definition there of the Greek word, to be a help.
God gives these things to be a help, and for us to be a help
to one another. So you see how that bears on
our text. As soon as you read verses one
and two, you see that, how that bears upon our text, because
he gave these things to profit withal, and what he's saying
here in verses one and two, if you don't have love, if all of
this isn't motivated and born from a heart of love, then it
doesn't profit anything. You see that in the language
there? It doesn't benefit anybody. And
the point of it is to benefit each other. For God to benefit
his church without love, that's not gonna happen. It's not gonna
happen. So you see how that bears on
this chapter. If I have these gifts, if I have
all of them, gifts are a great blessing. But apart from love,
they're useless, and more to the point, if I have these gifts
and don't have this fruit of the Spirit, I may have these
gifts of the Spirit, or if I did and didn't have the fruit of
the Spirit, love, then I'm useless. That's what it says. I am just
a bunch of noise, and I'm nothing. I'm nothing. It doesn't just
say, it doesn't profit anything, but I'm nothing. So now, not
only is love more excellent than the gifts themselves, the gifts
being useless without love, but love is more excellent than coveting
the gifts. You see how he words it that
way in the last, covet earnestly the best gifts, but I'll show
you a more excellent way than coveting the gifts. Don't set
your heart as if the be-all end-all was having these gifts. The be-all
end-all is love, and anything you do out of love is of the
Lord, is good, is useful, is beneficial, it's edifying, as
we'll see that word in a minute. instead of desiring to have the
gifts themselves and seeking to possess them and considering
the gifts to be the goal, focus on caring, focus on the desire
of your heart is to be profitable, to be beneficial, to be a blessing.
That's how we commonly say that and the scriptures do too. Which
of these gifts In your experience, if somebody had these gifts,
which one of them would be more precious to you than just having
somebody that cares about you? Somebody that loves you without
any special gift at all, other than that, they'll do whatever
they can for you. Of course, that's the point,
not the gifts themselves. Does it require a special gift
of the Spirit? As they're described in chapter
12, the different ones are named. Does it require any of those
to visit somebody when they're down, like our Lord said? Or to bring someone a cup of
cold water, does it require any special gift of the Spirit to
do that? Of course it requires the love
of God in your heart. but none of those gifts mentioned
are necessary. And think about this now, in
our relationships with one another, the moment that someone, the
moment that Vicki perceives, if she perceives that what I
do, I do for her only out of a sense of duty as her husband
and nothing more, that's the day our marriage fails. You see
that? It doesn't matter what I do. It's not that way. It's not that
way when the Lord knits hearts together. It's not the things you do, it's
how and why you do them. That's what this chapter stresses. The how and the why will determine
the things. They will mandate the things. Of course you're gonna do certain
things if the love is in your heart, but it's the love that
makes those things precious. It's the love that makes them
beneficial. When the Lord said, I will give
you pastors, I'm glad he didn't stop there. According to my heart,
that's the key. That's the key. If he just gave
pastors without that last part, they would be worthless. What
comes out of their mouth would just be noise. But he gives pastors
after his heart. Everything hinges upon that.
Now, because the pastor that God gives loves those whom God
gives him to preach to, that pastor will do certain things.
He's gonna tell you the truth. He's gonna care, he's gonna be
concerned about you, he's gonna ask about you, he's gonna wanna
know, he's gonna wanna pray and care, he's gonna care for you. But it has to come from the heart.
Without that word heart, I'll give you pastors according to
my heart. Without that word heart in Jeremiah
3.15, instead of the sheep being fed, It would just be noise and vanity. So you see how this chapter changes
everything. It affects everything. You hear
a man that is able to speak all of the languages of men without
having learned them the traditional way. God just gives him the gift
to be able to speak them. And you might think how wonderful,
how profitable that would be. Not necessarily. It might be
nothing. It might be vanity. It might
just be noise. It matters what's in his heart. What has God done for him on
the inside? There's a practical benefit maybe
from that ability. But if God doesn't bless it,
I think it's pretty clear here which way that's gonna go from
this chapter. If God doesn't bless it, it's
useless. There's a practical benefit from me studying the
word of God, preparing a message like this, but unless God blesses
it, it's gonna be worse than a waste
of time. He's got to bless it from my point of view and from
yours. He's gotta bless both of us.
He's gotta bless all of us. or it will profit us nothing. And the way that he blesses it
is by love, by his love, being communicated in the love that he gives for
himself and his people. Where God blesses the word, he
gives a heart of love for Christ, for Christ's sheep, for the truth,
We've received the love of the truth, not just the truth. Remember what Paul said in 1
Thessalonians 2.8. We saw this recently in our other
study in Thessalonians. He said this in 2.8, so being
affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted
unto you, not the gospel only, but also our own souls, because
you were dear unto us. That's what God said when he
said, I'll give you pastors after my heart, according to my heart. That's what he said. You'll find
that always is true. What's the difference? Consider
this and think about this. I'm gonna read part of John 10.
Think about the subject of that chapter in general. What's the
difference in John 10, talking about the shepherd and the sheep.
What's the difference between a hireling and the shepherd? And I understand that when we're
talking about the shepherd in John 10, it's talking about Christ.
Who's he gonna send? He sends under shepherds after
his own heart. And we'll see that here. Listen
to it. In John 10, 11, he said, I'll give you pastors. When he
said, I'll give you pastors in Jeremiah, where we quoted, that
word means shepherds. So it's directly related to John
10, where in verse 11, Christ said, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. But he that is in hireling and
not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf
coming and leaveth the sheep. He didn't care about the sheep. God talks about these shepherds.
He told his prophets what to say about false shepherds of
his people. They feed themselves, not the
flock. They don't care anything about you. It's evident. They're
enriching themselves. They're popularizing themselves. They're gaining notoriety for
themselves. And they don't care about anybody.
You're just a number. But he said, the hireling, if
he sees a problem, if it's gonna cost him something to guard the
sheep, he's out of there. He leaveth the sheep and fleeth,
and the wolf catches them and scattereth the sheep. The hireling
fleeth, and then he goes back and tells us why. The hireling
fleeth because he's a hireling. We say, well, that's obvious,
but think about it. The hireling runs away. He's
not willing to sacrifice anything. He's not willing for there to
be any consequence that adversely affects him in the business of
the sheep, feeding the Lord's sheep and caring for the Lord's
sheep. Not willing to give up anything.
Why? Because of who he is, because
of what he is. He's a hireling and careth not
for the sheep. He doesn't care. That's the difference
between the shepherd and the hireling. And that's of course
talking, he said, I am the good shepherd. But when he sends somebody,
he said, I'll give you shepherds. I'll give you shepherds. He's
the good shepherd. What he said, I'm gonna give
you shepherds too. And they're gonna be after my own heart. That's the difference a lot of
highlands a lot of highlands They don't care that's the problem
and that's our test That's what he's talking about All through
chapter 12. What's he talking about the care
of the church the benefit of the church profiting the church?
The Lord sheep and now he's saying without love if you don't really
care for the sheep or the shepherd, just go away, go away. What language do angels speak?
I don't have a slightest idea, but if I did know and I could
speak it, it would be a waste of time. It would just be noise,
unless it served some purpose of love, unless there was some
benefit. for the people of God, a furtherance
of the cause of Christ and his church. That's the point. And anything that doesn't serve
that is not of the Lord, and it's nothing. It's love or nothing. Look at verse two. And though I have the gift of
prophecy, and understand all mysteries
and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could
remove mountains and have not love, I'm nothing." So you see, the
first part of this verse also has to do with speaking. Though
I speak, and he's gonna talk about in chapter 14 how that
speaking in tongues, unless people understand what you're saying
and are edified, unless there's doctrine in it, unless there's
teaching in it, it's nothing. It's a waste of breath. And this
first part also has to do with prophecy. And I understand all
mysteries and all knowledge. And I'm able to convey that.
As wonderful as these gifts are, And they are gifts from the Lord.
He said, covet those gifts, be thankful. But more excellent
than pursuing the gifts is to just care. That's the excellent
way, is to just care. And then everything you do will
be a blessing. As wonderful as these gifts are,
the usefulness of them, God's blessing of them is always accompanied
by a heart of love for Christ and for his church. Now, we've
seen how that he said, I'll give you pastors after my own heart,
and he shows the difference from a shepherd and a hireling. It's
because you care for the sheep. You love them. Remember what he said to Simon,
if you love me, feed my sheep. So it's love for
the sheep and love for him. If you love Christ, feed his
sheep. Be a pastor after the heart of
God. So it's both. Remember what Paul,
if you turn with me to first Corinthians eight, let's look
at this. And I believe this will shed some light on the The context in which all of this
is, it's a beautiful chapter, and it's often quoted as a standalone
commentary on love and what it is, and there's nothing wrong
with that. But look at 1 Corinthians 8. Now, as touching things offered
unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Now that's what
verse two is talking about. We understand that. And it doesn't
matter if it has to do with idols, you know, whatever doctrine it
is. If we have knowledge, that's
great, good. You know the truth about that.
You can discern truth from error. But look at the rest of verse
one, but knowledge puffeth up, but love, buildeth up. That's what edify means, literally,
to build up. So that play on words is there
in the way Paul wrote it. Knowledge puffs up, love builds
up. And if any man think that he
know anything, he don't really know anything. You see that? I mean, it's good what the Lord
teaches us and the knowledge that we have, but don't start
bright on your knowledge. Let not the wise bring glory
in his wisdom, but that he understandeth and knoweth Christ. To know Christ is not to be smart,
it's to be blessed of God. We rejoice in what God's done
for us, not what, not our potential and excellence toward God and
knowledge or anything else. But look at it, if any man think
that he knoweth anything, he doesn't know anything yet as
he ought to know, so quit boasting in your knowledge. Knowledge
without love will just puff you up. We know that, we've experienced
that. But, If you love him, here's what matters. He knows
you. You see how three, he gives three hammer blows to the
idea of seeking knowledge just for the sake of not knowing things. First of all, it's just going
to puff you up. Secondly, you don't know anything. You've got,
what he's saying is this, in the realm of knowledge, on the
subject of knowledge, you have nothing to boast about. You don't
know anything the way you ought to know it, much less how you
could know it. And thirdly, it's not what you
know. Well, if I know my Bible, if
I know God, Does he know you? Does he know you? And I guarantee
the evidence of whether he, you need to know that. You need to
be able to answer that. Does God know me? And the answer
to that is not, look how much I know. It's by his grace, I
love him. I love him. That don't happen
without the grace of God. You can know a lot of stuff without
the grace of God. but you're not gonna love the
truth. You can recite the truth, you can agree with the truth,
you can argue the truth, but you're not gonna love the truth
without grace. Love buildeth up. Clearly from our text, we see
that it's not knowledge, knowledge is not bad, it's not, Knowledge
bad love good. It's knowledge without love bad
We see that in our text That's what he's saying clearly if I
have that all these things and I don't have love I'm nothing. So it's those things
without love. It's knowledge without love.
It's wisdom. It's understanding even faith
If there can be faith without love, and there can't, it's nothing. It's love or nothing. Knowledge is good understanding. It's wonderful as long as it's
not cold facts without the fruit of the spirit. A man who does not love God by
his grace, reciting facts that he thinks people want to hear. And that's what people are going
to say, especially if they depend on people giving their money,
they're going to say whatever they think somebody wants to
hear, unless they love the Lord and love those people, because
you don't need to hear what you want to hear. You need to hear
what God says. But that kind of preaching will
generate that kind of hearer. Somebody that just puts out information
without caring, without heart, without love, without love for
Christ. If you don't love the Lord, you're
not gonna tell the truth about Him. That's not gonna do you
any good, see. Because the reason that people
don't love the Lord is because they love themselves. Here's the condemnation, that
darkness, that light has come into the world and men loved
darkness rather than light. They loved themselves rather
than Christ. And so you're gonna do what benefits
you if you don't love him. And that's most people that call
themselves preachers in this world. It requires no love at all to
recite facts from the scriptures. To preach Christ, though, that
doesn't happen naturally. That comes from God's heart to
mine to yours. God's heart to the hearts of
sinners. The preaching of Christ, the
declaration of the truth concerning God's Son, that comes from the
heart of God to the hearts of men. I can inform you so that
you literally know everything there is to know about the battle.
But unless you fall in love with the Son of God, you are lost
forever. Because as we see in this text,
it's God knowing you. That's salvation. If God knows you, then he will
make it so that you know him. With this understanding now,
a saving knowledge of God is more than just head knowledge. It's heart faith and love for
the Savior. There is a faith that does not
love, but it's not true saving faith.
It's a faith that loves the benefits, but not the benefactor. They believed on him because
of the miracles, because they got a free meal. And they thought,
man, this could turn into something great. So they followed him around
for more free meals, but he didn't commit himself to them because
he knew what was in them. The point is love, even if by
that faith, Faith without love, faith that loves salvation but
not the Savior. Even if by that faith I could
move mountains, what would be the point of that? The point is love. The kind of
mountains that I need moved and you need moved can only be moved
by the love of God. When he sheds that abroad in
the hearts of sinners the Gospels preached and believed on verse
3 in our text and Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor
And though I give my body to be burned And have not love it
profiteth me Nothing So let's look at the pattern here for
a minute. I just want to kind of Let's keep a perspective on the
whole while looking as much as we can at the detail too. Not
only without love are my words just noise. My knowledge is vain. My faith is the wrong kind. But also here, what I do, is
a waste of time. Again, it's not that there isn't
some practical benefit that comes from feeding the poor, from that
physical act of feeding the poor. If you give money to a charity,
some of it might end up doing somebody some physical good somewhere. But think about this for a second.
Why does it say then it's a waste of time to do that without love?
Well, it becomes pretty clear when you just think about it.
Think beyond the perception of charity. You're not really feeding the
poor, are you? It says, if I give all of my goods to feed the poor,
it's nothing. Isn't that evident? How far are
your goods gonna go in this world of starving people? Honestly. Well, that's cold. No, think
about it with me. How far is that gonna go? Without
any love, if that's all you've got to give, it's just money.
You remember the disciples, Simon said, I don't have any silver
or gold, I can't help you. I ain't got no food, but such
as I have, by the grace of God, I can solve the problem. The
Lord can solve your problem, not just the symptoms of it. How much does it matter if you
go to hell hungry or fed without the love of God. Now,
if you don't love Christ, you're not going to tell people about
Christ. You're going to tell people what benefits you. And
all the while you're giving and saying, oh, look how charitable
we are. You're getting rich off of it. You're getting notoriety
off of it. You're getting, you know, big
wigs to give money to you so you can give to the poor. But
what about the catalog you're driving? What about the huge
elaborate church building that's no good to anybody? The gold-plated
stuff that's meaningless. The fancy statues and architecture. You're not really feeding the
poor. You're putting a drop in the bucket. How many people could
you feed with everything you owe, you reckon? And how long
before they're hungry again? How long? You see why we're not in that
business? And I know that sounds cold. I know some people are
gonna hear this thing and say, well, y'all just stingy or whatever. No, by God's grace, We're not in that business because
it's meaningless without the love of God in Christ. If you love the Lord, you're gonna be a giver. But your goal in life is not
gonna be to end world hunger. It's not gonna be to give to
godless charities that are gonna go tell people lies and buy them
a meal while they're lying to them. It doesn't mean anything without
the love of God. Well, you did what you could
though. Without love, there's no virtue in that at all, according
to God. It won't stop people from starving
to death. And more importantly, unless
God sends someone to the poor that loves them and loves him, they're just gonna go to hell
with one more meal under their belt. If you feed them and lie to them
as religion does, then you'll go to hell with their blood on
your hands, feeling good about yourself for having done something
good. Chris, you're just a ray of sunshine
tonight. But now you see that Paul here's painting a dark background
of what it's like without love. And beginning in verse four,
the jewel is placed upon the background and how it shines,
how beautifully it shines. Without love, what you say, what
you know, what you believe, and what you do is worthless or even
destructive. But that just serves to show
us the truth of what Paul says later in this chapter, the greatest
is love. The greatest, it's necessary. Does that not help define what
love is? It's necessary. What a dark,
cold, horrible place this world is without love. None of the
good things in this world mean anything without that good thing
That's the message of these first three verses it's love or nothing
We'll see In this chapter by the Lord's grace That what most
people call love what passes for love in this world and especially
in religion It's not love they just call it that It'll be plain
as day that it's not, because we'll see what true love is.
May God teach us what love is, and most of all, may he cause
that fruit of his spirit to abound in our hearts. Let's pray.