Verse 27, Now ye are the body
of Christ, and members in particular. And God hath set some in the
church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers. After
that, miracles, gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities
of tongues. Are all apostles, are all prophets,
are all teachers, are all workers of miracles, have all the gifts
of healing, Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? Now, I think that we would all
agree that the rhetorical answer to that question is no. I mean,
the point he's making is that nobody has all of these things. These are gifts given by God
to the church for a purpose, some, I believe, for a season. That's what they are, the gift
of God, isn't it? The purpose of God has been manifested
in these gifts according to the good pleasure of His will. But
covet earnestly the best gifts, and yet show unto you a more
excellent way. Now I believe that the context
of what he is saying here is why are you coveting gifts? Now, in the 14th chapter, he
goes on to say that it is not a bad thing to desire gifts. So he's not telling them it is
wrong to desire gifts, but what he's getting at is, why are you
clamoring for these things, most especially as you would clamor
for them for your own benefit? Because that's not the purpose
of spiritual gifts. It's not so that I can say, I've
got the gift. You know, that's not the purpose
of it. The purpose of any spiritual gift is for the benefit of the
body. And if it doesn't benefit the body, then it is not a spiritual
gift for the purpose that God has sent it to perform. Because He said there, you are
the body of Christ, members in particular. And in that context,
in that context alone, we desire spiritual gifts. But he said,
why are you clamoring for these things? I'm going to show you
a more excellent way. Here's a better thing, he said,
than being concerned about coming up with having these gifts. He
said, here's a better thing, because he said, this is really
the whole purpose of what these gifts are given for in the first
place. Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels." Now
he's been speaking to them about the gift of tongues. Now he doesn't
say a whole lot about that. Really you would think, and I'm
not being critical, this is just a fact, the emphasis that is
placed on speaking in tongues that is widespread. I mean, this isn't a thing that's
hidden in the corner somewhere. You would think that as much
of a clamor and as much of a big deal as is made of that, that
that would be on every page of the New Testament. I mean, wouldn't
you? I mean, if you read the New Testament,
you'd think that every other chapter that Paul wrote would
be something about this compared to what you see demonstrated
of those who claim that they are manifesting these gifts. And so he says here, though I
speak with the tongues of men and angels, it doesn't mean just
what I say or how well I say it or from what I attribute the
origin of it from. You know, if it be a heavenly
tongue and of angels and have not charity, have not love, have
not concern for my brethren, In other words, if that's not
my purpose in what I'm doing, he says, it's like sounding brass
or a tinkling cymbal. It's just whang. It's just a
noise. It's just a clamor. It's just
an empty thing if that's not the purpose of it. If that's
not the purpose of all that we would undertake to do, he says,
if it's not love, then it's of nothing. It's just a clanging.
It's just a sound. 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,
I could do wondrous things. I mean, isn't that the sign that
somebody's, you know, got the Lord with them, they're just
doing all these miracle things? Well, according to what Paul
says, even though if I could do these things but I don't love
the brethren, that's not my purpose in doing these things. It's because
of my love for the brethren. If I don't have that, it's not
any good. It's nothing. It may make a good
show. You know, you might get people
excited. You might get people gathered
up to see it. But what point is it? And though
I bestow all my goods to feed the poor. Well wait, wouldn't
that be a sign of love? Not necessarily. Because you
see, a lot of times people do things because they want to satisfy
their own conscience. You know, they get to thinking,
you know, I really have a guilty conscience, I need to go over
here and, you know, go, I mean, you know, have you, you've all
had these thoughts, you're sitting around on Thanksgiving Day and
you're eating a big Thanksgiving dinner and it's just, and you
think, and all of a sudden you think about those people that
don't have what you have and you get to feeling guilty. And
you say, well, you know, next Thanksgiving I think I'll go
down to the soup kitchen somewhere and I'll serve Thanksgiving dinner
to it. Oh, that will be, you know, I'll
say, buddy, I've done something. Well, maybe you haven't. I'm
not saying that's a bad thing, okay? It may be, but if it's
not motivated out of pure love for the brethren primarily, Paul
said, It doesn't matter. I mean, you can give all your
goods to feed the poor, and though you give your body to be burned,
I mean, people have sacrificed themselves for a lot of stuff,
haven't they? Because they thought it was noble.
Maybe they wanted to live in fame forever. So they said, man,
we're going to do this, you know, we're going to put our name up
in lights forever or whatever. Though I give my body to be burned,
but if I don't have love, specifically to the brethren, to those for
whom Christ died, it profits me nothing. It's no use. It's just empty. Charity suffereth long in His
kind. Now he's going to describe what
true love is. Now, one of the easiest things
for somebody to do is say, I love you. The demonstration of love is
quite a different matter, is it not? And it is not something
actually that is humanly possible. It's not something that's really
part of the human makeup because we're born in this world with
one person in mind. And nobody ever had to tell you
that that was the one person you need to be concerned about,
did they? Because that one person is the person that every one
of us is primarily concerned about. You know, we can go and
when somebody dies, we can be consoling to the family and we
can, you know, minister to them as best we can and we can feel
true grief over the passing of someone that we loved. But really, when it comes down
to it, we're saying, well, I'm glad it wasn't me. I mean, you
know, that's just basically the way that we are. And what can
we do about that? I mean, that's just what we are
by nature. That's what this corruptible
flesh, that's how it is, okay? But what he's pointing out here
is these things are contrary to that. And so if we would know
what love is and if love would be demonstrated, this is what
it will be. It won't be us just saying about
it. suffers wrong, it forbears, it forgives. Now, I suppose that
forgiveness is the primary demonstration of love, is it not? When someone
has wronged us. Now, when everything is going
great and everybody is doing good things for us, It's not
hard to love somebody that comes and gives you a $1,000 check
and says, you know, I was just thinking about you and I wanted
you to have this. I mean, you know, that's right,
but what about when somebody comes and steals $1,000 from
you? You know, that's a little different
story, isn't it? That's different. But he says,
here, charity suffers, It puts up with them. There is no end. Peter said, Lord, how many times
shall we forgive somebody? Till 490 times. Or till seven
times, he said. And the Lord said, Peter, I tell
you, till 70 times seven. Now what he was saying there
was not when you've done it 490 times, but he was saying there
ain't no end to it. That's a perfect... That's just
continual. There is no end to forgiveness.
Now how far do we forgive somebody as long as they don't do it again? No. That's not what he's saying.
Charity suffers long. It's kind. Because charity remembers
the pit from whence it was dug. Look, we're all failures in one
way or another. And so when we see failure in
one another, it should just remind us of what we are, shouldn't
it? Rather than causing us to magnify what they are. Isn't
that amazing how when somebody does something egregious, we
get thinking about them? But you see, what he's saying
here is don't think about them. Think about you. What are you? What made you different? in this
situation. It's kind in that it considers. Charity envieth not. It's not
interested in bonding itself. Charity bondeth not itself. It
puffeth not up. It's not desiring something from
someone, nor is it desiring to be built up in somebody's eyes. That's not part of love. What's
that part of? That's part of self. See, everything
he's saying here is contrary to the flesh. It's contrary to
how we think. It does not behave itself unseemly. That is, rudely. Now, I'm a rude
person. I confess it. That doesn't make
it all right. I mean, if you do something wrong
and you say, I'm sorry, that doesn't make you absolved of
all blame, does it? But it just means you confess
that's what you are by nature. We are rude people. Now, some
of us are more rude than others. Some have been able to, you know,
modify their rudeness. And the Lord has subdued rudeness
in a lot of people. But some people are just rude.
I mean, that's all there is. But He said love is not like
that. It is not of that. Seeketh not her own. That is self-explanatory, isn't
it? Now, by nature, we are going to seek our own. We are going
to seek the advantage somewhere or other in every situation. But that is not what love is.
Seeketh not her own. Remember when Paul was speaking
to the Corinthians, in fact, earlier in this chapter, and
he said, you know, some of you are going to law with one another
in courts of law, suing one another and whatnot. He said, you should
suffer yourself to be defrauded rather than do that. Just take
the loss and be glad for it and go on, move on. You know, what
is a grudge? It's when you just hold on to
something and you simmer on it and you think on it. And the
more you think on it, the worse it gets. And what's the benefit
of that? Not really anything. Exactly.
It kills you. It kills your spirit. It kills
your life. I mean, it just kills you. It
just eats at you like cancer does. It just sacks your strength. It can't help you. It's not easily
provoked. Think of no evil. Now people,
you know, different people have different levels of tolerance
as far as like being provoked. Some people, bingo, a drop of
hat, you know. And some people, they just get
on a slow simmer. You know, and they don't just
blow up all at once, but they just go along for a way. And
I remember up in Ken's, and it may still be up there, I haven't
been up there in several years, but they used to have a picture
up on the wall, and it showed this woman, and she was standing
there and her eyes were all bugged out and her hair's sticking out
like this, and it says, I had one nerve left and dang if you
didn't get on that one. But love is not easily provoked. Now, he doesn't say here it can't
be provoked. Because look, men are men, we're
going to be provoked. But he says if you love somebody,
you cannot easily be provoked at what they do. Thinketh no evil. I believe what he means there
is that true love gives somebody the benefit of the doubt. It
doesn't think the worst to start with. You know, if somebody does
something that causes you grief, you don't automatically think,
well, they just wanted to hurt me. Well, they might not have. Now, they may have, but see,
love causes us to think the best. True love causes us to think
the best, even though it might not be the best that they had
in mind, but it's not setting on ready to accuse somebody of
something. Thinketh no evil. Rejoiceth not
in iniquity. Takes no pleasure in sin of any
kind. Takes no pleasure in transgression.
It's not interested in seeing It's not interested in seeing
somebody get their own just deserves. Well, he deserved that, and he
got it. No, it doesn't rejoice in it.
I mean, you know, when you see somebody overtaken in a fault,
you don't say, yeah, I knew that all along. No. No, it doesn't rejoice in it.
It doesn't have any pleasure in it. I mean, when somebody
is overtaken in a fault, it ought to cause us grief, sorrow, sadness. Because if we think about it
for a few minutes, what made the difference between them and
us? It's just the grace of God. We don't rejoice when things
befall somebody, even when they deserve it. Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but
rejoiceth in the truth. Now, see, the truth is the truth. It never changes. Now, we get
to thinking you can modify the truth a little, but the truth
is always going to be the truth. And, you know, if we love one
another, we rejoice even in the fact that we are imperfect. Now,
I am not trying to magnify your imperfection and
say it's a good thing, but I rejoice in the truth of knowing, look,
we're all very imperfect individuals. And that's just it. I mean, and
if we get mad about that or we want to harm somebody because
of their imperfection, then we have not rejoiced in the truth,
have we? Because the truth is that every one of us will do
the wrong thing if we get the opportunity. And we'll only do
the right thing if the Lord in mercy works in us to cause us
to do the right thing. So we rejoice in the truth. It beareth all things. It forbears. It puts up with stuff. That doesn't
say it puts up with a lot, does it? He says, He beareth it beareth
all things. Well, you know, I give them every
benefit of the doubt, and I just couldn't go any further. That
was it. Now, is that love? I mean, if the Lord said to you,
okay, you can go this far, but if you go one step further, that's
it. We'd all been gone a long time
ago, wouldn't we? I mean, that would have been
done for. Because you see, love as it is set forth in Christ,
He bears all things. He forbears with us. He knows
what we are. He knows that we are dust. But
yet He loves us anyway. He died for us while we were
yet sinners. Christ died for us. Beareth all
things, believeth all things. That is, now does that mean anything
comes along, we just latch on to it? No. It's speaking about
loving the brethren and believing for the benefit of the brethren. Believeth all things. That is,
it is an encouragement. Hopeth all things. Endureth all
things. We want the best for brethren
that we love. We want to see them built up
in the most holy faith. We want to see them encouraged.
We don't want to see somebody lagging behind. We want to help
them. We want to bear their burdens.
Endure is all things. Charity never fails. Now this is the crux and the
point at which he is getting at. Now he has been talking about
what love is to the brethren and he said, Love never fails. Now, in contrast, however, whether
there be prophecies, they shall fail. Now, does he mean that
the prophecies will be proved to be true? No. He means that
wherever there is prophesying, it will ultimately cease. In
other words, it will pass away. It's temporary. All prophesying
is temporary. But you see, love is not temporary. It never fails. It continues. It never stops. But whether there
be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they
shall cease. Now when shall they cease? When
the Lord sees fit for them to cease. Now, because they're given
for the purpose of God. They're not given for the purpose
of men. And when the Lord says they would
cease, they would cease, and there's not a thing in the world
that a man can do to cause them to come back. Now, there are
some who come along and say, well, we're going to revive the
church and get it back to how it was in the New Testament days,
and we're going to resurrect all these spiritual gifts. Well,
how are you going to do that? If it's a spiritual gift, you
don't have any power to do that, neither does anyone else. Now
if the Lord sees fit to bestow these things in the present time
as He did in these days, that's His business. And certainly there's
nothing I can do about it, but I'll tell you this, when He does
do that, the purpose of it is going to be the same purpose
that was given back then, which is to benefit the body. And I
believe that for the most part, now again this isn't an absolute
thing, but for the most part, most of these gifts that he is
speaking about here have ceased to function because the purpose
for their functioning is not the same as it was in those early
days, because keep in mind that we're talking about the apostolic
age when the apostles still walked upon the earth and received direct
revelation from God, and the written Word of God was not set
forth as we have it today. Now, does that mean that Absolutely,
beyond any shadow of a doubt, the Lord cannot and will not
and does not give somebody some of these miraculous gifts. No,
it doesn't. But it will be according to His
purpose when He does. But as a general rule, I don't
believe that we see these things in operation, at least not scripturally
as in the present time. Because I believe there was a
purpose. I believe this is what he is speaking about here. Whether
there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues,
they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it
shall vanish away. Now, the knowledge he's talking
about is not knowledge as God's people are given knowledge of
the things of God, but it is a word of knowledge, that is,
of something that is brought forth that hadn't been brought
forth before. This is a word of knowledge as
God is pleased to give it to us, is it not? I mean, how else
will we know the things of God? But this, if a guy comes along
and he says, I've got a word of knowledge, and it's not according
to this, guess what? It's not a word of knowledge,
is it? If they speak not according to the Word and testimony, there's
no truth in them. So we don't need knowledge when
this is complete and given to us. And as John said in the book
of the Revelation, or the Lord said, he said, seal up this book. Now I think he's talking specifically
about that book of the Revelation, but it's interesting that the
book of the Revelation is the last book in what we call the
Bible, is it not? And he said, if any man add anything
to it, or any man take anything away from it, let him be a curse. So we need to have that in mind
as we consider these things. Whether there be knowledge, it
shall vanish away, for we know in part, and we prophesy in part. Now he's speaking to them then.
He said, look, we are not claiming to have the full revelation.
Now we do have it, I believe, in the present time. But when
that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall
be done away." Now that's a principle that is taught throughout the
Word of God. That is, when that which is perfect
is come, that which is in part is done away. When Christ came, all of those things that were
pointing to Christ, they were not done away in the sense they
cease to be. But you know, when you've got
the real thing, the picture and the prophecy takes on a secondary
importance, does it not? when that which is perfect has
come. In other words, when Christ came to the woman there at the
well of Sychar, and He spoke to her, and He said, I that speak
unto thee am He, what else did she need? She didn't need to
know about where her father was worshipped and all of that stuff.
That was secondary and important. Because when He came, God who
at sundry times in divers manners hath in times past spoken unto
us by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His
Son, Jesus Christ the righteous. And so when that which is perfect
is come, that which is in part is done away. And so that's a
principle that's set forth. When I was a child, I spoke as
a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when
I became a man, I put away childish things. I believe he's kind of getting
on to them a little bit. He's saying you've been acting
childish about clamoring for these spiritual gifts when you
should have been clamoring for love. You know, you should have
been clamoring for that which wouldn't pass away because all
these things, he says, are going to pass away, all these gifts. Now there is coming a time when
we shall see Him face to face, and then any question we might
have had will be answered. There won't be anything. When
that which is perfect is come, that which is in part will be
done away. I know even as also I am known. You know, the essence of truth
will be set forth, and there won't be anything else left to
grasp, but it will be that which is set forth in truth. And thou abideth faith, hope,
charity. That's really the main things,
is it not? Faith, the gift of God, hope,
that which dwells in our hearts or enabled to have faith and
have the expectation of that which Christ has given and love. And what did he say? He said, but the greatest of these is
love. The greatest of these is love.
If you have all these other things in abundance, And you can do
all kinds of stuff. And you can impress people right
and left. What good is it if you don't
have love to the brethren?