The Love Chapter - The Abiding Of Love
Introduction
About the time I graduated from high school in 1986, a movie came out that I really enjoyed at the time, “Karate Kid 2.” And at the time, the theme song of the movie became a big hit. I was reminded of this as I was watching PBS the other night and they were broadcasting a tribute concert for the man who wrote the song along with many others. The title of the song was “Glory of Love,” and the last part of the chorus says, “We’ll live forever knowing together that we did it all for the glory of love.”
To be honest with you, I hope that I will be able to say, while I’m living forever, that everything that I did was motivated by love, because Paul said that “Charity,” or love, “never faileth” (1 Corinthians 13:8).
A. T. Robertson said that the phrase means, “Love survives everything.”
Albert Barnes, in explaining this phrase, wrote…
Paul here proceeds to illustrate the value of love, from its “permanency” as compared with other valued endowments. It is valuable, and is to be sought because it will always abide; may be always exercised; is adapted to all circumstances, and to all worlds in which we may be placed, or in which we may dwell. The word rendered “faileth” ekpiptei denotes properly to fall out of, to fall from or off; and may be applied to the stars of heaven falling (as in Mark 13:25), or to flowers that fall or fade (as in James 1:11 and 1 Peter 1:24), or to chains falling from the hands (as in Acts 12:7). Here it means to fall away, to fail; to be without effect, to cease to be in existence. The expression may mean that it will be adapted to all the situations of life, and is of a nature to be always exercised; or it may mean that it will continue to all eternity, and be exercised in heaven forever.
I read a story about a funeral parlor and crematorium. As they do in most places like this, the families were allowed to choose the music that would be playing as they entered the service. And one particular family asked to have the song “Love Me Tender” playing as they came into the service.
The day of the funeral arrived and the music was started in preparation for the family to walk in to the service. Unfortunately the wrong track number was entered into the CD player, and the family found themselves walking in while, “Return to Sender” was playing over the sound system.
“Love Me Tender” may have failed, but Paul said love never fails.
In verse 13, Paul further said that “charity,” along with faith and hope, “abideth.” The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament says of “abideth” (NT:3306 – meno) that…
This word means a. “to stay in a place,” figuratively “to remain in a sphere,” b. “to stand against opposition,” “to hold out,” “to stand fast,” c. “to stay still,” and d. “to remain,” “to endure,” “to stay in force.”
Barnes says that the word “abideth” means…
“Remains” (menei). The word means properly to remain, continue, abide; and is applied to persons remaining in a place, in a state or condition, in contradistinction from removing or changing their place, or passing away. Here it must be understood to be used to denote “permanency,” when the other things of which he had spoken had passed away; and the sense is, that faith, hope, and love would “remain” when the gift of tongues should cease, and the need of prophecy, etc.; that is, these should survive them all.
And even among these three great things, Paul said, “the greatest of these is (love).” Thornley Smith said…
The apostle had been speaking of temporary gifts. Supernatural endowments were granted to the Church for a season only. The apostle intimates that there is a gift of richer value, and that the time would come when these would be bestowed no longer, and when that only would remain.
What a catastrophe would it be were it to become extinct! But it cannot fail. So wide a channel was made for it by the mission of the Son of God, that to stop its onward flow were as impossible as to prevent the rolling of the ocean’s waves. … Hence it is a gift which never fails.
The gift of charity will never fail on earth, how then is it possible that it should fail in heaven? The period will arrive when not only miracles will cease, but even the ordinary means for the edification of the Church. But love will even then abide. Upon the blessed inhabitant of the upper sanctuary it will stream in richest plenitude, direct from the eternal throne. (From The Biblical Illustrator)
As we come to this final section in Paul’s “Love Chapter”…
I. The Fading Activities Of Spiritual Experience
He Points Us To The Fading Activities Of Spiritual Experience And Thus Reminds Us That Love Is Enduring!
A. These Gifts Have A Passing Quality
(1 Corinthians 13:8) Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
Concerning Prophecy…
Gil Rugh, Senior Pastor of Indian Hills Community Church in Lincoln, NE wrote…
Basically, a prophet had the ability to receive direct revelation from God and then to communicate that revelation to men. Some identify the gift of prophecy with the gift of preaching today, but that is not correct because the key element is missing – a preacher does not get his messages directly from God. A pastor gets his message from the Word of God (hopefully), but God does not appear to him in dreams and visions or by speaking directly to him. … The gift of prophecy is only necessary when
God wants to give additional revelation (when He wants to reveal more of Himself than He has revealed up to that point in time).
John MacArthur said…
Like that of the apostles, and unlike that of pastors and teachers, however, the unique office of prophet ceased to exist while the church was still very young. Judging from Paul’s pastoral epistles (1 & 2 Timothy and Titus), prophets ceased to function in the church even before the end of the apostolic age. In those letters he makes considerable mention of church leadership – elders, deacons, deaconesses, and bishops—but makes no mention of prophets. Along with the apostles, prophets were a part of the foundation of the church (Eph. 2:20), and are the first office to have disappeared from the New Testament church. But when Paul wrote this letter to Corinth, prophets were still very central to the work of that church.
Concerning Knowledge…
Gil Rugh says of this gift of “knowledge”…
The knowledge referred to here is a supernatural knowledge. In 1 Corinthians 13:8, we are told that knowledge shall pass away. The knowledge has to mean supernatural or special knowledge from God because knowledge in a general sense will never cease to exist. … Before men had the New Testament, they needed those who had special knowledge from God so they would know about God and know what they were to do and not to do. … The gift of knowledge is closely related to the gift of prophecy in that both involved the reception of direct revelation from God. However, prophecy is presented as a more important and prominent gift. It evidently included revelation on a broader scale (including future events) as well as having a greater emphasis on the proclamation of the revelation received. … The word of knowledge was a special supernatural knowledge, not the knowledge that comes as a result of studying the Bible.
Concerning Tongues and the Cessation of These Gifts… MacArthur said…
Paul strengthens his emphasis on the supreme nature of love by comparing love’s permanence to the impermanence of three spiritual gifts: prophecy, tongues, and knowledge. Each of those gifts eventually will fall and disappear, but love will continue.
Though we are told here that all three gifts would someday cease to exist, two different verbs are used to indicate their cessation. Prophecy and knowledge will be done away, whereas tongues will cease.
Done away is from katargeo, which means “to reduce to inactivity,” or “to abolish.” The gifts of prophecy and knowledge one day will be made inoperative. Both forms of this verb in verse 8, as well as its form in verse 10, are passive; that is, something or someone will cause them to stop. As will be discussed below that something is the coming of “the perfect” (v. 10).
Cease is from pauo, which means “to stop, to come to an end.” Unlike katargeo, this verb is here used in the Greek middle voice, which, when used of persons, indicates intentional, voluntary action upon oneself. Used of inanimate objects it indicates reflexive, self-causing action. The cause comes from within; it is built in. God gave the gift of tongues a built-in stopping place. “That gift will stop by itself,” Paul says. Like a battery, it had a limited energy supply and a limited life span. When its limits were reached, its activity automatically ended. Prophecy and knowledge will be stopped by something outside themselves, but the gift of tongues will stop by itself. This distinction in terms is unarguable.
The question remains as to when and how these gifts will end. Prophecy and knowledge are said to end “when the perfect comes” (vv. 9-10).
B. These Gifts Have A Partial Quality
(1 Corinthians 13:9-10) For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. {10} But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
John Phillips said…
The emphasis here is on in part, which is repeated four times in verses 9-12. At best, the early church had to get along with a partial revelation. The expression ek merous (in part) means “bit by bit.” This “bit by bit” state of affairs would continue until the goal of these gifts of communication was reached.
The word “perfect” in verse 10 means complete.
Several years ago, Angie and I were members at Midway Baptist Church in Brevard. And there at that church, they had a very small selection of books that people could go in and use or borrow. They had a set of the Barnes Notes commentary, which is one of my favorites now. But I could only use perhaps one volume at a time, and then in a limited way and for a limited time. Eventually, I acquired a complete set for myself. But I’ve discovered that there was much more in the way of commentaries than just that set. Over the subsequent years, I’ve built not only an actual library of books, but a digital study library consisting of several Bible Study software programs containing hundreds, perhaps even thousands of books, all accessed quickly and easily. What I had before was passing and partial. But what I have now is so much more. Similarly, knowledge and prophecy and tongues is passing and partial, but what we will have in the eternal state is so much more.
II. The Fitting Analogies Of Spiritual Experience
He Points Us To The Fitting Analogies Of Spiritual Experience And Thus Reminds Us That Love Is Enlarging
A. There Is The Analogy Of The Growth Of A Man
(1 Corinthians 13:11) When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
When a Jewish son has their bar mitzvah (meaning “son of the law”), according to Jewish custom they become responsible for their actions. They also gain the privilege of participating in all areas of Jewish religious and community life.
MacArthur said…
Perhaps Paul was comparing His present spiritual state to his boyhood, as a child. A Jewish male was considered a boy until his bar mitzvah (“son of the law”), after which he was considered a man. One moment he was a boy; the next he was a man. Our perfection in Christ will be a type of spiritual bar mitzvah, a coming into immediate, complete, and eternal spiritual adulthood and maturity. At that moment everything childish will be done away with. All immaturity, all childishness, all imperfection, and all limitations of knowledge and understanding will be forever gone.
B. There Is The Analogy Of The Glass Of A Mirror
(1 Corinthians 13:12) For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
Notice how Barnes explains these components of verse 12…
[For now we see through a glass] Paul here makes use of another illustration to show the imperfection of our knowledge here. Compared with what it will be in the future world, it is like the imperfect view of an object which we have in looking through an obscure and opaque medium compared with the view which we have when we look at it “face to face.” The word “glass” here esoptron means properly a mirror, a looking-glass. The mirrors of the ancients were usually made of polished metal (as in Exodus 38:8 and Job 37:18). Many have supposed that the idea here is that of seeing objects by reflection from a mirror, which reflects only their imperfect forms. But this interpretation does not well accord with the apostle’s idea of seeing things obscurely. The most natural idea is that of seeing objects by an imperfect medium, by looking “through” something in contemplating them. …
[Darkly] Margin, “In a riddle” en ainigmati. The word means a riddle; an enigma; then an obscure intimation. In a riddle a statement is made with some resemblance to the truth; a puzzling question is proposed, and the solution is left to conjecture. Hence, it means, as here, obscurely, darkly, imperfectly. Little is known; much is left to conjecture; a very accurate account of most of that which passes for knowledge. Compared with heaven, our knowledge here much resembles the obscure intimations in an enigma compared with clear statement and manifest truth. [But then] In the fuller revelations in heaven.
[Face to face] As when one looks upon an object openly, and not through an obscure and dark medium. It here means, therefore, “clearly, without obscurity.”
The idea here is like a two-way mirror. We had such a panel of glass in a nursery at the back of one of the churches that I pastored. It allowed the folks in the nursery to see into the sanctuary, but those in the sanctuary could only make out dim figures of those in the nursery, and only then if the light was turned on.
III. The Finest Aspects Of Spiritual Experience
He Points Us To The Finest Aspects Of Spiritual Experience And Thus Reminds Us That Love Is Excelling!
(1 Corinthians 13:13) And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
A. Notice The Companions Of Love In This Verse
Tom Hayes asserted that…
While faith and hope are essential to time, they will not be needed in eternity. Faith will become sight, and hope will be turned into reality. Love, however, will never cease to be love in the eternal day.
But as Adam Clarke notes…
Some say love is the greatest because it remains throughout eternity, whereas faith and hope proceed only through life; hence, we say that there faith is lost in sight, and hope in fruition. But does the apostle say so? Or does any man inspired by God say so? I believe not. Faith and hope will as necessarily enter into eternal glory as love will.
MacArthur, I think, explains it best by joining both ideas as he says…
Actually faith and hope are encompassed by love, which “believes all things,” and “hopes all things” (v. 7).
Wiersbe also states…
Even though “faith will become sight and hope will be fulfilled.” But the greatest of these graces is love; because when you love someone, you will trust him and will always be anticipating new joys. Faith, hope, and love go together, but it is love that energizes faith and hope.
B. Notice The Conclusion About Love In This Verse
(1 Corinthians 13:13) And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
greatest – Greek 3187. meizon, mide'-zone; irreg. comparative of G3173 (megas – big); larger (lit. or fig., spec. in age):--elder, greater (-est), more.
It was A. T. Robertson who commented that…
The form of meizoon (“greatest”) is comparative, but it is used as superlative. … ?It is quite worth while to call attention to Henry Drummond’s famous sermon “The Greatest Thing in the World” and to Dr. J. D. Jones’ able book “The Greatest of These.”
Though the chapter ends with this verse, the apostle’s treatise on the subject does not end. But he continues his thought into 14:1, saying…
(1 Corinthians 14:1) Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.
follow – Greek 1377. dioko, dee-o'-ko; a prol. (and caus.) form of a prim. verb dio (to flee; comp. the base of G1169 and G1249); to pursue (lit. or fig.); by impl. to persecute:--ensue, follow (after), given to, (suffer) persecute (-ion), press toward.
Conclusion
I did a quick search on the phrase “love one another,” and I was amazed to find that the phrase is used 13 times in the course of 12 verses in the King James version of the Bible.
(John 13:34) A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
(John 15:12) This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. (John 15:17) These things I command you, that ye love one another.
(Romans 13:8) Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
(1 Thessalonians 4:9) But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.
(1 Peter 1:22) Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
(1 John 3:11) For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
(1 John 3:23) And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.
(1 John 4:7) Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
(1 John 4:11-12) Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. {12} No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
(2 John 1:5) And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.
Jesus said this is the distinguishing quality of being His disciple…
(John 13:35) By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
Today’s installment of the Our Daily Bread devotional says, “We show our love for God when we share His love with others.”
What is a situation that adequately illustrates this love that Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 13?
There was a story recounted in the October 4, 1992, issue of Our Daily Bread that magnifies this kind of love…
During World War II, Hitler commanded all religious groups to unite so that he could control them. Among the Brethren assemblies, half complied and half refused. Those who went along with the order had a much easier time. Those who did not unite faced harsh persecution. In almost every family of those who resisted, someone died in a concentration camp. When the war was over, feelings of bitterness ran deep between the groups and there was much tension. Finally they decided that the situation had to be healed. Leaders from each group met at a quiet retreat. For several days, each person spent time in prayer, examining his own heart in the light of Christ’s commands. Then they came together.
Francis Schaeffer, who told of the incident, asked a friend who was there, “What did you do then?” “We were just one,” he replied. As they confessed their hostility and bitterness to God and yielded to
His control, the Holy Spirit created a spirit of unity among them. Love filled their hearts and dissolved their hatred.
When love prevails among believers, especially in times of strong disagreement, it presents to the world an indisputable mark of a true follower of Jesus Christ.
(From http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/l/love.htm)
As Henry Drummond said, this love is “The Greatest Thing in the World!”