Love Is What Gives Strength

"Love Is What Gives Strength" – 1 Corinthians 13:1-4 Nothing on this earth fills a person: you get the house, you get the car, and it does not fill you. The only thing that holds a believer up in the battle is love. This study is the first part of an exposition of 1 Corinthians 13 —it reaches verse 4 and will be continued— and follows Paul's argument closely: tongues without love are noise, prophecy and knowledge without love make no one mature, faith that moves mountains without love is nothing, and even giving away all one's goods or giving the body to be burned without love profits nothing. Love is not measured by feeling but by character: patient, kind, without envy, without boasting, without being puffed up.

I. Nothing fills, but love gives strength

A. You fight for the house, for the car; you get it and it does not fill you, because the model is already outdated. On this earth nothing fills.

B. What the eyes see is made to wear us out. What drives us, what keeps us standing, what keeps us fighting, is love.

C. A mortal loses strength as time passes, and by nature there is more complaining than expression of love. We live in complaint, in wanting to be more and to possess more: it is suffocating.

D. Jesus is the essence of love; and among men, Paul is the example, the one who gave himself to the Lord with tenderness and was willing to fight as far as he was able. That is why he writes this chapter.

II. "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity"

A. Though someone spoke every human language, and even the tongues of heaven, if it is not done in love, the speech is worth nothing.

B. "I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal": it sounds loud but it does not edify or touch the heart. That is how any ministry without love works: much noise.

C. It is not a matter of voices, it is a matter of lives. The question is not what you do for God, but whether you do it in love or in pretense.

D. Isolation dries up contentment: whoever isolates himself knows only his own affairs. Whoever speaks only of himself and pries into others falls flat; whoever decides to love is edified and helps.

III. Loving is not the same as giving yourself to love

A. One can love and not give oneself to love; one can avoid hatred and still not give oneself. To give yourself is that, on seeing someone brought low, you want to help.

B. Love is functional: it is not for demanding, it is for giving. Human reasoning turns it capricious and demanding.

C. The enclosure of love: we love only whom we accept, and often we accept because it suits us. But Jesus died for all, and the chance to repent is for all, though only whoever believes in Him is saved.

D. Loving carries action. The one who helps the old man who cannot open his fuel cap, instead of mocking him, is loving. The one who says "I love everyone" but looks at no one, laughs with no one, shares with no one, loves only himself.

E. "People have hurt me" stops your life, not theirs. Whoever does not forgive is never set free, and the embittered person embitters whoever is beside them.

F. The love of this passage is agape: the love of God, pure, sacrificial, constant, centered on the good of the other. Taught at home, it waters the next generation.

IV. "And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge"

A. Prophecy is receiving revelation from God to instruct, correct, and edify; it is one of the most respected gifts. But prophecy without love makes no one spiritual.

B. Mysteries and knowledge stand for deep understanding: biblical grasp, theology, discernment. Even if you knew the highest and deepest things of God, without love that knowledge does not make you mature.

C. If there is no love among the leaders, knowing theology is not functional. And seeking knowledge only to impress the hearer sustains no one to the end.

D. "And though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains": an extraordinary faith, the kind that produces miracles. And even so, without love, I am nothing.

E. "I am nothing" is Paul's exact word. He does not say one is less effective or weaker: he says that without love one is nothing.

F. Gifts show ability; love shows character, and character weighs more with God. A person's worth in God's work does not depend on their gifts but on their love.

V. "And though I bestow all my goods… and though I give my body to be burned"

A. Giving to the poor is good and right. Paul does not criticize generosity: he criticizes the motive. One can give to be admired, for applause, to look good, to gain a position, to feel superior.

B. God looks at the heart, not at the size of the sacrifice. Generosity without love is disguised pride: giving away what one no longer uses, what was left over, is crumbs, and a believer who loves does not give crumbs. If you love, you give until it hurts.

C. Giving the body to be burned is the ultimate sacrifice, the most heroic act possible. And even that can be done for fame, fanaticism, pressure, or personal glory.

D. "It profiteth me nothing": without love the sacrifice has no eternal value. One can lose everything and it not count before God, because God does not reward what was not done in love.

E. On the day we die we take nothing with us, but we will stand before God and the books will be opened, where everything is written: name, day, hour.

VI. Verse 4 — love defined by its character

A. "Charity suffereth long": to suffer long is to be patient, able to bear calmly the difficulties, the failures of others, the provocations, the delays, the imperfections. The patient person does not flare into anger, does not explode, does not give up on people: it is a love that knows how to wait.

B. And one must learn to suffer: if we do not suffer we do not pray, if we do not pray we have no compassion, and without compassion we do not move to do good.

C. "And is kind": good, gentle, ready to serve. It shows in actions that do good to another; it is not a feeling but a constant attitude of kindness. Do good without waiting for a return, because the blessing comes from God.

D. "Charity envieth not": it is not bothered when another does well, it does not compete or grow bitter at someone else's success, it rejoices when others are blessed.

E. "Charity vaunteth not itself": it does not show off or go looking for recognition, it does not say "I am better".

F. "Is not puffed up": it does not fill with pride or airs of superiority. Love keeps the heart humble.

VII. Application

A. Examine yourself in love, not in your gifts. If the character is not lined with love, the ability does not count.

B. Give until it hurts, and give in love, not to look good. Crumbs are not generosity.

C. Forgive, so you can be set free. Resentment stops your life, not the life of the one who hurt you, and the embittered embitter their own.

D. Come out of isolation. Be useful wherever you are: the concrete act for another is what love produces.

E. Do not wait to be loved first. It is not yours to wait for love; it is yours to give it.

F. When a brother suffers, suffer with him. The body is held together by love, and it is where love stops that people fall away.