"Love Like No Other"

Love Like No Other

1 Corinthians 13:1-8, 13 (NLT)

If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!
13Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

Love is a universal desire that every human heart craves for. From an infant to the oldest man, we all desire to love and be loved.

Solomon put it this way in Song of Songs

 Songs of Songs 8:6-7 (NLT)

Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm. For love is as strong as death, its jealousy as enduring as the grave. Love flashes like fire, the brightest kind of flame. Many waters cannot quench love, nor can rivers drown it. If a man tried to buy love with all his wealth, his offer would be utterly scorned.

Love cannot be bought. It’s not for sale. It is purely a thing of the heart.
That is why it is important to preach the entire Gospel message while emphasizing the greatest part which is love. Because when we preach about love, we fully satisfy the hunger and longings of the heart, and ultimately, a complete presentation of the Gospel. A presentation that does not include love, bears no lasting fruit. Make no mistake about it, love is central to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. (can I get an amen)

For it is Jesus who gave us a New Covenant
Read Mark 12:30-31 (NLT)
And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ 31 The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”
In this month-long series, I will be looking at the love of God. But before we go any further, I want to share with you the four types of love.
Four Types of Love
Eros – the Greek word for sensual or romantic love. Love in the form of Eros seeks its own interest and satisfaction. God is very clear in the Bible that Eros love is reserved for marriage.
Storge – This Greek word describes family love, the affectionate bond that develops naturally between parents and children, and brothers and sisters.
Philia – This Greek term describes the powerful emotional bond seen in deep friendships. This is the type of intimate love in the Bible that most Christians practice toward each other.

Agape – the highest of the four types of love in the Bible. This term defines God’s immeasurable, incomparable love for humankind. It is the divine love that comes from God. Agape love is perfect, unconditional, sacrificial, and pure.
There is no perfect congregation. Every church is filled with imperfect people who are united in their love for God and their salvation through Jesus.
Too often our personality differences cause us to look at each other differently than God looks at us. I wanted to start by hearing Paul make a statement that really convicts me on the topic of the importance of God’s love.
Listen to what Paul says (selecting the “if I” portions of 1 Cor. 13:1-3). Think about this. Paul is telling a church that had great miraculous gifts that gifts alone are not what is important. If I speak in tongues (men or angels), if I have “all” faith so as to move a mountain, if I die a martyr’s death… Think about the type of Christians they are who would be able to do such things. I would tell you, fill this church with such people!
But Paul throws on the breaks of these super Christians with one phrase “but have not love.” I have to reflect upon this. Those gifts presumably come from the Holy Spirit of God, but when I take the greatness of God indwelling me, and not let it be filled with love, Paul convicts me and says, “I am nothing.”
Meditate on that today. If I don’t have love, I have zero spiritual benefit – either to God or others. You can look at the list that seeks to help define love in the following verses, but if your reason for doing so is to prove someone else isn’t very loving, then you missed the point entirely.
Love is paramount to all other things. Even in this passage Paul would say, “Love never ends.” He concludes this section by saying, “now faith, hope and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (help me somebody)
What makes love the greatest?
We have become accustomed to the idea that the greatest thing in the religious world is faith. That great word has been the keynote of the Protestant faith for centuries. If, however, we have become accustomed to looking upon “faith” as the greatest thing in the world, well, then, we are wrong. In the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul writes without a moment’s hesitation, “now abideth faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love.”
There is a great deal in the world that is delightful, beautiful, and important, but it will not last. The only truly enduring things, according to Paul, are these: “faith, hope, and love.” But the chief among these things is love.
Some think the time may come when two of these three enduring things will also pass away—faith into sight, and, hope into fruition. Paul does not say so. But what is certain is that love must last because, as John points out, God, the Eternal God, is love (see 1 John 4:7-21).
Read 1 John 4:7-8 (NLT)
Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

That being the case, love is superior even to faith. That is the gospel preached by our Lord Jesus Christ. And we must re-discover it if our relationships are to become meaningful and enduring for future generations.
As we reflect upon verse 13, we often forget a truth. We spend a great amount of time dealing with faith, and how important it is to have faith and grow in faith. And yes, the Bible tells us in Hebrews 11:6
Read Hebrews 11:6 (NLT)
And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.
Paul is not down playing faith or its part in our life.
Neither does he down play hope as a part our spiritual benefit and life. But he makes a point that those two spiritual blessings are limited to this world.
Paul doesn’t tell us to abide IN faith, hope and love, but that those three things abide, exists, are current in this life and world, and of those three, love becomes the supreme.
What makes love the greatest? Love is the very core of the image of God. It is love that brought about creation. It is love that gave us salvation even though we didn’t deserve it. Think about it this way. By faith we receive from God all the blessings in Jesus. In hope we expect the eternal good that he has promised us called heaven. But living in love is how we resemble God. (help me somebody)
Love seeks what is best for someone other than self. Love encompasses both correction and forgiveness. It is because you love someone that you want to see their life connect to Jesus. Does that require a person to change? Yes. But love lets them know they were created for so much more than what they have let themselves become separated from Jesus. (come on Jesus)
Love defines God’s calling us to himself. When Paul spoke about our sin and the cross, he made that clear in Romans. 5:6-8.
Read Romans 5:6-8 (NLT)
When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. 7 Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. 8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

The Bible is a telling about God’s love for his creation and people in particular. From beginning to end, God wants what is best for us and promises us a reunion like no other when get home with him in heaven.
Closing Illustration
When a sinful woman came into the home of Simon and fell at Jesus feet, tears flowing so hard it was washing the dirt from his feet, Jesus looked into her heart. Jesus didn’t disagree with Simon that this woman had sinned greatly. But he did tell Simon something he didn’t know and did do. Listen to the words of Jesus.

Read Luke 7:47 (NLT)
“I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.”
Let me tell you, when we are wrapped up in sin, it’s like we are drowning. But just as Jesus forgave this woman, love can lift you up. Maybe it’s not some secret sin, maybe you have simply stopped allowing agape love to be the center of your being. Let agape love convict you and lift you up back to him.