May 31, 2026 SERMON

Live the Difference

WHAT REALLY COUNTS

I Corinthians 13:8-13
 

So, how much does God love us?
Have we a grasp of the depth and width of agape?
God’s love is truly beyond our understanding.
Someone said, It is to infinity and beyond.

Recently, we began our study of I Corinthians 13 which is known as the “love chapter.” And although the emphasis of this portion of the letter is on agape, it is not communicated in the context of romance or marriage as we so often use and apply it. The context is the church and the using of spiritual gifts.

As we have made note in preceding weeks, the church in Corinth had their eyes on the wrong things. They had focused their attention on spiritual gifts, especially tongues, because they considered it a superior gift. So, in their reasoning, those that were the most spiritual were the ones that had this particular gift.

But Paul doesn’t go for that line of reasoning. He 

says that there is something far superior then spiritual gifts. And so, he admonishes both them and us, that we are to live the excellent way.

There is an excellent way to live.
It is a righteous way.
It is the way of love.
It is agape.

 Just as Peter notes that love covers a multitude of 

sins (I Peter 4:8), the lack of love causes a multitude of sins. If we do not show agape, there is going to be a lot of trouble. Therefore, we need Agape. We need to live God’s kind of love that is deliberate and unending.

Agape never ends. Agape never fails.
At no time will Agape ever fall apart and become ineffective. It will never be abolished.
It will never be defeated.
It will persist even when it is slighted or rejected.
It is never used up.
It keeps on coming.
And so, it is beyond comparison.

Therefore, let us put the two thoughts together.
We are to live the excellent way and agape never ends. This means that AGAPE LOVE IS ETERNALLY EXCELLENT.

It is, as one writer put it, Agape is the very air of heaven. It is the real language of heaven.

 

And those that do not live in this excellent way, are missing kingdom priorities and living. Whenever

the church has success, whenever we do it right, it will always be because of love.

But to fully understand the reasoning of Paul we will find in our study of I Corinthians 13:8-13 four explanations why love is eternally excellent.

The first explanation is that OUR SPIRITUAL GIFTS WILL END (8) Charity never faileth: but whether there be vprophecies, they shall fail; whether there be vtongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. 

The Amplified Bible Reads: Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. As for prophecy (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), it will be fulfilled and pass away; as for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away [it will lose its value and be superseded by truth].

In the big picture of things, spiritual gifts are 

temporary. As we have noted, the Corinthians were overly concerned with these gifts, especially gifts that were considered greater than others. That very thought is wrong because it lacks love. 

The Corinthians’ attention was focused on the transient, and as a result, they had little concern with the permanent.

 What Paul wants them to know is that the gifts (which are good things because their source is God), only belong to the present. They do not belong to the future.

When it is all said and done, the gifts do not have a place or purpose in heaven. They are given to be used in this world, and thus only belong to this world. Which means there will be a finish to prophecy, tongues and knowledge.

In the text, prophecy and knowledge get the same verb, which implies that they will go through a reduction of activity. The ESV says they will pass away. The NIV says they will fade away. They both get the meaning correct.

But the gift of tongues, gets a different verb which means to stop or come to an end. Because this particular verb is used, some believe that tongues stopped when the New Testament was complete.

 They reason since the need for revelation ended, the gift of tongues was no longer needed. Others believe that this is reading too much into Paul’s statement when all he was doing was using stylistic variety. Many denominations typically and historically have taken the first view, but I personally do not, for two basic reasons.

 The first reason is that this is the only verse that speaks of tongues coming to an end, but it does not specify when. It is shaky ground to build an entire theology regarding tongues that demands that they have already ceased around one verse.

 The second reason is that to discount the work of the Spirit is an evil consideration. When God does something through His Spirit, and we counter it by saying that it is not of the Spirit, we are fighting God.

 That’s pretty dangerous ground. I do not doubt that many displays of tongues through the centuries have been of human manufacture or a counterfeit. But it is terribly dangerous to deny the Spirit’s work because of some counterfeit. That is a place I do not want to go. Besides all that, if one has the gift of tongues, try telling them the gift was stopped.

Nevertheless, they are a part of that which is temporary and not permanent.

Now we come to the second explanation: OUR SCHOOLING IS INCOMPLETE (9-10). 9 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.

Some time ago, our Secretary of Defense was giving explanation to our entry into Iran and the intelligence that we had prior to it. He said it this way (follow carefully)…

As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.

 We also know there are known unknowns.
That is to say we know there are some things
we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don’t know we don’t know.

Did you follow that?
Perhaps I could say it simpler.
Try this, what we know has its limits.

And in many ways, I am thankful. For infinite revelation about the infinite God would be difficult for us. We have finite minds. We cannot comprehend the infinite.

By implication, this means that tongues, prophecy and knowledge are limited as well. They are unable to share complete truth. What they offer is partial. They are not equals to Scripture.

 But there will be a time when perfection rules. There will be a time that the fulfillment will come.
All that God has promised will come true. And, amazingly, we will no longer need the written Word. Why? Because we will have the living Word!

 Karl Barth said, “Because the sun rises all lights are extinguished.” When Jesus comes, our schooling will become complete.

III. The third explanation is that OUR SEASONING IS EXPECTED (11).

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.

Might I suggest, that instead of being senior citizens in the kingdom of God, we are to become seasoned citizens. Paul uses an analogy of maturity to show the direction we are going in. You see 

we anticipate that children will behave as children.

Children are supposed to act like children. It is expected. And it is a shame if they do not. In the same way, our use of spiritual gifts is a part of the maturing process. We are to use them. It is expected, for they build the church.

But we are to be growing in our understanding that spiritual gifts are not the end of all things. We are to mature. We are to grow in our understanding that spiritual gifts must not stand alone. If we do not practice love, then their use is for naught. We do not focus on them alone. That is immature.
To focus on the gifts and forget the end to which they lead is hurtful and destructive to the body.
We must come to understand this clearly.

This brings us to The fourth explanation is that OUR SIGHT IS COMING (12).

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.

Soon, this is all going to be clear. But for now, we can’t see the future clearly.

In the times of the writing of this text, mirrors were made of metal, and not glass. Metal would be highly polished, but it would still not give an image that would be clear to us. It would give a rather indistinct and blurred image. 

In the same way, our understanding of the glory of Jesus is blurred. We do not see clearly. We do not understand clearly.

 But someday, the mist will dissolve. We will see Jesus face to face. We shall know fully. We shall know Him just as Jesus knows us. What a day that will be.

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. Why is Agape the greatest? First, Faith will become sight.
We have faith toward God.
In other words, we trust in His goodness and mercies.
Faith is the human response to the divine provision.
It is believing in the unseen.
But someday, it will no longer be unseen.
We will see Jesus face to face, and faith will come to an end.

Why is Agape the greatest? Because Hope will become reality. We are operating on a guarantee.
What God has said, we believe. And we act on what God has said. 

This is hope, for we are a thoroughly future-oriented people. We know there is more coming! But some day, the expectant anticipation will turn into reality, and hope will come to an end.
So this leaves love, and Agape remains forever.

 

You see…
We do not say God is faith.
We do not say God is hope.
But we do say God is love.
For love is the eternal excellent way.

Dr. Stephen Olford is a well-known Englishman who has served here in the United Statesas a pastor in various churches for many years. He sometime ago went home to the Lord. His early years were spent in Africa, as he was the son of missionaries.

His father died while he was in Africa, and his mother took him back to England on a long tramp steamer ride that took almost two weeks to reach London. They had not been out of port for more than a few days when one of the seamen injured himself. His wound began to fester and smell very badly. The other seamen refused to have him in the cabin with them. They lacked adequate medicine to treat this man, and it looked like he was going to die. He was in great pain, but the other men took him up and dumped him on deck, exposed to the weather and refused to let him come down into the cabin. They passed food to him with a long pole, as no one would touch him.

Stephen Olford’s mother was a godly Christian woman, and, after about a day of this treatment, she took pity on this man and went up to him. No one else would draw near to him because of the stench. But she took a basin of warm water, knelt down beside him, and washed away the pus and the collected foul excrement of the wound. He cursed her, as he had cursed everybody who had come near him, but she patiently kept on and never said a word. She brought him his food that day, again in the evening, and again washed his wounds and took care of him.

This went for the duration of the voyage. When they arrived in London, he was able to hobble off the ship. And as you can well imagine, a display of love like this broke through this man’s bitter defense. He became a Christian, and a devoted friend to the Olford family.

 

What a tremendous example of agape. Agape is supreme. It is the most God-like, for it works for the interest of others.
It is the excellent way.
It is the eternal way.
It is the way we should choose.

 

Let’s live the difference…let’s live the excellent way and be known for our love, for God and for one another.

Let’s live the eternal excellent way, let’s allow agape to rule the day, so that we might even now prove to be His and win the world for Christ.

Now may your love abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best; and may you be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. In Jesus’ Name Amen and Amen.