13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,1 but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;26 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Footnotes
[1]13:3Some manuscripts deliver up my body [to death] that I may boast [2]13:5Greek irritable and does not count up wrongdoing
13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,1 but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;26 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Footnotes
[1]13:3Some manuscripts deliver up my body [to death] that I may boast [2]13:5Greek irritable and does not count up wrongdoing
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Joel Brooks:
If you have your Bibles, I invite you to open to 1st Corinthians chapter 12. This is gonna be our last week in Corinthians. Then we're gonna take an 8 week break in which we're gonna look at the letters to the churches found in the book of Revelation. And then we'll continue back in Corinthians come fall. First Corinthians chapter 12.
Joel Brooks:
I'll begin reading in verse 29. Are all apostles or all prophets Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues?
Joel Brooks:
Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts, and I will show you a still more excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, And if I have faith so as to remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Joel Brooks:
Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful.
Joel Brooks:
It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away. As for tongues, they will cease.
Joel Brooks:
As for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child. I thought like a child.
Joel Brooks:
I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now, we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully even as I have been fully known. So now, faith, hope, and love abide.
Joel Brooks:
These 3. But the greatest of these is love. This is the word of the lord. Thanks be to god. If you would pray with me.
Joel Brooks:
Father, we thank you for the love that you have lavished on us through your son, Jesus Christ. He's the only reason that we are gathered here in this room, is that we might lift up his name, that he might receive all glory. And we pray that through your spirit, we would begin to look more and more like him. And I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, lord, may your words remain, and may they change us.
Joel Brooks:
We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Like I mentioned last week, I feel like I should be looking out and there should be tuxes and, some women holding flowers because this is the wedding passage. It's it's the text that's read at at many weddings, and and rightly so. Rightly so.
Joel Brooks:
Although this passage is is firmly rooted in a very specific context, it also can stand alone on its own. Paul writes here in a kind of transcendent way. His language is poetical. It's beautiful. Now he doesn't just describe love, he personifies it.
Joel Brooks:
He doesn't say these are characteristics of love. He says, love is this. It makes love seem like a person. You get the sense here that when Paul was writing this, he knew, he knew that this was something that was gonna be memorable, something that would be quoted, perhaps something that would even be used at weddings. Now, we don't talk about love like this today.
Joel Brooks:
They didn't talk about love like that in their day. It's hard to define love. The curious thing about that is love is, it's the theme of just about every song out there. But that's not really helpful in how we think about love. I mean, when's the last time you've heard a song about love and these were the attributes that were being described to it?
Joel Brooks:
We even have an entire holiday that's dedicated to love, Valentine's Day. But when you think of Valentine's Day, is this what you think of? Is first Corinthians chapter 13? Do you see Valentine's Day as a great day in which you get to exhibit patience? Is that what you're thinking of come Valentine's Day?
Joel Brooks:
Or this is the day that I get to rejoice in truth. No. When I when I hear Valentine's Day confession, I have this little jingle, it just goes in my head, and it's every kiss begins with k. I mean, that's, that is what I hear. That's what I associate with Valentine's Day, is that little jingle, that little ad.
Joel Brooks:
I and it's the same ad that they run during Christmas. Every kiss begins with k. I heard a commercial, and, in the commercial it said this, said, Valentine's day, your first opportunity to make up for Christmas. My favorite ad that ran before this Valentine's Day was this, it was, it was a commercial and it was a husband holding this newborn baby. Do you remember this commercial and he's, he's looking at his wife who just gave birth to this baby, and then you hear this voice come over.
Joel Brooks:
And it says, she gave you the most precious gift. Shouldn't you give something back? Like, wow. All I have to do for Valentine Day is find a gift that is of equivalent value to a child. Kay Jewelers could put whatever amount they want, and it won't be enough.
Joel Brooks:
There's not a diamond big enough for that. Now, Paul's picture that he paints of love has nothing to do with those things. Love is not lust. Love is not just the feeling that you get. The love that he paints here is countercultural.
Joel Brooks:
And as beautiful and as poetic as Paul describes love, he is writing these words to a very particular people, a very particular context. He's not just writing the standalone treatise on love. Somebody didn't just come up to Paul and say, Paul, what is love? And he's like, love. And then he just, he just starts, you know, this flows out.
Joel Brooks:
This It's written to a people who had real issues and certain problems. He's writing to Corinth. And the more and more you begin to read these words, you realize that although they're beautiful, they're actually a pretty strong rebuke to the Corinthian people. I'm not sure if you noticed this as we were reading through it, but Paul describes love mainly by using terms that he's already mentioned when describing what the Corinthians were not. As we've gone through this letter, Paul has already described the Corinthians as envious, boastful, puffed up people who demanded their own way.
Joel Brooks:
People who rejoiced at evil acts. So every time he is saying, love does not do this or love is not this, he's actually mentioning something they've already done. He's basically saying love is not like you. Love doesn't behave the way that you behave. It's a strong rebuke.
Joel Brooks:
I feel like we've been rebuking the Corinthians a lot over the last, couple of months and and with good reason. There's a lot there too, rebuke. So perhaps it's a good time to just remind all of us here, remind myself that what the Lord was actually doing in the Corinthian church was extraordinary. Was extraordinary. You know, when Paul first came to Corinth, he was scared.
Joel Brooks:
He'd been taking the gospel to a lot smaller towns. You know, towns like Thessalonica or Ephesus or Berea. Even Athens was smaller than Corinth at this time. And when he would go to those towns, he was persecuted. But for the most part, he got to see the gospel go forth in power and the gospel change people.
Joel Brooks:
But Corinth is an entirely different beast. Corinth was huge. It was the 2nd largest city in the Roman empire. It was full of educated people, people of high class. It was also full of the most sexually immoral people around.
Joel Brooks:
People who did hideous acts. And so Paul, when he's, when he's looking at Corinth, he's like, I've seen the gospel work in these smaller cities, these smaller towns, but can it work there? In a place that's so educated and a place that's so dark. And so, the Lord sends him encouragement because he's so scared. So as he's at the city gates, the Lord actually comes to him in a vision.
Joel Brooks:
And you read about that in the Acts 18. And the Lord says these words to Paul. Says, do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you. And no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people. The Lord didn't come to Paul in a vision when he entered any other city, but Corinth was different.
Joel Brooks:
He needed that encouragement And he got it. And the Lord shows up and he gives him this vision and it galvanizes Paul to go and to preach the gospel with such power and conviction. And then the spirit of God came. And he did all these miracles and a church was born. The gospel worked, even in a place like Corinth.
Joel Brooks:
And this church was filled with ridiculously gifted, talented people. People who were visionaries, people who were leaders. Miracles were happening. People were getting healed. People were speaking in tongues.
Joel Brooks:
Today, we would use the word revival. Revival hit among this people. And actually, there were more miracles. There were more healings taking place in Corinth than at any other other churches that Paul went to. It's really incredible.
Joel Brooks:
More miracles, more healings, but at the same time, there was more sexual immorality. There was more pride. There was more jealousy than any of the other churches. You see, what happens is when a church becomes a hospital for sinners, brings a lot of disease in with it. Now, sure, these people are going to be healed, but this healing takes time.
Joel Brooks:
So whenever I'm tempted to look down at the Corinthian church, I need to just step back and remind myself of that. Remind myself that perhaps the reason that that we, even here at Redeemer, have not had to deal with many of the same issues as the Corinthians is because the spirit of God has not worked in such extraordinary ways in our midst, that revival hasn't really come here. Because the greater the spiritual success, you see, the greater the sins that seem to come in with it. Don't forget, as we read this, that God was doing something extraordinary in this city for the Corinthians. Now it's likely because of their extraordinary giftedness combined with that pagan culture that that they grew up in and are surrounded by, the Corinthians were prone to lead to believe a number of lies.
Joel Brooks:
Lies as to what it meant to be successful. And they're applying the same standard as as what it meant to be a successful and mature business person. They were using the same standards, and Paul has to rebuke them for this. They believe these lies. Let me just mention 3 lies that they believed, and then Paul's gonna gonna walk through these later.
Joel Brooks:
The first lie that they believed is this, that their spiritual significance is determined by what they did. So, for us, it's our spiritual significance is determined by what we do. This is what we all instinctively believe that the more we do, the greater value we have. The more we do, the more God loves us. The second lie that they believed is this, the more I sacrifice, the more spiritual I am.
Joel Brooks:
The more I sacrifice, the more spiritual I am. So a great person is a one who sacrifices greatly. 3rd lie. To be spiritual, I must do or I must experience something extraordinary. To be spiritual, I must do or experience something extraordinary.
Joel Brooks:
I need to go start some ministry. I need to start a church. Perhaps I need to do some great act of faith. Maybe I need to speak in tongues or pray in somebody's healed. If I do that, that's evidence.
Joel Brooks:
That's the evidence I need to know that I've spiritually arrived, that I am mature. So these were the lies that the Corinthians believed, that they believed that this made them a spiritually significant person. It's the lies that we are still prone to believe today. And so Paul writes
Jeffrey Heine:
to them and he says, no
Joel Brooks:
no, that you're you're measuring your spiritual success by using the wrong measuring stick. God doesn't evaluate you the way the world evaluates you. It's not all about your giftedness. It's about how do you love one another. Love.
Joel Brooks:
Love is the measuring stick. There's no greater gift. There's no greater thing in all the world than love. And so then he begins to explain to them how love is the mark of a true Christian. And so let's go through verse by verse.
Joel Brooks:
Let's look at verse 1 and hear how he describes this love. He says, if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. Man, the Corinthians were all about some tongues.
Jeffrey Heine:
I mean, you
Joel Brooks:
know this. They they loved some tongues. They loved their services to be filled with tongues. But notice Paul doesn't say one negative thing about tongues here. He doesn't talk about their abuses here.
Joel Brooks:
He doesn't say anything negative. A matter of fact, in the very next chapter, he's gonna say he speaks in tongues more than all of them. Tongues isn't the issue. He just says, if you speak in tongues, or really you use any speech at all and you don't have love, you're just a clanging symbol. You're just noise.
Joel Brooks:
Now, Paul, he softens the rebuke throughout here by saying, I. He goes first person. He's not saying you. He says, even if I, he turns it towards himself. Says that even if he could speak, you know, in every known language of the earth, even speak in the language of heaven, if he didn't love, Well, he would just be making noise.
Joel Brooks:
I picture just clanging cymbals. Some people like to clang cymbals because they like to be the center of attention. And Paul's saying that's not the goal in our speaking. Some people just love, you know, just typing away and just posting, posting, posting. And it's not out of love.
Joel Brooks:
They just wanna be the center of attention. It's just white noise. Verse 2. And if I have prophetic powers and I understand all mysteries and all knowledge. And if I have faith so as to remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing.
Joel Brooks:
So once again, Paul is using hyperbole here to get his point across. This time he says, if I were to know everything, if I were to have all knowledge. Basically, if He were to be like God and to know everything, and He didn't have love, says that He would be nothing. So, if you were to have a deep robust theology, it all be worthless without love. Paul says he would literally be nothing.
Joel Brooks:
He would be nothing if he had that type of theology. He knew all about God, but he didn't have love. And you could just sit on that all day. I kinda just felt, close just the next 30 minutes. Meditate on that church.
Joel Brooks:
Look at this, that second part of verse 2 again. He says, if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. Paul's alluding here to the words that Jesus taught his disciples about having such faith that you could even move mountains. And this is the type of faith, if we were to be honest, we all aspire to. We all want this type of faith.
Joel Brooks:
The kind that can work real miracles, do extraordinary things. And this is the kind of faith that if you were to exercise it, people would write books about you. But Paul says this. He goes that without love, even if he had such faith, he would be nothing. He'd be nothing.
Joel Brooks:
Let me give you an illustration. Let let me give you a story here. Let's say that I were to die. Alright? I were to die and I go up to, to the gates.
Joel Brooks:
There's Peter. He's there. That's how these stories go, you know. Peter's there at the pearly gates. We're we're talking.
Joel Brooks:
And, he hasn't let me in yet. And and he says, do you remember do you remember May 4th of 2016, what you did? And I'm wracking my brain, hoping it's something good. May 4th, 2016, it's like, no. And, oh, oh, yeah.
Joel Brooks:
Yeah. I do. I do remember that. That's, I was asked to to preach at the mayor's prayer dinner. And so, I got to preach to to the mayor and to a bunch of the other mayors in Birmingham and leaders in the city, and it actually went really well.
Joel Brooks:
I actually think they listened. I mean, it wasn't revival, but you know, they they listened. It it went really well. And Peter looks at me blankly. He's like, what what are you talking about?
Joel Brooks:
No. I mean, I know you did that, but that's not what I care about. Do you remember when he got home afterwards and you were completely wiped out? All you wanted to do was just, you know, grab a drink and just veg on the couch. But when you came home, you noticed that the kitchen was not clean.
Joel Brooks:
And, you didn't want your wife to have to do it. So because you loved your wife with the little energy that you had left, you just kinda cleaned up the kitchen, and then you went to bed. It's well done, good and faithful servant. It's not the extraordinary acts. It's not the things that we like to just hold up, you know, our resume to the world.
Joel Brooks:
Look at this. Look at this. God is looking at those teeny, little, forgettable moments. And God's like, that's where I'm honored. That's where you become spiritually significant, is in doing those little things out of love.
Joel Brooks:
Paul, he says that if you were to have these great acts of faith but not love, he says he is nothing. He goes, I am nothing. Strong language. It's a strong rebuke to the Corinthians. It reminds me of Jesus's words in Matthew 7 when he's giving this illustration, and he's telling that there was going to be judgment day and people are gonna come and say, but Jesus, did I not prophesy in your name?
Joel Brooks:
Did I not cast out demons in your name? Did not, did I not do miracles in your name? And Jesus says, depart from me, I never knew you. Think about that. Jesus was describing gifts of the spirit, prophesying, casting out demons, doing miracles.
Joel Brooks:
And he says, gifts of the Spirit can be performed by people without me even knowing them, or them knowing me. In other words, you could be in the church, being used in extraordinary ways, even gifted by the Spirit, and you might not be reborn. You might not have God's love in you. God loves too much about His church, to, to not gift all the people. And so there's people gifted within the church who don't know him.
Joel Brooks:
Just as a way of taking care of the church. But we need to examine our own hearts and ask, do I actually know him? Do I love him? Verse 3 says if I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Alright.
Joel Brooks:
So nobody's made a sacrifice like this. This is an extraordinary sacrifice. He's saying that even if we were to make this huge sacrifice, get killed. Let's just, you know, let's picture. What if what if you were called to move away and you you decided that you were gonna, you're gonna go to some third world country, eat rice and beans every day, drink it down with dirty water.
Joel Brooks:
Alright? You're making this huge sacrifice. And, ultimately, the you were martyred in that land. Paul would say, if you did not love, the sacrifice was worthless. You've gained nothing.
Joel Brooks:
It's a sobering truth. I bet we all know somebody like this. Do you know the martyrs? The martyrs who are always serving. Always serving.
Joel Brooks:
They're giving away their money. They're, they're always making some sacrifice. But underneath it all, they're just full of bitterness. All they're doing is they're they're angry at the other people who aren't serving as much. Perhaps, they're angry at the Lord for making them serve in this way.
Joel Brooks:
And their hearts actually grow more and more bitter the more and more they serve. They gain nothing. I can't help but think of the story of the prodigal son. And this is the elder brother being described. The one who stayed home.
Joel Brooks:
The one who made all the sacrifices. The one who worked hard, but neither loved his dad nor his brother. He was the one who looked righteous though. So, just taking a step back. What would you think?
Joel Brooks:
What would you think about a church that was great in its proclamation? Had powerful proclamation of the word, held to a deep robust theology, exercised extraordinary faith where people are even healed, prayers are answered and sacrificially gave more than any of the other churches. What would you think about such a church? I tell you what, you listen to their podcast. You'd read their books.
Joel Brooks:
You'd put them on a pedestal. But Paul says without love, they are nothing. Nothing. Redeemer, what are we known for? It's a probing question.
Joel Brooks:
What are we known for? Are we known for our preaching? Are we known for our theology? Are we known for our faith or for our giving? Or are we known by our love?
Joel Brooks:
Jesus said that if we love God and we love our neighbor, we fulfill the law. He boiled down the law into 2 things. Love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. And, love your neighbor as yourself. You do those two things and you fulfill the law.
Joel Brooks:
And if you think about it, if you do love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, well, then of course, you're not gonna have any other gods before him. Of course, you're only gonna worship him. Of course, you're not gonna use his name flippantly or in vain. If you love your neighbor as yourself, you're not gonna murder them. Alright?
Joel Brooks:
You're not gonna steal from them. You're not gonna have an affair with your neighbor's wife. You're not gonna lie to them if you love them. Love fulfills the law. Alright.
Joel Brooks:
So let's look at love, how Paul describes it here. I wanna slow down and look at these verses. Verse 4. Love is patient and kind. Love doesn't get in the car and blow the horn because their spouse is late.
Joel Brooks:
Love doesn't look at the sins or the flaws of its friends or its spouse and demand that they be fixed now. But is patient and will walk through them in this road for the long haul. Love is slow to anger, speaks tenderly kindness. I say this not as an exaggeration, but many of the marriage marriages, which the couples come to my office for counseling, many of their problems would be corrected if they were simply kind to one another. Just simple kindness.
Joel Brooks:
Paul says, love does not envy or boast. So if your friend or your coworker goes to the beach while you're at the office, love does not check the weather report and hope it rains there. You hope it's beautiful sunny weather, and they're just enjoying it. You rejoice in their vacations. You rejoice when your coworker gets the promotion and you don't.
Joel Brooks:
Love doesn't brag or promote all the things that it's done, all the places it's gone. Love doesn't feel the need to get on Facebook or Instagram and post all of its accomplishments. Love doesn't turn every conversation back to itself, but is happy to just listen to others. Love is not arrogant or rude. Love does not think that it's better than anybody else.
Joel Brooks:
It's not dismissive of people, but actually listens to people. Treats them with the dignity that they deserve. Love does not cut people off in their conversation. Love does not stare at their phone in the middle of a conversation, but engages in the person they're talking to, as if the poor person is more important than their screen. Verse 5, love does not insist on its own way.
Joel Brooks:
In other words, love does not feel like, it always needs to be the teacher. And that, love or it knows the best way to always do things. Love understands that not every moment is a teachable moment. Don't you hate when you're around people like that? Every moment is the teachable moment in which they get to tell you So if somebody is in your So if somebody is in your house is making pancakes or something like that, and you know a better way to make pancakes, You just let them do it.
Joel Brooks:
It's not the teachable moment. Love does not insist on its own way. It's not selfish. It thinks first and foremost of others. So, when love is out with its friends and a group picture is taken, and all of its friends look really good, but love's eyes are closed, love is happy with the picture.
Joel Brooks:
Love's just not looking at at itself. The love is rejoicing when other people are presented at a great light. Other people are getting their own way. Love is not irritable or resentful. The ESV uses the word irritable here.
Joel Brooks:
It actually seems a little out of place when you're going through this list about what love is, all these other descriptions. Other translations say love is not provoked or have a temper. The thought here is that, love doesn't have a touchy disposition. Love is not moody. Love is not ill tempered.
Joel Brooks:
And the reason this seemingly little thing is is put here in Paul's list is because irritability or being ill tempered actually reveals so much about what's really going on in the heart. In that little flash, that little moment of irritability, you get such insight as to what's actually going on in there. There's a book called The Greatest Thing in All the Earth or All the World. It's written by a man named Henry Drummond, And the entire book is just on 1st Corinthians 13. It's only in like 40 pages, 50 pages.
Joel Brooks:
It's a very small book. But he writes this about the irritability and why it's so important. Says this occasional bubble, when when it escapes to the surface reveals that something is rotten underneath. It is a sample of some of the more hidden products of the soul. A lack of patience, a lack of kindness, a lack of generosity, a lack of courtesy, a lack of unselfishness, are all instantaneously symbolized in that one flash of temper.
Joel Brooks:
Let's you know what's going on in the heart. So people walk on eggshells around you. It's because you're irritable. Means there's stuff bubbling up in your heart and they don't know how you will react to anything. Love draws people in rather than pushes people away.
Joel Brooks:
And love isn't resentful. It doesn't keep tabs on, on all the wrongs that was committed against it, which is which is how one becomes resentful by keeping those tabs. Love doesn't keep track of how many times you've invited somebody over, but they haven't invited you over. Love doesn't think that way. Verse 6, love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with truth.
Joel Brooks:
Love does not celebrate sin. That is not love. It's just cheering when somebody is doing something evil. I've I've told my girls this, that a way, a simple way that they can live out the gospel, at school is just by doing this. Don't laugh at things you should not laugh at.
Joel Brooks:
Just don't laugh at it. Don't don't laugh at cruelty. Don't laugh at when people are the butt of a joke or left out. Don't laugh at vulgarity, But instead, celebrate and laugh at truth. Verse 7.
Joel Brooks:
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. In other words, love outlives everything else. Love actually stretches all through eternity. The other things that Paul would get to later, things like tongues or prophecy or all the knowledge that you think you know, those things serve you well in this life, but they don't go to the next life.
Joel Brooks:
But love endures. Love never fails. Love continues on. And let me just say here, that's going to probably get me in a little trouble. All right.
Joel Brooks:
Man, I love that. Like, instantly, everybody looks up. Do y'all want me to get in trouble? I mean, wow. Y'all are sick people.
Joel Brooks:
Alright? This might might give me a little trouble. Let me just say a word to husbands. Not a tactful way to say this, so I'll just say this. Where in your Bible does it say, husbands, lead your wives?
Joel Brooks:
Where? I mean, I know it says, you know, that husbands are the head of the wife. Where does it say, husband, lead your wives? If if you search all through your Bible, you're gonna find it's not there. But what do you read?
Joel Brooks:
Husbands, what? Husbands, love your wives. Love them. Be patient with them. Be kind to them.
Joel Brooks:
Don't keep tabs of all the wrongs that's happened to you. Don't always insist on your own way. Love your wives. And let me tell you what, when you love them, you will lead them. Parents.
Joel Brooks:
This works this works for us in how we raise our children. Let me tell you what. If you if you wanna lead your children to know God better than any creed, better than any confession, better than any family devotion that you can give your child is to simply love your child. Be incredibly patient and kind with them. Just just just follow it here.
Joel Brooks:
Don't be arrogant. Don't be rude. Don't insist on your own way. Don't be irritable. Don't be irritable with your children.
Joel Brooks:
And you will teach them about God. Because ultimately, that's what Paul's doing. He's talking to the Corinthians like children, and he's teaching them about God, who is love. All he's doing here is describing who our savior is. Can actually replace just instead of the word love, just put God.
Joel Brooks:
It's how God relates to us. It's how we relate it to the Corinthians. God is patient. God is kind. God does not envy or boast.
Joel Brooks:
God is not arrogant or rude. Does not insist on its own way. Is not God is not irritable or resentful. God does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but God rejoices with truth. God bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Joel Brooks:
God never ends. This is how God relates to us. And this is how He wants His children to relate to one another. So let me ask you, church. Do you think that you are significant by all that you do?
Joel Brooks:
Do you think you're significant because of your talents, your status? Are you significant because you love? Hear Paul's call for us to be a loving church. That's the way we reflect who the Lord is. Pray with me.
Joel Brooks:
Father, I speak for every person in this room. When we went through that list of what love is, we have all failed. And we ask for forgiveness. Jesus, we want to look more like you, And so our hearts need to be flooded with your love. And I pray that through your spirit, in this time, as we just reflect on these words, Lord, that you would bring real change in us.