The Heart of How the Church Functions

Transcript

GRM 1197
09/23/2018
The Heart of How the Church Functions
1 Corinthians 13; 1 John 3-4
Gil Rugh

It's encouraging to know God's hands are in the ministry, He directs each step of the way and His way is always right. We're not quite ready to get back to Revelation, but we probably will next week.

Last week, on Sunday evening, I talked to you about spiritual gifts. We just sort of overviewed the subject of spiritual gifts and we looked at 1 Corinthians 12, then jumped to chapter 14. Chapter 13 has been on my mind because it's the heart of how the church functions. And I thought it was just not good to leave it there because spiritual gifts won't function effectively if we don't understand and practice what God says about love. So, we are going to talk about that and look into the Word this morning.

But before we get to 1 Corinthians 13, come to 1 John, chapter 4. There is much that could be said about the subject of love in the Bible. It is a defining characteristic of a believer in Jesus Christ. Jesus said to His disciples before His crucifixion, “by this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” We ought to take seriously that statement. This is what people should be looking for as the identifying mark of us as God's people—that we love one another. And important that we understand, the world had a song that went something like, “what the world needs now is love.” The world does need love, but the love that the world needs has been displayed and provided. “God demonstrates His own love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son in order that whosoever believes in Him might not perish but have everlasting life.” That is God's provision for us, poured out in His love at great cost—the death of His Son on the cross. He was victorious over that death with His resurrection.

In 1 John 4, John has been emphasizing the importance of this love that is God's love, being manifested in the actions of His children. We are talking about God's people and their demonstration of love. Peter wrote, we don't have time to go to these references, but I will refer to some of them. Peter wrote that when we place our faith in Christ we are born again, made new. And we become partakers of the divine. We do not become divine, we do not become gods. But we partake of the very character of God, His nature produced in His children, and love is that characteristic of God, that part of His nature that made possible our becoming His children. That's why we read John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He” acted to do what was necessary to redeem us from our lostness, to cleanse us from our sin and guilt and literally make us new within. Cause us to be born as His children.

1 John 4, we'll just jump into this. If you look at 1 John 3:16, we're told, “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us.” That is Christ laying down His life for us so that we could become God's children, God's family. So now we are told we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren, for other believers. Down in verse 23, “This is His commandment that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as He commanded us.” You'll note there, too, you cannot be saved without believing in Jesus Christ, and when you truly believe in Him, He transforms you and by His grace and the indwelling power of the Spirit, now you exercise that same love, self-sacrificing, giving love by loving other believers. That is His command. There is no way for me as a believer to do otherwise.

You come down to 1 John 4:7, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” This is not the world's kind of attitude when they sing the song, “what the world needs now is love.” The love that God is talking about is not a feeling or an emotion, we'll see that more clearly when we turn over to 1 Corinthians. It is an action; it's a requirement. And he says it is simple fact, “Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” That is His character. But you must be brought into a relationship with the living God before you can manifest this kind of love. The world has its own version of love and doing certain things that are called love, but what God is talking about is something deeper and more internal. It begins within, in that inner person. It is a result of what God is doing, it is a love that is different from all other kinds of love you see in the world, because the world is not able, and the unbeliever is not able in his own power to have this kind of love.

“By this,” verse 9, “the love of God was manifested,” in our case, “unto us that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. And this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us.” You see God is the initiator in this relationship. It's not that I loved Him, and He responded, He loved me. What does that mean? He did something. “He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sin.” That word propitiation, God made possible our having a relationship with Him because Christ paid the penalty for our sin, which made us the object of God's wrath, God's judgment. This word means to turn away the anger, He turned away God's anger that had to be demonstrated against us because of our sin. The death of Christ, He stepped in, by His death paid our penalty so when we believe in Christ, then the penalty for our sin is declared paid in full. Now we can have a relationship with God.

“If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” You know the love that God is talking about is based upon, conditioned, by the love that God demonstrated to us in Christ. This is why the unbeliever can never have this kind of love, this level of love. It is given when we become part of the very character of God by His grace. His Spirit will dwell in us, as we see.

“No one has seen God at any time.” Verse 12, “If we love one another, God abides in us, His love is perfected in us. And by this we know we abide in Him and He in us because He has given us of His Spirit.” So, we have the Spirit of God dwelling in us. And as we submit to Him, this is what He produces. We'll just be referring to, but we won't be turning to, Galatians 5, the fruit of the Spirit. This is the evidence we are walking by the Spirit, under the control of the Spirit. This is what He produces in our life, love first in that list of fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience. We'll see some of the overlapping of that when we go into 1 Corinthians 13. So, the connection with Christ is essential.

Verse 14, “We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.” So verse 16, “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us.” Have you ever come to believe the love that God has for you? That He sent His Son to this earth to die for you, so that you could be forgiven, washed clean, made new? Become the very child of God, belonging to Him for time and eternity? John writes, “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us,” the love which had Christ come and pay the penalty for our sin. “God is love. The one who loves abides in God and God in us. By this love is perfected with us,” brought to its completion, its intended goal, “so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment.” What is our confidence as believers? That we will be accepted by God and welcomed by Him as those who are fully forgiven when judgment day comes. And that confidence comes because we function like He functions. He loved the world, we are being perfected and completed in love.

Verse 19, “We love because He first loved us. If someone says I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. This commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.” He is talking about his fellow believers, but we also can exercise this love toward the world as God's children, because we see them as those for whom Christ died, lost and controlled by their sin, without hope in the world as we once were. But in grace God sheds the light of the truth of the Gospel by, for example, bringing you here to hear the truth of God's love for you in Jesus Christ so you might recognize your sin and guilt and turn and place your faith in Him. And supernaturally that truth concerning Christ is God's power for salvation to everyone who believes. There is no other way for it to be accomplished.

I want to take you back to 1 Corinthians 13. It is interesting to me, we call 1 Corinthians 13 the love chapter because it, in a concise way, gives the fullest instruction regarding love, the fullest definition and description of love. And it is sandwiched in the middle of a discussion about how Christians should function together in the church. You are aware that 1 Corinthians begins by Paul saying this Corinthian church has received all the gifts necessary for them to function as a body. And that's the picture, like your physical body has various parts. It is one body but there are a variety of parts. It says all the parts function as they should, the one body functions to accomplish what it should to be effective. That's the spiritual picture, but it is just as real. Every believer here, that God has brought together into this church, is gifted to make a contribution so that the body here will function as God intends, will function so that the body continues to grow to maturity, completeness and perfection in Christ, and thus bring Him the greatest glory that we can.

The Corinthians were having a problem. Instead of functioning in a unified, harmonious way, they were divided. They were divided over personalities, they were divided over the roles of men and women, they were divided over the communion service. They were divided over the gifts—how the gifts should be exercised, who was more important, what gifts were the most important, desiring to get honor for themselves. All this is contrary to love. That's why right in the middle of this, you'll note at the end of 1 Corinthians 12:31 Paul says, “earnestly desire the greater gifts.” Then he begins chapter 14, “Pursue love,” which he just talked about in chapter 13, “yet earnestly desire spiritual gifts.” So, you can see at the end of chapter 13 and the beginning of chapter 14 he really ties the two together. “Earnestly desire spiritual gifts.” He has to say something that is very important, or these gifts will not function as they should. The fellowship of Christians in the church will not function as it should. The body of Christ will be dysfunctional, and you know what happens when something happens in the body and parts of the body don't function as they should. It is hard for the body then to do what it should, there is a breakdown. Paul is concerned about the Corinthians. I'm telling you about spiritual gifts, you have a lot of interest about spiritual gifts, but you don't understand how they operate. And without this understanding, they will not operate properly, nor will the church as the body of Christ operate as it should.

So, he is going to start out in the first three verses of 1 Corinthians 13 with a contrast. You'll note each of these first three verses start if—“if I speak with the tongue of men and angels;” verse 2, “If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries” and so on; verse 3, “If I give all my possessions” and so on. And then you have in that if I do this “but do not have love,” verse 1; the end of verse 2, “but do not have love;” the end of verse 3, “but do not have love.” He wants to draw the contrast.

So, you start out, “If I speak with the tongue of men and angels.” What he is going to do is show, no matter what your gifts, no matter what your activities, if it is not motivated, driven and carried out in the context of love, it is worthless. So “If I speak with the tongue of men and angels” because the gift of tongues, speaking in languages was viewed as important by the Corinthians because that was somewhat spectacular, it was a miracle gift. Because it doesn't matter how great your gift is, if you could speak every language on earth and in heaven but you did it without love, you would just be a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal. You are just making noise. It would be like the little kids, they climb up, they open the cupboard in the kitchen, they get out the pots and pans and they band them together. You say that's so noisy. That is all you are doing. If you have the greatest gift of speaking every language on earth and in heaven, but you did it without love, God says you are just making noise. Nothing is being accomplished.

Furthermore, “If you have the gift of prophecy,” which was receiving direct revelation from God, “so that you know all mysteries and all knowledge.” And again, he is just giving the extreme. Nobody does because at the end of the chapter he'll say we only know in part, we only have limited knowledge. But here let's just assume you knew everything that God ever made known, “and you have all faith, so you could remove mountains.” That would be another miracle. You have such great faith you could say to that mountain, move over. I'd like level ground there, I'm going to build a house. You could do that kind of thing, but you didn't have love, “I am nothing.”

You'll note here you move from just making noise to you, yourself are nothing—“I am nothing,” I'm worthless. This great gift with all this knowledge, I am nothing, I am contributing nothing to the body. Important here, because sometimes we think as long as I am doing this, as long as I am functioning, as long as I am exercising my gift, that's what matters. It is not what matters, there is something far more important—love, that this is done in love.

The third contrast, “If I give all my possessions to feed the poor, if I surrender my body to be burned.” I mean, this is ultimate sacrifice—give up everything I have and then give myself. But I didn't do it out of love, “I would profit nothing.”

He wants to lay the foundation of how important this subject of love is. You can sit and be part of an evangelical church, and if we are not careful we end up just making noise, being nothing, profiting nothing. Paul warned the Corinthians in chapter 3 that some believers might be saved but all their works will be burned up. Important we have God's perspective and understand what God says.

What he is going to do now is tell us what love is. And it is not what the world says it is. In verses 4-7 we have 15 commands, in the Greek tense they are given in the imperative mood, they are commands, something that must be done. All 15 are given in the present tense; they must be characteristic of us, they are ongoing. These are not to come and go. I want you to note, and if you read any commentaries on the passage they will make the note. Let me read you what one writer comments. Many observe that he does not use adjectives to describe love but verbs, 15 of them. Love is dynamic and active, not something static. He is not talking about some inner feeling or emotion. Love is not conveyed by words, it must be shown. It can be defined only by what it does and does not do. That's important, for the world’s love is basically a feeling and the world needs more love so we feel good about each other. And our emotions are, there can be emotion connected with our love, but that's not what love is. Emotions come, as a result of action. These are commands, verbs, something that is to be done. And it describes our love from the positive and the negative. Like I said, all in the present tense.

So, let's just walk through them. We don't have time to go into detail, just an overview as a reminder.

First, he says “Love is patient.” This is a compound word, it is two words, you could translate it long-tempered. Love is long-tempered. We would say don't lose your temper, you don't get upset. That is the word, it is patient. One commentator said this, “refers to the temperament that patiently accepts injuries without desire for revenge.” Such a long-tempered dealing with people enables the Spirit-filled Christian to endure provocations and injustices and still be in control of himself. And a note here as one writer says, the word in the New Testament always describes patience with people, not circumstances. That does not mean we want to become impatience with circumstances, but we are brought together as a body.

We sometimes joke, I love our church but it's the people that are a problem. But our church is the people, it's not the building. If I come in through the week and walk into the auditorium, for example, it is empty. I don't have any problem, it is just me. There are some problems but it's not like people. What happens is the people, we have to come together. It's like in your family, how often do you say, we are a family and we have to work it out in our family. And when somebody in the family stumbles, gets off track you don't just write them off, you don't just throw them out. Your kids, they get into trouble, they get into junior high and high school and all of a sudden there are things. . . You don't just say I'm done with them. You are concerned for them, you want to get involved, you want to help them.

Sometimes in the church it just seems like this is just a collection of people, and we can discard one and add another. God has brought the family together, so we have to be patient with one another. This word is one of the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5. When the Spirit is controlling our lives, we are submitting to Him, drawing upon His enablement, we will be patient with one another. We will put up with a lot with each other.

Second, “Love is kind,” it treats others with kindness, thoughtfulness. It goes with patience. There is understanding. This is used in Ephesians 4, some of you are familiar with the verse, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other.” And it is often in the context of forgiveness because there is that kindness to one another, “tenderhearted, forgiving each other just as God in Christ has also forgiven you.” That's the kind of context it is, there is a willingness to be useful in other people's lives. It is a fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, this kindness, this understanding, this thoughtfulness, caringness, if I can make that word.

Thirdly, now he is going to tell some negatives, what it is not. “Love is not jealous.” And this will be the first of eight negative contrasts. Sometimes we get a grasp of things a little more clearly when we get the opposite of what it is. “Love is not jealous.” The word can sometimes be used in a good sense—zeal, boiling the idea. And sometimes we can have a zeal for something good, but it is usually used in the New Testament in a derogatory way. Selfish passion, jealousy would go together with, be the idea. Love is not jealous. And some things here.

A person noted as he wrote on this Greek word. There is a jealousy that covets what other people have. Then there is the jealousy that begrudges what other people have. Sometimes jealousy comes up, it's not just I covet, want what they have, but when somebody is getting honor, getting attention I can get upset. Why are they getting that attention? Why should they be honored? They haven't done anything so important, they haven't spent as much time working and helping as I have. I begrudge them. We need to understand, that is not love. Love is glad when the other person does well, not displeased. Just like your children, you are not jealous when they do well, and you are happy when they do better than you. And you are really glad when they make more money than you, now they can take care of you in your old age. We are glad for our children, and we brag on our children. It's amazing how easy it is to get people to tell you how good their children are doing. You ask them, how are the kids doing? And pretty soon they are giving you a list of all their accomplishments. We don't begrudge that. It really bothers me, they graduated, they got a good job, just not right. Nobody is talking that way about their kids, just the opposite.

Well we are a family. When you do well, I should be as pleased as I could be, happy. You might say I go to a Sunday School class and my Sunday School teacher is a lot better teacher than you are. That's terrible to say. But I should be thinking how blessed we are as a church, that God provides teachers that He has gifted so well. I want to encourage that, and if I am functioning in love, I should. But I'm saying you ought to go to some of these classes, you ought to be in them. It will enrich your life. You may find that we have teachers that teach more clearly and are more gifted to do that than I am. We are not in competition with one another, that's true for all of us. So, love is not jealous, not envious. That's one of the works of the flesh—jealousy in Galatians 5.

“Love does not brag.” Bragging is a result of being filled with yourself, just like the sin of envy, boasting. It is just being preoccupied with yourself. We have raised in our society because everybody has to have self-esteem, nobody should be viewed as any less accomplishing. So, we don't give out grades, we don't want some kids to get a “C” and other kids an “A”. And we don't want to give awards for this or that, and we start telling our kids from the cradle, we want to whisper in their ear, you are the most wonderful person that has ever lived. They grow up believing that. They come to adulthood and they can't face life because why doesn't everybody think I am wonderful, because they are busy about thinking how wonderful they are.

Well, that shouldn't be in the church. “Love doesn't brag.” We are not looking for recognition and honor. That doesn't mean we get this false thing—I am not worthy of that honor. I appreciate when people encourage me, but that's not why we are doing what we do. But we give words of encouragement, we give an honor to someone. That's great. Proverbs 27 says, “Let another praise you and not your own mouth, the stranger and not your own lips.” This particular word for bragging is only used here in the New Testament. It gives an idea related to the other ideas of to brag. We don't brag. Sometimes we say there is a lot of self in that person. What we mean is they just seem to want to talk about themselves. It shouldn't be in us as believers.

“Love is not arrogant.” You see some of these words that they coordinate, they overlap in ideas and meaning. Arrogant—puffed up, an inflated view of self. This is a problem for the Corinthian church. The Corinthian church had a problem with arrogance. And do you know how it has a problem with arrogance? Individuals in the church, not just one or two, but it is a pervading problem. This word is used for, translated arrogant, seven times in the New Testament. Six of them are in the letters to the Corinthians. That is terrible to have to have that. Why? Because there are conflicts caused by inflated opinions of themselves. My opinion. And sometimes it gets hard for Christians to get down what says the Scripture because they have an opinion and they think their opinion is important. Nobody thinks my opinion is important, nobody listens to my opinions. Nobody cares about your opinions, nobody cares about my opinions. It is what the Word of God says.

Humility is the opposite of arrogance. “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves.” That's Philippians 2 in the context of the kenosis passage. Christ is the example. How dare I have an arrogant, puffed up view of myself—my opinions, my ideas—as though I am more important than another believer. We have different roles, we have different responsibilities, but our lives ought not be built around us. An arrogant person, it just divides the body. How are we going to function if you think a lot of yourself and your opinions? That is what is happening in the Corinthian church. They have conflicts over this, conflicts over that.

“Love does not act unbecomingly,” start of verse 5. Does not act unbecomingly. We get the word scheme from this word, we just bring it over into English and then they put a negative on the side. It doesn't function according to order, that which is proper, the way it should be. One writer said Paul is simply saying there are many ways of behaving badly and love avoids them all. They use a variety of words if you look up what they say about the word. It is courtesy, good taste, good public manners, propriety. I was young, probably in junior high, I was given a little booklet, Christian Courtesy and Conduct. I know some of you are thinking I should reread it, but it was good. It was to think here is how a Christian should conduct himself. And we ought to have good manners wherever we go.

When Paul had to go before governing authorities, he always showed them respect. He didn't come before Felix or Agrippa or others and say, I bow to no man, I am inferior to no man, I am an ambassador for Christ. No, he honored them, it is a privilege to come before you, it's an honor to present my case to you. He calls them “most excellent” because he is showing respect to the authorities God had placed. In their moral character these men are the opposite of Paul, but he showed Christian conduct, courtesy, good manners.

We ought to be concerned about that. The world says all that matters is how you feel about yourself. Do what you want, be your own person and if other people don't like it, that's their problem. That's not the way believers think. We come together as a church, we don't want to be offensive. So, we do certain things, it is courtesy. We want to show good manners. We say, that's love? It is when we treat one another this way. We want to show one another respect and I want to treat them properly, give them honor. One person said, the Christian is not vulgar, brusque, overbearing. Loving people are considerate of how their behavior affects others, even in little things. Sensitive to relationships, what is considered acceptable.

The Corinthians didn't have good manners. At the Lord's table when they had a meal, some were bringing their food in and were satisfied, this is an occasion to overeat. And others are coming and don't have enough to eat. I mean, you don't even have the courtesy to want to share what you have with the other person? And you claim to be a Christian? Well, it's mine and I worked hard. If they had worked as hard as I, they would probably have as much, too. It is just not being polite. You say, that was rude.

Basic things that divide the body. They didn't show proper decorum in the roles of men and women in worship. Paul had to deal with that in 1 Corinthians 11 and 14. It's just not everybody's opinion and now we are free to do as we want. This is Christ's body, this is the place where proper decorum and conduct and orderliness. There was disorder in the use of their gifts. And it goes on. We get the idea, because the world has begun to influence our thinking. We are not to be conformed to the world, but the world says everybody's opinion matters.

Pretty soon we have these divisions in because. . .“Love does not seek its own,” go to the next one, love does not seek its own. Love is always seeking the good of others. This is not about me, what can I do for this person? How can I help others in the body grow? Nobody is paying attention to me. Well, good, then I can give my full attention to doing what I can for other people. Are we functioning for the attention we get? Are we functioning so people will notice? Love does not seek its own, it's not selfish.

You see we are on the whole opposite end as far as you could get from the world, of self-importance, self-exaltation, self, self, self, self-esteem, the whole thing. And we see, even the unbelieving world things begin to disintegrate. The further away from biblical truth you move, even among the unbeliever, the more confusion and disorder comes. The sad thing is sometimes I have a hard time, I turn the news on and watch people in public places tearing each other apart. You come to the church and you say we just have a mini-version of this. Wait a minute, I can understand the unbeliever is all out for himself and how we can get this, how we can get in power, how we can do that, how we can . . . It ought not to be that way in the church. This is what I think, this is how I. . . But we are to be looking out, not for ourselves.

“Is not provoked.” We don't get upset with each other, we don't get exasperated, irritated because somebody has done something. Sometimes we say, they get under my skin, they really irritate me. Why? I'm not looking for ways to be offended, to be upset, to stake out my area. We all have to submit to the Word of God; we all have to submit to the Spirit of God. Then we allow for diversity. You want to eat a ham sandwich, eat a ham sandwich; if I don't want to eat a ham sandwich, I won't eat a ham sandwich. The Corinthians were divided over those kinds of things. We say, we're not like that. Sometimes it is hard to tell. Are we functioning in love? It's easy to become an expert—well they are not. What does that have to do with me? I can't change them. We go through these things and we begin to think of people who haven't functioned this way, when you know what will fix the problem? If everyone of us examines ourselves—let a man examine his neighbor. No, let a man examine himself. How am I doing?

“Love does not take into account a wrong suffered.” That's an interesting expression here. Doesn't take into account a wrong suiffered. That “take into account,” Greek word logizomai. It's an accounting term, you would use it with like a ledger, and you use a ledger to keep a record, maybe of expenses or things like that. What he is saying is true love does not keep a record of wrongs suffered. And that word wrong, evil, things that are really wrong that have been done to you. Kakon, it sounds like it is—evil. Kakon, it just has that heaviness to it. Love does not take into account evil. When someone has done something to you, it may really be kakon, something evil. They have hurt you, but I'm not keeping a record of these. I am amazed at people. Years go by and they have a record of what was done, when it was done, how unfair it was. And they are not ashamed to put it out there in writing and put it on the internet. They think they have a right to. . . We see this going on in the unbelieving world, of course. We'll go back and dig wherever we can, bring up as much, and nobody will know what is true, what is not true. Let's just get it out there. Love doesn't take into account evil. Do you have any records? Then I need to clean up my accounting, I need to wash these clean, put that page in the shredder. It's done. Love does not keep a record of wrong suffered.

“Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness,” love does not rejoice in unrighteousness. Look at the world, how does the world function? We need to be careful because we as Christians get caught up in this. Do you know what happens? They fear they found some dirt on this politician or this leader. I have to turn on the news, I have to find out what it is. And pretty soon it is everybody grabbing onto it. And we as Christians need to be careful. When they find dirt on a politician that we agree with, we say, what are they bringing that up for. But if it is somebody we don't agree with or don't like, I hope they find more. Wait a minute, I'm not supposed to be rejoicing in unrighteousness, period. I'm not glad unbelievers sin, I'm not glad even when an unbeliever's reputation is ruined. That is sad.

We rejoice in that, but that begins then to settle into how we function as believers. We get conformed to the world. They think if there is some dirt out on a believer, I never did like them anyway. And they think if they pass that dirt along maybe somebody else. . . a person by his own account gathers up all the stuff that he hears and knows and keeps it in a file about what people, supposed Christians, have done. What? Doesn't know if it is true or not, but then maybe if something true comes out I can shovel out the poop and discredit them. This is the way believers function? This is acceptable?

Think of what you have listened to in the last month. Is this good? Am I glad if another pastor in town, they found out, they bring up something? People want to come and tell me, but I say I don't want to hear that, I can't do anything about it, I don't have any reason to know it or hear it. Not looking to cover sin as sin. Most of what rattles around is just people saying what they heard or what they think. How much of the church is love? Do you know what the Bible says? We read it in 1 John, if you are not demonstrating love to your fellow believer, you don't belong to God. How do we get by? People think they are being spiritual by throwing all kinds of dirt around. There has to be absolute proof of sin and guilt. I mean, we get happy. And I'm not happy if there is dirt being thrown around about another church. If there are doctrinal issues that have to be dealt with, we deal with the doctrine. We have to be biblical. We're not looking around, trying to discredit.

We don't rejoice in unrighteousness. But we rejoice in the truth. That simple. If it is biblical, what did we just study last time? Philippians 4, “whatsoever is lovely, whatsoever is pure, all these are the things we think on.” And then as soon as a piece comes along—do you know what I heard? I don't know if this is true, but you know what is going around. And where there is smoke there is fire. And pretty soon we are all caught up.

Verse 7 summarizes it, “but bears all things,” bears all things. It is willing to put up with a lot. One wrote this means love puts up with anything. We are ready. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 9, “We did not use this right, but we endure.” And they used this word. We bear, we put up with all things so that we will cause no hindrance to the Gospel of Christ. Another put it, love holds out under all burdens, privations, troubles, hardships, toils. It means that love can bear any insult, any injury, any disappointment. There is a durability about love. We claim to love one another and how quickly that gets fractured.

“Love believes all things.” That does just not mean they can tell us any blatant lie and we are gullible, but it does mean we are not suspicious. We believe the best about people until there is no way not to. We are quick to jump on the possibility, and that is the way the world functions. Well, it is possible that that lie could have some truth in it. We are believers. What is the evidence? What is the support? Where did you get it? Well, I heard it. I've had pastor friends tell me that. Where did you hear that? Well. . . You ought to be careful who you listen to. Why can people say whatever and we just listen? I can control my tongue, I can control my ears. I don't want you telling me that, I'm not open to listen to it. Period. “Love believes all things,” it is not suspicious and distrustful. It believes the best about people. That doesn't mean don't examine, but somehow no matter how much examination is done, we see this in the world, some people will never be satisfied. I'm sad to say that happens among professing believers. No matter what the evidence, they are still sure something is there. Love believes all things.

“Love hopes all things.” This is where we are as believers. That's why you can give hope to a Christian who sins. This is David's hope, this is the hope for everyone. Talking with our children's church workers, they are working on Sampson. How did he get in the heroes of the faith in Hebrews 11? God put him there. We hope all things because we know that with God all things are possible, we have reason to be optimistic. “He who has begun a work in you will continue to perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ.” “We all stumble in many ways,” that's not an excuse for sin, but when a fellow believers stumbles we are there to pick them up and carry them along if we have to. Why? We are family. Like you do with your kids. Just don't say, you made the mistake, sometimes you say you have to learn, but you are ready to help them, whenever. You don't want to see them crushed and destroyed. Why are we so satisfied to have that approach?

Remember he is writing this to the church in how they exercise their gifts together, treat one another so that God can work in their lives.

“Love endures all things.” Hupomeno, that's hupo, under and meno, live. I mean, love is strong and tenacious, it lasts, it holds out, it perseveres in the face of opposition, unkindness, difficulties. It never gives up, has an aggressive trait. That's what we are. Love is enduring. You know what that is like, if you are married you have had to go through it. If you raise kids, you have to go through it. You function in the church, you have to go through it. All things, all things, all things in verse 7. I don't know if I can put up with this. Well, I can't change what you do, but I am responsible for what I do. You can't change. . . It's not so difficult. Every week sit down and read the love chapter, then sit down and read the fruit of the Spirit and the works of the flesh. Don't examine anyone else, just make a list and check yourself—how am I doing. If I realize I have lacks in this area, fix it. Now if everyone of us does that, that means that everyone of us will be functioning under the control of the Spirit, producing the love that God has for us. I'm glad that even though we all stumble in many ways, God doesn't throw me out of the family. He disciplines me, but He guarantees. That's why I have hope that He will bring me into the glory of His presence.

“Love never fails.” That could be a 16th commandment, and it wraps everything up. Love never fails. So, it doesn't matter what happens, we are in this together. If we are God's family, then we have a relationship with each other and the demonstration of the reality of our relationship with Christ is the love we are demonstrating to one another. It is going to be under pressure, that's why Paul had to write to the Corinthians, there must be divisions among you so that those who pass the test may become evident. We want to pass the test, the test of demonstrating our love and having our love grow stronger and deeper so that God can use us in greater ways.

Let's pray together. Thank you Lord, for the riches of our salvation, Lord, in Christ You have given us everything necessary for life and godliness, for a life of godliness. We have Your Spirit dwelling within us, the Spirit who produces as we submit to Him in Your truth, love, joy, peace, those qualities and characteristics that are so beautifully displayed in You and Your dealing with us. May our lives, our conduct be indeed a reflection of Your love, Your nature being manifest in and through us. We pray in Christ's name, amen.