The Way of Love

Date: 12 Oct 2025, 9.30 am

Speaker: Ps Daniel Tan Sermon Text: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

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TRANSCRIPT

Introduction

Blessed Sunday to everyone both here in Henderson and those joining us online.

For those online, we do pray that in the coming weeks, we would have the privilege of you being present with us in service.  

When you discuss with someone about what is a church? How would you explain it to them? What would they typically expect?

Might some of them see churches as buildings that are Instagram-able? Or maybe for some others, it might have the image of going for a concert with a good music beat and mood lighting.

For some older folks, church might remind them of fire and brimstone preaching, especially from a position elevated from the congregation, which for good effect, does accentuate such doomsday perspectives.

While on the other end of the spectrum, people could be flocking to a church that is saying, God is not sending you to hell but instead bringing heaven to earth.

Miraculous healing is available today, if only you have the faith to claim it.

And finally, for some, they might share that concert vibes are too mild, let’s add in a bit more excitement, let’s bring in the supernatural, let’s embrace the slaying of the Spirit.

If we now turn to Jesus and interview Him, what would he say a church should described as, should be known for?

Since Jesus is the Head of the Church which is His body, I’m quite confident that you and I would take His words as pretty authoritatively right?

Jn 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Church, the defining mark Jesus wants us as His family to display is the love for one another.

And the importance of love in the public setting of the church is highlighted by where Paul - who has been inspired by the Holy Spirits, places love in 1 Corinthians. 

Remember, 1 Cor 11 to 14, Paul is addressing the context of  public worship. Paul is helping the Corinthians learn what is the proper way for the body of believers in Corinth to publicly worship together.

The Corinthians have been fighting over who is more spiritual and prominent in the church as they were using the gifts of the Spirit as a measurement.

Paul had to remind them instead, that the Holy Spirit allocates a diversity of gifts to the church for the sole purpose of edifying body and for the building up of the common good.

Now chapter 12, 13 & 14 can be pictured like a sandwich. Chapter 12 & 14 talks extensively about spiritual gifts, especially that of speaking in tongues and prophesy.

Chapter 13 is the core, it’s the meat. The most important part of the sandwich.

Without chapter 13, the way of love, chapter 12 & 14 can just be discarded.  

The Pre-eminence of Love (v1-3)

Why is love the greatest, firstly it is because it is Pre-eminent.  It is most excellent and thus it is to have the greatest priority.

In these 3 verses, Paul is using hyperbole, exaggeration. We see it in his use of the word 'If' and ‘All’. Paul is not saying he has done all these things or every aspect of them. He is in a sense exaggerating so that the contrast comes up clearer.

I would like to also observe that the consequential ineffectiveness is also on an increasing scale.

Initially he says, without love he is just a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal, then he intensifies it to say he is nothing. Finally, not only is he nothing, he gains nothing.

Imagine, yourself as the first listeners, you have been pricing the gifts of tongues as a spiritual benchmark and Paul has just taught, hey your spiritual gifts are actually only for the common good.

Now he adds, if you can speak even in the tongues of angels, but have not love, you are just noise.

What is noise, that is audio clutter. It’s unimportant, it’s not significant, it has no meaning.

So what if you have the gift of tongues, if it’s not done out of love, it’s useless. It does not function in any capacity except to irritate.

Next, Paul talks about knowledge, and we know that the Corinthians were proud people because of their knowledge - I think this is something we B-Ps also prize highly.

Even if you had the gift of prophecy, even if God spoke through you directly, but you did not have love, you are nothing.

In Numbers, we see of a prophet called Balaam. He knew the true God and God's truth, but he had no love for God's people.

Many of us may remember his story because of the donkey that spoke.

Balaam, God's prophet was willing to curse the Israelites in return for a generous payment by Balak, the King of Moab. Though God prevented him from cursing the Israelites, Balaam subsequently led the Israelites into idolatry and immorality.

The power behind what we say and what we do is our motive. To proclaim the truth of God without love is not simply to be less than you should be, it is to be nothing.

I am nothing too, if I have the faith to move mountains but have not love.

Paul was referring to Jesus' example of having the faith of a mustard seed to move a mountain. Even if we have such 'mountain-moving' faith, but have not love, we are nothing.

Jonah was a man of great faith. It was because of his great belief in the effectiveness of God's Word that he resisted preaching to Nineveh.

He had no love for the Ninevites. After he reluctantly preached and the city of Nineveh repented, Jonah 4:1-3 records for us Jonah's reaction:

Jnh 4:1 But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry.

Jnh 4:2 He prayed to the LORD, “O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.

Jnh 4:3 Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

A bible commentator said of Jonah - "Everything Jonah acknowledge the Lord to be, the prophet himself was not and did not want to be. His faith told him that a great success would come in Nineveh but the prophet himself was a great failure."

From speech to knowledge to faith and now to the ultimate, self-giving. We start with giving all our processions to the poor and then graduating to even giving the ultimate - our lives.

We would have thought that if we do so sacrificially, God would be pleased. He would see that we have honored Him with all that we have.

Yet, Paul tells us, not only are you nothing, you gain nothing. Self sacrifice may not be for the love of others but instead due to self-love.

I suspect we do it for 3 wrong reasons.

Firstly, because we may feel we owe it to God – it’s a duty.

Secondly, we feel it’s something we want to do – it’s an aspiration.

Finally, we feel it’s something we need to model for others - it’s an expectation.

All these reasons, which can result in good outcomes, however, are nothing. They are not acceptable to God.

Only when we do it out of love will that sacrifice be acceptable.

A loveless person produces nothing, is nothing and gains nothing.

Church, Scripture is saying, don’t pursue the gifts of the Spirit, no, seek after the fruit of the Spirit.

The fruit of the Spirit, that is so clearly explained for us in Gal 5:22-23.

(read aloud with me these 2 verses please)

Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

The Particularities of Love (v4-7)

Love is the greatest because of all that is particular or distinctive of Love. As you may already be aware, the Greek word here is Agape.

We know that agape is the self-giving love which is fully displayed in Jesus Christ our Lord and our Redeemer.

This type of love is so unnatural to human nature, but made possible by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Agape love is epitomized through God's sacrificial love in His Son Jesus Christ.

This agape love is what we remember at Holy Communion. Which we commemorated and celebrated last Sunday.

Such agape love is the willing, joyful desire to put the welfare of others above our own.

It leaves no place for pride, vanity, arrogance, self-seeking or self-glory.

I Cor 13, v4 to 7 gives us this fuller understanding of Christ love for us.

A story is told of a young woman who came to her pastor desperate and despondent. She said 'there is a man who says he loves me so much he will kill himself if I don't marry him. What should I do?

The pastor after a pause for reflection said, 'Do nothing. That man does not love you, he loves himself. Such a threat is not love. It is pure selfishness.'

True love is others-centered not self-centered. The young man only understood in terms of what it meant for him not what it means for the lady.

As we observe verses 4 to 7, we notice that it starts off with the positive aspects of Love - it is patient and kind, and it ends off also with positives - love rejoices with the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes and endures.

In-between the positives, we see a whole big section of negatives. What love is not.

I submit that the reason why Paul uses the negative in the middle is because he is indirectly referring to the Corinthians there.

He is saying to them, this is what I see in you and that is not love.

Now, significantly, all these particularities of Love are not adjectives.  In the original text, we see that all of them have the verb form instead.

This flies in the face of what love means today, an emotion, a feeling. Love, to be felt is to be experienced in what it does and what it does not.

Agape love is active, not abstract nor passive.

Love is only fully love when it acts. The Apostle John says:

1 Jn 3:16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

Love is patient and kind. Patient means to be long-suffering, to have the ability to be inconvenienced or taken advantage of by a person over and over again.  

Kindness is the counterpart to being patient. It is active goodwill.

If we are loving, we will be forbearing with others and we will be gracious to others.

Paul then says, Love does not envy, does not boast and is not proud.

In 1 Cor 3:3, he was reprimanding them for divisions in the church. One follows Paul, another follows Apollos, another Cephas and another Christ.

Pride, jealousy were the causes of divisions in the church. Against that, Paul is saying, the church of Christ cannot be divided. Get rid of your arrogance.

So, Paul said previously, I planted, Apollos watered but it is God who gave the growth. Each did his part, in love, for the body of Christ.

They were not competing. They were all God's fellow workers.

Love is not rude or self-seeking. Not being rude means that love does not disregard the social customs. There is proper regard for the likes and dislikes of others.

For when someone does not do this, it becomes disrespectful.

We see the issue of impropriety in worship which Paul refers to in 1 Cor 11. We should not follow customs if it contradicts, what Scripture teaches. But otherwise, have propriety in worship.

To be self-seeking is to put oneself before others. In 1 Cor 11, Paul scolds them for not waiting for each other before observing the Lord's Supper.

Some go hungry while others are drunk (11:21). Paul says to them, do you despise the church of God, and humiliate those who have nothing?

Love is not resentful and does not insist on its own way. Remember chapter 6, there were lawsuits amongst believers.  

In verse 7 of chapter 6, Paul says, I say this to your shame, to have lawsuits against each other is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong, why not rather be defrauded, but instead you yourselves wrong and defraud, even your own brothers.

We come now to the final negative, that of not delighting in wrongdoing but rejoicing in the truth. To love truth means to be living according to the truth.

Those who truly love do not enjoy seeing their loved ones’ stumble into evil, but instead they rejoice when they try to live according to the truth of the gospel.

In chapter 5, we see Paul's rebuke on sexual immorality. It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife and you are arrogant, ought you not rather to mourn?

A bit ironic right, that in a chapter about love, the first listeners, would likely have felt the sting of Paul’s words.

Today, as we understand what love does, can we also admit that we too are not loving in the way God wants us to be?

Should we as a church then ask God for forgiveness, for not worshipping God in an acceptable manner?

But to prevent us from falling into despair, Paul concludes this section on a positive note. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things.

A picture of the escalating intensity of love. It starts with love bearing all things. Love bears many offenses and does not stop loving even under the strain of difficulties.

It then believes, it trusts all things, it gives the benefit of the doubt.

When even that is strained, love hopes. It maintains a measure of optimism on that person's behalf. It is an attitude that good will eventually come to those who may now be failing.

This is a hope that God who began a good work in that person will bring it to completion (Phil 1:6).

But when hope is put under test, love endures. It does not stop loving. It holds fast to those it loves. Love bears what is unbearable. There is nothing after 'endure' because it is unending.

1 Cor 13, I submit points us to God's love as the model for us. The length, breadth, height, depth and endurance of God's love for us is limitless.

If you are a mature believer, may I encourage you, to consider all the positive descriptions of love here. You have had a long road of sanctification, might your life now shine forth these positive attributes of love.

If you are a young believer, may I encourage you to take note of all the negative attributes of what love is not. Know that God is calling us all to a narrow road of holiness.

Look forward to God sanctifying you in regards to these negatives attributes.

Think of it as God’s refining fire, that will enable you to rid yourself of the impurities and thereby shine brighter for Him.

People have said, if you substitute Jesus for the word Love in v4-7, it would sound actually perfect.

1 Cor 13:4 Jesus is patient and kind; Jesus does not envy or boast; Jesus is not arrogant 5 or rude. Jesus does not insist on His own way; Jesus is not irritable or resentful; 6 Jesus does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Jesus bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Church, remember what Paul said at the beginning of 1 Cor 11, we are to imitate Paul as he imitates Christ.

Church, 1 Cor 13, shows us Christ.

The Permanence of Love (v8-13)

Love is the greatest because it is permanent. Unlike spiritual gifts like prophecies and tongues, they are incomplete and also temporal.

They are temporal because when perfection comes, there will be no need of them.

The gift of Prophecy, tongues and knowledge are all from the Holy Spirit. They are valuable in the church and to be used for the common good.

But the nature of such gifts is that it is for a certain period only,

So the question for all believers is why pursue after things that are temporal and not love which is permanent?

These gifts are also incomplete. Paul says even though he has the gift of prophecy and of tongues, those gifts are only in part. There is no total knowledge of God and total acquisition of all of God's prophecies.

Paul then illustrates it to us with two examples. The first using the life stage of a child and second, that of a mirror.

We see the difference in maturity between that of a child and of a man. Gifts are likened to childish ways as they are so limited by the constraints of this life and by their partial nature.  

Mirrors also give the same meaning. It’s nothing like having the person stand in front of you instead of looking at a digital picture isn't it?

A reflection or a picture is no substitute for a real person.

But everything will reach its fullness when perfection comes. Perfection comes when we see God face to face.

Church, perfection comes at the second coming of Christ and at the consummation of all things.

Church, there is this glorious picture that awaits us all -

1 Jn 3:2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

When we see Christ in person, we will know fully just as we have all along been fully known by God.

We will know God intimately and personally as He knows us.

And now these 3 remain, faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love.

Faith, Hope & Love appear together in many parts of NT scripture (1 Thess 1:3, Col 1:4-5, Eph 1:15-18).

Please read today’s Herald article for a good explanation of the relationship between Faith, Hope and Love.

Faith is the primary means by which believers are joined to Christ and thereby receive the blessings of salvation.

Hope, describes the glories of salvation that believers receive in heaven.

In faith and hope, scripture says represents the means of obtaining the blessings of the gospel.

Even as faith, hope and love remain 'now', Paul goes on to say that love is the greatest.

It is the greatest because faith and hope are encompassed by love. 1 Cor 13:7 says that love believes all things and hopes all things.

When Christ comes again, Faith becomes sight. and Hope is transformed into reality.

Gifts, ministries, will one day cease to have any purpose. Faith and hope will one day be fully realized.

But love will endure. Why, because love is the link God has given us to His eternal self.

And thus it is most important that we exhibit love, that we practice love now and into eternity.

Conclusion

I mentioned earlier that we could substitute the word Jesus for Love in 1 Cor 13:4-6 and it would fit perfectly. Everything that love is, Jesus is. Everything that love is not, Jesus is not.

Scripture tells us then, Jesus is love.  

What a perfect person Jesus is. And may I add, Jesus is unchanging. He is the same yesterday, today and forever.

He is the only Redeemer, the best Master and closest friend you and I can ever have.

Today, if you haven’t known Jesus yet, may I invite you to give yourself an opportunity to know Jesus. Jesus who is love.

For the rest of us who are in a loving relationship with Jesus, may we look to him as our model for ministry:

Jn 13:1 having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end … 12 When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. 16 Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

Following our master, let us be compelled by His love to exercise our gifts in service, for the good of His Church and for His glory.

And in so doing, may our lives testify to the transforming power of love, drawing others to the Savior who first loved us.

As we sing our closing song later, may the lyrics which beautifully captures the vastness and depth of God’s love, linger in our hearts throughout the week as we apply His truths into our lives.

Reflection Questions: 

1. What does it look like for a church to be embodying the definition of love in 1 Corinthians 13? Consider: how would relationships, service/ ministries, conversations look like within the church?
   

2. Which of the list of attributes do you presently lack or struggle to display? What can you do to work on them? Consider how you might do it and how your CG would provide that nurturing environment.