God’s Love in the Church
 

God’s Love in the Church

Valentine’s Day


By Pastor Dan Kennedy

www.pastorkennedy.com

©February 14, 2010


1 Corinthians 13 is often called “the Love Chapter”.  It is used in weddings to reveal the true principles of God’s Love, as compared with the world’s perception of carnal love.  Today, I would like to project the principles of this chapter on the Church.  If we follow these principles and encourage each other to hold to these principles, then the church will be much more of what God intents it to be.


1 Corinthians 13

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, 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; 6 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.


There are at least four sections that can be clearly identified in 1 Corinthians 13:


1.The Power of Love, vs. 1-3

2.The Principles of Love, vs. 4-7

3.The Permanence of Love, vs. 8-12

4.The Preeminence of Love, v. 13


A fuller outline might be as follows:


1.The Power of God’s Love, vs. 1-3


a.Special gifts in the church do not supersede love.

b.Spiritual knowledge and authority in the church does not supersede love.

c.Sacrificial daily living in or away from the church does not supersede a life of love.


2.The Principles of God’s Love, vs. 4-7


a.Love is patient and kind – it graciously waits.

b.Love does not envy or boast – it considers others better than itself.

c.Love is not arrogant or rude – it does not act carnally and selfishly.

d.Love does not insist on its own way – it chooses not to be the one who is always right.

e.Love is not irritable or resentful – it is not “touchy” all the time, holding grudges.

f.Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

g.Love bears all things.

h.Love believes all things.

i.Love hopes all things.

j.Love endures all things.


3.The Permanence of God’s Love, vs. 8-12


a.Love never ends.


i.Prophecies, will be fulfilled and pass away.

ii.Supernatural gifts will cease.  There will be no more need of them.

iii.Knowledge will pass away.  When we “know as we are known” there is not a need for more knowledge.


b.In our human life we have a lot of limitations – all the knowledge we have is still very limited, and even the prophesies from God that are given to us are only partial in the total scope of what God is going to do.


c.When the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.


i.When I was a child, I spoke like a child; I thought like a child; I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I gave up childish ways.

ii.For now we see in a mirror dimly, but one day we will see face to face – not just looking at ourselves in a mirror.

iii.Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.


d.Love never ends.


4.The Preeminence of God’s Love, v. 13


a.There are three critical factors in the fellowship of God’s Church:

i.faith,

ii.hope,

iii.and love;

b.But the greatest of these three is love.


There can be a great Problem of little Love in the Church

(Since all of us in the Church are have not “arrived” but are in the process of growing into spiritual maturity!)


There are Consistent Problems in Every Church


The Principles of Love may give a further glimpse of the negative traits that are in reverse of Love’s principles.


a.There are impatient and unkind people in the church…Love is patient and kind.

b.There are proud and boastful people given to envy in the church…Love does not envy or boast – it considers others better than itself.

c.There are arrogant and rude people in the church…Love is not arrogant or rude.

d.The church has people in it who clamor for their own way (most of the time)…Love does not insist on its own way – it chooses not to be the one who is always right.

e.There are irritable and resentful folks who hold grudges in the church…but, Love is not irritable or resentful.

f.Sometimes folks in the church are happy when bad things happen to certain people…Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

g.Some folks in the church can’t handle too much pressure, but…Love bears all things.

h.Some folks in the church question the motives of everyone else but themselves…but Love believes all things.

i.Some folks in the church won’t support or go forward on anything unless it can be a proven success and meets their criteria…but Love hopes all things.

j.Some folks in the church will only forgive so much and only go so far without “throwing in the towel”…but Love endures all things.


The following “Problems” are related to the above previously mentioned opposites of the principles of love…these too, unfortunately, are all to often found in the church.


•The Problem of Personality Differences in the Church – “My personality and style is right, your personality and style is wrong!”


Doing things in a certain way because of your personality preferences.  Detailed.  Broad. Friendly. Quiet. Outgoing. Stubborn.


“I have a group of my friends that like it the way I do things, and the way you are doing things does not fit the way that I and my group of friends think it should be done.”


Paul experienced this in…


1 Corinthians 1

10 I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. 12 What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?


•The Problem of Pecking Orders in the Church, because of Tenure, Talent or Turf – “The way it has always been done around here is the way I am doing it, so the way I am doing it is right!”


•The Problem of Theological Differences in the Church: Theology = doctrine about God.  – “My theology is right, your theology is wrong.”


God. Although as believers in Christ, we believe in One Creator God in Three Persons, all the religions and sects in the world do not branch their theology from Him (as many would like to think).  There are many unseen spiritual powers that vie for worship, some of which have inspired their “prophets” to write “holy books” that would ultimately point worship to their spiritual source of power, and not to the Living God.  All religious books are obviously not about the Creator God of the Judeo-Christian Old and New Testaments.


Religion.  Theology is very important, because our interpretation of the Judeo-Christian Scriptures (the Old and New Testament), and/or of differing supernaturally inspired books, that are also called “bibles” or “holy books” and how their principles are lived out in life, can have serious, and irresolvable conflicts between themselves, which cannot be reconciled in the same “religion”, “church”, or “meeting place”. 


Ideologies.  Religions of the world, denominations, sects and cults become separate because of the result of serious conflicting ideologies or theologies.


Sometimes unbiblical beliefs creep into any church and those who are Biblically sound are supposed to stand against false teaching and confront sin when it reveals itself.  Paul tried to reestablish Biblical accuracy and bring about honorable actions when he wrote letters like 1 Corinthians and Galatians to the respective churches under his care.


At this Church we base our beliefs and teaching on the Old and New Testaments of the Judeo-Christian Bible.


•The Problem of Leadership Tension in the Church – “Because I now have a position of authority, I can do what I want to do, when I want to do it…and you can’t stop me!”

“Oh, yeah, watch me!”


The need for Biblical leadership


Hebrews 13

17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.


The need for submission to Biblical leadership


The need for mutual submission in Biblical leadership


Ephesians 5

21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. (See also Philippians 2:3)


You are revealed, if you are acting in honorable, Godly love, in how you go about resolving problems in the Church!


Conclusion


Love and Truth

Remember the principles of Love?  Remember that Love trumps everything else!  We also need to keep in mind that love is not passive…it only rejoices in the Truth!


  1. BulletLove is patient and kind – it graciously waits.

  2. BulletLove does not envy or boast – it considers others better than itself.

  3. BulletLove is not arrogant or rude – it does not act carnally and selfishly.

  4. BulletLove does not insist on its own way – it chooses not to be the one who is always right.

  5. BulletLove is not irritable or resentful – it is not “touchy” all the time, holding grudges.

  6. BulletLove does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

  7. BulletLove bears all things.

  8. BulletLove believes all things.

  9. BulletLove hopes all things.

  10. BulletLove endures all things.



In the near future, I would like to tackle the subject of dealing with conflict in the church in a Biblical manner.  If conflict is not handled Biblically, it reveals the carnality of those responding unbiblically and can leave disasters of huge proportions among the congregation…for years to come.