All You Need Is Love

I want to talk about love. I came across this; I thought it was good. Once asked to explain love by Peppermint Patty, Charlie Brown answered, “You can’t explain love.” She insisted though he try, “Charlie Brown, you need to try,” so he said, “Well, let’s say I see a pretty girl…” “Wait a second, Chuck,” said Peppermint Patty, “why does she have to be pretty? Why can’t she be full of freckles and a big nose?” Charlie Brown said, “Okay, let’s say I see a girl walking by with a great big nose and freckles…” Peppermint Patty interrupts, “Wait a second, Chuck! I didn’t say a great big nose.” “Good grief,” blurted out Charlie Brown, “not only can I not explain love, I can’t even talk about it.” I love that.

It’s not easy to explain love, and it’s even harder to live it out, for sure. So, I’ve asked you to turn to 1 Corinthians 13 because here we have the premier passage on what love is, the subject of love. If you’ve been a Christian for any length of time, I am sure you’ve studied this passage. I know Pastor John has taught through the whole book of Corinthians, and certainly this chapter, and even those people who rarely step into a church, except for maybe a wedding, are familiar with this passage because a lot of couples use this section for their ceremony. It’s one of the most quoted, almost inscribed chapters in all of the Bible. You’ll find it on plaques, on tracks, on postcards, on wedding cards, a host of Christian paraphernalia. In fact, this is often called the love chapter or the hymn of love. The Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit pens really some of the most profound truths and insights regarding the virtue of love and what it really means to express God’s love.

That said, we’re not going to cover this whole chapter, but I want to begin by just reading it because I think it’s so essential. Just follow along as I read, and I’m reading out of the New King James. Paul writes, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. 4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.” Then, he concludes, “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

I would entitle my message tonight, “All You Need Is Love.” Again, there’s no way we could cover this chapter. I just want to look tonight at the supremacy of love as compared to everything else, and that’s found in the first three verses. This really lays the groundwork for what proceeds afterwards as you look at the great virtues that are mentioned. Tonight we’re just going to look at the first three verses. We’re going to pull out two main thoughts: We’re going to look at the definition of love, that’s essential; and then we’re going to look at the dominance of love.

Let’s begin with a definition. What is love? What’s Paul talking about? I mean, the Beetles sang about it in the late 60s - right? - “All you need is love,” (na nanana na). What kind of love is Paul talking about? What kind of love is the Bible talking about? We are told from the time we’re young, “Love makes the world go round.” We’re even told, “Love is blind.” But what is the Bible talking about when it talks about love? I mean, in our English language, we throw that term out all the time when we’re expressing even different kinds of endearments, “I love my spouse,” “I love my children,” “I love my friends,” “I love my dog,” “I love pizza,” “I love the wind in my face,” right? All those are affections, but I trust you’d love your wife, or your husband, more than you do a piece of pizza, right? I hope those aren’t equal.

If we were to ask the average person of what love is, most though would express it in terms of an emotion or a feeling. Some would even say it’s an uncontrollable passion. People talk about falling in love, being swept off their feet in love. Many of our songs talk about this, “I’m hooked on a feeling,” (de den), right? “I think I’m going out of my head,” right? These are all about love. But that is a far cry from biblical love. God’s love is so much greater, so much deeper. We sang about God’s love even tonight.

The word that the Apostle Paul uses here, and again, if you’ve been a Christian for any length of time, you know it is agápē, and it’s a very specific word. You see, the Greeks used all different kinds of actual words to express different kinds of love. We don’t. We use love for pizza, loving friends, as I said. But in the Greek language there was érōs, érōs love. We get our English word “erotic” from it, but it was actually used to describe the love between the sexes or intimate love. Then there was philía, and that is friendship love. We get our term “philanthropy” from it or, like I said, friendship. We get the city of Philadelphia, that’s the city of brotherly love. That’s what it meant. Then, there’s storgé. That spoke of family love—the love I have for my children, I hope my children have for me. It’s family love.

All of those pale in comparison to agápē. Listen, this word was actually rarely used by the Greeks at the time. It actually came into use, or we would say vogue, because of Christianity. It was the church’s use of this word by really putting the definition of what it really means that actually became over time the Christian word for love. We do this in our own vernacular. We’ll take words that maybe are used for something else and they become really a definition of something else. For example, when I grew up if something was really cool, it was hot, “Man, that’s hot. That’s hot!” It was cool, but it was really “hot.” If something was really cool, “That’s bad. Man, that is bad!” And “bad” meant it’s good, right? You understand what I’m saying? We use all these different terms. That’s the idea.

Agápē became synonymous with Christianity because of its usage. So, what does it mean? Well, let me begin by what it does not mean. It’s not a romantic love. It’s not the idea of the deep feelings that I have towards my spouse, and they towards me. It’s not a friendship love, “I love my brother, Pastor John. I love him,” you know, “what a close friend.” It goes beyond a love that I even have for a spouse, like I said, or family love. Listen to this, it’s not even an emotion. How bout that? Paul here is not talking about a tingling sensation that begins in your head and goes down to your feet, “Ohhh! Warm sensation!” No. Not even this, you know, people talk about…I don’t know if you have a King James, what we call a King Jimmy, but even the King James had it wrong. It translates this word “charity.” Love is more than a gesture of giving to your favorite charitable organization. So, if it’s not any of those things, what is it?

I suppose if you could put it in one word in its purest form it would be self-sacrifice, self-sacrifice. It’s really exemplified in John 3:16, right? “For God so loved the world,”—it’s agápē—“that He gave His only begotten Son,”—that’s the essence of self-sacrifice. It is not a feeling, not an emotion. Now, it can affect our emotions and our feelings. I was enjoying the worship tonight singing of the love of Christ for me at the cross, and it warms my heart. But really, agápē love is a purposeful act of one’s will to give to another. You might say this: Agápē love is the servant of the will, not the victim of our emotions. Let me say that again, “Agápē love is the servant of our will, not the victim of our emotions.” So, it’s not a syrupy sentimentalism. It’s not a helpless sensation or desire, “I can’t control myself.” No. Think about this. Jesus said in Matthew 5:44, “I want you to agápē your enemies,” love your enemies. If you’re waiting for some really warm, fuzzy emotions to kick in, you’ll never obey that command. It’s actually you have to set your will, “I choose to love them.”

That love, of course, originates with God, His love for me and then my expression towards others as a recipient of God’s sacrifice on my behalf, then I desire to love others like that regardless of whether they even love me in return or not, and that flies in the face of society today. The idea of most people’s love towards one another is, “Well, I’ll love you, if you love me in return.” Unfortunately, too many marriages are based on that, “Well, I will love you as long as I get that in return. But if not, I’ll see you in the courtroom,” maybe in a few years. That’s not agápē love. Agápē love you could also say in one word, it’s unconditional. Again, think of John 3:16 again, “For God so loved the world that” -what?- that feeling romantically inclined—“He gave.” No. God so loved the world, that feeling that He had a warm, fuzzy feeling, He gave. No. For God so loved knowing that we would love Him in return, He gave. No. None of those. God gave with absolutely no love given to Him. It tells us that in Romans 5:8. It tells us “ . . . that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” So, it’s this unconditional love. Leon Morris writes, “It is the love lavished on others without a thought of whether they are worthy to receive it or not.”

Hold your finger here, and I want you to turn to the book of Philippians. So, make a right, Philippians 2, and I definitely know you’ve studied this passage before in your church. Hopefully you’ve been here when you were in the book of Philippians, but especially chapter 2. Here we have agápē love again in a nutshell as we have the greatest example of love given. Now, Paul begins though by saying, Philippians 2:2, “Fulfill my joy”—this would make me blessed as a pastor—“ . . . having the same love,”—that’s the word agápē—“being of one accord, of one mind.” He says, “I want you to love one another.” How do we do that? Well, “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.” Wow, that’s hard.

Verse 4, “Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.” Again, we see agápē love is self-sacrificing. Paul is exhorting them and us that we should love, put others first, and then he gives the ultimate example. Here it is. How do we do that? Well, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” So, agápē love is certainly not a romantic, emotional, warm fuzzy feeling. Again, as I said, it can touch your emotions. It can do that, but it is a willful act. It is a determinate act of the will that says, “I will give. I will sacrifice for you, as my Lord did for me, whether I feel good or not because I know it’s right.”

And, by the way, let me say this. This love right here…you say, “Well, that’s too hard.” No, it’s possible for every single believer. Why? Romans 5:5 says, “ . . . the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.” The moment you were born again you’re able to do this, and God wants you to do this. Galatians 5:22, “But the fruit of the Spirit”—this fruit of being born again—“is love,”—right? It’s love. He goes on to say it’s, “ . . . love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control,” but most commentators believe that all of that flows out of love.

Donald Grey Barnhouse put it this way, “The fruit of the Spirit is love and joy, which is love singing; it’s peace, which is love resting; it’s longsuffering, which is love enduring; it’s kindness, which is love’s touch; it’s goodness because it’s love’s character; it’s faithfulness because it’s love’s habit; it’s gentleness because it’s love’s self-forgiveness; and it’s self-control because it’s love holding the reins. The point is as we walk in the Spirit, love will be the by-product of a Christian’s life.

Let’s go back to 1 Corinthians 13, and just as we begin I just wanted us to see the definition of agápē love. It’s not a romantic feeling, emotion, or desire. It’s not syrupy sentimentalism or friendly fondness. It is the act of our will that chooses to sacrifice on behalf of another. That’s the definition. Let’s spend the rest of our time and I want to now get into the text. I want to talk about the dominance of love—the definition, now the dominance. How important it is, how supreme it is over everything else, and this is what we find in the first three verses.

Paul had told the Corinthian church, in just a little overview for context, he told them in 1 Corinthians 1, “You Corinthians come short in none of the gifts.” It was the most gifted church. Imagine, you know, we have talented musicians, talented teachers, many that have various gifts in the church. This was the highest gifted church in the Bible. The problem is they were proud about it, and they paraded around. They flaunted their gifts, so Paul has to confront them in 1 Corinthians 3 and tells them, “Even though you have more gifts than anybody else, you’re the most carnal church I know.” They were a divided church.

When you get later on in 1 Corinthians 12, before this chapter, he has to talk about what the gifts are and then how to properly use them. But having defined the gifts, and they were excited about that, Paul says, “But that’s wonderful,” however he gets to chapter 13 and says, you know he launches into this area essentially saying, “You can have the highest gifts like you do, and even at this incredible capacity, but if it’s not motivated by love, it’s worthless.” Here he talks about the supremacy of love by comparing it really to all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and he shows them this in these verses. Essentially you could summarize verses 1-3 like this: A super saint—I mean they were gifted—who is a loveless saint, is a zero saint. Zero.

Paul gives us six examples, so that’s what we’re going to look at. First of all he talks about loveless languages. He says, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.” If you have the gift of tongues but no love, it’s meaningless. Now, I’m not going to go into a whole detail of what the gift of tongues is, suffice it to say if your only exposure to tongues has been these crazy tv evangelists and these hyper-Pentecostal churches, then you definitely need to listen to Pastor John’s studies on 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14. I also did an entire series on our website. I called it “Gifted,” and I went into detail in all of the gifts, a detailed study on each one, a balanced look at the gifts.

Let me just say the gift of tongues is primarily a prayer language. However, the Corinthian church, as many do today, were manifesting this gift in an unbiblical manner. Imagine, they’re just in church right now and someone stands up and starts speaking in tongues helter-skelter, and then someone else starts doing it, and it’s all pandemonium. Those who were doing it were actually thinking they’re spiritual, “Look it, I’m just manifesting my gift,” thing. So, Paul says right here in verse 1, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels,”—in other words, though I might speak in a different language, even one that angels speak. We don’t know what language the angels speak, he’s just using hyperbole here. He’s just saying, “Look, if I had the highest gift of tongues bar none, but it wasn’t with love. . . .

By the way, just as a footnote, Paul had the gift of tongues. He goes on in 1 Corinthians 14:18 saying, “I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all,” so, by the way, that means he was from the south. He might’ve been from Houston, “Y’all,” is what he said. Anyway, Paul had this gift, but though he had this gift, he says here, if it’s not coupled with love I’m just a “ . . . sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.” I’m just making a bunch of noise.

Perhaps God has blessed you with this gift. If you have, and you have no regard for people around you, and you just like to show off. I’ve known people, “I can hardly wait to get to church because as soon as I get there, I’m gonna let everybody know I have the gift of tongues,” and off they go. You’d be better off keeping that to yourself because that’s not love. Let me also say that you could here include eloquent speech, right? In other words, let’s say that a person is an incredibly gifted speaker, I mean they could wax eloquently with the best of them. They have a vocabulary that surpasses most people. You might say they have a silver tongue. But if their lives don’t manifest agápē love, they might as well be blasting a trumpet and banging drums. Any use of our mouths as Christians, be it the gift of tongues, be it teaching, or any way that we use our speech, if it’s not attached to love, it’s just making annoying sound.

Have you ever woke up in the middle of the night and you’ve got a leak in the kitchen sink? Have you ever had that? There’s nothing more annoying, especially if you have an aluminum sink or something, it’s just like, “Drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip.” I mean, it’s like, “Ahhhhhh!” It is annoying, and that’s what Paul is saying here.

When a believer elevates themselves in whatever gift they have, and they’re not manifesting the agápē love of God, they’re a drip and a drag to everyone around them, right? There are people like that—they’re just boasting about themselves or pushing their agenda. They’re no fun to be around. Let me also add this that we know that Corinth was an incredibly pagan city, and two of the main gods that they worshiped were called Cybele and Dionysus. It’s interesting because the worshipers of these false gods would actually blow trumpets and beat on drums to summon their gods. It was part of the worship to worship these gods. With that in mind, just think about this. Paul is saying that no matter how spiritual a person may think they are or how gifted they think they are, if their motivation is driven by anything else other than love, their worship is pagan. It’s not even directed to God.

I was thinking about this. In the late 60s, I was born in ’60, so in the late 60s early 70s, I was involved in doing a lot of art shows with my parents. They eventually had a large company, but they were doing art shows back then. Man, that was a crazy season. Everybody in the art field were a bunch of hippies, all of them - right? - and all a bunch of crazies would come out to these events. It was really trippy, but most of all there would always be some Hare Krishnas that were coming there. Now, maybe you’ve never seen them. They were very popular in the 70s, and the way of worship is, they worship, they have these little (ching, ching, ching, ching) and drums, chanting all this stuff. They’d be passing out their brochures and asking for donations. As I would be observing this, every weekend I’d see this going on, I noticed that people would take their brochures and give them money, not because they were trying to help their organization, the music was so horrible it was kind of like, “Here, just take this and get outta here.” This is how bad it was.

You think about this, I think Paul is painting the same picture. When we use our mouths around God’s people and our motive is to promote ourselves rather than the love of God, it’s just making a bunch of noise and people don’t want to be around us, you see.

Secondly, Paul uses and talks about loveless prophecy, loveless prophecy, “And though I have the gift of prophecy . . . but have not love, I am nothing.” Just as some had the gift of tongues in this church, some actually had the gift of prophecy. Now, like tongues, these guys, their gift, their supposed gift, we don’t even know if they actually had it, they were just out of line and out of control. Imagine them gathering together and someone just standing up, “My dear children, I think I have a word from the Lord,” in other words saying…I’ve actually seen this in services. It’s just pandemonium and crazy, just people shouting out with absolutely no recourse at all. Paul says in verse 2, “Though I might have a legitimate gift of prophecy, but I don’t have love, it’s worthless.”

I think of many examples in the Bible, but one of them, he’s a prophet, we find him in the book of Numbers 22. His name was Balaam. He was actually a prophet of God. God had given him a legitimate giftedness, however, he perverted it. The king of Moab actually hired Balaam saying, “Look, I’m going to pay you money because I know you’re a prophet of God, and I want you to come, and I want you to curse the Israelites,” and he actually agreed to do that, “Sure, I’ll do that.” Now, of course, every single time he tried to curse the people of God, God would stop him—not once, not twice, four times! The point I want you to see is here was a man of God, he was actually a prophet, he knew the truth, but he did not have love. He didn’t love God’s people. He was actually willing to curse God’s people for money.

I think of these so-called prophets today, many of them tv evangelists. They talk God-talk, right? God-talk. They talk from the Bible, they use the Bible, they twist it, of course. But they’re not feeding the flock, they are fleecing the flock. They’re just like Balaam, they’re prophets for hire. So, think about this. A person can know the truth about God, even proclaim it, even have a, quote unquote, gift of prophecy like Balaam did, but without love—empty, zero.

Then, Paul talks about loveless knowledge in verse 2, and let’s say I, “ . . . understand all mysteries and all knowledge,”—that’s quite a bit, all mystery? That Greek word is mystḗrion. It talks about something that is secret, and in context something secret only known by God. You know, the Bible, in the New Testament, calls the gospel, “the mystery of the gospel.” Isn’t that interesting. It says that in Ephesians 6:19. Why is that? Well, because outside of God’s revelation of Himself, the truth of the gospel is veiled to the unbeliever, right? In fact, it seems crazy, and it tells us that. Actually, in 1 Corinthians 2:14 it says, “But the natural man”—the unbeliever—“does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he”—actually—“know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” So, by the grace of God, as we just cry out to God, He gives us divine knowledge of Himself, right? Without that, it would be a mystery.

Imagine Paul says, “Let’s say we understand all mysteries,” he’s using, again, hyperbole. No one knows everything about God. God hasn’t even revealed everything to us. In fact, Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The secret things belong to the LORD our God.” God has chosen to keep some things from us, which is exciting. When we get to heaven, we can ask Him all kinds of questions like, Did Adam have a bellybutton? I don’t know. Those are just some things that ruminate in my mind. That’s kind of weird, isn't it? Paul says, “Let’s go so far as to say that God would reveal all mystery to you, and then on top of that all knowledge.”

That word is ginṓskō. It means noble facts that can actually be learned. Paul is saying, “Let’s say that God has given you the ability to know all unknown mysteries and every knowable truth,” that’d be pretty amazing, “yet you know that but you don’t have His love”—no love—“you’re nothing.” Knowledge can never be divorced from God’s love. The two must always be wed. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 8:1 Paul is telling the church this because this was one of their problems. He said, “Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies”—builds up. We know that that’s always a potential and a problem when God begins to use any believer. We always have to be careful that we don’t get puffed up. Love builds up.

There are even some in this church, they were apparently very knowledgeable, even had a gift of understanding, but they were proud. They were impressed with themselves. They wanted also everybody to know how knowledgeable they were. I don’t know if you’ve ever met people like that - right? - they just know everything, and they want you to know how much they know and, “Hey, enough about me talking about me, you talk about me.” There’s no humility. There’s no love, right?

Paul says, “I can know everything about God,” have all this incredible understanding, know the Scriptures like crazy, even, but have not love, no. Love must be supreme. By the way, let me just interrupt right here and say this, I see that in your church. That’s one of the things that endears me to your fellowship because I see the love of God. It’s a beautiful thing.

Moving on, Paul gives a fourth example. He says, at the end of this verse, verse 2, “ . . . and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” This is loveless faith. Very important, Paul is not talking about saving faith here. Saving faith and the gift of faith are two separate things. Saving faith comes to every believer. When we get born again, that’s saving faith—I placed my faith in Jesus Christ. There is also a gift of faith that you may or may not experience in your life. It’s a gift of God. But a gift of faith is the ability to trust God when a situation seems absolutely insurmountable. It’s that ability to trust God that says you just go forward when it makes absolutely no sense to do that. And notice, by the way, Paul uses the same expression that Jesus did in Matthew 17:20, right? Remember He said, “ . . . you will say to this mountain,”—be moved, right? If you have enough faith.

By the way, that expression is a Jewish colloquialism. It refers to an insurmountable situation. That’s why no one ever in the history of the world, even the strongest Christian, has never removed a mountain. When Jesus said, “You will remove the mountain,” I can imagine you don’t see any of these guys going, “Hey, mountain, be moved.” No. It’s talking about a momentous, a difficult situation, having a faith that will overcome something that’s just incredible. Paul is saying here, “Let’s say that you have all faith, as much faith as an individual could have, nothing is an obstacle to you, but you don’t have love, you’re a big fat zero.” That even shows us a person can exhibit great faith in God, yet they nullify it all because they have no love.

You know, there’s an example of this in the Bible. Actually, two of Jesus’ disciples, James and John, we read about the story in Luke 9. They’re coming with Jesus, and they’re going to pass through Samaria. Jesus was willing, later He meets with a woman at the well of Samaria—shocking. But now Jesus is coming to Samaria, and the Samaritans ahead of time hear Jesus is coming and they say, “We don’t want Jesus here. We don't want Him coming.” We read this in Luke 9:54, “And when . . . James and John saw this, they said, ‘Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?’”

Now, in one sense that’s an incredible statement of faith, “Lord, do You want us, because we could command fire to come from heaven.” It takes a lot of faith to believe that, and I want you to know that Jesus did not question their ability to do so, at all. The problem is, “Excuse me, where is the love,” right? There wasn’t any. I mean, James and John’s message to the people of Samaria was essentially, “If you don’t warm up to Jesus, it’s gonna get real hot around here,” right? It was like a turn or burn message. What does Jesus say in response? He goes on in the next verse and says, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. 56 For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them,” I’m not here trying to kill people. Jesus had to rebuke them.

If you know your Bible, you read later, we read it in Mark’s account, Mark 3:17, that Jesus then changed the name of these two brothers. He nicknamed them and He called them, Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder. He called them the thunder boys, “Here come the thunder boys. Hey, make way, Peter, the thunder boys are coming. Watch out, they may bring fire down on you.” The point is, the greatest of faith is nothing without love.

Maybe God has gifted you with the ability to do great things for Him. I mean, maybe God has given you the faith to start a new business and God is blessing, or to step out in an area of ministry for Him, and God is blessing. That’s wonderful. That’s awesome. I’m glad He’s giving you the faith to trust Him in that, but if you’re not walking in the love of Christ, it’s really nothing, and God will not bless that as it progresses.

Moving on, he gives a fifth example. He says, verse 3, “And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor . . . but have not love, it profits me nothing.” That’s loveless benevolence. Now, this is kind of interesting as we get to these last two. Notice, there is sacrifice involved. We said agápē love is sacrificial, right? It’s also in the next example. Here it’s monetary sacrifice, when you get to the end of verse 3 it’s life sacrifice—martyrdom, you know. So, agápē love as we said is sacrificial, right? However, although agápē love is sacrificial, not even all sacrifice is agápē. Not all sacrifice is motivated out of love. Paul is even rebuking the Corinthian church. He realized there are some that are thinking to themselves, Well, hold on a second, Paul. I sacrifice. I give of my substance. I help feed the poor. I help the needy. I give to the United Way, or whatever it is. But not all self-sacrifice comes from selfless love.

Hey, there are wealthy people today, it always amazes me, they bring in some Hollywood person or some billionaire, “Oh, man! They gave all this money to this.” Well, of course they did, they need the tax write off. It doesn’t mean it’s motivated by love. There are others who give even in the church, but some of them it’s their motive to be seen. There’s actually churches, “Hey, we’re going to actually ask for…we need this thing for this building. Who’s gonna give $10 thousand?” “I will!” “Praise the Lord, brother! Thank you!” And, “Over here,” kind of a thing.

It’s been said that you can’t love without giving. That’s true, you can’t love without giving, you will; but you can give without loving. It’s true. That’s Paul’s point. He says here, you could bestow all of your goods to feed the poor, so he’s not talking about a tenth, “Oh, I give my tithe.” No, he’s talking about here’s a person that gives everything. Whoa! He’s giving a radical example. But even if you gave everything, but you don’t have love, it’s a zero. It’s a zero. Do you see the supremacy of love? That’s his point.

By the way, that was the mentality of the Pharisees at the time of Christ. They wanted everybody around to know how super spiritual they were by their giving. So, Jesus brings this up, calls them out in Matthew 6:3 and tells everybody, “Listen, when you do your charitable deed before men, don’t do it to be seen by them. Otherwise, you have no reward from your Father in heaven.” It’s a zero. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, when you’re giving, don’t sound the trumpet like the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, (toot toot toot toot), “Everybody, I’m giving!” That they may get glory from people, “Congratulations!” That’s your reward, is what Jesus said, “Then, you got your reward.” “But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.” That’s who you want to please. Again, a charitable deed, no matter how noble, even how sacrificial, even if you cleared out your bank account, but doesn’t have love, it amounts to nothing.

Finally, Paul talks about a loveless life. At the end of verse 3 he says, “ . . . and though I give my body to be burned,”—though I would give my literal life, sacrifice it—“but have not love, it profits me nothing.” By the way, I love the three guys in the Old Testament in the book of Daniel who were laying it on the line, Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego, aka Rach, Shack and Benny. Nebby, you know, King Nebuchadnezzar tells them, “I’m making this big statue,” yeah, the guy definitely had an ego problem, ninety feet tall of himself, “and when you hear the music, I want you to bow down to it.” Those three guys said, “Look, we’re not going to break the heart of God. We said to God, we will have no gods before us. No, we’re not bowing down.” They were thrown in the fire, but God spared them, right?

We also know that during the time of Paul, Caesar would arrest Christians and dip them in pitch and set them on fire as human torches. Throughout the history of the church, there are many Christians that did give their life, they were burned at the stake for Christ. But Paul is saying here, “If you went so far to even give of your life, but you did it with an improper motive, then it amounts to nothing.” In fact, one commentator states, “When the persecution of the early church became intense, some believers actually sought martyrdom as a way of becoming famous and gaining special heavenly credit.” Can you imagine that? But when sacrifice is motivated by self-interest and pride, it loses its spiritual value and profits nothing.

What do we see in these first three verses? We see the dominance or the supremacy of love. Again, a super saint, who is a loveless saint, is a zero saint.

I want to begin to wind up our time. I came across a missionary who has worked in the mission field many years, and he paraphrased this, what we just read, from a modern perspective. You’ll have to listen closely. This is what they wrote: If I know the language perfectly of the people I work with and speak like a native but have not love for them, I would be nothing. If I have diplomas and degrees and know all the up-to-date methods, but have not God’s touch in understanding love, I’m nothing. If I’m able to argue successfully against religions of other people and even make fools of them, but have not that wooing note of love, I’m nothing. If I have all faith and great ideals and magnificent plans and love not that which sweats and bleeds and weeps and prays and bleeds, I’m nothin. If I give my clothes and money to them, but have not my love for them, I’m nothing. If I surrender all prospects—leave home and friends, make the sacrifices of a missionary career and turn sour and selfish amidst the daily annoyances and slights of a missionary life—and I have not love that yields its rights, its leisures, its plans, then I’m nothing. Virtue has ceased to go out from me. If I could heal all manner of sickness and disease, but I wound hearts and hurt feelings for want of His love that is kind, I’m nothing. If I could write articles and publish books that win applause, but I fail to transcribe the Word of the Cross into the language of His love, I am nothing.

That’s a great word. There are many other things we could say, many other examples come to your mind, but the truth is, like I said, all we need or what is supreme is love. We need God’s agápē love. There is nothing greater. There is nothing more important. Again, it’s not that warm, fuzzy feeling, it’s me dying to myself. Paul said, “I die daily.”

I’m now 65, and I’m learning to love. I’m learning to love. I want to love like my Savior. I hope just this introduction, just the definition in just the first three verses would whet your appetite to at least tomorrow morning get up and, “I’m gonna read those verses again.” In fact, a great thing to do is to start in verse 4, which will be the next verse, and insert your name, “Ron is kind. Ron is…” it’s really hard to do that, let me tell you, because we’re not that, but that’s the aim. That’s what we aim for. Amen?