The Supremacy of Love
Tom Shrader opens a three-part series on 1 Corinthians 13 by examining verses 1 through 3, where Paul uses hyperbole to show that even the most impressive spiritual gifts, intellectual insight, generosity, or self-sacrifice mean nothing without love. Shrader distinguishes agape love from natural human affection, explaining that it is a self-giving, self-sacrificial love that is supernaturally produced by the Holy Spirit rather than rooted in feeling or self-interest. He closes by applying Paul's argument directly to ministry: Christians who serve out of duty rather than love will burn out, because real service flows from the kind of unconditional love that God Himself demonstrated by giving His Son while humanity was still His enemy.
“Agape love is that self-giving love, that self-sacrificial love that demands something of us, nothing in return.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: The Definition of Love
Recorded: 2001 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 1 hr 19 min
Themes: love, spiritual gifts, service, sacrifice, generosity, burnout, holy spirit, motives, serving out of duty, feeling burned out, new believer, volunteer in ministry, questioning motives, pastor, struggling with loveless service, young adult
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, 1 Corinthians 12:1, 1 Corinthians 12:31, 1 Corinthians 14:1, 1 John 4:16, John 13:34, John 13:35, John 14:15, Acts 2:3-4, Matthew 5:44, 1 Peter 4:8, Hebrews 10:24, Colossians 3:14, 1 Thessalonians 3:12, Galatians 5:22-23, John 3:16, Nehemiah 1, Nehemiah 2
Theological Themes: agape love, pneumatology, spiritual gifts, sanctification, unconditional love, self-sacrificial love, fruit of the spirit, 1 corinthians 13
Full Transcript
Introduction to 1 Corinthians 13
If you are new to church — not just this church but any church — and maybe have never been around Bible study, it is still likely that you have heard and are somewhat familiar with 1 Corinthians 13. It is the love chapter. It is the chapter you hear frequently read at weddings. Many students tell me that even in secular universities and schools they will study 1 Corinthians 13 in literature class.
It is a beautifully written passage. One author writes, "Plato and many others have written on love, but Paul has here surpassed them all in this marvelous prose poem." Another author writes that it is "the greatest, strongest, deepest thing Paul ever wrote." Ray Steadman writes, "We are looking at the most beautiful chapter in the whole New Testament. The chapter is justly famous, not only for its majestic language, but for the lofty idealism of its subject matter and the very practical behavior it describes."
When Paul talks about love, he says it is the greatest of all gifts. This chapter divides easily into three parts. Verses 1 through 3 address the supremacy of love. Verses 4 through 7 address the definition of love. Verses 8 through 13 address the permanence of love. We will look today at verses 1 through 3, and I assume the following weeks will cover the definition of love and then the permanence of love.
The Text: Verses 1–3
Here are the first three verses. Let us read them together.
"If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but I do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned but I do not have love, it profits me nothing."
Love and the Exercise of Substitution
When we start to try to figure out love and get our arms around this idea, it is helpful to think outside the box. Our natural tendency when we talk about love is to think of our own experience, and that love is typically jaded and self-centered. So we might take the word love, substitute the word Jesus for it, and find that it still reads pretty true.
"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but do not have Jesus, I become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and know all the mysteries and all the knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but I do not have Jesus, I am nothing. If I give all my possessions to feed the poor, if I deliver my body to be burned but I do not have Jesus, it profits me nothing."
In fact, let me read ahead to next week's passage and do that same exercise — take out the word love and insert the word Jesus. See how it reads. Jesus is patient, is kind, does not envy, does not boast, is not proud, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not easily angered. Jesus keeps no records of wrong. Jesus does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. Jesus always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Jesus never fails.
The Supremacy of Love Over All Gifts
Here is the crux of this chapter. Paul is talking about gifts — legitimate gifts. He uses some hyperbole and exaggeration, but nonetheless he is talking about gifts. His point is not that these gifts are unimportant; they are. His point is this: if I have all those gifts — beyond even anything possible — and yet I do not have love, here are three conclusions.
If I am out there talking and I do not have love, I am just a noisy gong, just a clanging cymbal — there is just a bunch of racket, and that is all there is. If I have all these intellectual and insightful gifts but I do not have love, he says I am nothing. And if I take all my possessions and give them away, even present my body to be slain, and I do not have love, it profits me not one drop. It is of no value at all. It is a waste.
Paul's point is this: regardless of giftedness and the extent of our giftedness, if there is no love in our life, then there is no heart in our ministry.
Defining Love
We will define love more fully next week as Paul does, but tonight, just to get us started, look at what Webster says. He defines love in seven, eight, or nine ways. We will focus on four or five of them.
The first is a deep, tender feeling of affection or devotion to a person. That is what we typically think of — two people who are in love, just looking at each other. He is so nice, so kind. I do not think it will ever change. It will change. The second definition is a strong liking or interest in something: I love music, I love baseball, I love pizza, I love movies.
The bottom two definitions are what we eventually want to get at. The third is God's tender regard and concern for mankind. John tells us in 1 John 4:16, "God is love." When you look to define love, you look to God — God is love. The fourth is our response back to Him. Again, John tells us that because He first loved us, now we can love Him.
The Greek Word Agape
The Greek word we will look at tonight is agape. John MacArthur writes this: "Agape love is one of the rarest words in ancient Greek literature, but one of the most common"...
The Nature of Agape Love
As the Greeks wrote literature and talked about love, they picked different words like *eros*, sexual love, or *phileo*, brotherly love. They never used *agape*, because that is foreign to man. It is supernatural. Yet it is now the most common word in the New Testament.
As MacArthur writes, unlike our English word love, *agape* never refers to romantic or sexual love, nor does it refer to mere sentiment — a pleasant feeling about something or someone. It does not mean close friendship or brotherly love, nor does *agape* mean charity. Agape love is that self-giving, self-sacrificial love that demands something of us and nothing in return. It was rare in that culture. It is rare today. That is the kind of love Paul is talking about.
The Context of 1 Corinthians 13
Oftentimes when we read 1 Corinthians 13, or when it is quoted to us, we lose the context. We stopped last week in chapter 12, verse 31, where Paul said, "But earnestly desire the greater gifts, and I will show you a still more excellent way." This love chapter is sandwiched between chapters 12 and 14, both of which deal with serious distortions and abuses of the spiritual gifts in the church at Corinth. Paul begins that discussion in chapter 12, verse 1, saying he does not want them to be ignorant of spiritual gifts.
Whether that abuse arose through ignorance or disobedience may not matter much, because in either case there is abuse throughout the church at Corinth. The greatest abuse was this: the people were not content with the gifts God had given them. They wanted the big, showy gifts — speaking in tongues, prophecy, all the flashy ones.
Paul is not suggesting in verse 31 that they should seek or pursue those gifts. By very definition, a gift is given to you. The gift you have is your gift. You cannot go and seek another gift. Paul is saying that the Corinthians had been pursuing superficial gifts — superficial in the sense that those gifts had not been given to them — and they believed having them made them something special. Paul says, if you want something better, he will show you a more excellent way. That more excellent way is love. They had elevated these showy gifts far beyond anything they were ever meant to be. But love is better.
Hyperbole in Verses 1 Through 3
In chapter 13, verses 1 through 3, Paul uses hyperbole — deliberate exaggeration — to make his point. He begins: "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but I do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal." When he speaks of the tongues of men, he is referring to the gift of tongues we saw at work in the early church, back in Acts chapter 2.
That was the day of Pentecost, the day the Holy Spirit came upon the church. Luke tells us in verses 3 and 4 that they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages. The city of Jerusalem was filled with God-fearing Jews at that time, and they heard these men speaking in their own tongues and said to one another, how can this be? They are Galileans, and yet they speak in our tongues. That is what Paul is talking about — speaking in a known language of the world, unknown to the speaker.
Paul says, if I could speak in those tongues, that high-profile and flashy gift, but I do not have love, I am just making noise. As for the tongues of angels, that is the only place that phrase appears in all of Scripture. Some have tried to stretch it to mean some heavenly language or heavenly prayer language, but there is no way to draw that conclusion from this verse. Every time an angel appears in Scripture and speaks, it is always in a known language. What Paul may have in mind is not some special language at all, but rather the powerful role angels played throughout Scripture — coming to deliver warnings, messages of encouragement, messages of instruction. His point is simple: if I come and speak eloquently, powerfully, and profoundly, but I have no love, it is just a bunch of racket.
The Gift of Prophecy
Verse 2 continues: "If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing." When Paul speaks of prophecy, it is different from what we tend to think of today. When we hear the word prophecy now, we think of predicting the future, and that is a significant industry — and that phrase is meant literally.
There are television programs where someone claims to connect you with the deceased, and what you are seeing is either demonic, fraudulent, or psychobabble — one of the three. What we know is that it is not real. Then there is the late-night variety where a host invites callers, takes a name, and offers a vague statement — "Bill, I see a job change in your future" — and the caller is amazed. The most telling detail in all of it is the fine print scrolling across the bottom of the screen, identifying the program as entertainment.
The Emptiness of Gifts Without Love
They don't even take it seriously. It's a joke — $3.99 a minute. USA Today says the average call to a psychic hotline is 37 minutes. That's a hundred and a quarter. But that is not what Paul is talking about here. He is talking about speaking forth, proclaiming publicly.
Charles Spurgeon writes this: "If you make doctrine the main thing, you will very likely grow narrow-minded. If you make your experience the main thing, you will become gloomy and critical of others. But you can never make too much of the living Christ." Here are these men who open up the Word, expound it, parse it — and yet it is empty. Why? They don't have love.
Paul goes on: "or know all mysteries," these divine truths that are now revealed to us. You ask a scriptural question and it can be answered. But if you don't have love, what does he say? It's nothing. "Or if I have all knowledge" — and the idea there is not just scriptural knowledge, but all knowledge about the created universe. You can't stump me, even if I'm that smart. If I don't have love, I'm nothing.
"Or if I have all faith" — he is speaking here not of saving faith, but of that powerful faith to trust God to do mighty things, difficult things.
The Faith of David and Mary Lamb
Have you ever been around anybody like that? I have, on rare occasion. The couple that comes to mind for me is David and Mary Lamb. Those of you who have some history at Grace Community Church will know those names. I was introduced to them by meeting them and reading about them, and then I got to know them a little better. In their latter days, when they retired over to Westchester, it was a joy to call and stop and visit.
I did the same thing every time I saw them: "Tell me a story. Tell me somewhere where you saw God work." And they would tell you incredible stories. They wanted to be missionaries to China, but the communists took over. On the last boat out of Shanghai, they ended up in India — the last place they wanted to be. When they got to Calcutta, as Chinese, they were among the poorest of the poor.
But they had faith. David was convinced that God wanted him to plant a church, so he got a storefront and started one. For two months, the only person who attended was his wife, Mary. For two months, he would lead worship, pray, preach, and read announcements — to Mary. That was all that was there. He had the gift of faith; she had the gift of patience.
Two months passed, and finally one Sunday, God provided a torrential downpour. Those of you who knew David can just picture him out at the door: "Come in, come in, come in!" He filled the place up, began to preach, and that started that church. He also had a vision for a school. The problem was he had very little money and no land, so he bought a piece of swampland — the only way he could afford it. It was something that could not be made buildable.
So David did not go get engineers. He got Mary, and they went out and knelt down and prayed day after day after day: "God, dry this up. God, dry it up." Then one day, in the middle of that field, a flower popped up. David said, "I knew it. God's getting ready to dry it up." I can tell you, as one who has been to that school, that land is bone dry. There today sits a school with hundreds and hundreds of little boys and girls in it. That is great faith.
Even Sacrifice Is Nothing Without Love
Yet Paul is saying: even if you have faith like that, if you don't have love, it is a waste. You are nothing. Then in verse 3, he takes it up another notch: "If I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but I do not have love, it profits me nothing."
The word "give" there is important because it means to dole out systematically. This is not someone swept away by emotion who impulsively gives things away. This is someone who makes a conscious decision to take everything they have — and that is why I think this is hyperbole — everything they have, and give it away to feed the poor.
I want to spend a moment on this because, as missionaries to the culture — and that is what you are — you need to understand that you live in a world that sees Christianity primarily in those terms. People see something, they are not sure what it is, they think it is something a Christian should do, so they call that Christianity. But Christianity is not an action. Christianity is a belief system. Now, that belief system manifests itself in action, to be sure — but I can go through all those actions and never be a Christian at all. I cannot, however, be a true follower of Christ and not have those actions.
What makes someone a Christian is not that they feed the poor or perform the things Christians do. A Christian is someone who understands that they are a sinner, desperately lost in that sinful condition, with absolutely nothing they can do to pay the debt they owe to God. The wage of their sin is death. A Christian is someone who comes to the point of understanding that it is Christ and Christ alone who provides salvation. That is a Christian — not the action.
A Letter That Illustrates the Point
I belabor that point because you, as missionaries, need to understand it. Here is a letter I received this week:
"After the death of my brother I was left to deal with the inevitable burdensome details that accompany such a sad event. One of my main duties was to clear his vacant house of his possessions and prepare it for sale. It is difficult to sort through a loved one's belongings and have to decide how to dispose of things that have been valued. Even small items can have great significance. While—"
The Best of the Christian Idea
While I was doing this sad task, Brian, one of my brother's neighbors, came to the door. He had heard of my brother's demise and offered his condolences. He said he had noticed the gardener coming to the house and it was a shame to waste money on that service when he would be happy to take care of the lawn until the house sold. As it turned out, the gardener had stopped appearing without me having to cancel the contract, and I told Brian that I would take him up on his offer but would not feel comfortable having him do the work for free. He said he would not accept any payment for himself, but if I felt compelled to pay, I was welcome to make a donation to his church. He asked that if I did so, not to mention his name.
In my life it is rare to find such a kind and unselfish person. Then came this next sentence: "Although I'm not a religious person, I feel that Brian's actions represent the best of what I consider to be the Christian idea. Please accept the enclosed check in the spirit of gratitude."
Here is how this man describes himself: a not-religious person, so almost certainly not a Christian. And yet he said, "I saw Christianity." Christianity was what this man did — cutting the grass and saying he wanted nothing for it. But make no mistake: that act in itself is not Christian. I can do the same thing with all the wrong motives. It is the belief that moves me.
What Moves Bob
We are coming up on my favorite time of year for this illustration — a week from Thursday. I guarantee you that channels 3, 5, 10, 12, and 15 will all be down somewhere — somewhere people are feeding the poor, somewhere people are bringing turkeys and food — and they will be interviewing people. They will say, "What's your name?" "Bob." "What are you doing here, Bob?" "Well, I brought some food." "Really, Bob? Why did you bring food?"
Here is what Bob is going to say — I guarantee it, as sure as I am standing here: "Well, when I do stuff like this, I feel good about myself." It is not about the poor people, is it? They are hungry fifty-two weeks a year. Something moves Bob right now, and what moves him is wanting to feel good about himself. That is the point Paul is making. I can give away everything I have and still be selfish and self-centered.
Lots of people give away lots of money for all the wrong reasons — put my name on a building, recognize me. We had a man who literally stood up in one of our ministry meetings and said, "I want to make a large anonymous donation." How about that? I can even give up my life and do it for all the wrong reasons. William Barclay writes: "If the motive which makes a man even give his life for Christ is the motive of pride or self-display or self-glory, then even martyrdom becomes valueless. It is not cynical to remember that many a deed which looks sacrificial has been the product of pride, not of devotion and not of love."
There is nothing wrong with those acts — in fact they are fine things to do — but if the heart is not right, it does not profit you anything. It is a waste.
Four Things We Have Learned
Here is the pattern we have been following since we started chapter 12. What have we learned? Four things.
**Number one: love is not optional.** Jesus says in John 13:34, "A new commandment I give you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you." It is a commandment. This is not optional, and therefore love should be part of every Christian's life. Jesus continues in John 13, "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, that you love one another." And in John 14:15, "If you love Me, you will obey My commandments."
The call to love runs throughout Scripture. First Peter 4:8: "Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another." Hebrews 10:24: "Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds." First Corinthians 14:1: "Pursue love." Colossians 3:14: "Beyond all these things, put on love." First Thessalonians 3:12: "May the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another." There ought to be love in our lives.
Love Is Supernatural
This love is not produced naturally — it is produced supernaturally. All of the love that we naturally have is born out of a desire for what that love will get us. I remember when I first saw Susan. I saw that cute face and that cute little figure, and I was in love immediately. And I will tell you, it might not have been agape.
The closest a man comes, I think — and I have talked to a lot of men about this — to unconditional love is the birth of a child. I remember when Sarah was born and they said, "Do you want to hold your daughter?" I said yes. They put her in my arms and I looked at her, and she was really cute — which was very different from all the other babies around there, who honestly looked like a cross between Churchill and Gandhi. But not Sarah.
And yet I had conflicting thoughts. One was this: here is this person who has done nothing and at this point cannot give me anything, and yet I feel this incredible emotion for her. But when I stepped back, I realized that even that love was conditional — because I had walked past a dozen babies I could not have cared less about to get to this one. That is not the love Paul is talking about. That love is natural. In fact, there is something desperately wrong with you if you do not love your own children.
Consider the contrast: you have roughly a million and a half mothers who end the lives of their babies every year. That is not natural. I watched it with Michelle — when she found out she was pregnant, she was filled with excitement. She did not say, "I have within me the byproduct of conception," or "I have within me a fetus." She said, "Oh, I —"
The Supernatural Nature of Love
We made this point last week. There is a big difference between the gift of the Holy Spirit — that is, the Spirit Himself when He invades your life — and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Those are the divine enablements given to every believer that allow you to operate efficiently and effectively in the body of Christ. Then there is the fruit of the Spirit. That is what the Spirit produces in your life. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control." At the center of that, it seems, is love.
This brings us to the fourth point: the love in our life is essential to real service. I meet many Christians — and some here — who are simply exhausted. They are tired. They are serving. They could no more greet someone than fly. Here is why: they are serving out of duty. They are going from thing to thing to thing out of duty, and you will run out of gas because you are serving for the wrong reason. The reason to serve is to serve out of love — a love that is supernatural.
Jesus said in Matthew 5:44, "I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." That is not natural. What is natural is: you cut in line, I will take care of you. You cut me off — that is natural. I will defend my rights. I will love you if you love me, or because you love me.
I remember the very first time I was with a girl and I was thinking, I am going to tell her I love her. We are sitting in the car, and I said, "How are you doing?" "Good." "And you?" "Good." And I chickened out. I could not do it, because I was scared to death I was going to say "I love you" and she was going to say, "Seriously? Get away from me." That is the risk of love. I will love you because you say you love me first. But that is not what Paul is saying. Paul says to love your enemies. That is the role model.
Love Produces Action
While we were yet sinners, while we were enemies, God loved us. How do we know He loved us? Because love produces action. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." If you really love, you are a giver. You cannot stop yourself. You are going to give time, energy, effort, all that you have. Nothing can shut that off.
Someone asked Augustine what love looks like. He said this: "It has hands to help others, feet to hasten to the poor and needy, eyes to see misery and want, ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men." That is what love looks like.
Our love — supernatural love — does not begin with feeling. Natural love begins with feeling. Supernatural love begins with knowledge but quickly moves to feelings. That is what Jonathan Edwards writes about in *Religious Affections*. He says that when he truly knows God, when he studies the Word, there are times when he is swept away by God's gracious love for him, his emotions overwhelmed, times when he cannot even control them. There are times when he weeps with sorrow and with joy for those around him.
Weeping as Evidence of Love
That is what Jesus did. Jesus looks at the city and He weeps because He sees the inevitable destruction brought about by sin. Paul says to the elders at Ephesus as he is saying goodbye to them, "I was with you for three years and I served you night and day with tears."
A great Old Testament model for this is Nehemiah. Nehemiah hears that Jerusalem is in trouble — the walls are broken and the gates have been burned — and here is how he records his response: "When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed." Then just a chapter later, in Nehemiah chapter 2, he is serving the king. That was his job. He says, "I took the wine and gave it to the king." Listen to these words: "I had not been sad in his presence before, but I could not hide it. So the king said, 'Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This cannot be anything but sadness of heart.' I was very much afraid, but I said to the king, 'May the king live forever. Why should my face not look sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire?'"
One of the great joys in my life right now takes place every Tuesday at 12:30. I meet in room 100 with seven guys from our staff, and we talk about learning to teach, sharpen one another, and hopefully improve our skills. We are working through a book by Alex Montoya called *Preaching with Passion* — and Alex Montoya, by the way, will be the speaker this year at our men's conference here. This week's chapter was on compassion, and Montoya writes this: "When was the last time you wept for your people? When did your tears and weeping arrest your speaking? When were you last so overwhelmed by your love for your congregation that your words went forth mingled with tears?"
Charles Spurgeon, writing of George Whitefield and quoting another man who spoke of him, writes this: "Winter says of him" — Winter speaking of Whitefield — "sometimes he exceedingly wept and was frequently so overcome that for —"
The Heart Behind Effective Teaching
Within a few seconds, you would suspect that he would never recover. And when he did, nature required some little time to compose himself. I hardly ever knew him to go through a sermon without weeping more or less. His voice was often interrupted by his affection. I remember reading about Whitefield and thinking, God, I want to preach like that.
I remember listening to Chuck Swindoll on the radio one day. Swindoll said, "I'll give you the four things that every effective teacher must have." He gave number one, number two, and number three — and I don't remember what they were. They were what you would expect: study the Word, prayer, meditation, work. Then he said number four, and he said, "I'm telling you, without number four, you will never be an effective teacher." I will guarantee that if I put a hundred pastors in the room, I don't think they'd ever have gotten number four.
You have to love the people you're teaching. It is very easy to flip into autopilot and think that this whole thing is about getting the content right. It's not about that alone. That's important, but it's about what the message means to us — to you and to me individually, and to us as a body. That is the love that Paul is talking about.
What We've Learned: Love Is Mandatory, Supernatural, and Essential
Here is what we learned today: love is mandatory, and it therefore must be present in every Christian's life. It is supernaturally produced, and it is essential to real service. If your ministry is flat, if you're out of gas and worn out, let me suggest that you first examine whether you may be deficient in the area of godly, agape love.
We took a couple of runs at defining it today. Next week we look at verses 4, 5, 6, and 7, where Paul will tell us what love isn't and what love is. And here is what the challenge is going to be: if love is mandatory, if it is to be a part of your life, and if it is essential to real service, then we have to ask the question — do you have this love in your life? We will address that next week.
Closing Prayer
Father, thank You that we could be here tonight. What a great day. God, thank You for these people. I really do appreciate them so much. Many of them are here not because it is an easy time to come, but because this is the time that opens up space in the morning — the time they have sacrificed to be here.
God, let us be the people You call to ministry in a powerful way. Let us love our enemies. Let the world see that we are Your disciples because we love one another. God, we ask that in Jesus' name. Amen.