THE CROSS AND CHRISTIAN LOVE

1 Corinthians 13
1 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.

A Perspective on Love from Corinth…
Spiritual gifts are significant, but love is supreme.
Love is the necessity apart from which nothing in the Christian
life matters.
Love is the field in which everything in the Christian
life flourishes.
Spiritual gifts are temporal, but love is eternal.
The Nature of Love in the Church…
Love is essentially selfless.
It seeks its joy in the good of others to the glory of God.
Love is inevitably active.
It is not conveyed by words as much as it is shown by behavior.
The Marks of Love in the Christian…
Are you kind to others?
Are you envious of what others have?
Do you boast about what you have?
Are you ever arrogant before others?
Are you ever rude to others?
Do you want things your own way?
Are you irritable when things don’t go your way?
Do you keep any record of others’ wrongs?
Do you find any pleasure when others do wrong?
Do you experience only delight when others do right?
Do you tire of support for others?
Do you hold onto faith for others?
Do you lose hope for others?
Do you endure trials with others?
The Power to Love in Christ…
So what is the definition of Christian love?
To love is to be toward others the way God
in Christ is toward us.
We receive His love.
We reflect His love.
And what is distinct about Christian love?
Christian love is exemplified in the cross of Christ.
It is based on mercy in the lover, not merit in
the beloved.
Christian love is empowered by the Spirit of Christ.
It is not natural, but supernatural.
Christian love is enamored with the return of Christ.
It can’t help but to serve others in the present because it can’t wait
to see Christ in the future.

Thanks pastor David!