The Permanence of Love, Part 2
1 Corinthians 13:8
We are all aware of the fact that I Corinthians 13 is a chapter about love. We've learned much about it; we know, here at Grace Church, a little about the real meaning of love because we've endeavored to make such a major item out of it. We know that the Scripture teaches that love is the very essence of God because God is love.
We know the Scripture teaches that the highest expression of love is the Lord Jesus Christ. It says in John 13:1 that, "Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them unto perfection." Jesus was the perfect example of one who loves.
We know that the kind of love that the Bible talks about is a love, according to the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 3, that "passes knowledge," and only by the Holy Spirit can we comprehend the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of love. We know it is a kind of love that, marvelous truth as it is, is shed abroad in our hearts according to Romans 5:5.
So love is very dominant thing. It is the nature of God expressed in Christ, and beyond human understanding. Yet, it is poured through believers. What a tremendous truth that is!
We have defined love; it is not a feeling or an emotion. Love is a spirit of self-sacrifice. It is a willingness to do what is needed by somebody else, even if it means sacrificing something we need or possess.
Love is to be such a dominating characteristic in the life of a Christian, so much is it to be the way of a Christian's life, that a Christian can actually be recognized by virtue of his love. Jesus essentially said that. "By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love one for another." In I John 2, along with a couple of other places in that same letter, he says, "He that says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loves his brother abides in the light." In other words, Christians are people who love their brothers. In I John 3:16 it says, "By this perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." And in I John 3:18, John says, "My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth." Our lives, then, are characterized by love.
In fact, it is so much the characterization of a Christian that final judgment can actually be determined on the basis of love. Look with me at Matthew 25:33. Here we have the judgment of the sheep and goats that occurs at the second coming of Christ. It says, "And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left." There is the separation between believing and unbelieving nations. Notice, "Then shall the King say to them on his right hand, 'Come, you blessed of my father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.'" Now we get the scene: Christ is giving the Kingdom to some, some special ones, special individuals are granted the Kingdom. On what basis are they granted that Kingdom?
Notice verse 35. "For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you took me in. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, 'Lord, when saw we thee hungry and fed thee? Or thirsty and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger and took thee in or naked and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick or in prison and came to thee?' And the king shall answer and say unto them, 'Verily, I say to you, as much as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done unto me.'"
What is interesting about this is this: that Jesus determines who enters the Kingdom on the basis of their deeds of love. Is that salvation by works? No. It is simply the fact of what James is saying. It is that true salvation issues in deeds, and they will be deeds of love. You can tell a man by his pattern of living, because the pattern of living is determined by the nature of the man, and a new nature creates love. Love, when a fruit of the Spirit, determines behavior. So Jesus actually judges people on their deeds of love because they are so much a manifestation of the new nature. You see, love is extremely vital to the believer.
This tremendous chapter just overwhelms you with the reality of love. In fact, I was thinking this week that I wish I could just teach this chapter about love, just go right through and celebrate love from beginning to end. You ask, "Why don't you do that?" Because I get stuck at verse 8. The reason I get stuck is because there is a word there, and it is 'tongues', or language, or glossa. You know what? That is an issue today. So, I have to talk about it.
I was wishing this week that I had lived 100 years ago, because if I had lived 100 years ago, I could come and just preach chapter 13 and when I got to verse 8, I would say, "Languages: that was present in the Apostolic Age but is no longer around. So, let's just go on." But I can't say that today, because there's something going on that we have to talk about. It would be nice, I was thinking, if we could just talk about love and leave it at that. But we have to deal with that issue because it is an issue.
It's kind of sad that the world doesn't understand love. I think that we who talk about love and who say we need to live out love not only need to live it out with the world but we've got to understand that there has got to be a loving spirit, even when we talk about an issue like this. It's very important.
The world doesn't understand love at all. When the world says, "I love you," what they are saying is, "I love me and I want you." The world's love is a selfish love. Alan Redpath tells a story about a girl who was totally despondent. She called up her pastor and said, "Oh, what am I going to do? There's a man who loves me so much that he says he'll shoot himself if I don't marry him." The pastor replied, "Don't do anything. Let him shoot himself! Such a threat is not love, it's pure selfishness." That's right, isn't it? That man wasn't saying, "I love you," he was saying, "I love me and me needs you."
The world doesn't understand love, so we have to demonstrate it to them. And it's not as simple as just loving the world; it's as simple as letting the world see that we love each other even when we disagree. We've got to be there. Those who are involved in the Charismatic movement, and the tongues movement, and so forth, many of those people are our brothers and sisters in Christ. After all, love is the eternal thing and gifts are going to pass anyway, aren't they? We must keep our perspective, but we also have to talk about the subject and do what it says in Ephesians 4. We have to "speak the truth in love." We're going to do that, but I wish we didn't have to.
I Corinthians 13 has four parts, and we have already discussed the first two and are in the third one, beginning in verse 8. We discussed verse 8 last time, and we'll discuss it again this time. We thought we might get to verses 9-10, but that will be next time. Verse 8 is loaded with good things.
We are talking about love's permanence. We have discussed love's prominence; that's when he says, "If I have not love, I am nothing." Love is prominent in everything. We have discussed love's perfection; that's where he describes every virtue of love in verses 4-7. Now we look at love's permanence.
What is he saying about love's permanence? He makes a comparison here between the spiritual gifts and love, because the Corinthians had exalted the gifts to a place of high priority. So much so that they had made the gifts everything. They had decided that the real issue in the Christian life was using your gift and really putting it on. Of course, they were seeking preeminence, they were spiritual show-offs, they had counterfeited the true gifts, they were carnally expressing the gifts, they had terrible jealousy over people with certain gifts, so they manufactured a false one to compete. The Corinthian church, when it came together, was absolute chaos.
Paul has to say, in chapter 14, "You'd better let things be done decently and in order instead of everyone yelling, shouting, and doing their thing at the same time." They had pushed the gifts completely out of perspective and to the absolute exclusion of the reality of the important thing, which was love. So Paul says, "You've made such a big deal out of gifts; let me give you a little comparison between gifts and love."
His comparison is this: gifts are just for time; love is forever. You might as well major in the eternal. He says it three ways. Gifts are temporary, gifts are partial, and gifts are elementary. In those three statements, he is really saying, "Gifts are just a part of the passing scene, but you need to anchor yourself to relationships that are forever. They will be anchored on the basis of love." Let's go back to verse 8. Paul is saying basically one thing in the rest of the chapter: love never fails. That is the clear pinnacle, the climax, of all that he has said. That is absolutely the peak. Love never fails. Then he comes down to explain what he means.
"Love never fail; but whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away [or 'be rendered inoperative']; whether there be tongues, they shall cease [or 'stop by themselves']; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away [or 'be rendered inoperative']." Then he goes on, "All those things are partial, all those things are elementary. They belong to childhood. But love is eternal." That's the whole message of the rest of the chapter.
Let me remind you of what we discussed last time so that it's very clear in your thinking, because it is a major point. "Prophecies shall be done away," says the King James. They shall be 'rendered inoperative,' in the Greek, or they shall be abolished or brought to an end. Knowledge, at the end of the verse, shall be rendered inoperative, shall be abolished. Those are the same Greek verb, katargeo for you Greek students. The verb simply means 'to be abolished or rendered inoperative.' It is in the passive form. Knowledge and prophecy will be rendered inoperative.
Notice, both of those are the same verb, they're both in the passive, and in the passive tense, the verb receives the action. So something stops prophecy and knowledge. Something is going to stop prophecy and something is going to stop knowledge. They will be rendered inoperative by another thing acting on them; that's the use of the passive. If you were to say, "I was hit," then there has got to be something that hit you. That's essentially the passive use.
It's the same here - these will be rendered inoperative, something will act on them. We found out what it is, it's in verses 9-10. "For we know in part," that's knowledge, "We prophesy in part," that's prophecy, those two appear there, "But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be abolished, rendered inoperative." It's the same verb, katargeo again. So prophecy and knowledge will be katargeoed. When will they be katargeoed? When the perfect thing comes.
I told you that we'd discuss this week what the perfect thing is, but we won't. We'll have to wait until next week, sorry about that. Because of time, we want to cover some other things before we get to that. There is so much in those white spaces between the verses!
Backing up a little, in verse 8, prophecy and knowledge are rendered inoperative in the passive form. But when you come to tongues, it's a totally different verb. The verb is pauo, which means 'to stop.' It is in the middle voice, which in the Greek is reflexive, which accentuates the active. Tongues will stop by themselves. It is used 15 in the Septuagint and rendered that way: to be brought to a complete halt, to be stopped, to be ended, to be completed, to be finished by itself. Which means nothing stops tongues. The perfect thing does not stop tongues, it only stops knowledge and prophecy.
Look at verse 9. Only knowledge and prophecy are mentioned in verse 9, tongues never appears. Why? It stops by itself before the perfect thing comes. Tongues will stop. We discussed last time whether it has, and I suggested to you the answer is that tongues has indeed ceased, it has stopped.
There were two reasons, and I gave you all kinds of sub-points, but basically there are two reasons we believe tongues have stopped. Number one, the purpose for tongues came to an end. You'll remember that the gift of languages had basically a three-fold purpose. First of all, it was a source of divine revelation; God spoke revelation through that gift. Now, when the Bible was completed, was there any need for further revelation? None. So the revelatory nature of that gift has ceased.
Secondly, it was a miracle sign to authenticate the apostles and the prophets in the Apostolic Age. Since there was no written Scripture to confirm what they preached, God attended them with signs, wonders, gifts, and so forth. It was a sign gift of a miraculous nature to attest to the divine, supernatural power of the apostles and prophets. There are no apostles and prophets authenticating the Gospel today, it's authenticated by virtue of whether a man agrees with what has been written and delivered to the saints. We're not trying to defend apostles by miracle signs anymore, so it has ceased as a sign gift.
The third use of it was as a judicial sign to unbelieving Israel to fulfill Isaiah 28:11. It was a judicial sign to unbelieving Israel of coming judgment. That judgment came in 70 A.D., the nation was destroyed, and that was fulfilled. There is, therefore, no reason today for tongues as a sign to unbelieving Israel. So it has no function as a source of revelation, it has no function as a miracle sign of proving the apostles and prophets, and it has no function as a sign to Israel regarding their judgment. Therefore, its reason to be is no longer around, so we say it ceases for lack of purpose.
Secondly, we believe that tongues have ceased because the fact is, history says it did cease, and so does I Corinthians 13:8. It says tongues will stop by themselves; we look at history and they stopped. In fact, up until 500 A.D., from the birth of the church until 500, after the Apostolic Era was over, there is no record of the church ever speaking in tongues, or anyone in the church, except two people: Montanus and his disciple and follower Tertullian.
Montanus, in the second century, believed that he was the Holy Spirit. He was a heretic. He had women who accompanied him and spoke in ecstasy and prophesied. He believed the Kingdom of God was coming to Phrygia and that it would be set up in his village. He was a heretic, and his follower Tertullian was also branded a heretic. They were really disregarded by the church. The mainline of the church had no such occurrence, and I read you many quotes from the church fathers stating that they had no knowledge of that as anything existing for the church.
Then we saw that, throughout the rest of the history of the church until the twentieth century, there is no account of tongues except isolated incidents among heretical groups. It was never a part of the main church, never a part of even Reformation doctrine. It never belonged in the church, and it wasn't begun in a mainstream way in Christianity until 1901. What's interesting about that is that there is an 1,800-year period where tongues had stopped. You say, "But wait a minute. It did exist among those groups." Yes, but those were all heretical groups. Those groups were most likely not even Christian. But in mainstream Christianity, within the confines of the church of Jesus Christ, it hasn't existed until 1901 when it popped up in Kansas, spread to California, and now you know where we are.
What is interesting is that our Charismatic brothers and sisters have to treat this in one of two ways. Number one, and they say this, "We claim Montanus, and we claim Mother Ann Lee," and they claim some of these strange people who spoke in tongues at intervals of 300-400 years through church history. But by doing that, you see, they're putting themselves in a heretical tradition and saying, "Our movement has been a part of the heresy of the church for years." I'm not sure that's what they want to say.
There is only one other alternative for the Charismatics, which is what most of them believe, I think, the ones who seriously think about it. They are saying it did cease, but it is starting again. They will say this, "Because we are now in the last days and God is giving us the last-day outpouring of His Spirit." That's the most reasonable view that they will present. That's the same view that Montanus held. When he was asked why the gift of tongues suddenly started up with him after having ceased many years before, he said, "It's been restored now because these are the last days. The Kingdom of God is coming right away, and it will be in Phrygia and the headquarters will be in my village." So now, we're asking the Charismatics where the gift of tongues has been for the last 1,800 hundred years and their reply is, "It's been restored."
Now, if you ask what scripture they use to back up this last-day phenomenon of speaking in tongues, they will invariably go to Joel 2:28-29. That is usually what they use to back up their claim that tongues has been restored in the last days. I want you to look carefully with me at Joel and I'll see if I can't help you to understand what it's saying. The verse that they use is also recorded in Acts 2:17 and we'll look at that in a few minutes. Let's look at Joel 2:28. It's repeated by Peter at Pentecost, and that's why they make the connection.
"And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions; and, also, upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My Spirit."
The Charismatics say that we are now experiencing the last-day outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Now there are several problems with that and I want to show you what they are. Back up to verse 20. If you look at this prophetically, and I think when you're dealing with this passage, you have to deal with it as prophecy of the future because of the fact that verse 31 says this is before "the great and the terrible day of the LORD." We know the great and terrible day of the Lord is the second coming. He's talking there about signs in the heavens.
So we're dealing with an end-time prophecy, I'm convinced. Look at verse 20. "But I will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate." When is it that Israel confronted by a northern army? During the Great Tribulation, Israel will be under the siege of a great northern army, a great northern power. You can read this in the book of Daniel. They will be sieged by this great northern army, but this northern army will be defeated when Christ comes in the great victory of Armageddon. What happens immediately after Armageddon? As far as we know, the setting up of the Kingdom. Christ returns at Armageddon, wins the victory, judges the nations and sets up His Kingdom. That flow is right here. The northern army is defeated in verse 20; immediately, then, verse 21 introduces the Kingdom.
"Fear not, O land. Be glad and rejoice; for the LORD will do great things. Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field; for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree bears her fruit, the fig tree and the vine yield their strength." In fact, we know that in the Tribulation, Revelation 14:20 says that the blood from the Battle of Armageddon will be as deep as a horse's bridle for a length of 200 miles. So the land has been denuded again.
"Fear not, O land, in the Kingdom. Be glad and rejoice for the Lord will do great things. Be not afraid, you beasts of the field; for the pastures of the wilderness do spring." You may not have anything to eat for a little while, but something is going to happen dramatically. The pastures of the wilderness are going to spring, the trees will bear fruit, and the fig tree and the vine are yielding their strength. What's going to happen in the Kingdom is there's going to be a proliferation of crops and growth, and things are going to explode. Read Isaiah where it says the desert is going to blossom like a rose and things are going to spring up, and there will be streams in the desert. All these marvelous things are going to happen in the Kingdom when the Lord puts the land back together.
Verse 23: "Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD, your God; for He has given you the former rain moderately, and He will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain and the latter rain in the first month." Now people make a big deal out of the significance of 'the former rain and the latter rain,' but do you know what the former rain is? It's when it rains in autumn. And the latter rain is when it rains in the spring.
In Israel, you have the former rain in autumn and the latter rain in the spring, and those are the things that secured the crops. But he says, "When you get into the Kingdom, you are going to get the former rain and the latter rain in the first month. You're going to get so much rain when the Kingdom begins that everything is going to grow like crazy. What you normally wait for until seasonal rain, God is going to dump rain and make everything grow. "And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer worm, My great army which I sent among you." In other words, all the crops that were lost during the tribulation will be proliferating in the restoration.
Verse 26. "And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD, your God, who hath dealt wondrously with you; and My people shall never be ashamed." No shame ever; why, that has to be the Kingdom. They're going to praise God, praise the Lord. You know who Israel is currently praising? They're praising the god of might. That's who they're currently bowing down to. The revival hasn't happened. In verse 27, "And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel." When will the Lord be in the midst of Israel? When Christ sits on His throne in the city of David and reigns. "And that I am the Lord your God and none else, and my people shall never be ashamed."
You see, this is the great millennial Kin