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Actions of Love (Part 4)

Wayne Galloway
05/30/21 - Sunday Morning Worship

4 Actions of Love

1 Cor. 13:1-8a

 

Introduction:

 

1.  The love of this text is more action and less emotion.  It demonstrates itself in concrete behaviors both positive and negative.

2.  The actions described here are not all the ways that love demonstrates itself but they are clearly representative of the kind of behaviors that characterize love.

3.  Like the Corinthians, our love for one another needs to be perfected, without it we are nothing more than a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

4.  In previous lessons we have worked our way through verses 4, 5 and 6.  In this lesson we will focus on verse 7.

 

Discussion:

 

I.  Love bears all things (NASB). 

 

    A.  The statement implies something that must be born up under.

    B.  The word translated “bears” (steg?) literally means “to cover.”  (Cf. I Pet. 4:8 says,

          “Love covers (kalupt?) a multitude of sins.”)

          1.  It means to protect or preserve something by covering.  Ex.  A friendship is

               protected when violations are covered.

          2.  The word means to keep something off which threatens.

          3.  Sometimes it is translated in English with the word “endure” (cf. 1 Thess. 3:1, 5).

          4.  In 1 Cor. 9:12 Paul said, “We endure all things so that we will cause no hindrance to

               the gospel of Christ.”

    C.  The Corinthians seem to have been asserting their “rights” in areas of liberty in ways

          that created stumbling blocks to others.  Paul reasoned that although he had the right

          to reap material things from them he did not use that right, “enduring” with them so as

          to cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ.

          1.  He demonstrated love to them.

          2.  They failed to demonstrate love to their brethren.

          3.  He said, “Though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I

               might win more” (1 Cor. 9:19).

      D.  Are you demanding your “rights” or enduring the restriction of your freedoms for the

            benefit of others?  Are you willing to make yourself a slave to others?  The love of

            Christianity is not about what you can get, but about what you can give.  Are we

            passing by on the other side when we should be feeling compassion, and bandaging

            wounds (Lk. 10:33ff)?  Are we laying up treasures for ourselves when we should be

            being rich in good works, generous and ready to share (Matt. 6:19ff; 1 Tim. 6:17ff). 

            We did not learn Christ in this way.  The cross teaches self-sacrificial service. 

            Christianity is not a religion of convenience.

      E.  A victim in the San Jose shooting saved his co-worker by helping her hide from the

           gunman and then continued to warn others, his family said.  Are we demanding our

           rights and passing by on the other side as a San Jose Samaritan loves to the giving of

           his life?

      F.  Love bears/covers all things.

 

II.  Love believes all things (NASB, KJV, ESV).

 

     A.  “Believes” is from “pisteu?.”  It means to be persuaded of, to therefore place

           confidence in, to trust.

     B.  This is not saying that a person who loves believes everything they hear.  That is being

           naive.  Love is not given to being suspicious, hesitant and withholding. 

     C.  Love trusts.  Love sees others as generally good-willed, instead of suspecting them of

           evil motives.  It tends to look for and see the best.  When we love we expect good

           things even when appearances might suggest otherwise.

     D.  Robertson and Plummer wrote, “When love has no evidence, it believes the best. 

           When the evidence is adverse, it hopes for the best.  And when hopes are repeatedly

           disappointed, it courageously waits” (ICC, p. 295).

 

III.  Love hopes all things.

 

      A.  The word translated “hope” is “elpiz?.”

      B.  Love acts with positive expectation.

            1.   John 5:45 speaks of the Jews having set their hope on Moses.

            2.  Paul wrote of having set his hope on God’s deliverance (2 Cor. 1:10).

            3.  We have hope in Christ (Rom. 15:12).

            4.  In our relationships with one another love has positive expectations.

      C.  Love acts to strengthen the weak and to bring healing because it hopes for good

           things (Heb. 12:12).  That is why Christ died for us.  That is why God disciplines us.  He

           is hoping for more than what we have delivered in the past.

      D.  Paul is acting in love as he works to strengthen the Corinthians.  He is expecting better

           things from them than the division, the arrogance, the lawsuits, the creation of

           stumbling blocks, the fleshliness, etc. that currently characterizes them.  The Lord has

           blessed these Christians with gifts to be used for the edification and exhortation and

           consolation of others (1 Cor. 14:3).  This is looking toward a positive future.  Love looks

           toward a positive future because it hopes and so invests.

 

IV.  Love endures all things.

 

      A.  The word endures is from the word “hupomen?.”

      B.  It denotes bearing up under suffering.  It is a different word than in the first phrase of

            verse 7.

      C.  This word carries the idea of being patiently courageous (cf. Heb. 10:32-39) and when

            difficulty comes riding it out all the way to the end.

      D.  Now in all of these actions there is the assumption that there is suffering, difficulties

           and challenges to be faced.  And when these are faced, love evidences itself in bearing

           up, believing in, hoping and standing fast all the way to the end.  Love does not

           abandon.  Love doesn’t run away.  Love doesn’t give up on.  Love takes the difficulty

           and doesn’t quit.

 

Conclusion:

 

1.  Love bears up under difficult circumstances.

2.  Love works to trust people, to believe in them and it expects good things from them.

3.  Love is hopeful.

4.  Love endures all things.  That is, it takes suffering and difficulty and challenges and does not withdraw, give up, nor quit.