1 Corinthians 13
If we look at the beginning of 1 Cor 13 we will see that gifts and miracles and ministries are useless without love. So before we can start walking in our ministry or using our gift it’s important to first be walking in love.
(vs 1) if you have the gift of tongues but don’t have love your voice becomes like the sound of noise to God. God won’t hear the beautiful language of angels but instead a loud horrible noise. So if you want to speak in tongues first make sure you have love.
(vs 2) you might be a great prophet in front of man or someone who has great faith to move mountains but in front of God you will be useless if you don’t have love.
(vs 3) you might have the gift of giving, or the gift of helping, you might have the gift of evangelism (feed the spiritual poor) but if you don’t have love it will not be profitable to God. Sure someone will be fed, but spiritually they will gain nothing.
We have been going through the great salvation which us for our gifts and ministries. The first branch of the great salvation is forgiveness. It’s very difficult to forgive someone if you don’t love them.
The second branch is justification of which there is five types. Because of (1) God’s love for us He is able to give to us justification: to pay the price for what we deserve to pay. And because of our love for God, we will trust in Him and build up our (2) f aith, we will (3) live for him and our (4) actions will prove it and we will live according to the (5) Word of God.
The third branch is redemption and we know that God so loved the world that He gave is only begotten Son. We must also bring others to know the redemption of God. Redemption is to pay the debt for someone else; there is no room for fear, no room for selfishness. Redemption works together with love because when you love you are not selfish, you are not afraid and you can sacrifice yourself for someone else. Ruth is a story about redemption and we know that Naomi (Ruth’s mother-in-law) means love. Naomi married Elimelech which means God is your King. This is the first principle of redemption: if you acknowledge God is your King, first find love.
The fourth is reconciliation and we know that the first thing that prevents us Christians from being reconciled to others is a lack of love. It’s not easy to see someone you hate. The definition of reconciliation is when a friendship is broken and one of the parties goes towards the other and love comes back.
The fifth is revival and the first step to revival is to glorify God, which is easy to do if you love God. And when we say we are Christians we must have proof of this. If we way, “We belong to the truth”, there must be facts to go with this truth. One day when Jesus comes back our actions will prove to God if we really believe or not. If these actions prove you didn’t believe, you will be one of those saying “Lord, Lord, I did this in your name…” and God will say, “Where was your love?” You might have raised the dead but without love it will prove to God you didn’t believe in His Word because if you didn’t practise love, you didn’t practise the Word of God.
So lets practise love. The first is patience, how does someone practise patience?
Love is kind, how does someone practise kindness? To take care of someone’s soul.
Love does not envy, how can we practise this? Envy is when you want something that someone else has and it pushes you to hate this person. We must stop our thoughts and control our bodies so as not to envy what another has.
Love does not vaunteth itself, help me to understand what this means for me?
Love is not proud, so how do I stop myself from being proud? In every situation bring humility and know who you are before God.
So before we can start to practise our gifts we must first practise love. We know that love is patient, so start by practising patience. Once you are the master of patience, begin to practise kindness and when you have mastered kindness, begin to practise the next one. Really concentrate each day to put into practise each one until you can say that you are completely practising love.
It’s like learning to write, first you have to learn the alphabet – the names of each letter and their sounds. Then you have to learn the sounds of letters put together e.g. C and H is Cha not Ca Ha. Then you have to learn how to write the whole word and some words can’t be sounded out, they just have to be memorised. Once you’ve learnt words it’s time for sentences and then gramma and eventually after a few years you will be able to read and write without even thinking. And that will be us, first we are beginning with the alphabet – we are learning about love and the great salvation and as we put these into practise we will start to practise our gifts and it will come naturally.
It’s normal for us as Christians to desire gifts and ministries and we often pray to God for these. But it is better to pray to God for love because that is more important for God. To be a prophet is good, and to operate miracles and speak in tongues but it will be useless if love doesn’t belong to you. God is love and as His children we must also be love, not just to practise but to BE love. So when someone talks about you, they will say, She is patient, she is kind, she does not envy….
Some servants of God can operate miracles but some will say of them, “Oh he is proud” or “he only wants money”. Maybe he has 10 of the points but not the rest. A magician can also operate miracles, they can prophesise like a Christian. The only difference between the gift of evil and the gift of God is love. Any Christian who doesn’t know love is like a seed without a germ (doesn’t have life and will produce 0).
Therefore, the most important thing for a Christian is to love and the rest will follow.
If we look at the beginning of 1 Cor 13 we will see that gifts and miracles and ministries are useless without love. So before we can start walking in our ministry or using our gift it’s important to first be walking in love.
(vs 1) if you have the gift of tongues but don’t have love your voice becomes like the sound of noise to God. God won’t hear the beautiful language of angels but instead a loud horrible noise. So if you want to speak in tongues first make sure you have love.
(vs 2) you might be a great prophet in front of man or someone who has great faith to move mountains but in front of God you will be useless if you don’t have love.
(vs 3) you might have the gift of giving, or the gift of helping, you might have the gift of evangelism (feed the spiritual poor) but if you don’t have love it will not be profitable to God. Sure someone will be fed, but spiritually they will gain nothing.
We have been going through the great salvation which us for our gifts and ministries. The first branch of the great salvation is forgiveness. It’s very difficult to forgive someone if you don’t love them.
The second branch is justification of which there is five types. Because of (1) God’s love for us He is able to give to us justification: to pay the price for what we deserve to pay. And because of our love for God, we will trust in Him and build up our (2) f aith, we will (3) live for him and our (4) actions will prove it and we will live according to the (5) Word of God.
The third branch is redemption and we know that God so loved the world that He gave is only begotten Son. We must also bring others to know the redemption of God. Redemption is to pay the debt for someone else; there is no room for fear, no room for selfishness. Redemption works together with love because when you love you are not selfish, you are not afraid and you can sacrifice yourself for someone else. Ruth is a story about redemption and we know that Naomi (Ruth’s mother-in-law) means love. Naomi married Elimelech which means God is your King. This is the first principle of redemption: if you acknowledge God is your King, first find love.
The fourth is reconciliation and we know that the first thing that prevents us Christians from being reconciled to others is a lack of love. It’s not easy to see someone you hate. The definition of reconciliation is when a friendship is broken and one of the parties goes towards the other and love comes back.
The fifth is revival and the first step to revival is to glorify God, which is easy to do if you love God. And when we say we are Christians we must have proof of this. If we way, “We belong to the truth”, there must be facts to go with this truth. One day when Jesus comes back our actions will prove to God if we really believe or not. If these actions prove you didn’t believe, you will be one of those saying “Lord, Lord, I did this in your name…” and God will say, “Where was your love?” You might have raised the dead but without love it will prove to God you didn’t believe in His Word because if you didn’t practise love, you didn’t practise the Word of God.
So lets practise love. The first is patience, how does someone practise patience?
Love is kind, how does someone practise kindness? To take care of someone’s soul.
Love does not envy, how can we practise this? Envy is when you want something that someone else has and it pushes you to hate this person. We must stop our thoughts and control our bodies so as not to envy what another has.
Love does not vaunteth itself, help me to understand what this means for me?
Love is not proud, so how do I stop myself from being proud? In every situation bring humility and know who you are before God.
So before we can start to practise our gifts we must first practise love. We know that love is patient, so start by practising patience. Once you are the master of patience, begin to practise kindness and when you have mastered kindness, begin to practise the next one. Really concentrate each day to put into practise each one until you can say that you are completely practising love.
It’s like learning to write, first you have to learn the alphabet – the names of each letter and their sounds. Then you have to learn the sounds of letters put together e.g. C and H is Cha not Ca Ha. Then you have to learn how to write the whole word and some words can’t be sounded out, they just have to be memorised. Once you’ve learnt words it’s time for sentences and then gramma and eventually after a few years you will be able to read and write without even thinking. And that will be us, first we are beginning with the alphabet – we are learning about love and the great salvation and as we put these into practise we will start to practise our gifts and it will come naturally.
It’s normal for us as Christians to desire gifts and ministries and we often pray to God for these. But it is better to pray to God for love because that is more important for God. To be a prophet is good, and to operate miracles and speak in tongues but it will be useless if love doesn’t belong to you. God is love and as His children we must also be love, not just to practise but to BE love. So when someone talks about you, they will say, She is patient, she is kind, she does not envy….
Some servants of God can operate miracles but some will say of them, “Oh he is proud” or “he only wants money”. Maybe he has 10 of the points but not the rest. A magician can also operate miracles, they can prophesise like a Christian. The only difference between the gift of evil and the gift of God is love. Any Christian who doesn’t know love is like a seed without a germ (doesn’t have life and will produce 0).
Therefore, the most important thing for a Christian is to love and the rest will follow.
By Hayley Boud
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