00:00
00:00
00:01
Transcript
1/0
I'm going to read 1 Corinthians
13, verse 1-8. 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. If I have the gift of prophecy
and know all mysteries and all knowledge and I have all faith
so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions
to feed the poor and I surrender my body to be burned, but do
not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient. Love is kind and is not jealous. Love does not brag and is not
arrogant, does not act unbecomingly, does not seek its own, it is
not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does
not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth,
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures
all things. Love never fails. Let's pray. Father God Almighty,
we ask that You would teach us this morning. You would instruct
us in the more excellent way of love. Teach us this path of
love so that we might follow it. Lord, and we pray for a special
work of Your spirits, Your powerful spirits, to grace us with an
increased measure of love. Lord, You say in Your Word that
the fruit of the Spirit is love. And so we ask that Your Spirit
might grace us with love this morning, and that it might emanate
from us and reverberate back towards You for Your glory and
for Your praise. Amen. What is the sum of all
your responsibilities before God and before man? It can be summed up in one word,
love. Either love towards God, vertically,
or horizontally, love towards your fellow man. Remember, Jesus
said that the first and greatest commandment is what? To love
God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the second
is like unto it, to love your neighbor as yourself. To love
God and to love others. And this section in 1 Corinthians
is probably the most extensive section in the Bible on love. In fact, we saw in verses 1-3
last week the priority of love. The priority of love, that if
you have the most eminent of gifts, the most prominent of
spiritual gifts, but do not have love, it profits nothing. Or
you can have the greatest acts of sacrifice, in giving your
body to the flames, or giving all your money to the poor, but
if you have not love, you are nothing, and it profits nothing.
So we saw the priority of love last week, and now verses 4-7,
we're going to look at the practices of love, and then in verses 8-13,
the permanence of love. But for our intents and purposes
this morning, we're just going to look at the first two practices
of love, that love practices patience or long-suffering, and
love practices kindness. And one thing that you must understand
when you look at this section in 1 Corinthians 13, especially
in verses 4 through 7, that when he speaks of love and says, love
is patient, love is kind, And love is not arrogant and so on
and so forth. He's not using adjectives in
the original language. He's using verbs. And so he's
saying that love practices patience or love practices long suffering. Love practices kindness. God does not practice arrogance. And so these are all verbs. And
not only that, you may not see it from your English text, but
as verbs in the present tense, in the Greek language, the tenses
speak more of the duration or the aspect of the verb rather
than the time of the verb. In English, we call them tenses
because we speak of either past, present, or future. But in the
Greek language, when you use the present tense, it speaks
of an ongoing action. So that love is continually practicing
kindness. Love is continually practicing
patience or long-suffering. So let's first look at the beginning
of verse 4. Love is patient. I'm calling this that your love
must manifest patience or long-suffering. Some translations say long-suffering,
and that's a more accurate translation. To be long-suffering. The word is almost always as
well in the context of kindness. In fact, when you think back
to the fruits of the Holy Spirit, it speaks of love, joy, peace.
Patience, or some translations say long-suffering, and kindness,
right next to kindness and the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Also
in Romans chapter 2, it speaks of God's patience or His long-suffering
and His kindness towards those who do not believe. But this
word, when we think of patience, We usually think of being patient
maybe at the checkout line, at the grocery store, or being patient
in traffic, or being patient when the CD player is not working,
or something like that. But this word for patient speaks
almost exclusively of patience with other people. And in specific,
patience with other people when you are being wronged. That's
why the King James translation of long-suffering is a good translation,
because it carries the idea of suffering long, bearing with
somebody's ill-treatment towards you. In fact, Robert Thomas,
a former professor of mine, said, quote, this is the temperament
that patiently accepts injuries without a desire for revenge. the temperament that patiently
accepts injuries without a desire for revenge. The older Puritan
commentator Matthew Henry says, it can endure evil, injury, and
provocation without being filled with resentment, indignation,
or revenge. This is a non-retaliatory attitude. In other words, God calls us
To be a lover and not a fighter. To be a lover and not a fighter. To not be one who retaliates,
who's short-tempered or short-suffering, but one who is long-suffering.
Somebody who's willing to bear with the evils and injustices
that somebody dishes out towards us. This is what love practices. You may ask the question, well,
Was any of this going on in the Corinthian church? Did they need
to be instructed that love practices long-suffering? We better believe
it. Turn back to 1 Corinthians 6. Earlier on in this book, Paul
has to give them instructions on how to bear with one another. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 1. What was going on in the Corinthian
church was that they were suing each other. They were sue happy. They were taking each other to
court. Verse 1, does anyone of you, when he has a case against
his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not
before the saints? Or do you not know that the saints
will judge the world? If the world is judged by you,
are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts?" In
other words, he's saying, why do you air out your dirty laundry
before the world? Why are you taking each other
to court and suing each other? Isn't there somebody wise amidst
the congregation? Somebody who could be a peacemaker
or an arbitrator and decide this case amongst you? Why do you
need to air out your dirty laundry before the watching world? Verse
3, Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters
of this life? Verse 4, so if you have law courts
dealing with the matters of this life, do you not appoint them
as judges who are of no account in the church? I say this to
your shame. It is so that there is not among
you, is there not one among you a wise man who will be able to
decide between his brethren. But brothers go to court, but
brother goes to law with brother and that before unbelievers.
Actually then it is already a defeat for you that one have lawsuits
with another. Why not rather, here it is, why
not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? On the contrary, you yourselves
wrong and defraud. You do this even to your brother. You see what he's saying? Evidently,
I mean, this happens all the time in the world, that there's
evils and injustices even amongst brothers and sisters in the Lord.
That's what happens. And what was happening in the
church at Corinth was they were taking each other to court. They
were suing each other. And Paul has to instruct them
and say, love suffers long. Paul says, why not be defrauded? Why not be wronged? You see, this is love. Love practices
patience or long-suffering with people. Love is willing to endure
ill-treatment for the cause of Christ and out of love towards
other people. Now, that doesn't mean that there's
never a case to bring up injustices against one another, but Paul
said there is a place for that, but do it amongst the brethren. And friends, this is so very
counter-cultural, is it not? I mean, it was counter-cultural
back then. In fact, in the ancient world,
this term, to be long-suffering or to be patient, was considered
a weakness. It's a strong person. who gets
revenge. It's a strong person who sticks
up for his rights. In fact, one commentator says,
in the Greek world, non-avenging patience was considered weakness,
unworthy of a noble man or woman. Aristotle, for example, taught
that the great Greek virtue was refusal to tolerate insult or
injury and to strike back in retaliation for the slightest
offense. Vengeance was a virtue. The world
has always tended to make heroes of those who fight back, who
stand up for their welfare and rights above all else." End quote. And is it any different today?
Is it any different today? I mean, think about the work
situation if you have a manager or a supervisor who is almost
unbearable. And then you get news of a fellow
co-worker who gave that manager a piece of their mind. Everybody
applauds and says, yes! And then you think, wouldn't
I like to have been a fly on the wall in that room. We applaud
the vengeance, the retaliation, the getting even. We go to hockey
games so we could see a good fight, a good retaliation. We watch movies where our heroes
like Jack Bauer get revenge. And all this is inbred and ingrained
into our thinking so that when we receive insult and injury,
we're quick to retaliate and we think that that's okay before
God. But it's not. Or we live in a culture that
speaks of our unalienable rights, our rights to privacy, our rights
to such and such. And once those rights are trampled,
you need to fight for those rights. I challenge you. I challenge
you to think biblically on this issue. That according to the
Bible, we are called to be willing to give up our rights. In fact, Jesus Himself said,
in Matthew chapter 5 verse 38, you have heard that it was said,
an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you,
do not resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your
right cheek, turn to him the other also. If anyone wants to
sue you and take your coat, Take your shirt, give to him your
coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two.
Whoever asks of you, do not turn away from him who wants to borrow
from you. You see the picture? Jesus is saying that you ought
not to applaud revenge. The Pharisees had misinterpreted
the principle, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
It was a civil principle given for the law courts, but they
had used it for personal revenge. But Jesus says, It's not supposed
to be that way, friends. Love practices long-suffering
patience. Love is willing to forego perceived
rights for the good of another. Love is willing to take the low
road and be trampled on even if that means being stepped upon
for the cause of Christ and for the good of that person. Now,
that doesn't ever mean that there's not a time to address evil or
address injustices or sin in somebody's life, or even possibly
get law courts involved. But as far as on a personal level
with people, we must be long-fused. We must be long-suffering. There's a story of a man, two
men, who are walking alongside of a high mountain. They're walking
towards each other. narrow path that's only a foot
wide. And to the right of the one man
stands a mountain that goes thousands of feet high, and it's too high
to scale. And to the left on the path is
the rest of the mountain that goes thousands of feet down.
And as they come towards each other, they realize something's
got to give here. We cannot both cross this path,
it's too narrow. It's too hard to get across. So what the one man does is,
as he looks around, sees no other options, he smiles at the man
and he lies flat on his belly and the other man walks over
him. You see, that's being willing to be stepped on for the benefit
of another. This is what love practices.
It practices long-suffering. God calls us not to be a fighter,
but to be a lover. And so think. Think with me on
this. Think about your workplace relationships,
your relationships with others. Are you quick to retaliate when
things don't go your way, or somebody offends you, or somebody
does something you think is wrong? Are you quick to retaliate? Or are you long-suffering? Do
you have a long fuse or a short fuse? Think about your relationship
with cell phone companies or insurance companies, and the
telephone conversations that you have to wait online for 15
minutes, and the evils and injustices that businesses practice during
our times. How do we respond in those situations? Are we long-fused, long-suffering? Or are we short-fused and short-suffering? Think of your relationships with
your spouse. If they don't do something the
way you like it, They don't respond in the way that you would like?
They don't give you the respect that you think you deserve? Are
you quick to lash out at them? Or, are you long-suffering? In fact, if somebody was standing
there, an innocent bystander with a stopwatch, and somebody
did something harmful or insult or injury towards you, and they
hit click on it, and they timed how long it would be before you
responded or retaliated, how long would it be? Well, you may
say, well, Matt, I'm not the type. I just clam up. I don't speak. Well, that's retaliation,
is it not? Oh, you wouldn't kill that person,
but you would do what I would call silent a fascination. You'll
act as if they're dead, so you won't talk with them for hours
on end. That is retaliation. That is
short-suffering. That's not long-suffering. Love
is long-suffering. It's willing to be wrong for
the good of another and for the glory of God. Now that doesn't
mean, once again, that there's never a time to address sin or
help someone to see their own sin. or if there's evil and injustices
in society, to get law courts involved. But nonetheless, on
a personal level, love practices long-suffering. Think of your relationships in
the home with parents, with your children. If your child lashes out or talks
back against you, Are you long-suffering? Not that there's not appropriate
discipline that needs to be done, but when you do that discipline,
are you patient and long-suffering with them? Or are you just trying
to get back at them? And also children with parents.
It's the same way. If your parents, you think they're
doing something injustice or harm or injury towards you, are
you long-suffering? Patience. But then also, the body of Christ. It's easy for us to have these
high and lofty visions that, this shouldn't happen in church.
People don't do nasty things to you. We're Christians. Oh
really? You haven't read your Bible well
enough. First Corinthians, they were taking people to court.
They were suing each other. That's why Paul wrote 1 Corinthians
chapter 13. And so, sooner or later, maybe
it's already happened amongst us, somebody is going to do something
harmful towards you. Somebody is going to say something
you like. Somebody is going to insult you,
whether they realize it or not. And how are you going to respond
to that? Are you going to be long-suffering
and withhold the retaliation? Or... Are you going to be short-fused
and retaliate? There will be a time when you
will feel like somebody has injured you. When you will think that
someone overlooked you for a ministry opportunity, or you will think
that someone didn't appreciate you, or somebody didn't exuberantly
greet you like you thought you should have been greeted. This
is the world that we live in. And so how will you respond in
those situations? There's a story told about Abraham
Lincoln, and his chief political enemy was a man named Edwin Stanton,
who hated his guts. In fact, Edwin Stanton would
say of him, he called him a low-cunning clown, and he called him the
original gorilla. Edward Stanton would say of Abraham
Lincoln, it was ridiculous for people to go to Africa to see
a gorilla when they could find one just as easily in Springfield,
Illinois. But Lincoln never responded to
his slander. Never retaliated. In fact, when
the opportunity came, and Lincoln needed a Secretary of War, He
appointed Edward Stanton to the position. And the friends around
Lincoln said, why would you do such a thing? He said, he's the
best man for the job. Years later, when Abraham Lincoln's
body lay dead in the coffin, Stanton looked into the coffin
and said through tears, there lies the greatest ruler of men
the world has ever seen. Stan's animosity was broken by
Lincoln's long-suffering And friends we as Christians
need to to seek to be long-suffering. Because love practices long-suffering. I mean, that's what love does.
Love is other-focused. It's willing to die to self,
to die to your own rights or your own perceived rights for
the good of somebody else or for the glory of God. Patience
demonstrates exercises, or love exercises patience and long-suffering
towards others. And we know this well. If you're
a parent, and your child talks back to you or says something
nasty towards you, you're patient with them. Oh,
you may inflict the appropriate discipline, but if a stranger
said those same things to you, How patient would you be? Why?
Because your love for them wants to exercise patience and long-suffering
towards them. Love demonstrates patience and
long-suffering. And also realize this, that love
that exercises kindness or exercises patience is the fruit of what? That's a fruit of the Spirit
of God. So this love that exercises long-suffering
is not dependent upon your circumstances. So you may be saying to me this
morning, Matt, you don't understand what I'm going through. You don't
understand what I'm putting up with. You don't understand the
people I have to deal with. Well, the Bible says that this
grace, this love that practices long-suffering, It doesn't depend
upon your circumstances. It is a fruit of the Spirit of
the living God. And so that it's possible when
you receive insult, when you receive injury, that you can
exercise this long suffering. But you see, long suffering not
only exercises Love not only exercises long-suffering towards
others, but exercising this long-suffering demonstrates love towards God
Himself. Do you realize that? When you
demonstrate this kind of long-suffering, you're demonstrating love for
God. Well, how so, Matt? Jonathan Edwards says, first,
love to God disposes us to imitate Him, and therefore disposes us
to such longsuffering as He manifests. The longsuffering of God is wonderfully
manifest in His bearing innumerable injuries for men, and injuries
that are very great and long-continued. If we consider the wickedness
that there is in the world, and then consider how God continues
the world in existence and does not destroy it, but showers upon
it innumerable mercies, the bounties of His daily providence and grace,
causing His Son to rise on the evil and the good." You see, exercising this kind
of long-suffering demonstrates love for God because it sees
the long-suffering and the patience in God Himself and says, I want
to be like that. And we understand this when a
child, a son, sees his parent, his dad, and he wants to be like
his dad. He wants to do the same things
as his dad. He wants to eat the same kinds of foods as his dad. Because he loves his dad. And the Christian, as a child
of God, sees the long-suffering in God, sees what appears to
be almost inexhaustible long-suffering in the God whom he calls Father. And he says, I want to be like
my Father. I want to be like this God who
is willing to be insulted, to endure the evils and the blasphemies
of this world, and to exercise great patience. and longsuffering. Let us go hard after longsuffering
out of love for our Father. But also, longsuffering demonstrates
love for God because it cherishes that which exists in God. You
see, if we really value who God is, if we value the long-suffering
patience of God, then we will want to exercise long-suffering
towards others. Do you understand then? If you yawn at God's long-suffering
towards you, then how long-suffering are you going to be with others?
But when you realize the immense long-suffering and patience that
God has demonstrated towards you, Then you want to be long-suffering
towards others. I mean, have you ever pondered
that? I mean, if God treated you on the basis of how you treat
others when you suffer injury and harm, what would your relationship
with God be like? But because, God, you have sinned
against Him over and over, perhaps even before you were a Christian,
there was many years which you lived in rebellion against God,
shaking your fist at God. And He suffered long with you. And then even after you were
reconciled to Him, after He implanted in you a heart of love for Him,
even now, there's still remaining rebellion with you. And He suffers
long. He continues to exercise great
patience. And He is a God who loves holiness
more than any of His creatures. And yet he continues to exercise
great long-suffering. And so then, that ought to give
us motivation to say, I cherish God's patience and long-suffering
with me. Therefore, I want to exercise love that manifests
long-suffering and patience towards others. So God calls us to be a lover
and not a fighter. We're not to retaliate. We're
not to get our pound of flesh. We're not to try and get even.
We're to exercise long-suffering. Mature love should manifest not
only patience and long-suffering, but also notice, look at your
text, verse 4, love must manifest kindness. Love is patience. Or love, like
I said, it's a verb. Love continually exercises patience,
long-suffering. And love also continually exercises
kindness. Kindness. Doing good to others. The word kind means to be useful. to be gracious, to be useful
to somebody else, to do something towards somebody else that is
useful to them. And Paul, no doubt, strategically
places this word right next to long-suffering, because long-suffering,
on the one hand, is willing to endure the ill-treatment, it's
willing to endure the injury, But then kindness reaches out
and seeks to be useful to somebody else. It's one thing to be willing
to endure the ill-treatment. It's another thing to reach out
in a kind of loving kindness and exercise being useful towards
somebody else. And we see this throughout the
Scriptures. In fact, turn to Ephesians chapter
4 and verse 31. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 31
says, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and
slander be put away from you along with all mouths. All those
things would be the opposite of longsuffering. So you're in
a situation, instead of being longsuffering, you would be bitter,
you would be wrathful, you would be angry, you would be clamorous,
you would be slanderous. But notice he says, put those
things off. So he's advocating here, be long-suffering. But then the positive, what do
you put on? Verse 32, be, notice the first
word, kind to one another. Tender-hearted, forgiving each
other just as God in Christ has forgiven you. You see it? It's
the negative. Be long-suffering. Don't respond
in anger. Don't respond returning with
slanderous speech. But then the positive. Be kind
toward one another. This is what love practices. Also turn over to Romans 12.
Romans 12 verse 19. Romans 12.19 says, Never take
your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God. For it is written, Vengeance
is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. So here's the long-suffering
part. Do not retaliate, do not take
revenge. But do what? Leave room for God's
judgment. God will deal with them. You
don't need to act as judge. You don't need to be Charles
Bronson, be the enforcer. You need to leave that in God's
hands. But then the positive, verse 20, be useful, be kind. But if your enemy is hungry,
feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a
drink. For in so doing you will heap
burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but
overcome evil with good. You see it? It's all throughout
the Scriptures. The negative, to be long-suffering,
to endure injury, to not retaliate, to put off the anger, the malice,
all that. But then the positive, to be
kind, to be useful. If your enemy is hungry, feed
him. To do something good for them. This is what love practices. This is what love engages in. And think about it, friends. This
is great love for others. But it's also love for God. When
we engage in kindness, once again on the principle that we imitate
the God that we love, guess who? is the most kind being in existence. God the living God. And so if
we love God, we see God's great kindness and we say, I want to
be like that. I want to exercise not only that
kind of long suffering, but I want to exercise that kind of kindness. And we understand this principle
in the world as well. I mean, when I was growing up,
I would love to see a baseball player hit a baseball 400 feet
over the fence. So I would see people like Jim
Tomey, Albert Bell, Andre Thornton, when they would hit that baseball,
hit a 95 mile per hour fastball and knock it out of the yard,
I said, wow, I love that. I want to be like that. And so
even sometimes we would do the same motions in the batter's
box that they would do. We would imitate them. Why? Because
we love that. We admire that. In the same way,
I ask you this morning, do you admire the kindness of God? Do
you admire a God who responds with the evils and blasphemies
of this world with not only great long-suffering, but even kindness. I mean, have you ever pondered
that? Romans 2 verse 4 says, Or do you think lightly of the
riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that
the kindness of God leads you to repentance? There it is. Or
do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance?
And there's our word, patience. Kindness and patience. Kindness
and long-suffering going hand in hand in the character of God. I mean, think about that. Most
of this world lives in out-and-out rebellion against God, the living
God. Thumbing their nose up at God.
And who is the one who gives them the food that they eat?
Who is the one who gives them the air that they breathe? Who
is the one who gives them the spouses that they enjoy, the
friends that they enjoy? Who is the one who gave them
parents who loved them? God's great kindness. In all this kindness, this patience,
this long-suffering is to lead them to repentance, but the rest
of the text says, as it is, they are storing up wrath for the
day of wrath. But each time an unbeliever receives
God's kindness and God's long-suffering towards them, and they continue
in their rebellion against God, they're just adding pieces of
wood to the fire. that they will endure for all
eternity. But yet it's a real patience,
it's a real long-suffering, and it's a real kindness that God
exercises towards all of humanity. Not only that, in Luke 6, verse
35, it says, But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting
nothing in return. And your reward will be great,
and you will be sons of the Most High. Why? For He Himself is
kind to ungrateful and evil men. God Himself is kind to ungrateful
and evil men. The kindness of God. So that when we exercise this
kind of kindness, we are demonstrating that God is our hero. God is
the one we love. God is the one we admire. And
we want to be like Him. And we want to be like Jesus
as well. Jesus, the one who said in Matthew
11, verse 30, Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden,
I will give you rest. And then he says, For my yoke
is easy. And the word that's translated
easy there is the same word we have for kindness here. For my
yoke is kind and my burden is light. The kindness of Christ. But not only love exercises kindness,
love towards God, but also love towards others. And this is obvious,
but it's worth reminding ourselves that love exercises kindness
towards others. And it's right hand in hand with
long-suffering. So that when we receive injury
and ill-treatment, we can respond with kindness. We can respond
with doing things that are useful and helpful to others. So that
if our enemy is hungry, if we see a need in them and we can
be useful to them, then we can be kind. And we can imitate God. Francis Schaeffer used to talk
about opportune moments of love. You see, we don't always have
opportunities to love others. But sometimes, somebody mentions
a need, somebody mentions a difficulty, somebody mentions something that's
going on in their life, and we have to have open ears to what's
going on. Perhaps it's a prayer request.
Perhaps it's just a mention of something in conversation. And
that should be our opportune moments of love to then say,
what can I do to be kind towards that person? If it's a physical
need, if it's just being there to befriend them, if it's just
being there to listen to them, if it's being there to give them
instruction and counsel from the Scriptures. Opportune moments
to love. But even if it's our enemies, we can still
be kind. We still must be kind. And we
have a great opportunity then to mimic and imitate the God
whom we love. Because no one exercises more
kindness towards his enemies than God Himself. so that if
someone is harmful or evil towards you, then you can, like Romans
says, not take revenge, or like this passage says, be long-suffering,
and you can, if your enemy is hungry, you can feed them, you
can look for that need, and you can be useful to them, you can
engage in an act of kindness, and perhaps win them over. But once again, you need to remember,
That this, like longsuffering, comes from where? Comes from
the Spirit of the living God. Because the fruit of the Spirit
is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, and kindness. Long-suffering
and kindness comes from the Spirit of the living God, so it's not
dependent upon your circumstances. So once again, you may be saying,
Matt, how can I be kind at work? You don't understand these people. But you see, your kindness is
not dependent upon how people treat you. In fact, people's
ill-treatment of you may be exactly what God is using in your life
to teach you the fruit of kindness. So, how are you doing with long-suffering
and kindness this morning? With patience and kindness towards
others? On a scale of 1 to 10, how would
you measure up with these practices of love. And if you're seeing
that you're weak in these areas, then you need to have some honest
dealings with the Lord God and ask Him by the power of His Spirit
to infuse you with greater love that would manifest itself in
greater long-suffering and patience towards others, and also greater
kindness and being useful towards others. To be kind. To be useful towards others. Ask yourself, am I useful towards
others? I mean, if all of a sudden I
died and people around me, the people around you, would they
notice? that you were useful, you were helpful towards them.
There's something that's now missing because you're not there. Because you engaged in many acts
of kindness and many helpful deeds towards them, and now you're
not there. It's engaged in long-suffering
and kindness. But this 1 Corinthians 13, ultimately, It's a portrait of the Lord Christ
Himself. In fact, someone has said that
it's a portrait of Christ painted by the Father in the glowing
colors of the Holy Spirit. A portrait of Jesus painted by
the Father in the glowing colors of the Holy Spirit. Because Jesus Himself is the
ultimate example of long-suffering and kindness. I mean, He was
slandered when He was here on earth. They spoke of Him. When
they spoke of Him, they would say, you are a Samaritan and
demon-possessed. You're a drunk. You're a glutton. And how does He respond? Long-suffering. Remember, even when you go to
the cross and He's being crucified, those Roman soldiers mocked Him.
In Mark 15, verse 16, it says, the soldiers dressed Him up in
purple, and after twisting a crown of thorns, they put it on Him
and began to acclaim, Hail, King of the Jews! And they kept beating
His head. with a reed and spitting on Him,
and kneeling and bowing down before Him. And after they mocked
Him, they took the robe off Him, and they put on Him garments,
and they led Him to crucify Him. How did He respond? Like a lamb
that was led to the slaughter. Long suffering. Even when He was hanging there
on the cross, remember, one of those persons, one of those thieves
who was next to Him on the cross, even he was hurling abuse at
Him. But even those who were walking
by, according to Mark 15, 29, it says, those passing by were
hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads and saying, Ha, you
who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three
days, save yourself and come down from the cross. And how
did he respond? Long-suffering patience. And then, those vile religious
hypocrites who are thorn in Jesus' side all throughout His ministry,
how were they responding to Him while He was hanging on the cross?
In Mark 15, verse 31, it says, In the same way, the chief priests
also, along with the scribes, were mocking Him among themselves,
saying, He saved others, He cannot save Himself. Let this Christ,
the King of Israel, now come down from the cross so that we
may see and believe in those who were crucified with Him were
also insulting Him." They're saying, why don't you come down
from the cross? And you know what amazes me?
Perhaps more than anything, You see, and he tells Peter on one
occasion, Peter, don't you know that I could call down twelve
legions of angels? Thousands of angels I could call
down at a wink, and they would incinerate all these people.
You see, not only Jesus was He long-suffering, but He had the
ability to retaliate. He had the ability to hurl abuse. He had the ability to pour down
His wrath upon them. But He was long-suffering. But
not only that, He was kind. He was kind. Even as He's hanging
on the cross, He says, Father, forgive them, for they know not
what they do. Father, forgive them, because
they don't have a clue what they're doing. And even while He's on
the cross at His moment of greatest weakness, you know who He's concerned
for? His dear mother. He says, John,
you take care of her. Kindness! And even in that greatest
act of weakness at the height of long-suffering, He's giving
His very life on the cross. He's having the wrath of God
poured out upon him. So each and every one of them
who is hurling abuse could have the opportunity for forgiveness
if they cast themselves upon his mercy. This is Christ. None has demonstrated
more long-suffering. None has demonstrated more kindness
towards others. And I commend him to you this
morning to follow in the way of Christ. 1 Peter 2 says to
follow that example, who endured ill-treatment, and he kept his
mouth closed and entrusted himself to Him who judges justly. Long-suffering and kindness. Let's imitate our Savior. Let's
pray. Father God, we come before You. We acknowledge You are the long-suffering
One. Christ is the long-suffering
one. You are the kind one. Jesus Himself
bearing the wrath of sinners. A great act of kindness. But when the kindness of God
our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us. He saved us. Lord, help us to grow in this
kind of love. Lord, this is so foreign to our
thinking, so alien to who we are. It can only happen by the
power of Your Spirit. And I beg that Your Spirit might
give us increasing measure of love that manifests itself in
long-suffering and kindness. And Lord, even now, as we come
before the elements, as we celebrate Your death and resurrection,
Might we cherish Your patience and kindness in a new and fresh
way this morning. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
1 Corinthians 13:4 You're A Lover And Not A Fighter
Series 1 Corinthians 13
| Sermon ID | 9231102580 |
| Duration | 53:27 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | 1 Corinthians 13:4 |
| Language | English |
Documents
Add a Comment
Comments
No Comments
© Copyright
2026 SermonAudio.