Okay, so this evening we are picking up where we left off this morning. If you weren't here this morning, I was asking the question, how is your love life? And when I asked that question, it wasn't to do with romantic this weekend, how are you getting on? It was with respect to God. How are you getting on loving God and loving neighbor? And I said, the place we must begin is not to look at self actually, it's to look at our savior. to behold his great love for us, to understand how deeply loved we are by him, this love was made manifest. He gave his life as an atoning sacrifice for us. This morning, we looked at how essential love is to the Christian life. Without love, we are nothing. We might have impressive speech. We might possess a whole raft of gifts. we might make many noble sacrifices but without love those things are nothing. Well if you saw this morning love is essential to the Christian life. We're going to look this evening at love is expressive. Tonight we're going to look at the character of love. Remember what I said when we were looking at this this morning when Paul wrote When Paul penned these words, he didn't have a bride and groom in mind. This wasn't written for a wedding primarily. No, when Paul penned these words, he had the Corinthian congregation in mind because of all their divisions and all their disputes, all their misuse and abuse of the spiritual gifts. Paul wrote this because he wanted to show them that the most excellent way is the way of love. I should add that Paul not only had the Corinthian congregation in mind when he came to pen these words in love, he clearly had Jesus in mind. The literary device that Paul uses in verses four through eight is personification. Notice he describes, he doesn't define love. He uses 15, 16 verbs. to show that love is action. But notice how love sounds like a person. Love is patient. Love is kind. Jesus is patient. Jesus is kind. Jesus does not envy. Jesus does not boast. Jesus is not proud. Jesus does not dishonor others. Jesus is not self-seeking. Jesus is not easily angered. Jesus keeps no records of wrong. Jesus does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. Jesus always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Jesus never fails. This passage only makes sense if we see that at its heart, Jesus is the one who embodies and fulfills all of these works. I should point out, just as we come to look at this section where it describes a character of love, that Paul is speaking about agape love. Now, in English, we don't have different words for love. We just use the word love. So I'll say, I love Marina. I can say, I love fried chicken. I can say, I love London. Perhaps in all those statements, I mean something slightly different. Marina is not in the same category as fried chicken. But in Greek, they did and they do have different words for love. Eros, erotic, romantic love. Phileo, like Philadelphia, city of brotherly love, love between friends. And then agape love. Agape love is the love of sacrifice. It is a love that seeks the other's highest good. And when Paul comes here to speak about love, that is what he's speaking about, agape love, the love that's embodied and epitomized in Jesus, who gave himself on the cross so that we might know salvation. So let's bear that in mind. This is the love that Paul wanted this young church in Corinth to be characterized by. And so as we come to study this passage, that's the context I want to apply it to our lives. This is the love that ought to be embodied in this community. Now this of course could be applied into our home lives, our work lives, our recreational lives, but remember Paul's focus originally was because there were so many problems in the church in Corinth. So let's apply this as it would have been originally applied to the group of Christians, to the congregation of Christians who first read it. And what we're going to do is very straightforward. We're just going to walk through verses four through eight. And we're going to unpack what love is. Notice how Paul begins, love is patient. Just stop for a minute and think, when you think of love, is that the first thing that comes to mind? Patience. Paul says to these Corinthian Christians, love is patient. Love acts patiently. The Greek word comes from a word that means long-suffering. If you're patient, you are slow to anger. You are willing to endure personal wrongs. You will bear with people's imperfections, their faults. You will give them time to grow, to make mistakes without coming down hard on them. Paul wanted this church in Corinth to be patient, to embody this love, love that is patient. Brothers and sisters, can I ask us with each other, are we patient? Are we willing to bear with one another in love? As we were saying this morning, as we look at these verses, our discovery is that we don't live this out. But we know that there is one who did and does live this out, Jesus. So let's just stop and think about His patience. Because it's as we grow in understanding His love for us, as we receive His love for us, that we begin to reflect His love. As we experience His love, we embody His love. So think of the patience of God. I was just thinking about this this afternoon, just as I looked at my notes. This is how patient our God is. From before he laid the foundation of the earth, from eternity past, he had chosen us. He was willing and gladly to wait. To wait so that there would be the day we would come to experience his love and his goodness. You know, the thing about the Lord is a day is like a thousand years, a thousand years is like a day. Time in God's mind is not time like in our minds, but the Bible's testimony is consistent. Our God is incredibly patient. So many people ask the question, why is the Lord not returned? It's been 2000 years. Second Peter 3 says the Lord is not slow in keeping his promises as some understand slowness. He is patient with us not wanting any one of us to perish but every one to come to repentance. How patient is God. Well he bears with our failings he bears with our faults he bears with our imperfections. Just think of your life. Just think of all the times you've made the same mistakes over and over again, confessed them, said, God, forgive me. God, please, I'm going to endeavor not to do it again. But you've done it again and again. He is patient. Second thing Paul says is love is kind. Love acts kindly. Someone has put it well. Kindness is patience in action. Someone who is kind literally means someone who is useful. A kind person is disposed to be helpful. A kind person does everything in their power to help. And do you know the beautiful thing about kindness is that kindness always leads to response. The only other time that kindness, Paul uses the verb here, is used is in Romans. And there in Romans chapter 2 it tells us that the kindness of God is what leads us to repentance. Be kind is to be useful. God's kindness, God's tender, gentle care and help ultimately in salvation is what motivates us towards positive change. And we see throughout the Gospels how kind Jesus was to all those he came in contact with. In fact, Jesus said these words. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? But even sinners do the same thing. But love your enemies, do good, lend, expecting nothing in turn. Your reward will be great. You'll be sons of the Most High, for he himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. The kindness is embodied in the life of Christ, kind to all who are ungrateful and evil. It's the kindness of God that leads to repentance. So let me challenge this. The testing ground for these attributes for these original readers was the church. Let's think about our patience and kindness in the context of church life. Are you patient? with the people next to you in the pew, as it were. Be kind. That's what Paul says ought to characterize the life of the Christian who's received the love of God and is to reflect the love of God. So that's love described positively. Paul now describes love negatively. What love does not do. If that's what love does, it's kind, it's patient. Here's what love does not do. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It does not dishonor others, meaning it is not rude. It is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered. It keeps no records of wrongs. Let's just look at the first three. They're part, if you like, of the same family. Love does not envy. You know what envy is. It's when you desire another person's position, possessions. In the Corinthian church, we highlighted this morning that in chapter 12, one of the problems was spiritual gifts, and some had many spiritual gifts. Others envied others because they didn't have what they had, in brick of tongues. Love does not envy. Let me put that in the positive. Love is always glad at what another person has. See, with love that does not envy, there's never rivalry, there's never competition. Now, if you read through the Bible's story, you will find from the very beginning, envy is a problem that plagues the heart of the people of God. Eve in the garden, envied what God had. That's part of the temptation that the slithering serpent made to Eve. Want to be like God? Envy, remember the story of Joseph, his brothers envied him. His position, he was his father's favorite son. They sold him into slavery because of envy. The reason the chief priests in the Gospels handed Jesus over to be crucified was because of envy. Envy plagues our hearts, and here Paul says it ought not. We ought to possess a love that delights and is glad for others, their position, their possessions, their gifts. Along with envy, Paul says love does not boast. If, as someone has said, if envy is desiring what another person has, boasting comes from the desires for others to see what you have. Someone who boasts wants to take center stage. Someone who boasts wants others to admire them. And going hand in hand with boasting is love is not proud. To be proud in Greek is to be puffed up, inflated like a balloon, puffing yourself up in your own eyes to feel superior to others. The tragedy with pride and boasting is that it always comes along with a judgmental and critical spirit. But let's just stop again for a moment and just examine our love lives in the context of church. Do we ever envy the people we meet in this community? Are we always glad for what they have? Do we ever boast, you know, we share a story, we want attention to be on us, we want others to admire us, brag? People who are filled with pride, it's like bad breath. They don't know they have it, but for everyone else, it stinks. How's your love life? But then Paul goes on and he says, love does not dishonor others. The idea there is love's not rude. This is beautiful, right? Love has manners. Love is sensitive to others. Love cares and thinks about the other individual. Love is not self-seeking. Agape love, it is to sacrifice self, to give self for the highest good of others. Love is not self-centered. That was one of the major problems in the Corinthian church. They were all obsessed with themselves. When it came to the Lord's Supper, they all showed bad manners. Some were getting there early. They were eating and drinking. They didn't care about others. Paul says, the love that ought to characterize their life is this love. And again, all of this we find displayed gloriously in our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He had every reason to boast. Every reason to make people listen to him, admire him. But you look at his life and everything's the opposite. He could have been born in the palace of a king, but he chose to be born in the stench and in the stink of a stable. He could have been born with all of the money and wealth and riches, but instead he had a teenager for a mother and a joiner for a stepdad. came and he was humble. For much of the Gospels, Jesus is always trying to tell people, don't tell other people about me yet. The time has not yet come. He was never self-seeking. He came to seek and save that which was lost. So love is not rude, love is not self-seeking, it does nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility always considers others' interests first. The next thing to see is that love is not easily angered. And love keeps no record of wrongs. Notice that these two things go together because one of them is the short-term and the other is the long-term. Love is not easily angered. You know, some of our problems, isn't it, in the context of community is that people can just push our buttons and set us off and we can go off like a volcano. Sometimes it doesn't come out, we just burn inside, seething with anger. That's not love. But the long term is not only do we burn and seethe with anger, but we hold and harbor the wrongdoings of others in our hearts. Paul says this is not love. Love doesn't get easily angered. Love never keeps records of wrongs. You know, we sang tonight, right? And we sing it often. The Lord is gracious and compassionate. He is slow to anger. You know, there must be a multitude of ways every single day what we do against God grieves Him. But the only right response should be true anger. Yet he's slow to anger with us. He's rich in steadfast love. So here's all the ways that we read. And the other thing we read is that love keeps no records of wrongs. You know that Psalm we often sing, Psalm 103? If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness. He keeps no records of our wrongs. We had love described in its positive terms, in its negative terms. Now he describes love. And he says what love always does, and he contrasts it as well. Look at what he says next. He says, love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. Love never takes any pleasure, any delight in that which is wrong. You know, in the context of church community, it's so easy, right, to delight in that which is wrong. It most manifests itself in gossip. Some juicy detail about someone. So easy to delight in that which is evil. Love rejoices with the truth. Love rejoices in that which is good. As Christians, we are to love the truth at all costs. So we've had love described positively, negatively, love here contrasted. Now look at love again. Love always does four things. Love always protects, love always trusts, love always hopes, love always perseveres. As I was thinking about this, I don't think I could ever think in my head of someone who would say, describe, define love to me. I don't think I'd ever say love always protects. That's how our love ought to, that's the love that ought to exist in our hearts. A love that protects. A love that cares, that you want to shelter others, you want to help others. Love always trusts. Now, that doesn't mean love is naive in any way, it's not stupid, it's not gullible, it doesn't take everything that's just said. But love, when it knows there is someone else, it is loyal, it trusts, believes in them, believes the best about people. Love is trustworthy. Love is hopeful. Another way that perhaps we wouldn't think of love. Love has confidence. Love knows that when we think about someone else, because of the grace of God, there is hope for that person. It is always optimistic. A person's not defined by the problems of their past. A person's defined in love by the possibility of a glorious future. And love, it always perseveres. It never gives up. Again, you take all these statements and you say, where do you see them embodied? Who personifies them? Well, Jesus does. You know, it's humbling for us to bask in. Jesus protects us. Jesus shelters us. Through providence, sometimes we're not even aware of it. Keeps us safe. Jesus trusts. Jesus is confident of our future. Jesus perseveres with us. Remember how Paul began this passage, I want to show you the most excellent way, the way of love. We hear how he draws this description of love to an end. He says, love never fails. How do you apply that? How do you unpack that? The only way is Jesus. Love never fails. God's love is steadfast and unfailing. And brothers and sisters, this is what ought to characterize your life and my life. Remember the process of the gospel, right? We come to understand the love that God has for us in Christ. We receive that love. By the Holy Spirit, we abide in God, God abides in us. Our hearts are transformed by his love so that we start to love as he loves. And as we give our minds to meditate on this passage tonight, we are having our eyes opened not just to the way that we should live, but to the one we live for, to the one who is love, to the one who never fails, to the one who embodies us and perfects us in every which way. And so may it be that as we, with unveiled faces, behold the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus, may we be transformed from one degree of glory to another. May we begin to reflect his love to one another. It would do us so well as a church to revisit this passage again and again. This is what ought to characterize us. And so we should make it our heart's desire to apply it. You know, when you come to church, pray that God would help you to be patient. Ask God to show you the ways that you can be kind. Pray that God would ensure that you don't envy, boast, proud, keep records of wrongs, get angered. So let me finish with the question that I began with, how is your love life? Well, if we finish and we look to Christ and we know we're loved like this, glory, glory, hallelujah, we can boast and we will boast in his love for us, let's pray. Lord Jesus Christ, no one has loved us like you have loved us. No one knows us like you know us. No one treats us like you treat us. And as we come and we bask in your love, as we revel in your love, as we have the eyes of our hearts opened to see your love, we pray that we would live out this love. God, thank you that you've given us one another. I thank you that, Lord, all of us know this to be true of ourselves. Not one of us in this room is perfect, but we are perfect in its fits. And that in this context of the community of faith, we've got every opportunity to show this kind of love. God, would people step into our church community and feel this love, see this love, experience this love, and especially people who don't yet know you. so that they might come to know the God who is love for themselves. And so we pray, pleading your promise. God, you're good to love us. And so would you help us to love you and love others. In Jesus' precious name, amen.