First Baptist Arlington Sermons

 Katy Reed Hodges

October 9, 2022

Love is the Answer – 1 Corinthians 13 –

1 Corinthians 12:31 – 13:3

31 And yet I will show you the most excellent way. 1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

1 Corinthians 3:4-7

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

“Love is primary for [Paul] because it has already been given concrete expression in the coming of the Lord Jesus to die for the sins of the world. Love is not an idea for Paul, or even a ‘motivating factor’ for behavior. It is behavior. To love is to act; anything short of action is not love at all.” – Gordon Fee

“The love Paul portrays is not some abstract concept but rather the concrete point where the love of God expressed in the death of Jesus becomes embodied in the lives of believers. We do his work an injustice when we de-incarnate this chapter and turn it into an ode to love.”

· Robert Scott Nash

1 Corinthians 3:8-13

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 3:8-13 NASB:

“8…if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away with; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away with. 9 For we know in part and prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away with. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.”