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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Jason Sliger

The Commandment of Love - Part 3

Father in heaven, we thank you, Lord, for the blessings of the Sabbath hours.

And Father, as we linger in your presence a little longer this afternoon, Again, Lord, we do it for the primary reason, coming to know you better.

And so, Father, we pray that again, you would send your Holy Spirit to take the message, the words that are spoken, the words that are read, and send the message home to our hearts where it ought to be.

We thank you, Jesus, for we ask it in your name, amen.

I want to re-read to you a statement that I have read in the last 2 presentations, and I'm repeating it all 3 times because I really want this to be cemented in your mind.

The Southern Review, January 1 of 1901, where we are told, he only who loves his fellow man to a purpose can know God.

And again, those who love 1 another, as is outlined in 1 Corinthians 13, they are the ones that will have a true understanding of God and know Him.

But then she goes on and she says, this is the reason that there is so little genuine vitality or life in our churches, because there is little love, there is little life.

Theology is valueless unless it is saturated with, holding as much as it can, saturated with the love of Christ.

His love in the human heart will lead to the doing of works that will bear fruit after the similitude of the character of God.

Now, in the last 2 presentations, I've kind of been couching this in negative terms, that there's little vitality, that there is little value in terms of our theology.

But I want you to notice that you can flip this around and see 2 beautiful promises.

And the promises are that a church who has agape in its presence, a family who has agape in its heart, a person who has agape will have vitality, amen?

And also a group of people, an individual or a church that has agape will have a theology that other people observe as being valuable.

So these are 2 promises as well, that as we take the challenge to allow the roots of agape to sink very deeply into our hearts, this love of God that defines that we are disciples of Christ.

If we allow that to happen, there will be vitality, there will be life, and those around us will view the theology that we believe as something that is valuable for them to acquire because obviously their theology has made an impact in their lives.

As we've mentioned already, the chapter is divided into 3 sections, we looked at the first 2 already.

In verses 1 through 3, Paul talks about the supremacy of love, he gives the 5 contrasting statements there that we looked at in our time together last night.

This morning we looked at love analyzed in verses 4 through 7, where he breaks down the components of what love is.

He defines for us the character of Christ, if you will, and he gives us the details of what it is.

This evening I wanna take a moment to look at the third and final segment here in Agape, verses 8 through 13, where Paul talks about the permanence of Agape.

And he begins right at the very beginning of verse 8 by setting forth the permanence of agape, that it goes and never ends.

First Corinthians 13 verse 8, he says this, charity never faileth, but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail, whether there be tongues, they shall cease, whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

These are very thought-provoking words for us to think about.

It's an unfortunate translation in the King James Version of the Bible, the literal meaning of the word fail is that it does not end, that charity does not end.

It doesn't, It's not lost or it doesn't perish at some point in time.

In fact, Tyndale put this part of the passage as, charity falleth not away.

It endures throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity, not just for the time here on this earth, but also in the world to come.

There are 2 ways that I believe we can look at this part of our study of 1 Corinthians 13, that charity never faileth.

When it comes to our love towards our fellow human beings, brothers and sisters in Christ, marriage relationships, other types of relationships, Paul tells us that charity never ends.

When other loves grow cold, charity continues to love.

When the relationship grows cold, charity continues to love.

When times get hard, agape continues to love.

It does not come, it does not go, but it is consistent, it is always there.

It is kind of similar to how Jesus said when the disciples came to him and asked, Lord, how oft shall we forgive our brother?

And the point wasn't that Jesus was saying that we keep a scorecard and that when we reach 490, that we no longer have to forgive.

The point was that Jesus said we should forgive as often as they ask for forgiveness.

And even if they don't ask for forgiveness, we should continue to forgive.

And the same thing is true when it comes to agape, when it comes to charity, that we love no matter what, we continue to love because as I mentioned before, it is what we are made up of and we cannot respond in any other way when, as a Christian, we always respond in this Christ-like love.

The other way that we can look at this passage where the Bible says that charity never ends or agape never ends is in the contrast that Paul is making between the spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and the love of Christ in 1 Corinthians 13.

As we know, the spiritual gifts are going to come and go.

When you look at the spiritual gifts outlined in 1 Corinthians 12, verse 28, we see them as God giving them to us to advance the cause of God.

But when Jesus comes, there is not going to be any longer a need for those spiritual gifts.

Those spiritual gifts will then pass away, as Paul outlines here in verse 8.

But when it comes to charity, when it comes to agape, it will continue, it will transition from this world into the world to come.

As I mentioned before, it is our character that we are going to take with us to heaven.

And it's the character of agape developed in the life of God's people that will transcend from this world into the world to come into the kingdom of heaven 1 day.

Paul says, whether there be prophecies, they shall fail.

Whether there be tongues, they shall cease.

Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

In passing, verse 11 says this, and we're going to get to the final verse that I want to really spend time on here in just a moment.

But in verse 11, Paul makes this interesting statement.

He says, when I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away what?

Simply, Paul is making the statement here that charity or agape is something that grows and deepens over time.

Just like as a child or as a human, we grow and we mature over time, as different as it is between childhood and manhood, agape will develop in the same way.

That as we get more and more involved in our relationship with God.

As we grow in that relationship with Christ, our love for others, our love for God is going to deepen and it's going to mature.

Simply put, Paul is saying that agape needs to develop.

It shouldn't be something that stagnates, but it should be something that develops over time.

We could spend more time on that, but I wanna press on to the verse of study this evening.

First Corinthians 13, and verse 13, is where I wanna spend our time.

First Corinthians 13, 13, Paul makes this concluding remark in this chapter.

He says, Now abideth faith, hope, charity, These 3, but the greatest of these is what?

What is the most important thing in the world?

Depends on, I guess some people might say where they are at in their particular journey in their life.

If you're having health struggles, you might say that your health is the most important thing.

If you're having spiritual struggles, you might say that your spiritual life is the most important thing.

If you're of a secular mindset, you might say that the acquisition of money or things is the most important thing.

But Paul categorically makes the statement that the most important thing for the child of God to develop next to accepting Christ as their personal savior is to develop a heart that is full of charity.

Faith, hope, and love, the greatest of these, Paul says, is love.

Listen to this, Testimonies, Volume 6, page 439, The servant of the Lord says this, the greatest work, the what kind of work?

The greatest work that can be done in our world is to glorify God by living the character of Christ.

What's the greatest work that can be done?

Not just understanding the character of Christ.

Not having a theoretical knowledge of the character of Christ.

Not seeing the character of Christ in other people, but the most important work that a human being can do is to develop and live the character of Christ.

Now, we've already outlined this here in our study together.

Verses 4 through 7, Paul is defining to us what the character of Christ looks like.

He's breaking it down to the fabric of what it is made out of.

He's telling us the different components of what agape is that comprises the character of Christ.

And now the spirit of prophecy tells us that the greatest work we can do is not in some far flung part of the world.

The greatest work that we can do is not necessarily taking somebody on a specific spiritual journey, but the greatest work that we can do is living the character of Christ.

He is waiting for his people to develop his character in their own lives so that he can shine out of them to those around them.

God is waiting for this, and if you want to do something big for God, you don't have to do it in some splashy manner.

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The Commandment of Love - Part 3

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