This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) This is day five together of our look through 1 Corinthians
chapter 13. We're going to look at a few more verses today, verses eight to 13.
These are verses that are about the greatness of love.

We've talked about the priority of love, we've talked about the actions, the
characteristics of love, and these are verses that talk about the greatness of
love. Listen to what they have to say. 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.

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the
imperfect disappears. 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 childish ways
behind me.

Now, we see but a poor 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. And now, these three remain,
faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.

These are verses that talk to us about the greatness of love. The greatest of
these is love. What makes love the greatest of these?

Well, there are many things, but three of them come out of this passage. What
makes love the greatest of these? Love is what will ultimately last.

Love is what we ultimately need, and love is the ultimate goal. What makes love
the greatest of these? Number one, love is what will ultimately last.

And Paul goes again through a list of gifts. Love never fails, he says. He talks
about prophecies, he talks about tongues, he talks about knowledge, but he says
these things, they're not going to last into eternity.

Love is what will ultimately last. All those gifts that we have on this earth,
they are necessary, but they are lacking. They are lacking, he says, because
they are partial.

They're no longer going to be necessary in heaven because the intent of those gifts
is going to be completed. You won't need the gift of knowledge in heaven, somebody
to give you more knowledge about God, 'cause you will know God in heaven. You
won't need the gift of tongues in heaven, someone to speak with the tongue to
help you to understand who God is, because you'll be with God in heaven.

Those gifts are no longer going to be needed in heaven, but love's needed. Love
will not fail. It will always be necessary.

It's always a part of God's plan in our lives. Love is what will ultimately
last. That's the greatness of love.

He also talks about the greatness of love, and he says love is what we
ultimately need. God created us to live in a relationship of love with himself.
Of all the needs that I think that I have, the need that God created me to live
with is the need to love.

I need to love God, I need to love others. Paul gives us some pictures of this.
He gives us the picture of a mirror.

He says now it's like we see in a mirror dimly. He's talking about us trying to
look at God and see God, look at life and see life, understand things. Now he
says it's like we look in a mirror dimly.

Our gifts, the way God uses us in this world, it's like we're looking into a
mirror, trying to see who God is, see what God's about, and we can see some of
it, but the reflection isn't as good as we need it to be. In fact, we see too
much of ourselves in many ways. It's like Paul is saying here, like looking into
the polished metal mirrors of ancient Corinth.

They had a lot of mirrors then, but they didn't always work correctly, and this
one, it wasn't polished enough. I can't quite see it. Paul gives another
picture.

He says when I was a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.
When I became a man, I put those childish things behind me. In both of these
pictures, the mirror that you can't quite see, a child becoming a man, he's
saying we're looking forward to something better, something greater.

What are we looking forward to? When we talk about love, what is it that we
ultimately need, and how's that need ultimately going to be met? Well, he talks
about it in verse 12.

He says, "Now I know in part, then I shall know fully," and here's the phrase,
"Even as I am fully known. " Scripture says that when we see Jesus, we shall be
like him. We shall see him face to face.

I see the best reflection of who I am to be when I look into the face of Jesus
Christ. I see the best reflection, the best truth, the best reality of the kind
of love that I need to have in the face of Jesus Christ. I don't just see the
love of Jesus in the face of Jesus.

I see the love that needs to be in my life in the face of Jesus. He's God in
human flesh. So when I see him, I will see his love, and when I see his love, I
will know him, and I will also know that I'm fully known by him.

I'm made to love him. Love is what we ultimately need. I am made to live in this
love relationship with God and based on this, this love relationship with
others.

Not just the human relationships that we have on this earth. It's higher than
the kind of love that you talk about in a book or in a movie. We're talking
about the kind of love where I know God, and God knows me, and I see who I'm
fully to be in him, and I see who you're fully to be, and we see that in each
other.

That's what we look forward to, and love is what we ultimately need. We're going to
see that in the face of Jesus Christ, and so because of that, a third thing we
see here, love is the ultimate goal. Now abide faith, hope, and love.

The greatest is love. It's the ultimate goal. Why is the greatest love?

Because without God's love, you'd never have the opportunity to have faith or
hope. Unless God had so loved the world that he gave his son, I could not have
faith in Jesus. I could not hope in eternity.

Why is the greatest love? Because God's love within us empowers faith and love
in my life. It's not only that I was given the opportunity to have faith and
love through the love of God, I can live out the realities of faith and love.

I mean faith and hope in my life, every day of my life through the reality of
love. God's love empowers the characteristics of faith and hope in my everyday
life. Why is love the ultimate goal?

Because unless it leads to love, faith and hope are empty promises. Without
love, Paul told us at the beginning, it's nothing. I can have faith to remove
mountains.

It's nothing without love. So we come to the end of this challenging chapter.
It's going to challenge me the rest of my life.

And there's two questions. Question number one, have you recognized God's love
for you? We talked about love this week, loving like he loves.

Have you recognized his love for you? Have you said, God, I recognize your love
for me and I want to live in relationship with you? How do you do that?

Well, he already has done all that has needed to be done. That's why Jesus came
to this earth. He died on a cross to offer you forgiveness for your sins.

He was resurrected to offer you a new life, these gifts. Have you accepted those
gifts? Are you living in relationship with him?

Have you recognized God's love for you? God so loved you that he gave his only
son. If not, do so right now.

Right now, say, Jesus Christ, I recognize your love for me. I want to live in
relationship with you. Thank you for your forgiveness.

Thank you for your life. Have you recognized God's love for you? The second
question is this.

Are you allowing God's love to flow through you? Sometimes as believers, and I
certainly get caught up in this, we try to love. We try to love like God would
love.

And that's a very wearying thing. You might be worn out with trying to love like
God loves. So trying to be patient, trying to be kind.

That's not the question. I'm not asking, are you trying to love? I'm asking, are
you allowing God's love to flow through you?

I'm not asking, are you trying to love? I'm asking, are you trusting to love?
Are you trusting him for a kind of love that you can't love with on your own?

Now, you grow in that love, no doubt about it. You grow in your ability to love
others. But the question is not, where are you in relationship to somebody else,
or where you might be later in your life.

The question is right now, today. Are you going to be selfish, not even try to
love? Or are you going to try to love on your own power?

Or are you going to trust to love? Are you going to allow God's love to flow through
you? Begin to learn to do that.

It's a lifelong journey. Are you going to take a step in that journey today? Jesus
says, we pray, thank you.

Thank you for loving us. Everything that we've talked about this week,
everything that we've read, we couldn't have read it. We couldn't have said
these words, apart from the cross, the resurrection, the life that you live for
us, apart from your love for us.

So we thank you for your love in our lives. And we pray that instead of it
feeling like a burden that we're trying to do, we'd sense the blessing of what
your love can do in us so that we can love others. God, thank you.

Thank you for your great love. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Next week, it's 1
Corinthians chapter 14 together.

It's not the love chapter, but it's a great chapter. It's a chapter about how to
have outstanding worship in our everyday lives as believers. Join us next week,
1 Corinthians 14.