1Cor 13:13
Love, Spiritual in Its Origin
For the last few weeks, we have been looking at character and the
attributes that make it up. My definition of character is Christ
and His nature in you so as we study character, we see an large over-
lap with the nature of God for it is only as we take on God’s nature
that we develop character.
The first attribute of character we have studied was the one I have
called the most important, wisdom. Tonight we study the second
attribute and what I believe to be the second most important, love.
A case can certainly be made that love is the most important.
1. Of the three mentioned in this verse, Paul called love the
greatest.
2. Jesus stated that the greatest command ever given was to love
God with all of our heart, soul, and mind \\#Matt 22:37\\.
3. He went on to add that the second greatest command was to love
your neighbor.
However, I maintain that without wisdom, you would never realize the
need, importance, or power of love. So for love to accepted and
given, we must first be wise—although I would not continue a debate
any further than that.
Let’s consider love in character.
I. The Need for Love.
A. Why is love so important to character? (I am not speaking on
why love is important to relationships or life, just to
character.)
B. It is because love, like wisdom, is a foundational
characteristic.
1. Wisdom and love are what makes it possible to have the
other attributes of character.
a. I think these two are THE foundational attributes of
character.
b. Without them, you can not have any character at all
and your character will grow only in proportion to
how much wisdom and love you have.
2. Consider some of the other attributes of character and how
they grow out of our ability to love. Forgiveness,
gentleness, patience, loyalty, compassion, tolerance,
kindness, contrition, attentiveness, hospitality,
truthfulness, dependability, gratefulness, deference,
respectful, obedient—all of these depend in some part on
our ability to care for and promote others.
3. Without love, you will never be a good person.
a. We do things backwards. We look at ourselves and
define good based on us. What we need to do is to
look at the Bible, then we would see we are not
good!
b. If we do not love, we are not good!
C. Paul warned us what people are like without love.
2Tim 3:2 For men shall be lovers of their own
selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers,
disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers,
false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers
of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of
pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the
power thereof: from such turn away.
1. Paul was prophesying about the last days.
2. This is what we have become.
3. It is a package deal. When you become the first one, you
become all the rest.
4. By the way, loving your self is NOT love.
a. Selfishness is actually the opposite of love.
b. Some think the opposite of love is hate but actually
the opposite of love is to be selfish and to love
yourself.
D. It is from the selfish, loveless people that we get our
uncaring, self-serving, self-centered, bitter, vengeful,
unprincipled masses that steal, oppress, hurt, rape, kill,
and destroy.
1. That is why 1 out of every 110 adults in America are in
prison today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States
2. And why a lot more should be.
3. The Wall Street Journal reported that 30% of the adults
in America have a police record. That figure may not
include those whose juvenile record was sealed.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-many-americans-have-a-police-record-
probably-more-than-you-think-1438939802
E. Unless we want to BE one of these people or even worse, to
raise one of these people, we need to build into ourselves
the characteristic of love.
F. So why is love important? Without it, the entire human race
will degenerate!
II. A Loveless Person Does Not Know God
A. While THE Book that teaches about wisdom is Proverbs, THE
Book that teaches about love is 1John.
1John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another: for
love is of God; and every one that loveth is
born of God, and knoweth God.
8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God
is love.
B. Love, then, like wisdom, is a spiritual characteristic.
1Jo 4:16 And we have known and believed the love
that God hath to us. God is love; and he that
dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
1. Love can only be had by having a spiritual connection with
God.
2. Now, by saying that, I don’t mean to say that an unsaved
person cannot love at all. Our own experiences teach us
that is not the case.
3. They can love to some degree because God has left His mark
on all people.
a. We are made in His image \\#Ge 1:26\\.
b. God wrote some truths into man’s very nature.
Romans 2:15 Which shew the work of the law
written in their hearts, their conscience also
bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean
while accusing or else excusing one another;)
(1) It is interesting that this verse distinquishes
three parts of our being that God has left His
mark upon.
(2) It mentions our hearts (nature, DNA), conscience,
and our thoughts (mind).
c. So God has left His mark on us. This helps some to
love in part.
4. But without a strong, direct connection with God, we just
can’t get it correct.
a. The Bible gives us some examples of relationship love
with people gone awry.
(1) They can only love those who love them.
Mt 5:46 For if ye love them which love you,
what reward have ye? do not even the publicans
the same?
(2) Experience fear from those you love.
1Jo 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect
love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment.
He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
(3) Talk of love but your actions don’t demonstrate
it.
1Jo 3:18 My little children, let us not love in
word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in
truth.
b. It also gives us examples of our love to God gone
awry.
(1) Those who say they love God but don’t obey the
Word.
1Jo 5:2 By this we know that we love the
children of God, when we love God, and keep his
commandments.
3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his
commandments: and his commandments are not
grievous.
(2) Those who say they love God but don’t love other
Christians.
1Jo 4:20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth
his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not
his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love
God whom he hath not seen?
5. Any ability to love is better than no ability to love,
but those with the ability to love like God loves will
have the best character.
III. So what is love?
A. Love is a characteristic of God Himself.
1. God is love and love is God.
1John 4:8 He that loveth not knoweth not God;
for God is love.
1Jo 4:16 And we have known and believed the love
that God hath to us. God is love; and he that
dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
2. So, like God, love is spiritual in origin and supernatural
in nature.
B. Love comes from God.
1. Some very intelligent people have told us that some things
in our universe can not be created or destroyed, just
changed from image to image.
a. Energy, matter - I would say it is true of love.
b. When God created the world, He put love into it.
c. Obviously, when Jesus came and died for mankind, God
opened the door of creation and dumped a whole lot
more love into it.
2. But man cannot create love. The best he can do is to
catch some of it.
a. Throughout the Bible, the Bible commands us to love
but the Bible never commands us to create love.
b. I would deduce that is because love cannot be created
by mankind.
c. Love comes from God. Love is God’s nature imparted to
man. If you want more love, you need to get more of
God.
C. Love is action.
1. Love is not primarily an emotion.
a. There may or may not be a strong emotion that
accompanies love.
b. When it comes to the love between two people or the
love between a person and God, I would hope a strong
emotion is present.
(1) However, many have strong feelings for one
another and it is not always love.
(2) Most cannot tell the difference between love and
lust today.
2. However, love is primarily action whether there is any
emotion there or not.
Joh 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his friends.
a. Jesus called the greatest love a man can have, one
where he chooses to sacrifice his life for his
"friends."
b. He did not say his "love."
c. A person who dies for another is demonstrated the
greatest ACT of love there is whether he felt any
strong emotion for that person or not.
D. 1Cor 13 contains Paul’s description of love.
1. In this chapter, God through Paul describes love.
2. However, the medium of words—even inspired words—can
NOT describe the fullness of love.
3. That is because love is from God, God is love, and finite
words could never describe the infinite God.
4. But this chapter can help us get the basics of love down
in tremendous ways.
E. Notice the breakdown of the chapter
1. \\#1-3\\ The necessity of love
a. I have made the statement that without love, you can
not have godly character or be the kind of human
being God wants.
b. Paul said every good thing we do without having love
in our hearts is simply meaningless.
(1) \\#1\\ My best words without love are just noise.
(2) \\#2\\ I am nothing without love.
(3) \\#3\\ My best actions without love will profit
me nothing.
c. That was Paul saying that nothing else matters if love
is not the foundation you build your character upon.
d. By love, Paul was not speaking of OUR definition of
love (some strong and excitable emotion), but God’s
definition has he went on to describe.
2. \\#4-5\\ Love has some unusual actions.
a. \\#4\\ Love can suffer, and suffer, and suffer.
b. Love is kind.
c. Love does not envy, want other things.
d. Love does not exalt itself. This goes with the next.
e. Love is not proud, cocky, arrogant, These two
expressions take all of the selfishness out of love.
f. \\#5\\ Love behaves. Love will not flirt, be harsh,
mean, cruel, hateful.
g. Love is not selfish.
h. Love is not easily provoked. No one who flies off the
handle at you loves you. As a person with a short
temper, my desire to be a loving person has been the
tool that has helped me to control it.
3. \\#5-8\\ Love has some unbelievable actions.
a. The eight just listed were difficult enough for a mere
human to fulfill; but in this next set, Paul gave us
us some actions that are impossible for us to keep
without being filled with God’s love.
b. Notice, these are absolute, meaning that there are no
exceptions to them.
(1) \\#5\\ Love thinks NO evil. Not a little evil.
Not things no evil most of the time.
(2) \\#6\\ Love does not rejoice in sinfulness—ever.
It only rejoices in truth, that is, in the
things that the Bible teaches us are good and
right.
(3) \\#7\\ Love bears everything.
(4) Love believes everything.
(5) Love hopes (expects, longs for) everything.
(6) Love endures everything.
(7) \\#8\\ Love never fails.
c. Two thoughts:
(1) How could anyone think that the God who loves the
saved would ever cast them out after reading
this? If God does not love this way, no one
else ever will!
(2) God is the only One who can love this way.
(a) These are absolutes, meaning this is the way
love is always going to act.
(b) Most humans will NEVER love this way and
none can always love this way.
d. However, these are our goals and our commands.
(1) Every Christian is called by God to grow the
ability and catch this kind of love.
(2) Only those with a strong spiritual connection
with God will be able to do so.
(3) And it should also be our goal, as parents, to
teach our children this kind of love.
(a) How?
(b) Much the same way as we teach them wisdom.
i. Teaching - telling.
ii. Training - constraining.
iii. Spanking - Jack hammer to crack the
hard soil.
(Review the past messages.)
4. \\#8-13\\ The duration and demand of love.
a. \\#8, 13\\ Speak of love’s duration. If we ever love
someone with this kind of love, we will never stop.
b. \\#9-11\\ Speak of love’s demand. Love causes us to
put away our childish behaviors and start to act
responsibly.
IV. How do I become more loving?
A. We want to develop the attribute of love in our character.
How do we do that?
B. As I have said:
1. Love cannot be created. It is from God. It is God’s
nature. Therefore, the closer we get to God, the more
like Him we will become.
a. Read the Bible.
b. Seek to obey the principals of the Bible.
c. Watch other godly Christians when they do right.
2. To be more proactive.
a. Empty yourself of selfishness.
(1) Think of yourself as a container with limited
space.
(2) The more you are filled with the love of self,
the less you can be filled with love for others.
(3) I believe this is why the Bible speaks so much
about humility, selflessness, caring for and
helping others.
(4) Doing these things are not good behaviors. They
are what makes us into good people, people with
godly character.
b. Forget the feelings and practice the actions.
(1) People today are way to caught up in feelings.
(2) Most people’s feelings are worthless because they
have not been properly set!
(3) Let me explain.
(a) Feelings are emotional response to an
action.
(b) If your emotional make is good, you might
have good emotions to good actions and bad
emotions to bad ones, but how are you going
to know?
(c) Question - How did the person who invented
the first clock know what time it was?
i. Answer: He didn’t.
ii. Other clocks had to be invented and a
standard had to be agree upon first.
(d) The only way to know if you are feelings are
correct is to compare what you feel to
right actions and wrong actions.
(e) The only way to know what a right action and
a wrong action is to go to the Bible.
(f) So the only way to know if your feelings are
right or wrong is to set them according to
the Bible.
(g) What we need to do—and what Christians have
always done—is to do the right actions and
let adjust their emotions to the actions!
(h) The people today set their actions according
to how they think they will make them feel.
(i) That is like setting a clock to what time
you want it to be!
(4) Don’t wait for the feeling of love. Start doing
the actions of love!
C. Sadly, the very ability to love is diminishing in these last
days \\#2Tim 3:1-2, Matt 24:12\\.
2Ti 3:1 This know also, that in the last days
perilous times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own
selves….
Mt 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound,
the love of many shall wax cold.
1. According to what Jesus said, the more sinful we are
determined to be, the less we will be influenced by
spiritual attributes such as love.
2. So we will have to work harder to be a loving Christian
and even harder to grow that kind of character in our
children.
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