We go through a number of things that are illustrated in the thirteenth chapter of I Corinthians. In I Corinthians 13:12 we read, Now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known.
Paul ended the twelfth chapter with, And I show you a still more excellent way. Verse 31. After he talked about the ministries and the dedication of the various members of the Body of Christ to their individual, distinct functioning (as hands or feet, etc.), Paul continued on about the apostles, prophets, and the various ministries in the Body. He said, “Desire the greater gifts—have an intense desire to see them come forth—yet I show you a more excellent way.”
Your hunger for the gifts and your desire to move in them is not enough. The approach is not to seek so much for the gifts, but to have the motivation behind the gifts which is love: the more excellent way. I Corinthians 14:1 brings it out again, Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.
You are to pursue love, and all the time you are pursuing love you are earnestly desiring the spiritual gifts. The more excellent way is clearly outlined; it is the motivation of love, but also you are desiring those spiritual gifts to be manifested.
Especially that you may prophesy: I do not know if prophecy may be considered the more excellent gift, but prophecy becomes a gift that lends itself to every ministry and can become the vehicle of all gifts and all ministries. For instance, if you want to preach a word, you can prophesy that message; an exhortation can be prophetic; singing psalms is an aspect of the gift of prophecy. An apostolic word or the word of a prophet may involve a word of wisdom, a word of knowledge, or many other gifts, and may have a distinct anointing in ministry, but prophecy can be the vehicle by which they all come forth. These gifts are given utterance by a prophetic anointing.
Paul said, “Especially that you may prophesy,” for if prophecy continues, it can create and bring forth other gifts. Recall that Paul told Timothy, “Do not neglect the gifts that are in you by the laying on of hands by the elders with prophecy” (I Timothy 4:14). The laying on of hands and prophecy became the vehicle by which gifts were imparted to the Apostle Timothy.
Pursue love: the ultimate goal is to move in perfect love. It is essential that we have a great deal of love because at this particular point we only “know in part and we prophesy in part.” It is not that we do not have a full revelation about things; it is more than that. We do not have a full revelation of each other. It is very essential that we move on in love. This has to be seen. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall fully know just as I also have been fully known. I Corinthians 13:12. Basically this is speaking of the revelation of the individual. I wish I knew more. I have to walk by faith when God gives a word or a revelation about an individual; I determine to know that individual by that word. It may have been prophesied over a man that he is to walk in certain things. Although it is necessary that I know what God says about him and what God is working in him, I also must know him, just as it is important for me to be fully known.
I Corinthians 1:1 says, “Paul, called to be an apostle.” The calling of God he knew; it was revealed to him, yet his own apostleship was something he yearned to see come forth fully. Some saw it and some did not see it. There are chapters in the Bible in which he defended his apostleship to the very churches he started, which should have been the seal of his apostleship in every way (I Corinthians 9:2).
God has to reveal each person to us personally. One brother said, concerning another brother, “I believe in what God has called that man to be; I am not going to see anything else.” That could be a hindrance, because we want to see him with the kind of perfect love that lifts the veil from him. We want to know him fully and completely, not in part; we want the Body to have the transparency that can come only with perfect love.
It is not enough to cry and say that we love a brother, that we believe what God says about him. Perfect love will go further than the calling on his life or that which he presents himself to be. Love will lift the veil and you will know him completely.
Why doesn’t God do that now? Only perfect love can see another man that way. If you do not have perfect love, you will look at your brother, seeing all his faults, and judge him. With the increase of revelation comes greater temptation toward judgment. You feel you have to form an opinion (which is often too human) in what you see about a brother. If God shows you something unpleasant about a brother, you had better have love in your heart or you will judge him. You will find your mind and heart condemning him. As God gives greater revelation concerning a man, do not judge him because you suddenly see greater faults in him. Rather, judge yourself because you had so lacked perfect love that your perception was veiled where he was concerned.
Love covers a multitude of sins, but it also can be said that a lack of love veils an understanding of the other person. A lack of love veils it so you do not see it. When you discover you did not know as much as you should have about one of the brothers, do not feel you have been deceived and judge him for that. Judge yourself, for if you had been walking in perfect love, you would have known him more fully and helped him in that situation, instead of walking blindly. That is an entirely different viewpoint. When you walk in more love, you walk in more perception concerning a person. When you do not walk in love, you can say that you love him until you see his faults. Then suddenly you do not love him.
It is fine to believe a word about a brother, but wait until you see his faults, and then see how much you love him. God grant that you have enough love not to judge or condemn, but to lift him up before the Lord and hold him there.
I Corinthians 13 is dealing with the ministry, and that is why it says to have love. Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. I Corinthians 13:8–10. It is this seeing through a mirror dimly that is disturbing, and so is the fact that the ministries who have revelation tend to exult in it.
“Oh, look what we have. Look at the discernment and perception we have. See the depth of the word; isn’t it wonderful how penetrating it is!”
We should be further along than we are and have more than we have. We still prophesy in part and know in part. Many times there is no deliberate attempt for us to break through in love before we break through in revelation. It is only when God allows us to have perfect love that we break through into a perfect ministry. The gifts in their partial state will give way to the perfect through the perfection of a love flow.
What kind of love are we concerned with? The King James Version calls it charity. Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or tinkling cymbal. I Corinthians 13:1. That sounds beautiful, but we do not need charity in the sense of some charity group. We need divine love, not the human affection people should have for one another.
Paul prophesied that in the last days they would be without natural affection (Romans 1:26–28). Today we find the natural affection disappearing. Many women do not want to be mothers and love their children. They are without the natural affection for them. They want to be loosed to lead an individual life of gratification for themselves, instead of being tied to that responsibility. There is a shirking and drawing away from responsibility. Not only are the women guilty, but the men are guilty of drawing back until we hear about the emasculation of the American male. But he has asked for it, in a way, by refusing to take the responsibility; therefore he has lost his position.
Human love is not what we are concerned about, because in this day, humanity will be without natural love; therefore it is more necessary that we press into the divine love. Human love is bankrupt at the present time; it is slowly but surely eroding away. The idea of romantic, faithful love is disappearing from articles and stories. Who wants to read those romantic stories of a few years ago? People want them spiced up, not with love, but with sex. Now there is more talk about sexual fulfillment and liberation. They divorce sex from love because love does not exist as prevalently as it did. We do not find real, true love in the world.
The romantic idea used to exist that a young person would keep himself pure for the one he was to marry. This was an ideal, but now the opposite exists. The world thinks the more experience one can have before he is married the better. Open marriage has become an issue. An open marriage is one in which no fidelity is required. They have a sort of love for each other and live together, but that does not cramp their style. They are free to have a relationship with anyone outside of that union. Marriage is taking many different forms at the present time, but all of it is an effort to divorce love from sex.
Is God merely aiming for the restoration of the gifts, the restoration of ministries, and divine order for the home? Is that all? No, none of these ideas will cohere and be of any lasting value unless we move on into the perfect love, which must be the motivation behind all of it. An elder can have gifts, but he also must have the love referred to in I Corinthians 13. Without that love, the husband being the head of the home will be only the mechanics of divine order. It will be like a skeleton, unless the heartbeat of love is there to motivate and keep the whole thing alive.
The gifts without love will perish, and unless we move on into perfect love, all we are walking in will perish. Our goal is to pursue love and desire spiritual gifts. The pursuit of love is that mountain peak we are to attain. We are climbing, struggling, and battling, but we are not battling only to overcome principalities and powers. We are trying to attain a positive goal of divine, holy love at a time when Jesus says, “The love of many will wax cold because of abounding iniquity” (Matthew 24:12).
We are contending for the faith that was once delivered to the saints (Jude 3). They were filled with much love and were willing to lay down their lives for the brethren (I John 3:16). This step is before us now. The unity of the Body is wonderful, but the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, for which we strive, will never last unless the motivation of love is present (Ephesians 4:2–3). We will lose that unity, sooner or later, unless that perfect love, God’s love, is beating within our breast.
As surely as the gifts are endowments of God’s grace, love is an endowment of God’s very nature. We have love in a measure when we are first born of God (if we do not have love we are not born of God—I John 4:7, 8), but that measure of love is not enough; we must go on in it. The gifts and the ministries are weighed by the flow of divine love through them. Strip all love from them, and they are nothing. None of us are without love, yet we do not have it perfectly.
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. I Corinthians 13:1. The noise goes forth, but the effectiveness comes when the ministry relates to the people in a flow of love. That is what makes the ministry effective. Never lose sight of that.
And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge (this involves the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge and the prophetic ministry); and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. Verse 2. The mechanical exercising of a divine ability would still leave you without the personal development or attainment of what you are to be yourself. The gifts are one thing, but love brings the nature of the Lord fully into us. We are nothing until we have that love.
And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Verse 3. If there is a poor, hungry man, and you give him something, it will profit you nothing, unless you have love in your heart. Then the backlash of everything you minister and do blesses you back again. The profit to you comes when you do it in love; if you do it with any other motivation, it profits you nothing. If you have pride or ambition, and want to move a mountain or do something spectacular, there is no profit. But if you are doing it with the flow of love going out, it comes back to you in great measure.
I am blessed when I preach because I have so much love for the people. When I preach, I give everything I have, but it comes back to me again. I could enjoy staying home and resting, but in a service I receive more. When I am giving out with love, it profits me back again.
Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; does not brag and is not arrogant. Verse 4. In other words, love is not an ego trip. You do not love because you want something from someone. We have eulogized or praised mothers’ love, yet mothers’ love generally has a selfish element in it. However, it is basically unselfish because little ones usually cannot give anything back. About the time they would be of some value, they are gone. Parents raise them; then they go away to live their own lives. Until that time they think, “What can you do for me, Dad? What can you do for me, Mom?” And the parents get little out of it. Nevertheless, there is a yearning to raise a family. It is probably not only an instinct to bear children, but a desire for something on which they can lavish affection. When that desire is thwarted, love is lavished on something else.
Many an old maid has a little dog or cat she talks to all the time, because she has no one else. That is an example of human love. It is such a pity to give all that love to an animal that merely takes the love. Generally, a dog does little but wag its tail and bark at strangers. Fail to feed a cat on its terms and it will leave. The human heart is scheduled to love and give out, and it is often thwarted.
Love is not jealous. Why are people jealous? It is because of the possessive nature of human love; they feel love is synonymous with the domination or control of a person, regimenting another’s life in certain areas. Some people refuse to be dominated or regimented. Then there is a problem, because they are not willing to play by any rules at all. This is why people get jealous.
Divine love is not that way. I do not love a congregation because I can dominate or control them, but to the contrary: because I love them, I take a stewardship before the Lord to minister to them. They are not my people; I am their servant. That is the way it is in divine order. I am their minister and servant; they are not my people. Never say, “I am a member of Brother So-and-So’s church”; you are part of the Lord’s Church. Therefore, because I do not try to dominate the people, I am never jealous over them. I am never jealous over a ministry that comes up. Any developing ministry can have as great a place as God will give him, and I will stand on the sideline and cheer him, because I am not trying to dominate or control him. I have love for him.
It is good when a father can look at his son and say, “Son, you are taller than I am.” Although the father may not have been raised on good food, he has provided the son with good food to grow and develop. He has helped him to the maximum. The healthy state of the spiritual children, and that which the ministries are able to attain, speaks well of the pastor. To be the father of runts is not being a successful minister. The higher the people can grow, the more they can glorify God, and the greater the things they can do, the better he should feel because he has laid the foundation well. You can have ten thousand instructors in Christ, but you have not many fathers (I Corinthians 4:15). A pastor must desire to be a good spiritual father and see all whom he ministers to grow up as saints before the Lord.
To be jealous of one another is deadly. You do not want to see someone else take a place and feel that he is usurping yours. You have your own place, and in the love of God you do not have to be jealous of anyone else’s place or of what anyone else will do.
Love does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own (it is not after its own things or its own place), is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered. Verse 5. That last phrase is the greatest test on love. When someone wrongs you and you refuse to take it into account, you are really loving him. You are saying, “I will not chalk that up against him. He may have done that against me, but that’s all right. I’m going to forget it.” If you remember, then it becomes something within your heart, and you feel that account has to be settled; it stays on the books. It is indelibly written upon your memory until that person does something to alleviate it. As long as you have on your memo pad, “This person has wronged me in such and such a way,” and you hold that in account, what can he do to erase it? He can do a thousand things right, but you still have it written; you have taken account against him. If wrongs done to you in the past stay in your mind, ask the Lord to forgive you, because love does not take into an account a wrong suffered. Instead of taking into account a wrong suffered, remember the good things. Forget the ills received. Think of the good things, emphasize them in your memory.
Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. Verse 6. At times people are happy when someone else makes a mistake. Our country is at a low ebb of love. Some of our presidents have not sinned against the nation as much as the people have sinned against them, violating even the Scriptures. The epistle to the Romans instructed them to give respect to those who were rulers over them (chapter 13), and this was in the days of Nero. The churches should mourn and pray for the country with a real sorrow for the bad things that are happening.
It is easy to rejoice in unrighteousness instead of grieving over it. News commentators are not interested in showing the spirit of Christ but are ready to rejoice in unrighteousness, with every little insinuation they can give. People are like chickens: finding a blood spot on one, they pick at it until its entrails are strewn everywhere.
What would it be like to have love instead, to grieve, to pray, and to mourn over the wrongs done? When we find something wrong in our leaders, we should not pull them down. Who gave anyone license to judge without being judged? God will deal with those who are cannibalistic in the way they devour one another. What should we do? Keep on prophesying for God to expose all the corruption. And when it is uncovered, let us grieve and mourn and weep before the Lord. Let us take upon ourselves a vicarious responsibility, as citizens who have enjoyed great blessing, and repent for the sins of the leaders and the way they have moved away from the Lord.
When you have love, it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. Verses 7–8a. Do you believe God can move us into that perfect love? We have seen how far the life in our country and its churches falls short of this plane of love. Let us pursue love and desire spiritual gifts, especially that we may prophesy.