Karen’s Sermon Notes: Are you a “1 Corinthians 13 Christian”?

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1 Corinthians 13

If I speak in the tongues^[a] 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,^[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

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.

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 childhoodbehind 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.

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Yesterday’s teaching was about “Take Your Love to the Next Level”.  Let me share to you the notes that I took down.  Sobrang nangusap sakin yung verses sa 1 Corinthians 13.  The Lord let me realize that you cannot claim to be Christlike if you don’t know how to love.  Verses 4-7 served as my personal checklist.  If you claim that you have love, but missed some points on the checklist, maybe it’s about time to reassess yourself.  What I also realize is that sometimes, when we obtain too much knowledge, we tend to become proud of what we have become.  We tend to criticize other persons negatively.  And worse, we tend to boast to God that we are like this, we have achieved that.  There must be a balance between knowledge and love. 

God’s love, for me, is the ultimate benchmark of how someone’s love should be like.  His love is so pure and divine, that He gave His one and only Son for us, sinners, to have eternal life, as said in John 3:16.  As Christians, we should exert ourselves to have that kind of love in our hearts.  Whenever I think of how He loved someone like me, kinikilig ako. But at the same time, I felt blessed.  There’s this assurance kasi that kahit iwanan ka ng buong mundo, you can still look at Him, and you’ll see Him there, waiting for you, saying, “Come here, my child.  I’m here.  I did not leave you.  I was here all along.”

Anyway! : ), here’s some of the notes:

The main thing is to make the main thing, the main thing.

The Lord Jesus places love as a “main thing”.

The only things that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

Let love be your highest goal.

God’s supreme desire for us that we experience His love and then share that love with others.

It is the visible mark of genuine Christian faith.

Where there is no Christ like love, our actions betray our works.

A heart transformed by God is a heart that loves.  Do you love other believers?  If there is no fruit, you should question the root!

The Church is to be a community of love.  We owe it to the Lord, to each other, and to the watching world.

More people been have brought into the church by the kindness by the real Christian love that by all the theological arguments in the world.  And more people have been driven from the church by the hardness and ugliness of so called Christianity than by all the doubts in this world.

How do we practice love?  By encouraging each other, by giving preference to each other, forgiving each other, by being generous with each other, being patient with each other, and by warning each other (through discipline and constructive criticism; which are done out of love).

Let me share to you this song entitled “The Proof of Your Love” by For King and Country.  This song embodies what should it take to be a "1 Corinthians 13 Christian" :)

If I sing but don't have love
I waste my breath with every song
I bring an empty voice, a hollow noise
If I speak with a silver tongue
Convince a crowd but don't have love
I leave a bitter taste with every word I say

So let my life be the proof,
The proof of Your love
Let my love look like You and what You're made of
How You lived, how You died
Love is sacrifice
So let my life be the proof,
The proof of Your love

If I give
To a needy soul but don't have love then who is poor?
It seems all the poverty is found in me

So let my life be the proof,
The proof of Your love
Let my love look like You and what You're made of
How You lived, how You died
Love is sacrifice
Oh, let my life be the proof,
The proof of Your love

When it's all said and done
When we sing our final song
Only love remains
Only love remains

Let my life be the proof,
The proof of Your love
Let my love look like You and what You're made of
How You lived, how You died
Love is sacrifice
So let my life be the proof,
The proof of Your love