Tag Archives: 1 Corinthians 13

Love and Nothing

17 Thursday Mar 2022

Posted by in 1 Corinthians, Love

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In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul begins his discourse on love with a reference to a series of wonderous actions. But each of these marvels, Paul says the action counts for nothing if it is not done in love:

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

1 Corinthians 13:1–3. It is easy to take Paul’s language of “nothing” as a mere rhetorical flourish.

But this illustration by a once well-known preacher J.D. Jones provides a well-constructed illustration which makes plain the substance of the Apostle’s argument. This illustration works first by referencing a commonplace which is instantly comprehensible by audience (a “naught” is a zero). Second, the illustration maps back onto Paul’s argument of “nothing”. These things without love are actually nothing.

Jones uses the symbol of “nothing” to illustrate his point:

“Love” is no “adjunct” to the Apostle. It is no “minor interest.” It is not something that competes for place with work and politics and play. It is the thing that gives everything else value. It is the thing that confers upon everything else its worth. The gifts Paul mentions in these verses were not insignificant and commonplace gifts. They were the greatest and most coveted of gifts. And what he says of them all is that they are valueless without love. They are like a row of ciphers without a digit in front to give them value. Write down a row of noughts. Write down a dozen of them, and what do they amount to? Exactly nothing! And if you were to write a thousand of them they would be nothing still. But put a figure in front of those noughts and they at once become significant. They stand for something, they mean much. Put three noughts down and they amount to just nothing. Just a “I” in front of them and they mean a thousand. And it is like that with gifts and powers, says the Apostles. They count for nothing without love. Life itself is nothing without love. It is no mere “adjunct,” no mere “minor interest.” It is that which makes life significant and worth while; it is that which lends to every gift its worth.

J. D. Jones, The Greatest of These: Addresses on the Thirteenth Chapter of First Corinthians (London: Hodder and Stoughton Limited, 1925), 39–40.

James Denney, The Superlative Way

26 Tuesday Jun 2018

Posted by in 1 Corinthians, James Denney, Uncategorized

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From his collected sermons, The Way Everlasting. The sermon concerns 1 Corinthians 13, on the call for Christians to love:

For what the theologian defines and the Apostle depicts is illustrated and embodied in our Lord Himself, and what we have to do is to look at Him. “Herein is love.” We do not know what love is till we see it in Jesus, and when we see it there we see Him identifying Himself with God’s interest in us. The revelation is not only made before our eyes, it is made with special reference to ourselves. In Christ’s presence we are not the spectators of love only, we are its objects. Christ exhibits towards men, He exhibits towards us, that wonderful goodness which Paul describes. When we think what our life has been, and what has been His attitude to us from first to last, do we not say, “Our Lord suffers long, and is kind; He is not easily provoked; He does not impute to us our evil. Where we are concerned, where God’s interest in us is concerned, He bears all things, He believes all things, He hopes all things, He endures all things.” These are the thoughts, or rather these are the experiences, out of which love is born in our hearts. We love, because He first loved us All the time it is His love which must inspire ours. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love.”

James Denney, The Way Everlasting: Sermons (London; New York; Toronto: Hodder and Stoughton, 1911), 163.

Love in The Seducer’s Diary (Kierkegaard, Either/Or)

14 Tuesday Feb 2017

Posted by in 1 Corinthians, Kierkegaard, Philosophy, Psychology, Uncategorized

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The nature of the “aesthetic” man, and the nature of the “seduction” in this diary are well explained by a couple of quotations. The seducer is predatory,:her weakness is the opening for his action, “When a young girl is emotionally disturb, one an successfully venture much which would otherwise be ill-advised.”  The erotic here has no true love for her — only for the sensation which the other person produces.

The bare desire for sensation is further underscored in this section,

Social intercourse, it is true, brings one into contact with the fair sex, but there is no artistry in beginning an affair in such surroundings. In society every girl is armed, the occasion is poor and encountered repeatedly, she gets no sensuous thrill. On the street she is on the open sea, everything acts more strongly around her, everything seems more mysterious. I would give a hundred dollars for a small from a girl I met on the street, not ten dollars for a pressure of a hand at a party; that is an entirely different kind of currency.

As one considers this diary, we see that this seduction amounts to almost all of what we call “love”. Love consists in what another person makes me feel. We remain in love as long as that palpable emotion persists. What we love then is our sensation — not the other human being. When I spoke with a behaviorist psychologist, she explained that what we love about another human being are the pleasurable sensations produced in our nervous system — and that loss was the sensation of the loss of those sensations.

1 Corinthians 13:4–7 (ESV)

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Biblical Conflict Resolution Part 1

28 Tuesday Oct 2014

Posted by in 1 Corinthians, Biblical Counseling, Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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COUNSELING PROBLEMS AND BIBLICAL CHANGE
BIBLICAL CONFLICT RESOLUTION

Redeeming church conflict is less about resolving specific problems than it is about seeing conflict as a means by which God is growing his people into true saints, true eternal children of who are being continuous conformed to his holy image.
—Barthel & Edling, Redeeming Church Conflicts

INTRODUCTION
Conflict resolution is the practical outworking of a cure for a spiritual disease. This week we will first take a look at both spiritual health & the spiritual disease. We will not be going through any of the mechanics of restoration and resolution. The education of a medical doctor does not begin with surgery and medication, but rather with training in disease, germs, health, anatomy, physiology, et cetera; and so, neither will we.
In fact, a too-quick jump to mechanics without an understanding of disease and health can easily lead to worse problems. Therefore, we will look at this situation from the prospective of spiritual mechanics of the heart, before we look to interpersonal mechanics.
II. PEACEMAKING AND FELLOWSHIP
Peacemaking is the act of restoring/developing true Christian fellowship. Peacemaking, understood rightly, is worship and seeks to create deeper, more God-glorifying worship. Peacemaking is an act of love, in that seeks to restore relationships between human & God, and between brother & sister. Thus, peacemaking is based upon fellowship and develops/restores fellowship.
A. Something in Common
Fellowship simply means to hold something in common:

Fellowship (Gk. koinōnía). The communion or common faith, experiences, and expressions shared by the family of believers, as well as the intimate relationship they have with God.

Allen C. Myers, The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1987), 380.

When we speak of “fellowship” we are speaking of communion, holding something in common; we are not speaking of just friendship.

Since fellowship hinges upon having something in common with another, it is type of relationship which can develop quickly and will continue as long as the thing in common continues to draw the people into relationship. Consequently, it is a type of relationship which will end as soon as the basis for the relationship is withdrawn. Thus, it is fundamentally different than most friendships.

We know and experience fellowship at various levels and over various things. Some fellowship is very thin. Employees of a company have a sort of fellowship in common in that they have experiences, concerns, interests which are in common and based upon their common employment. If the group from work goes out to dinner together, they will most likely center their attention on their common interest: work.

Continue reading →

Death is but a pause. Discipleship and friendship.

18 Sunday May 2014

Posted by in Discipleship, Fellowship, G. Campbell Morgan

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The previous post in this series may be found here: https://memoirandremains.wordpress.com/2013/11/24/the-disciple-at-play/

Of all the words in our language which have been undergoing change of meaning, perhaps none have been more abused than this word ” friend.” Having as its root idea the thought of love —for it is really the present participle of the old Anglo-Saxon verb “freon,” to love—it marked in old time the close union of two persons—other than relatives—in the bonds of sincere love for each other, love that made each, care for, and desire to serve, the other better than himself. It is now used too often in a loose way. A man is my friend to-day if he be but a passing acquaintance, or if we are on speaking terms.

George Campbell Morgan. “Discipleship.”

Morgan then goes on to develop the matter of friendship and discipleship at some length. First, he notes that due to the overwhelming consecration to Christ, mutual devotion to Christ is means of permitting the deepest friendship — even though it at the same moment limits the depth of friendship with others (for where there is a conflict on a matter of one’s greatest concern, there must also be a limitation on the extent of the friendship).

Discipleship actually creates a basis for the most profound friendship on multiple grounds. First, Christian discipleship has a ground in self-denial. Both God and others must come before the self. Christian discipleship creates a common bond of concern and consecration to the things of Christ. Each will seek the transformative work of the Spirit in the other.

Perhaps most importantly, each will live with the bond of love, which seeks the best for the other:

Love is never blind, and we shall know each other more deeply and truly in that life of mutual love, than it is possible for man to know man by careful calculation or closest critical observation. It has been said that “Love will stand at the door and knock long after self-conscious dignity has fallen asleep ” which is only another way of expressing Paul’s great word “Love suffereth long and is kind,” and because this is true the clear vision of friendship ever makes demands on eager, consecrated service. The good recognized will be developed by fellowship, and where that good is costing my friend much sacrifice and suffering, by encouragement and fidelity. The shortcoming will be matter concerning which the friend will mourn and pray in secret, and of which he will speak in such tones of tender love, that his brother will be won to the higher surrender which ever means victory and advancement. So together, and by the reciprocity of this holy comradeship, there will be a building of each other up, and a several growth in grace.

Finally, in a way made possible by Christ, for the mutual disciples of Christ, death does not end friendship. Rather, as Campbell puts it, “Death is but a pause”. And thus discipleship makes friendship more profound than it could be otherwise.

Charity and Its Fruits.2

19 Tuesday Nov 2013

Posted by in 1 Corinthians, Faith, Jonathan Edwards, Love, Obedience

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The previous post in this series will be found here: https://memoirandremains.wordpress.com/2013/11/05/charity-and-her-fruits-1-charity-or-love-the-sum-of-all-virtue/

 

Edwards next proceeds to demonstrate that all virtue that is saving or distinguishing of true Christians, is summed up in Christian love. Edwards sets his proposition upon three arguments: reason, Scripture and the proposition “faith working through love.”[1]

Reason

            It may seem strange that Edwards would dare to argue that “reason” could form basis for any Christian doctrine. The strangeness results not from anything defective Edwards’ thinking but rather from a cultural prejudice which sits upon no greater ground than prejudice. If there has been any good of post modernism, it is the understanding that no human being can claim to argue from some wholly neutral objective place.  The Christian theologian Van Til developed this understanding (in a non-postmodern framework) as presuppositional apologetics.[2] The presuppositions of Edwards which he develops in a rational manner are not sub-rational or unreasonable.  If anything, one who carefully follows Edwards’ thought throughout his works will discover that Edwards constructs a worldview which accords far more consistently with reality, experience and human nature than many of the “rational” arguments which claim the place of “reason”.[3]

Rightly understood, love tends towards virtue.

First. We may argue from what reason teaches of the nature of love. And if we duly consider the nature of love, two things will appear.

Edwards notes that love is what compels the human heart most strongly. And thus love will dispose a human being to rightly value God:

That love will dispose to all proper acts of respect to both God and men. This is evident because a true respect to either God or men consists in love. If a man sincerely loves God it will dispose him to give him all proper respect. Men need no other incitement to show all proper respect but love. Love to God will dispose a man to give honor to God. Love will dispose to worship and adore him, heartily to acknowledge his greatness and glory and dominion. So love will dispose to all acts of obedience to God. The servant who loves his master, and the subject who loves his prince, will be disposed to proper subjection and obedience. Love will dispose a person to behave towards God as a child to a father.

Likewise, love will lead to virtuous action toward other human beings.:

So a due consideration of the nature of love will show that it will dispose men to all duties towards their neighbors. If men have a hearty love to their neighbors, it will dispose them to all acts of justice towards them. Men are not disposed to wrong those whom they truly love. Real love and friendship will dispose persons to give others their due.

He notes that love leads to contentment, humility. In every sphere of human action, love would lead to right conduct. For example, Edwards notes that love present would dispose toward a right politics:

It would dispose a people to all the duties which they owe their rulers, to give them all that honor and subjection which is their due. And it would dispose rulers to rule the people over whom they are set justly, sincerely seeking their good.

He concludes:

And in fine, love would dispose men to do to others as they would that others should do to them, if they were in their neighbor’s circumstances, and their neighbor in theirs. Thus love would dispose to all duties, both towards God and towards men. And if love will dispose to all duties, then it follows that love is a root and spring, and, as it were, a comprehension of all virtues. It is a principle which, if implanted in the heart, is alone sufficient to produce all good dispositions; and every right disposition towards God and men is, as it were, summed up in it.

Second

Reason teaches that whatever performances or seeming virtues there are without love are insincere and hypocritical.

This follows from the proposition that behavior without love is essentially manipulative. It seeks a response and the response is the thing desired, not the good of the other.

Scripture

First, it is the unquestioned proposition of Scripture that love toward God and human beings is the entire purpose of the law:

Or if we take the law in a yet more extensive sense for the whole written Word of God, the Scripture still teaches us that love is the sum of what is required in it, as in Matthew 22:40. There Christ teaches that on those two precepts of loving God with all the heart, and our neighbor as ourselves, hang all the law and the prophets. That is, all the written Word of God. For that which was then called the law and the prophets was the whole written Word of God which was then extant.

And:

Hence love appears to be the sum of all that virtue and duty which God requires of us; and therefore must undoubtedly be the most essential thing, or the sum of all that virtue which is essential and distinguishing in real Christianity. That which is the sum of all duty is the sum of all real virtue.

Faith Works by Love

            Edwards first consider the matter of true faith. He distinguishes true faith from mere “speculative faith” by stating that true saving faith requires assent of the understand and consent of the heart.  What then is the true mark of the heart’s consent? Love:

Now the true spiritual consent of the heart cannot be distinguished from the love of the heart. He whose heart consents to Christ as a Savior loves Christ under that notion, viz. of a Savior. For the heart sincerely to consent to the way of salvation by Christ cannot be distinguished from loving the way of salvation by Christ.

            He also considers the matter of true faith by considering it as a duty owed by human beings to God.  This may sound odd, but it must be understood as true. While we are saved by grace, such grace comes to us unmerited and yet only through the faith (Ephesians 2:8-9).  Edwards considers the content of the duty of faith in light  of the commands and the description of true faith:

Faith is a duty which God requires of it. We are commanded to believe, and unbelief is a sin forbidden of God. Faith is a duty required in the first table of the law, and in the first commandment; and therefore it will follow that it is comprehended in that great commandment, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind” [Matthew 22:37]. And so it will follow that love is the most essential thing in a true faith. That love is the very life and soul of a true faith is especially evident from this place [Galatians 5:6] of the apostle Paul, viz. that faith works by love, and James 2:26 compared together:6 “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” The working, acting nature of anything is the life of it. What makes men call anything alive is because they observe an active nature in it. This working, acting nature in man is the spirit which he has in him. Therefore as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without a working nature is dead also.

Edwards then looks at Galataians 5:6, “faith working by love”:

It is further manifest from this place [Galatians 5:6] of the Apostle, wherein he speaks of faith as working by love, that all Christian exercises of heart, and works of life, are from love. For we are abundantly taught in the New Testament that all Christian holiness is begun with faith in Jesus Christ. All Christian obedience is in Scripture called the obedience of faith. Romans 16:26, “Is made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.” The obedience here spoken of is doubtless the same with that mentioned in the preceding chapter, ver. Romans 15:18, “For I will not dare to speak of those things, which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient by word and deed.” And the Apostle tells us that the life he now lived in the flesh, he lived by the faith of the Son of God, Galatians 2:20. And we are often told that Christians live by faith, which carries in it as much as that all graces and holy exercises and works of their spiritual life are by faith. But how does faith work these things? Why, in this place in Galatians it works whatsoever it does work, and that is by love. Hence the truth of the doctrine follows, and that it is indeed so that all which is saving and distinguishing in Christianity does radically consist and is summarily comprehended in love.

 

 

[1] Again, all references to Edwards’ work come from the wonderful Edwards Center at Yale: http:edwards.yale.edu

 

[2] For a background on presuppositional apologetics, see, http://www.frame-poythress.org/presuppositional-apologetics/

Probably the best aggregator for examples of presuppositional apologetics can be found here: http://veritasdomain.wordpress.com/

[3] To be fair, much postmodernism attacks the idea of anything being rational.

Charity and Its Fruits.1 “Charity, or Love, the Sum of All Virtue”

05 Tuesday Nov 2013

Posted by in 1 Corinthians, Biblical Counseling, Jonathan Edwards, Love, Pneumatology, Preaching

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Edwards series of sermons on love (published as “Charity and Her Fruits). The sermons as published by Yale may be found here in volume of 8 of the collected works of Jonathan Edwards, Ethical Writings: www.edwards.yale.edu

Charity, or Love,  the Sum of All Virtue

The text:

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. I CORINTHIANS13:1–3.

 Edwards begins his sermon with the observation that love is of greater value than any other virtue mentioned in the New Testament:

IN these words may be observed

1. Something spoken of as of special importance, and as peculiarly essential in Christians, which the Apostle here calls charity. Charity we find abundantly insisted on in the New Testament by Christ and his apostles. And indeed there is no virtue so much insisted on by them.

Having raised his topic, Edwards immediately dispenses with a potential problem in the text. The word English word “charity” had far too narrow a significance for Edwards’ congregants in 1738. They must not think of giving alms or having kind thoughts about another person. Rather, when they read the word they must think of a broader idea, “that disposition or affection whereby one is dear to another”.

Edwards then makes  second observation about the text, any action—even “the most excellent things that ever belong to natural men—are of no true importance if not stemming from love.

Based upon his observations, Edwards draws out the doctrine which he will explain in the sermon:

All that virtue which is saving, and distinguishing of true Christians from others, is summed up in Christian or divine love.

Now the word “love” can be used in a variety of ways to describe a variety of things. Therefore, Edwards begins explanation by setting out the nature of true Christian love:

I. I would speak of the nature of a truly Christian love.

A. That all true Christian love is one and the same in its principle.

When love springs from my desire to some-thing, then the love will vary because of my heart and will vary with the thing loved.  A truly Christian love cannot be so. This is a strange idea, because we naturally experience a different love toward friends than toward someone we have never met. And that is Edwards’ point for his hearers. The love which the Bible commends and commands has a different source and nature than our common affections.  Edwards makes three points to demonstrate that Christian love is unique in its source and purpose:

First, such love is an operation of the Holy Spirit in and on the human heart:

It is all from the same Spirit influencing the heart. It is from the breathings of the same Spirit that the Christian’s love arises, both towards God and men. The Spirit of God is a spirit of love. And therefore when the Spirit of God enters into the soul, love enters. God is love, and he who has God dwelling in him by his Spirit will have love dwelling in him. The nature of the Holy Spirit is love; and it is by communicating himself, or his own nature, that the hearts of the saints are filled with love or charity.

This must be understood: The love which a Christian is called upon to possess, exhibit, expend does not originate with the individual human being. True Christian love is God’s work in the Christian’s life.

The difficulty which Christians often experience in their love toward neighbor lies in a failure to understand this point.  They look upon the requirement to love neighbor—and even their enemies—and think, I can’t make myself do that. Of course not. The love which a Christian must expend is a love which comes from God. Therefore, the Christian’s trouble lies in their Godward relationship: They are not receiving love from the Spirit’s work and thus have no true love to expend.

If I send my child to the market to buy something, I give him money to spend. God does not merely command love, but God also supplies the love.

Edwards proves this point with the following Scripture references:

Hence the saints are said to be “partakers of the divine nature” [2 Peter 1:4]. And Christians’ love is called the love of the Spirit. Romans 15:30, “Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for the love of the Spirit.” And having bowels of love and mercy seems to signify the same thing with having the fellowship of the Spirit in Philippians 2:1, “If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies.” It is the Spirit which infuses love to God.8 Romans 5:5, “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.” And it is by the indwelling of this Spirit that the soul dwells in love to men. 1 John 4:12–13, “If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.”9 And ch. 1 John 3:23–24, “And this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.”

Second, the love which the Christian shows to God is the same love which the Christian shows to neighbor:

The Spirit of God in the work of conversion renews the heart by giving it a divine temper. Ephesians 4:23, “And be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” And it is the same divine temper which is wrought in the heart that flows out in love both to God and men.

Third, true love proceeds from motive to glorify God. Things in nature, particularly human beings, are loved with reference to God. The Christian is love neighbor because of God. Not as a fearful, if I don’t love I’ll get in trouble. Rather, the Christian must love neighbor because God is excellent, beautiful, holy:

When God and men are loved with a truly Christian love, they are both loved from the same motives. When God is loved aright he is loved for his excellency, the beauty of his nature, especially the holiness of his nature. And it is from the same motive that the saints are loved; they are loved for holiness’ sake. And all things which are loved with a truly holy love are loved from some respect to God. Love to God is the foundation of a gracious love to men. Men are loved either because they are in some respect like God, either they have the nature or spiritual image of God; or because of their relation to God as his children, as his creatures, as those who are beloved of God, or those to whom divine mercy is offered, or in some other way from regard to God.

Why then do Christians have such difficulty with the love described herein by Edwards? A great deal of the fault lies with their guides, their pastors and teachers. The love which the Christian must exhibit flows from a sight of the surpassing glory and beauty of God in Jesus Christ. Love does not proceed by merely haranguing people to “love”.

It is possible to manipulate and guilt people into particular actions. But all such manipulated behaviors will fall short of what Paul commends in 1 Corinthians 13. Indeed, Paul’s point is that such actions are inadequate because they do not proceed from true Christian love: such actions are “nothing”.

If true Christian love proceeds from the operation of the Holy Spirit and proceeds on the basis of exalting in the beauty and excellencies of God, then love can only be rightly motivated by a sight of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18). 

The Church is a Creation

25 Friday Oct 2013

Posted by in Church History, Ecclesiology, Fasting, Prayer

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(This is the fifth lesson in the series, The Church and Discipleship. The previous lesson in this series will be found here: https://memoirandremains.wordpress.com/2013/10/10/the-church-is-empowered-by-the-spirit/)

 The Church is a Creation of God

I.          The Church is a Creation of God

A. 1 Thessalonians 1:1 (ESV)

 

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.

 

1.   Do you realize what an extraordinary thing has happened?

The greetings are addressed “to the church of (the) Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” No such address had ever been written or read before, for the community to which it was directed was a new thing in the world. The word translated “church ” was certainly familiar enough to all who knew Greek: it was the name given to the citizens of a Greek town assembled for public business; it is the name given in the Greek Bible either to the children of Israel as the congregation of Jehovah, or to any gathering of them for a special purpose; but here it obtains a new significance. The church of the Thessalonians is a church in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the common relation of its members to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ which constitutes them a church in the sense of the Apostle: in contradistinction from all other associations or societies, they form a Christian community. The Jews who met from Sabbath to Sabbath in the synagogue were a church; they were one in the acknowledgment of the Living God, and in their observance of His law; God, as revealed in the Old Testament and in the polity of Israel, was the element or atmosphere of their spiritual life. The citizens of Thessalonica, who met in the theatre to discuss their political interests, were a “church”; they were one in recognizing the same constitution and the same ends of civic life; it was in that constitution, in the pursuit of those ends, that they found the atmosphere in which they lived. Paul in this Epistle greets a community distinct from either of these. It is not civic, but religious; though religious, it is neither pagan nor Jewish; it is an original creation, new in its bond of union, in the law by which it lives, in the objects at which it aims; a church in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ.[1]

2.   How did such a thing come into existence?

2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, 3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. 1 Thessalonians 1:2–5 (ESV)

a.   What did they receive?

b.   What accompanied the Word?

c.  How did they experience Paul’s message?

d.  Whom does Paul thank for the existence of the congregation?

B. 1 Thessalonians 1:6–10 (ESV)

And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, 7 so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8 For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. 9 For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

1.   What was the result of receiving the proclamation?

a. (v.6)

b. (v.6)

c. (v.7)

d. (v.8)

e. (v. 8)

f. (v. 9)

2.   What now do they do? (v. 10)

 

C. 1 Peter 1:1–2 (ESV)

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

1.   Peter is writing to multiple congregations in what is now Turkey.

2.   Who determined that such congregations would exist?

3.   Who is transforming the people who make up those congregations?

4.   What is the purpose of these congregations?

D. 1 Peter 1:3–9 (ESV)

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

1.   Whom does Peter first bless? (Think back to 1 Thessalonians 1:2).

2.   What has God done (vv. 3-4)?

3.   What is causing the believers to kept from the present time until they receive their inheritance?

a.   What is the gift of God?

b.   What does the believer do?

4.   What will the believers experience in this world? (vv. 6-7)

5.   What will the believers receive? (v. 7)

6.   What do the believers do (v. 8).

7.   What is the believer’s reward? (v. 9)

E.   1 Peter 1:10–12 (ESV)     

10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

1.   What has been announced to the believers?

2.   Who made the announcement to them?        

3.  Who has sent the message and worked through words which have been spoken?

F.   1 John 1:1–4 (ESV)

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

1.   What marvel has come into the world (vv. 1-2)?

2.   What has and does John do? (vv. 2-3).

3.   What is the purpose of what John is writing? (vv. 3-4).

G. Some observations on the creation of a church congregation.

1.   Who determines whether a congregation even exists?

2.   What must happen for a congregation to exist?

a.   What can human beings do (and not do)?

b.   What must God do?

3.   What are the results of a congregation coming into existence?

 

4.   “[T]he church must acknowledge that is a contingent reality, dependent for its very existence on God. John Webster defends ‘the vital consideration that the church is not constituted by human intentions, activities and institutional structural forms, but on the action of the triune God, realized in Son and Spirit…Divine action is sheerly creative, uncaused, spontaneous, saving and effectual; human, churchly action is derivative, contingent and indicative’” (Allison, 120-121).

5.   Even though human beings are acting in the existence of the church, the church exists by the will and action of God.

a.   Revelation 2:1-7. The church at Ephesus (which had been blessed with Paul, Timothy and then the Apostle John) is warned, “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent” (Rev. 2:5). It seems the people had ceased to truly love God and neighbor, and thus become turned to the world:

For more on the Nicolaitans, see below under 2:12–17. Nevertheless, the church is faulted for “abandoning the love you had at first” (v 5). They are exhorted to remember their previous condition and with that in mind to repent and behave as they once did. If they fail to do so, Christ threatens to “come” to them (not in the Parousia but in an act of temporal judgment; see 2:16) and blot their community out of existence.These are enigmatic remarks, but they may point to the fact that second-generation Christians had developed a comfortable accommodation with the pagan world. John himself appears to be a separatist and intolerant of any other stance.[2]

This command is accompanied by a serious warning of the consequences the church faced if it did not repent: I will … remove your lampstand. Although Christ has promised to build his church worldwide (Matt. 16:18), he guarantees permanence to no individual congregation. A loveless church is no longer truly a church, and Christ has the right to extinguish such a congregation. Tragically, the Ephesian church ultimately succumbed, and neither the city nor the church exists today.[3]

 

b.   Revelation 3:15-22, Laodicea: This congregation refused to be a witness to Christ and thus faced their rejection by Christ:

However, the above analysis has concluded that the particular “work” which is viewed as ineffective is that of their efforts to witness. The unbelievers of the city were receiving neither spiritual healing nor life because the church was not actively fulfilling its role of witnessing to the gospel of Christ. Two reasons suggest that the issue of witness was the specific concern: (1) this is the issue for which all of the other churches are either applauded or condemned, and it would be unusual that the Laodicean situation would be different from the others; (2) Christ introduces himself as the “faithful and true witness,” and since all of the self-descriptions of the other letters are uniquely suited and related to the situations of the particular churches, the same is likely the case here. If the Laodicean Christians will not own up to their identity with Christ, he will not acknowledge them at the judgment but will “spew them out.”[4]

c.   Although not a direct parallel the story of these churches mirrors the story of the Children of Israel coming into the Promised Land. Their strength rested solely in God; when they had failed to seek God, God left them to the world:

2 Now the angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, 2 and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? 3 So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.” 4 As soon as the angel of the LORD spoke these words to all the people of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept. 5 And they called the name of that place Bochim. And they sacrificed there to the LORD. Judges 2:1–5 (ESV)

Even though they were still engaging in some sort of apparently godly act, it meant little to nothing. The remainder of the book describes how little their “repentance” meant and how deeply they were shaped by their world.

From these actions it appears their repentance is genuine. They seem to acknowledge that they have fallen short of the covenant obligations and declare their devotion to Yahweh by cultic actions. But the reader will be disappointed to learn that this will be the last time in the book they respond this way. Subsequent events will prove how short-lived this revival was.[5]

If God does not act in and through his people, not even their apparently correct religious actions will mean anything. God was leaving the Israelites to what they desired. By the end of Judges we will see that Israel looked no different than the Canaanites they had come to displace.

d.   “Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off” Romans 11:22 (ESV).

It is not here ethical uprightness which the believer must exhibit and which is involved in the perseverance. The thought is that he must continue in the enjoyment of God’s goodness and is identical with Acts 13:43 where the devout are urged to “continue in the grace of God.” the implication, however, is that this continuance is conditioned upon the lowliness of mind and the stedfast faith upon which the accent falls in the preceding verses.[6]

e.   Objection:  Matthew 16:18, “the gates of hell shall not prevail” against the Church:

This stability must not be meant of any particular church in the world. Particular churches have their beginnings, progresses and periods. Many church, as well as many persons, have apostatized from the faith; many candlesticks have been broken in pieces, and yet the candle not blown out but removed and set in another socket….There is no absolute promise given to any particular church that it shall be free from defection….It is not, indeed so fixed in one place but the cords may be taken up, the stakes removed, and the tents pitched in another ground. It is spread through the world wherever God will set up the light of his gospel.[7]

II.        The Humility of Being a Creature

A. Romans 1:18-25

1.   Human beings have not been content to be creatures and thus rebel against their Creator, who is blessed forever.

2.   It has been this way since the beginning. Genesis 3.

3.   This state of trying to live independently of the Spirit’s work bringing us into union with Christ:

The characteristics of life in the flesh include self-absorption, self-reliance and indulgence, dependence upon outward ceremony and ritual instead of inner spiritual reality, and clinging to the shadow rather than to the fulfillment in Christ (Gal. 3:3, 5:19-21).

This is, in fact, but the breathing out of an atmosphere of spiritual pollution which has been earlier breathed in. The flesh is an entire world of existence. It stands alongside Adam and the present aeon as a fragmented world order….

Thus, life in the Spirit is not yet lived in the context of the final resurrected order…The Christian belongs to the community of the resurrected order, but lives in the context of the present order. Even new life in Christ, lived in the Spirit, has it context bodily and mental existence which has long been dominated by the flesh.[8] 

B. The trouble of the individual human being living life in the flesh can both infect a local church and destroy a local church. The same aspects which will destroy an individual human being and obscure any evidence of Christ can also show itself within a congregation:

1.   Corinth

3 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human? 1 Corin. 3:1–4 (ESV)

Paul plainly is not speaking solely of salvation or not: Has already referred to these people as “saints” (1 Cor. 1:2).  And yet the trouble is no mere weakness. Godet explains, “The matter in question is no more a simple state of weakness which continues in spite of regeneration, but a course of conduct which attacks the new life and tells actively against it” (1 Corinthians, vol. 1, 168).

2.   Galatia: While Corinth was destroying itself with over wickedness, Galatia was threatened with legalism. Both were set in the belief that a human being can live in some measure independently of God’s gracious love of the Spirit:

13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. Galatians 5:13–15 (ESV)

Paul defines such a manner of life in contrast to a life of “walking in the Spirit”. 

C. Both an individual’s salvation and a congregation’s existence as a true church require one to live by faith and exhibit that faith in love. Galatians 3:1-3; 5:16-22; 1 Corinthians 13; James 2; 1 John 3. It is only in the active recognition of ourselves as dependent, both individually and collectively, that we truly express the faith we are called to express and exhibit the love we are called to exhibit.

1.   The message we must proclaim is not our own. 2 Corinthians 4:5; 5:20.

2.  The Spirit which works in us is a gift of God, received by faith. Galatians 3:2.

3.  Our entire salvation, by grace through faith, is a gift. Ephesians 2:8

4.   The love which we are required to exhibit both toward God and neighbor is a gift of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22.

5.   “For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” 1 Corinthians 4:7 (ESV)

D.  Thus, what must we conclude?

1.   The Church (universal and local) is a creature of God: God alone makes and sustains the true Church. Without the work of God, a congregation is just a club.

2.  A church, like an individual, must walk in the Spirit.

3.   This requires faithful and humble submission to God’s Word: “All the Christian’s strength and comfort is fetched without doors, and he hath none to send of his errand but faith; this goes to heaven and knocks God up, as he in the parable his neighbor at midnight for bread” (William Gurnall, The Christian in Complete Armor).

4.   This will result the exhibition of the fruit of the Spirit.

5.   All the things which we desire in a church, fellowship, praise, mutual exhortation and encouragement, worship, proclamation to the loss:  all of the elements of discipleship and its effects are gifts of the Spirit and come from walking in the Spirit. Another way to understand this is all that we desire and must exhibit personally and collectively come from union with Christ.

III.       The Humility of the Church is Her Glory

A. The Church has no true spiritual strength in herself; her existence, her sustenance and her strength come from the Holy Spirit supplying the Church with the graces of Christ.

B. This is a joy, because in Christ are all spiritual blessings. Ephesians 1:3-4.

C.        God exhibits his power in our weakness.

1.   2 Corinthians 1:3-11.

2.   2 Corinthians 2:14.

3.   2 Corinthians 3:17-18.

4.   2 Corinthians 4.

5.   2 Corinthians 5:1

6.   2 Corinthians 6:1-11

7.   2 Corinthians 11:30-33.

8.   2 Corinthians 12:7–10 (ESV)

7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

9.   This same operation of God which takes in each person takes place in the congregation of God’s people. Thus, the humiliation of the Church becomes the inlet for the power of God.  When seek to rely upon ourselves to build Christ’s church we seek to evict Christ from his Church, to divorce him from his Bride, to tear the branches from the vine. When the Church fully realizes that it is a creature whose very existence hangs upon Christ’s power, the Church becomes the exhibition of eternal treasure:

5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 2 Corinthians 4:5–10 (ESV)

Look in this passage and note: 1) The exhibition of Christ’s glory. 2) The centrality of the Word of God. 3) The power of the Spirit. 4) The humility of the creature. There is the core of the Church’s existence.

D. A knowingly humble Church, fully dependent upon the work of the Spirit through the Word is a place of something supernatural:

1.   There is an encounter with the living God.

Paul actually expects Christ to be encountered as he people share with one another a whole range of verbal ministries in congregational gatherings…As the gospel, or ‘the word of Christ’ is proclaimed and applied in the congregation, so Christ himself makes  his character and presence known and impresses his will on his people.[9]

I mean nothing so crass as some of the strangeness which passes for the work of the Spirit. I mean a true real exchange with the living God which takes place in the work of the Church. Our prayer must be prayer to an actual person. Our praise is heard by someone. Our lives are transformed by someone. 

The reason we so quickly and foolishly rely upon our own powers and our own wisdom and our own means is because we secretly carry about a doubt that God is really in this.   But consider these words by Peter:

It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. 1 Peter 1:12 (ESV)

2.   Martyn Lloyd-Jones in his book Preachers and Preaching writes, “Regarding preaching as I do as an activity under the influence and power of the Holy Spirit” (98). The Spirit must be in the sermon or it is a lecture.  “True preaching, after all, is God acting” (108).

3.   Dr. Baker (TMC), speaking of counseling, has frequently noted that in the act of counsel we contend deity is present in the room with those searching the Scripture to live in obedience to Christ.

4.   Thus, where the true of God will be had, something wonderful, thrilling takes place. You have known these times if you are a Christian. I do not mean something mysterious where the band plays well and the lights are down and an emotional state is substituted for the Spirit’s true work. I do not mean manipulation. I do not mean what is called “Charismatic” strangeness. I mean the honest work of the Spirit which convicts us of sin, presents Christ as beautiful; drives us from the vanity of the world and sets our hope fully upon the grace to be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. We are not speaking of some mystical experience which is a feeling had but has no content. We are speaking of the true ministry of the Spirit through the Word of God. We must contend and believe that the Church is truly a supernaturally created and sustained entity.

IV.       How Does the Church Exercise Her Humility?

A. A full discussion of humility would take a sermon and more in itself. In short, Christian humility is a willing submission to and faithful reliance upon God.

B. Humility is seen in a willing, trembling submission to the Word of God.

1.   Isaiah 66:2, “But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.”

2.   Jeremiah Burroughs gives six attributes of a heart that trembles at God’s Word:

a.   Such a heart has “high, honorable and reverent thoughts of God’s Word”.

b.   When the Word is rightly taught and preached, such a one comes to hear the Word—but not with a casual spirit as if to spend some time before something else should happen. Rather, one comes with a reverent, trembling heart to be instructed by God. “Fear fastens the eye.”

c.   When you hear the Word you do not rise up against. “It’s true, you may examine the Word that you hear preached, but not cavil against it.” Test what you hear preached. If it is not true, reject it. But, if it is the Word truly put forth, we do not raise our hearts against and complain.

d.   “The heart that trembles at the Word accounts it a most dreadful condition to have the Word speak against it.” If the Word speaks against me, I must not rest until I have come to conform myself to the Word.

e.   “A hear that trembles at the Word receives, with all reverence and humility, every command of the Word and submits itself unto it; it dares not resist any part of the Word, neither a commanding part nor a threatening part, but open itself to receive it.”

f.    “It receives with trembling even the promises that are in God’s Word, that is, upon apprehension of the infinite distance that there is between God and it, and its own infinite unworthiness of mercy that is reached out in the promise. The heart, though it takes of it [the promise], yet takes hold of it with reverence and fear.”

C. Humility is seen in prayer.

1.   “What [true] prayer is. Prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate, pouring out of the heart or soul to God, through Christ, in the strength and assistance of the Holy Spirit, for such things as God hath promised, or according to the Word, for the good of the church, with submission, in faith, to the will of God.” (Bunyan, Prayer).  Prayer is an acknowledged dependence upon God.

a.   God sends us troubles so that we in dependence must seek his aid. Psalm 50:15.

b.   God promises to aid us in our troubles, should we pray. Philippians 4:6.

c.   Prayer “is a special means of acknowledging God as the fountain of our strength and the author of our blessings.” (12 Manton 231).

d.   If an individual acknowledges a dependence upon God by prayer, then a congregation must likewise acknowledge a dependence upon God by prayer. See, e.g., Acts 4:23-31.

2.   Prayer may be accompanied by fasting.

a.   While fasting may accompany prayer, particularly a prayer seeking some special grace of God, the purpose of such fasting with prayer is to acknowledge the humility we must have before God. “Fasting when practiced with the right motives is a physical expression of humility before God….[But] Remember that fasting is not humility before God, but should be an expression of humility before God” (Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines, 172).

b.   We see examples of congregational fasts in Scripture. Joel 2:15-16; Acts 13:2.

c.   There are examples of such fasts throughout the history of the Church. Calvin encouraged such fasts. The Puritans would hold congregational days of “humiliation”, prayer, preaching and fasting.

 

 

[1] James Denny, The Epistles to the Thessalonians (1899), 8-9.

[2] David E. Aune, Revelation 1–5, vol. 52A, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1998), 155.

[3] Kendell H. Easley, Revelation, vol. 12, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1998), 35.

[4] G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation: a Commentary on the Greek Text, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Carlisle, Cumbria: W.B. Eerdmans; Paternoster Press, 1999), 303–304.

[5] Daniel Isaac Block, Judges, Ruth, vol. 6, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 117.

[6] John Murray, Romans, vol. 2, 88.

[7] Stephen Charnock, “The Church’s Stability”, collected works, vol. 5, 322-323.

[8] Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Holy Spirit, 154-155.

[9] David Peterson, Engaging With God, 197.

Training in Temper.5 (The Exorcist.3)

05 Thursday Jul 2012

Posted by in 1 Corinthians, A.B. Bruce, Discipleship, Matthew

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Where the rebuke of the outsider does not stem from pride, it may stem from an honest albeit misguided concern for the glory of Jesus. Jesus apparently sees John’s concern along the lines of such “honest” concern. These young Christians – who include the sort Paul warns of in 2 Timothy 2:22 —  need correction but also need toleration:

But there is such a thing also as honest scrupulosity, and it is more common than many imagine. There is a certain tendency to intolerant exaction, and to severity in judging, in the unripe stage of every earnest life. For the conscience of a young disciple is like a fire of green logs, which smokes first before it burns with a clear blaze. And a Christian whose conscience is in this state must be treated as we treat a dull fire: he must be borne with, that is, till his conscience clear itself of bitter, cloudy smoke, and become a pure, genial, warm flame of zeal tempered by charity.

Bruce ends the paragraph with a note on charity. Such line drawing and party spirit need not exist only across separate congregations. The church of Corinth proves that party spirit can infect a single congregation:

10 I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. 12 What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 1 Corinthians 1:10–13 (ESV)

As Paul works through the problems of Corinth, he demonstrates the manner in which they have shown no charity, no longsuffering, no patience, no kindness, no gentleness toward one another. Even the matter of spiritual gifts became a source of conflict! Thus, Paul instructs the congregation that the way of escape from their temptation (1 Cor. 10:13) lay not with one party “winning” but with the exercise of love:

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Corinthians 13:4–7 (ESV)

Love being the hallmark of a Christian – as John learned (John 13:34) and as he taught (1 John 3:11-20).