1 Corinthians 13:1-13.                     These three remain!!!                                   31/1/16

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not 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 have not love, I am nothing. 

3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not 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 is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 

6Love 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 perfection comes, the imperfect 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 childish ways behind me. 

12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

The last few weeks we have been focussing on the gifts of the Spirit and their use and importance in the life of the Church. We have been reminded very clearly that they are first and foremost gifts of the Holy Spirit: God is the giver. Secondly that they are for the common good: the good of the Church and not the individual that has them.  Thirdly they are all to work together as a body.

Here today we are reminded of that which is good, lasting and important about these gifts and their use. In the end only three of those gifts will remain: faith, hope and love. These are the things that will endure throughout this life and into the next. These are the gifts that are all important for each and every one of us. These then are the gifts we should earnestly desire.

All the other gifts have their place in this life, as the Spirit gives them, and as they are used for the common good of building faith, hope and love. This text today reminds us that all these others gifts need to be undergirded by the gift of love.

This point needs to be taken to heart today, as much as it was in the day that it was written. Today, all too often, we also talk, think and reason like children. So we use our gifts in childish ways that are often destructive for others, instead of building up the body. All too often we are not patient and kind: we envy, boast and are proud: we can be rude, self-seeking and easily angered: we also keep our records of others wrongs. So our use of the gifts of the Spirit are not undergirded by love and are thereby harmful instead of good.

Instead of God’s Holy Spirit directing the gifts for the common good they are used selfishly and become destructive. Sadly all too often in our churches this happens. Now of course this should not surprise us for we all still have our sinful human nature. The point is to recognise this and then do all we can, with God’s help, to lessen this tendency and let his Spirit lead us to approach this in a way that is good and helpful.

We need to ensure that we are reminded over and over again of what is important: who is important: Instead of we trying to control things, we are to let The Spirit lead us to use our gifts appropriately.

For this to happen we need to recognise that we are sinners through and through, and that nothing good comes from us, because by nature we are turned in on ourselves. All too often we like to think that we know what is good and right, even if it goes against what the Bible says. We think that we are basically good and so if we work at it we can improve the situation. On our own we are in trouble and we will never get it right. However when we recognise that we are no good in this regard, it leads us to look to God and the help that he gives.

But thankfully Jesus Christ has come into our world and died on the cross so that forgiveness can be extended to us all. He has thereby enabled us to become members of his family and receive the help that we need in order to be able to live as we should. It is only with the faith that the Holy Spirit gives that we can in any way be moved by this wondrous thing that God has done for us, and so to make a difference.

This faith that the Spirit gives is a total trust in God and what he has and is doing for us in and through Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. Faith is looking to him and what he says as to that which is all important for not just our salvation but also to our lives each and every day. Faith is letting his Spirit guide in our use of his gifts with love: that is with the welfare of God and the other person as being paramount.

Here also the second gift of the Spirit that remains is also important: hope. Hope is the sure confidence that God has good in mind for us and that the final outcome of our life is certain. As the Spirit helps us to keep our focus on Jesus and the cross we are able to go forward with this sure hope. We can be certain that in connection with Jesus Christ nothing can separate us from the love of God. In the midst of the rough and tumble of life we can have that sure hope that God is using it all for good: our good and the good of his kingdom.

These two gifts of the Spirit then mean that we can love others; doing what is best for them, even though in earthly terms we might think we are losing out. Now we know that we have good in this life and the next, so we can give our all for the benefit of others: we can put them first. We can now look to God to work in our lives all that is good and helpful. Faith and hope enables us to love as God would have us understand love.

This love is quite different from the way the word love is used in our world today. This love is not something we can manufacture and do ourselves. This love is God: for God is love. God and this love are inseparable. This God and his love are totally committed to the welfare of the other. God’s willingness to sacrifice his Son for our salvation shows just how great this love is and how different it is to the loves that we speak of.

So to have and be a part of this love that God speaks of in the Bible we need God in our lives: we need Jesus Christ and his forgiveness. We need the Holy Spirit and his help in order to have this kind of love that he speaks of here in this reading. He needs to work this love in and through our lives so that these gifts are used effectively in our communities.

As was just mentioned a few moments ago, we can have the certainty and confidence that this is there in our lives because of Jesus Christ. Our baptisms joined us to him and all that he has won for us. There the Spirit was given into our lives so that this faith, hope and love can be there for us and at work in our lives.

So with these three gifts of the Spirit we then are enabled to use our other gifts for the common good. The gifts we have then will be seen as gifts from God, rather than something I possess and use as I see fit or to draw attention to myself. They will be used only on the leading of the Spirit and for the benefit of the other person and the whole group. Then these gifts will be beneficial rather than destructive.

So may God’s Spirit enable us to see and understand this whole area of the gifts of the Spirit in this way.  Then we all may be built up and helped, rather than to be divided, hurt and frustrated. Too much today we want to focus on me and what I do, rather than allow the Spirit to lead, guide and use us. We want to focus on what I have or don’t have rather than let God lead us. We think about what I am feeling rather than what the other is. All too often we get in the way of the Spirit and we do not allow him to do the work that he so desperately wants done in and through us.

However as the Holy Spirit gives us faith in Jesus Christ and his death on the cross for the forgiveness of our sin; and the hope of eternal life with him in heaven, he gives us the love that is needed in order for us to focus our gifts on the welfare of the other and for the body as a whole.

Our love then will be such that it is patient, it is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 

 Love never fails.

 Now then we are able to put childish ways behind us and get on with being the people that God would have us be. In an age where we are becoming more selfish and childish the Spirit of God is seeking to lead us down a different path: a path that is more mature and which is helpful for this congregation; the church; the body of Christ.

So let us look to him and seek him and his help to be at work so that his gifts may be beneficial amongst us. Let us first seek faith hope and love from him, so that he then can bring true blessing through the gifts that we share with one another. To him be all glory and honour, now and always. AMEN.

Pastor Roger Atze

Glandore/Underdale Lutheran Parish