TEXT : 1 Corinthians 13:8-13
TITLE: The Supremacy of Love
Date : 23 /10 /2011
“Love never ends. As for
prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for
knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but
when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke
like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a
man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face
to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully
known. So now faith, hope, and love
abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
(1 Corinthians 13:8-13 ESV)
Heaven is a world of love ! I would like to
capitalize on this thought today .
The famous American Theologian Jonathan
Edwards ( 1703-1758) wrote a sermon [1],
on
verses 8-13 , entitled “Heaven
is a world of love” . The sermon
script on A4 format is 22 pages
long ! By comparison , I normally
give you 4 pages of sermon notes .
Clearly, we are living in a different age . We seem to be much more
‘compact’ and poorer in our preaching . Edwards
left virtually no stone unturned
in the exposition of this text. He
mined the text to the limit .
The Text and Context :
Having concluded his
detailed exposition on the
nature of biblical love , the apostle
Paul now
makes some important conclusions
concerning the nature of this love .
Today the
Bible wants to make a strong case as to why
we should strongly invest in understanding and practicing this biblical
love . Paul gives us two reasons
why this love is worth investing in :
1.
Love never ends (
KJV never fails) while
spiritual gifts will pass away
2.
Love is the
greatest of all virtues. Faith and hope will cease , but love goes through the curtain of death and beyond the grave , and heaven
will be a world of love.
- Love never ends
Love, in
contradistinction to the gifts ( Paul
mentions prophecy , tongues and the word of knowledge (cf 12:8) in particular ) endures forever . Prophecy
and tongues and the word of knowledge will cease
in time . There will be no
ignorance in heaven , for we shall live in the full revelation of the
truth and the love of God .We are now living in the state of
imperfection . Paul speaks about the
state of perfection in verse 10 , when
the partial will pass away . Many theologians have been puzzled by what Paul means “ when the perfect comes, the
partial will pass away” . What do we
mean by
“ the perfect” ? Some have maintained that this must refer to heaven ( and thus
tongues , prophecy and knowledge will no longer be necessary) , while others have maintained that
with the closing of the canon of Scripture all need for
additional revelation through prophecy and tongues and words of knowledge had ceased to be necessary .
Who is right ?
Well , if we take Jonathan Edwards explanation , then both are right . I
will summarize what he says in a
nutshell :
Edwards says
that “there is a twofold imperfect, and so a
twofold perfect state of the Christian church. The church in its
beginning, or in its first stage, before it was strongly established in the
world, and settled in its New Testament state, and before the canon of
Scripture was completed, was in an imperfect state - a state … of childhood, in comparison with what it was
to be in its ….later ages, when it should have reached its maturity … or of comparative earthly perfection.
(However )… this
comparatively perfect church of Christ, so long as it remains in its militant
state ( that is, down to the end of time) will still be in an imperfect, childish state,
in comparison with what it will be in its heavenly state, … in
its state of …. perfection.
And so there is a twofold ending of these miraculous gifts of the Spirit here
mentioned. One was at the end of the …infant age of the church, when the
canon of Scripture was completed, and so there was to be no need of such gifts
for the church in its latter ages, when it should have put away childish
things, and come to a state of maturity before
the end of the world, and when the Spirit of God should most gloriously be
poured out and manifested in that love , which is its greatest and everlasting
fruit.
And the other will be, when
all the common fruits of the Spirit cease with respect to particular persons at
death, and with respect to the whole church at the end of the world, while love shall still remain in heaven, and there the
Spirit of God shall be manifested in perfect love in every heart to all
eternity.
The apostle, in the
context, seems to have respect to both these states of the church, but
especially to the latter. For though the glorious state of the church in
its latter age on earth, will be perfect in comparison with its former state, yet
its state in heaven is clearly the most perfect state .
Jonathan Edwards sees a progression of knowledge and revelation here on earth . So it is ! The knowledge
and the teaching that the
Lord Jesus gave
to His disciples and apostles was
a revelation of the heart and the will of God( Hebrews 1:1-3 ; 2
Peter 1: 19-21) . And we now have so much more understanding than
Moses or Abraham had ; we have had
more clear information than the saints
of the early church had . And we
with the early church have had the Holy
Spirit poured out upon us to give us wisdom and understanding ,
counsel and conviction through this
Word .
And now we
have these words in our hands . We have
the help of the Holy Spirit. We
know how God wants us to live . We know how to
let our loving behaviour guide our thoughts and actions while we live on the
face of this earth . We do not need anyone to prophecy or speak in tongues
or bring a word of knowledge
concerning how we should live with one
another – and how we should love one another . It is all here for us to believe
and to implement with the help of God the Holy Spirit.
We are no longer children , ignorant with
respect to the will of God . Only the new Christian may perhaps be
excused in these things , for he / she will still have to discover and apply
the Word of God , but you who have been
Christians for some time
, you should no longer be children
who need milk . You are able to digest solid food .
And yet it is
true that the most solid believer among
us is so
sluggish and slow to apply God’s
truth . Why ? It is true, dear brothers and sisters , that with all the wonderful complete knowledge of
Scripture which was given to us
in Christ , and despite the outpouring of the Holy Spirit ( who enlightens the
Scriptures for us) we remain
in a state of imperfection , because our total being is
so affected by sin that from one
day to the next we find it hard to maintain our vision of biblical love .
But take heart
! Heaven is before you , and in
heaven you will no longer need faith or hope for you shall live in the presence
of unclouded truth and love . Love is
the only virtue that will pass through
the curtain of death into heaven . The state of imperfection caused by our
fallen bodies and the fallen
environment in which we live will soon
cease to be . In the meantime
focus on what shall be : heaven ,
which is before you, is a world of perfect love !
2. Love is the greatest
virtue . Heaven is a world of Love
Here are some(
selected) encouragements from Jonathan Edwards to that end!
·
The God of love Himself dwells in heaven . Heaven is a
part of creation that God has built for this end, to be the place of his
glorious presence, and it is his abode forever; and here will he dwell, and
gloriously manifest himself to all eternity. And this renders heaven a world of
love; for God is the fountain of love, as the sun is the fountain of light…. There in heaven, dwells the God from whom every
stream of holy love, yes, every drop that is, or ever was, proceeds. There
dwells God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, united as one, in
infinitely dear, and incomprehensible, and mutual, and eternal love. There dwells God the Father, who is the father of mercies, and so the father of
love, who so loved the world as to give his only-begotten Son to die for it.
There dwells Christ, the Lamb of God,
the prince of peace and of love, who so loved the world that he shed his blood,
and poured out his soul unto death for men. There dwells the great Mediator,
through whom all the divine love is expressed toward men, and by whom the
fruits of that love have been purchased, and through whom they are
communicated, and through whom love is imparted to the hearts of all God's
people. There dwells Christ in both his
natures, the human and the divine, sitting on the same throne
with the Father. And there dwells the
Holy Spirit - the Spirit of divine love, in whom the very essence of God,
as it were, flows out, and is breathed forth in love, and by whose immediate
influence all holy love is shed abroad in the hearts of all the saints on earth
and in heaven.
·
There
are only lovely objects in heaven
: No
sinful , polluted person or thing is to be seen there.
There is nothing there that is wicked or unholy. (Rev.
21:27). There
are no false professors or hypocrites there; none that pretend to be saints but
are not
….. There shall be no pollution,
or deformity, or defect of any kind,
seen in any person or thing; but everyone shall be perfectly pure, and
perfectly lovely in heaven. That blessed world shall be perfectly bright, without any darkness;
perfectly fair, without any spot; perfectly clear, without any cloud. No moral
or natural defect shall ever enter there; and there nothing will be seen that
is sinful or weak or foolish; nothing, the nature or aspect of which is coarse
or displeasing, or that can offend the most refined taste or the most delicate
eye. No string shall there vibrate out of tune, to cause any jar in the harmony
of the music of heaven;…. Every Christian friend that goes before us
from this world, is a ransomed spirit waiting to welcome us in heaven. There
will be the infant of days that we have lost below, through grace to be
found above; there the Christian father, and mother, and wife, and child,
and friend, with whom we shall renew the holy fellowship of the saints,
which was interrupted by death here, but shall be commenced again in the upper
sanctuary, and then shall never end. There we shall have company with the patriarchs
and fathers and saints of the Old and New Testaments, and those of whom the
world was not worthy, with whom on earth we were only conversant by faith. And
there, above all, we shall enjoy and dwell with God the Father, whom we have loved with all our hearts on earth;
and with Jesus Christ, our beloved Savior, who has always been to
us the chief among ten thousands, and altogether lovely; and with the Holy Spirit , our Sanctifier, and
Guide, and Comforter; and shall be filled with all the fullness of the Godhead
forever!
·
In
every heart in heaven, love dwells and reigns.
The heart of God is the original seat of
love…. Love is in God, as light is in the sun, which does not shine by a
reflected light, as the moon and planets do, but by its own light…. And from
God, love flows out toward all the inhabitants of heaven. It flows out, in the
first place, toward his only-begotten Son …. the Son of God is not only the
infinite object of love, but he is also an infinite subject of it. He is not
only the beloved of the Father, but he infinitely loves him. But this love is
not only confined to the mutual love of
the Father and the Son . It flows out… toward all the created
inhabitants of heaven, to all the saints and angels. As God has given the saints and angels love, and
their love is chiefly exercised back towards God . They all love God with a supreme
love. The love of the saints, one to another,
will always be mutual and reciprocated. The joy of heavenly love shall never be interrupted
or damped by jealousy. – We will have no doubt of the love of each other. We shall have no fear that the declarations and
professions of love are hypocritical; but we shall be perfectly satisfied of
the sincerity and strength of each other's affection. There
shall be nothing within us to clog or
hinder us in the exercises and expressions of love. In this world the saints find much to hinder
them in this respect. They have a great deal of dullness and heaviness. They carry about with them a heavy body , a mass of flesh and blood that is not fitted
to be the organ for a soul inflamed with high exercises of divine love. In heaven they shall have no such hindrance.
There they will have no dullness and unwieldiness, and no corruption of heart
to war against divine love, and hinder its expressions; and there no earthly
body shall clog with its heaviness the heavenly flame. The saints in heaven
shall have no difficulty in expressing all their love.
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