Only God Is Love

1If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I have become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but don’t have love, I am nothing. 3If I give away all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but don’t have love, it profits me nothing. 4Love is patient and is kind; love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud, 5doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; 6doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with. 9For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; 10but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with. 11When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things. 12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known. 13But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.

Friends, picture with me a bridal procession: a bride carried in a palanquin toward the house where her bridegroom is waiting.

Riding in the palanquin, the bride would be trembling with excitement at the thought of meeting him, her heart brimming with love for her groom.

The bearer at the front knows how the bride and groom love each other. So, however long and rough the road, that bearer hurries on with a will, sharing the very hope the bride carries.

The bearer at the back cannot see the road ahead, yet keeps walking in silence, trusting that the one in front, full of joyful hope, will bring the bride to the groom’s house.

Because she has bearers like these, carrying hope and faith and wishing her well, the bride is able to meet the groom she loves.

We who belong to Christ also carry love for God in our hearts.

We run toward the hope of heaven, where Christ our Bridegroom waits, and the long, hard road of life does not frighten us. What keeps us from fear is faith: the conviction that we will surely meet the Bridegroom we love.

In this world, only faith can help keep love from being corrupted.

Only when we hold the hope of heaven, love for Christ, and a faith that endures until we meet the Bridegroom can we boldly drive off Satan’s temptations and, with a gentle heart, fix our eyes on Christ alone.

True love has God at its center.

Think of drawing a circle with a compass. You press the sharp point into the center, swing the compass around that point, and a circle takes shape.

If the point where the compass is set stands for God, then everything inside that circle, every point within the same radius, is the fence God has built. That circle is where those whom God loves ought to be.

Inside the circle God has drawn, a life lived by his love is free in every part, kept safe by the protection of the Holy Spirit.

Outside the circle, however good a human deed may be, it cannot save a soul, and so it remains merely human love.

I realize that people in the world, who do not know that God alone is love, may find this uncomfortable to hear; it may even sound forced to them.

But if the whole reason the bride is riding in the palanquin is to meet her groom, then you will understand what I am saying.

If the reason we are born into this world is the saving of the soul, and death is the completion of that salvation, then God must be at the center of a person’s life for them to be saved.

Only when the whole of human life is planned for the saving of the soul is it love, is it wholehearted devotion, is it the complete life of a saint.

We do, of course, need to help our neighbors with a kind heart as we live in this world.

Even now, many people help those in hardship, share what they have, and give themselves up in good deeds out of human love. Their kindness may well be the reason our society is as livable as it is.

But that love will stop when the heart changes, and when wealth runs out it has nothing left to give. It is a love with limits.

This kind of goodness does not lie within the circle God has drawn, so even when it does good, it cannot show anyone the way to heaven after death. The one who helps is also groping in the dark, and that is what makes their good deeds so sad.

The goodness of the world is not joined to salvation.

People know they ought to live good lives, but they themselves are not sure what life is, why human beings must die, or where the soul goes once it has left the body. All they can offer, then, is comfort that touches the other person’s feelings.

Suppose you were caring for someone near death. If you could tell them plainly where the soul goes and how, its purpose and its direction, then neither the one giving care nor the patient would be so afraid of death.

Tell them rightly that the final destination of human beings is heaven, and that to go there they must receive Christ, who is the way. Then the fear of death leaves them, for now they know for certain where they are going when they die.

If you are planning some good work, I hope you will be sure to make the saving of souls its purpose.

Love cannot be forced.

Love without a sure faith heats up fast and cools just as fast, like a thin tin pot, and the one who receives it may end up wounded instead.

If we want to love truly, we must hold in our hearts the unchanging love of God and let its light shine on others. The love we receive from God never rusts and lasts forever, so we may give it away as freely as we wish.

The love offered by people made from dust is darkness in the end, and those who receive it cannot be spiritually free. Only when God’s love is given, then, can people enjoy true freedom and be happy with nothing but the hope of heaven.

1 Corinthians 13:1

1If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I have become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.

A gift of the Spirit does not come to someone simply because they want it.

The gifts come from God’s own will, his purpose to reveal his glory through the faith of his people. We must therefore always keep the vessel of faith ready.

Someone without a vessel of faith may receive a gift and speak in other languages or prophesy. But if they do not understand the word spiritually, they cannot live by it, and their gift becomes like a clanging cymbal.

Struck by someone who does not know how to play it, a cymbal makes nothing but a grating noise. In the same way, a person may receive from God the gifts of languages and prophecy and still fail to grasp the word and live as a saint should. Then those languages and that prophecy are like rubbish; they cannot bring souls to life.

Suppose a mother told her child to study hard at school. The child answered confidently that there was nothing to worry about: in math class they took out the math book, in Korean class the Korean book, and they never disturbed the lesson.

Hearing this, the mother worried. What good was it simply to take out the books? Taking out a book was not what mattered; the child had to work the problems.

At that the child replied, just as sure of themselves, that although they did not know the math formulas, they had solved every single problem without skipping one.

The exasperated mother explained that working problems without the formulas could only produce wrong answers. Only by memorizing the formulas and understanding the principles could the child write the right ones. But the child had already shut their eyes and ears, and solved every problem their own way. Every one of those answers would have been wrong.

Going to church, worshiping, and serving without knowing God’s will is just like that: it is taking out a book in every class and nothing more.

To attend every service, tithe, and serve in the belief that diligent churchgoing will bring worldly blessings is to be the child who works the problems without knowing the formula.

I say this because people like this, however hard they labor in the church, are always hollow inside. God is not at the center.

Within the circle filled with God’s love, some realize how precious God’s word is and live it out. Only they, like the child who knows the formula and works the problem, can fulfill the task God has given them. As their reward, they receive salvation, and answers in this world as well.

The child who knows the principle can write the right answer because they understand the very mind of the one who set the questions.

The child who does not know the principle, however, solves every problem as they please, and so every answer comes out wrong.

So the first thing that matters is to grasp and understand the heart of God.

A church that has left the center is no longer a church, and a churchgoer who stands outside the circle is no longer a saint.

A cymbal is certainly a musical instrument, but played wrongly it becomes noise. In the same way, even if someone goes to church, if they do not know God, their whole life turns into one that has nothing at all to do with him.

Not long ago I told someone that faith comes first. In reply they insisted that I acknowledge their faith, since they kept a quiet time every day, served in a ministry, and read through the Bible once a year.

But the very act of saying so already shows that what they do is not faith, and that they are not a child of God. Why? Because a true child of God, keeping a quiet time, sees how far they fall short of living by the word, and would stand in fear of God. And even as they serve, they are ashamed that they do not give themselves to it more.

They would be so sorry before God for reading the Bible through only once a year, and for knowing his heart so shallowly, that they could not bring themselves even to say they read it.

To talk about what I am doing is already the pride of someone standing outside the circle.

To put it simply, if someone carried a few trees for Noah while he was building the ark, they could not claim to have built the ark. Even if they had made the ark’s last door with Noah, it would be the same: not knowing why the ark was built, they would not be saved.

Those who love God and grasp his will must believe that the flood is coming and go into the ark.

But many people today claim to know God on the strength of attending church, giving offerings, and serving; that is, of hauling a few trees and watching the ark go up.

For those who walk with God, worship, giving, and service go without saying.

Who, knowing that only by boarding the ark can they survive the flood, would refuse to carry the timber or to spread on the wild honey?

In the same way, to be saved we must hold fast to our faith, and along the way, worshiping, giving, and serving are a matter of course.

1 Corinthians 13:2

2If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but don’t have love, I am nothing.

In 1 Samuel there is a scene in which David flees from Saul, who is trying to kill him, goes to Ramah, and stays there with Samuel.

When Saul heard that David and Samuel were at Naioth in Ramah, he was furious and sent messengers to seize David.

At that very time a company of prophets was prophesying under Samuel’s teaching. When the messengers arrived to take David, the Spirit of God made them prophesy as well.

Saul was told that his messengers were prophesying instead of arresting David. Dumbfounded, he sent others, and they prophesied in the same way; even the third group he sent received the spirit of prophecy.

Far from capturing David, Saul learned, his men were prophesying right there alongside the prophets. Saul then went to Naioth himself to seize David, but the Spirit of God came upon him too, and he prophesied before Samuel, stripped of his clothes, for a whole day and night. God stepped in with overwhelming power so that no harm could come to David.

What we can learn here is that Saul and his messengers did not reveal God’s glory just because they received the spirit of prophecy and prophesied all day long. We know this because, even after tasting the astonishing grace of prophecy, they harbored evil in their hearts once more, bent on killing David, as soon as the Spirit of God had left them.

Saul experienced God’s great grace, knew the mysteries of heaven as knowledge, and for a moment even showed a faith that could remove mountains. Still, it was all meaningless, because he did not do God’s will in the love of Christ.

In the church, too, we see people who labored and served with zeal turn their backs on the faith in an instant.

Those around them in the church cannot make sense of it, and may well be at a loss as to why anyone would make such a choice.

Their faithfulness gives way so easily because it was never offered within the compass-drawn circle, with the love of God at its center.

God called you for one reason only: to forgive your sins.

Unless we fully understand that Jesus came for our salvation, then however eagerly we live as Christians, our lives will be like solving math problems without knowing the principles: everything done according to our own ideas.

So however much someone insists that it is faith, it is not true faith.

Human effort that strays outside the circle of love God has drawn is in vain.

Even if someone loved to the point of giving their life, it is futile, utterly futile, because it is not a love that leads to heaven.

One of the things we hear most often in this world is “I love you.”

We may confess our love without ceasing, yet that love shatters when human feelings change, so it can never become an everlasting love.

Verses 4 and 5 tell us that love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy; love does not brag, is not proud, does not behave itself inappropriately, does not seek its own way, is not provoked, and takes no account of evil.

The love of 1 Corinthians 13 is the love of God.

Because God loved sinners with a heart like this, we too ought to show this kind of love in our lives.

How much have you endured to keep your love?

How long have you waited for love to bear its fruit?

And as you have given and received love, how thankful have you been?

Love shines when it lifts the other person up, and its fruit ripens beautifully when we wait for one another and bear with one another.

There are many kinds of love: between husband and wife, between parents and children, between friends and siblings, even love for our neighbors. But without God at the center, none of them can be made one.

Love is giving without conditions, as God gives.

No parent raises a child expecting to be paid back once the child is grown, for seeing their children make their own way in life and carry their share well is satisfaction enough.

God, too, delights simply in seeing his children live well in the world by faith.

Those who behave inappropriately are small-minded, and what they have in common is a longing for people’s praise and a hunger to be recognized.

When they do not hear the answer they want, that is when their rudeness shows.

Those who seek their own way, in turn, are people who play at obedience because they need something, and then, once they seem to have gotten all they wanted, grow proud.

But God is not one to be used by human beings, and those who seek only their own advantage will therefore come to a miserable end, like Saul.

What we must understand is this: human praise lasts only a moment, but God’s commendation is eternal and brings with it a reward in heaven.

May you seek not the approval of people but the commendation of God.

1 Corinthians 13:6-7

6doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Knowing that we are citizens not of this world but of heaven, we do not entertain evil thoughts in order to gain more of the world.

Having met the great God, we will never be proud; knowing that heaven and hell are real, we will not behave inappropriately; and we will not foolishly insist on our own advantage just to possess a world that is passing away.

The saints do not rejoice in Satan, who hides the glory of God, hinders the work of Christ, and attacks the Holy Spirit.

Instead, they give thanks and rejoice that they walk with Jesus, who is the truth and who bore the cross for one purpose: to save souls.

For you who know that there is an eternal world and an eternity of time, the love you hold is a faith that endures suffering, a faith the world’s temptations cannot shake, a great love that can overcome as it looks toward eternal life.

This great love will bring you face to face with Christ on the last day.

When you meet God on his throne, the joy will be beyond anything human words can express. So even if the languages, prophecies, and knowledge you once longed for are done away with, you will not mind; you will be able to lift your voice in praise.

In the early church, when hundreds of thousands of Christians were put to death, they would not let go of the hope of heaven. They willingly gave their lives to starving lions, they were stoned to death, and they could even smile as they were burned at the stake.

When I see people who carry out suicide bombings, or who set themselves on fire in a rage they cannot contain, my heart aches for them. They say they die out of a sense of duty or for the sake of pride, but I grieve because I can guess how terrifying the emptiness would be when, at death, they see nothing but the darkness of hell.

Some take their own lives because life is too hard, because they are ashamed, because they feel they fall short, because they cannot bear it any longer. Death, of course, comes to everyone once. But the place they go after death is hell, harder, more fearful, and more dreadful than this world. That is why no one must ever end their life rashly.

1 Corinthians 13:12

12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known.

The gifts we have received now are all partial.

They were given to show us, if only in part, the eternal world we cannot see. That is why the gifts of the Spirit are precious: even though we hear and understand in part, they show us the eternal world and make us believe.

But on the last day, when the angels’ trumpet sounds, we will hear the word from Christ himself. We will no longer need other languages, still less prophecy. Nor will we need the faith we kept even at the risk of martyrdom.

Until now we have heard and known God in part, as if we had only ever spoken with him on the telephone; then we will see his face for ourselves. We will see the hands and feet of Jesus that were pierced by the nails, and we will behold heaven itself, with its countless martyrs and angels and its streets of gold. This is the astonishing blessing that awaits those whom God loves.

How could we who believe such a miraculous truth not persevere? How could we not keep a gentle heart?

Anyone who knows that God is alive, and who possesses a heaven that nothing can replace, does not fume, envy, and grasp because they cannot own more of this perishing world.

Acting rudely out of greed, seeking one’s own advantage, flaring up in anger, harboring evil thoughts: those who know that all of it is vanity upon vanity will not give up heaven for the sake of the world.

Now you must live with a settled pride in being citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Such faith will surely be able to work the miracle of removing mountains, and through that faith souls on their way to hell can be saved.

I hope you will live within the circle of love that God has drawn for you through Christ. However Satan may tempt you from outside the circle, eternal death is waiting there, so you must keep hold of your faith.

If you guard the faith you now have, the love of God will lead you all the way to the throne.

God has given you faith, hope, and love so that you can live with strength in a dark world, and they will always be with you. So I pray you will not be afraid.

Like the bearers who carried the bride to her groom, hope and faith will always be a fence around you as you do the work God gives, and the love you hold in your heart will go with you all the way to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Now do you see how precious you are as the bride of Christ?

For the day you meet your Bridegroom, you must cherish yourself as his bride and hold yourself dear.

May you always keep faith, hope, and love, and treasure them.