Exposition of I Corinthians 13 – Part 11
March 14, 2010
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THE CHARITY (LOVE) OF I CORINTHIANS 13:13 IS NOT A SUBSTITUTED LOVE – BUT IT IS A GENUINE LOVE FOR GOD ALONE THROUGH HIS SON.
TO SUBSTITUTE LOVE IS THE SIN OF IDOLATRY IN LOVING THINGS OR OTHERS MORE THAN THE LORD, WHO MADE YOU TO LIVE WITH HIM AND TO FELLOWSHIP WITH HIM IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH.
YOU CAN HAVE FAITH AND HOPE IN JESUS, AND STILL NOT LOVE HIM IF YOU SUBSTITUTE OTHER THINGS AS PRIMARY OBJECTS OF YOUR LOVE!
I Corinthians 13:13 – And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
Exodus 20:3 – Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
In every generation before judgment by God there has been a massive departure from loving God by the act of substituting many other things as the primary objects of our love. We substitute our marital partners, our own children and their offspring, and all the things that deal with our material existence and prosperity.
There is nothing wrong with any of these things, but to love them by seeking them more than the God who made us and saved us with his own blood is spiritual adultery. God wants us to have all these things, but to love him more than any of them. Whatever we seek the most, we love the most! If we seek the things of the kingdom of God, we love God the most! If we seek the things of this life more than the things of the kingdom of God we have placed them before him as the primary object of our love.
Matthew 6:24-34 – No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. [25] Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? [26] Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? [27] Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? [28] And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: [29] And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
[30] Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith
? [31] Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? [32] (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. [33] But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. [34] Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for
the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
It is not a struggle for a saved man to stay in spiritual union with God, because the life and works of Christ forever placed that man in eternal union with God by Christ living in him. But it is a daily struggle with the flesh for that saved man to stay in fellowship with God by confessing daily sins.
I John 1:8-10 – If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. [9] If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. [10] If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
A believer cannot lose the eternal gift of salvation, but he or she can lose fellowship with God by failing daily to confess sins.
All saved souls belong eternally to God by the work of Christ, and all go
to heaven. But a saved soul has a life to live in the flesh AFTER it is saved, and if it fails to live that life in obedience to God by failing to follow the indwelling Spirit of Christ, it will lose that life it could have lived for rewards in heaven. Many saved souls lose the benefits of that life because they follow the desires of the flesh rather than the Spirit. They seek to save the life they live in the flesh for themselves, and, as a consequence, lose it. Others surrender their lives in the flesh by living for Christ, and preserve it by the power of Christ in them. Lot’s wife was such a person. She left Sodom, but could not get the wonderful things her flesh had left behind out of her mind as the primary purpose of her life – eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, and building – and she wanted to go back to that life. As a consequence she lost the life she could have lived in obedience to God.
Luke 17:26-32 – And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. [27] They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. [28] Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; [29] But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. [30] Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. [31] In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and HIS STUFF in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likew
ise not return back. [32] Remember Lot’s wife. [33] Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.
Lot’s wife was more concerned with her STUFF in her house back
in Sodom than in obeying God, because that was HER LIFE. Because she wanted to return for it, she lost her physical life she could have lived
for God. Most of the believers today are not preserving their lives because they live for STUFF more than for God, and a judgment is coming upon them for their lack of love for God.
Luke 21:25-28 – And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; [26] Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. [27] And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
[28] And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.
The following Scripture is more of a warning to the believer than to lost men and women.
Luke 21:34-36 – And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.
[35] For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. [36] Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.
It is not too late to call upon the name of the Lord to be saved, and it it not too late for those who are saved to start living for him instead of for stuff.
Acts 2:19-21 –And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: [20] The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: [21] And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Acts 4:12 – Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.