Latest / Chapel Talks / Love at the heart of ministry | 1 Corinthians 13 | Andy Mason

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Love at the heart of ministry | 1 Corinthians 13 | Andy Mason · Chapel Talks

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Well, it's a privilege to be here with you. I've
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already been blessed this morning and I hope
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we'll come out of this time strengthened by God's
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word. Now, all of us in this room have some kind
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of spiritual responsibility or at least looking
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to have some kind of spiritual leadership responsibility
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going forward. But what does it mean to be a
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spiritual leader? What does it mean? Well, I
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guess you can answer that in a variety of ways.
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There are different answers to that. But this
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lunchtime, I want us to focus on just one simple,
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crucial thing. And it is basically what this
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passage talks about. Leadership, spiritual leadership,
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is about love. It's about love. See, every leader
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is presented with a basic choice. as they go
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into ministry. Will I subordinate loving relationships
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to power, or will I subordinate power to loving
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relationships? There's a whole strain of philosophical
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thinking that goes from Nietzsche to Foucault
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that basically sees human beings as essentially
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driven by power. Nietzsche says we live by will
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to power, that all human interactions are about
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power. And to be honest, when you look at church
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history, you can kind of see. Quite a bit of
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that. People living out of power. Believers have
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sometimes been a bit more Nietzschean than showing
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the new life that Christ gives us. And that was
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definitely an issue for the Corinthians in our
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passage. Here we've got a bunch of believers
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who are rich in spiritual life. Yes, they've
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got spiritual power. They're gifted. They're
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passionate. They want spiritual power, they have
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spiritual power, but they are also divided, competitive,
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and full of one -upmanship. And they were swimming
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in the ethic of the Roman Empire, which was all
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about power. Chapter 1, they're full of factions
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and divisions. Chapter 11, they're treating each
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other badly as they take the Lord's Supper. And
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then 1 Corinthians 13 just comes like a kind
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of an exocet missile of love and explodes all
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of this. reworking their brains and our brains
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too and Paul here teaches them this is the way
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this is the excellent way not the way you've
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been going let me teach you let me show you how
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you should be dealing with one another how you
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should be using this power and here we get a
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simple vision of love now just to say I know
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that you've read 1 Corinthians 13 before okay
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This is the least obscure passage of the Bible
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I could choose to preach on in this setting.
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But brothers and sisters, this is not too ABC
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for you. It is not too basic. We need this. Evangelicals
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have sometimes spent lots of time in 2 Timothy,
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but somehow skipped 1 Corinthians 13. Most books
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on leadership contain many wise and helpful things
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about leadership, and yet often don't really
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talk about love, the centrality of love. It's
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kind of assumed. And even in training, now I've
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been involved in training leaders, it's very
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easy to assume these things. But 1 Corinthians
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13 breaks into our world and tells us that love
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is essential to ministry in the body of Christ.
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And this isn't some kind of one -off message.
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It's not that Paul is feeling a bit gooey one
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day, so he composes a poem about love. No, this
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is the essential house rules for God's children.
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It's central to the Christian view of reality,
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isn't it? If the universe is basically matter
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plus energy, then of course everything is about
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power and the collision of forces. But if the
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universe is the creation of an absolute personal
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God of love, well, things are very different.
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If the world is the overflow of the love between
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the Father, Son and Spirit, then everything is
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different. It means that love is the ultimate
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reality and everything else is basically just
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footnotes. to that. The Bible tells us the universe
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is not ruled by a will to power, but by a will
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to love. And so at the heart of everything is
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other -centeredness. When we love, it's not just
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that we're doing a good thing. It's actually
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what we're doing, what we are designed to be
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and to do. So it's a basic choice for you and
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me. Will we subordinate love to power or power
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to love? The fruit of that decision is massive.
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So let's dive into 1 Corinthians 13 and get a
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vision, its vision for ministry. Firstly, we
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see the priority of love, verses 1 to 2. If I
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speak in the tongues of men or of angels but
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do not have love, I'm only a resounding gong
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or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy
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and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge,
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and if I have a faith that can move mountains
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but do not have love, I am nothing. The point
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is simple, isn't it? We grasp it straight away.
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Without love, our gifts and our spiritual capacities
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are worthless they are useless and they're useless
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not because they're bad things they're great
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things the gifts of the spirit should not be
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despised 1 corinthians 14 1 tells us we should
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eagerly desire the gift of prophecy but the point
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is that spirit those spiritual capacities those
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gifts that power should be subordinated to the
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priority of love now the reality is that every
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leader knows that their ability to lead is really
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all about an ability to speak. Your speaking
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is kind of how you influence, how you shape.
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But the thing is, it's much easier to get a handle
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on someone's speaking gifts than it is on their
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love, isn't it? I mean, think about the leaders
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you know. Their fame and their position, their
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influence is often driven by their giftedness,
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isn't it? In speaking, knowing things, envisioning.
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But these verses warn us. We may be eloquent
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preachers, great communicators, but in God's
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ear, without love, we're just spiritual noise
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pollution, just a gong. And actually, the same
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goes for essays and dissertations and PhDs. Without
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love, it's not worth anything. Does that sound
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a bit extreme? I blame Paul, not me. in verse
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3 Paul says something even more startling if
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I give all I possess to the poor and give over
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my body to hardship that I may boast but do not
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have love I gain nothing he said that sacrifice
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without love means nothing but you know we're
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called to make sacrifices Jesus calls us to sacrifice
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doesn't he of course but what Paul is saying
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is we might engage in an outward form of sacrifice
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that really has nothing to do with love there
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can be An engagement for the poor, commitment
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to ministry, a willingness to suffer that is
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actually, at its heart, devoid of love. And there's
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a reminder here that in Christianity, the noblest
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behavior is not martyrdom. It is love for your
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neighbor. So what we see here in these opening
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verses is that ministry is to be shaped around
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the priority of love. Because that is God's priority.
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And what a tragedy to give my whole life to something,
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to use the gifts that God has given me, to think,
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yes, I've given up so much. And yet, to find
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out at the end, when I stand before God, it was
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worthless. It was empty. That is pretty alarming,
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isn't it? But actually, it's something very positive
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and encouraging in this as well, because what
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this implies is that to... Have love is to have
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something greater than the gifts of Moses and
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Elijah. In other words, the love that you have
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been showing people is worth everything. It's
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worth more than any leadership position. It's
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worth more than any teaching gift. It's more
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significant than any theological education. Love
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is your treasure. And God will not assess you
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by whether or not you've moved mountains in ministry.
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Whether you've planted churches or preached to
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thousands or written great books or people know
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who you are, no, he will assess you by how you
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have treated people. Your kindness and your selflessness
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will be your crown. Now, when I think about my
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own ministry and my own lack of progress and
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love, it dawns on me that actually one of the
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reasons I haven't progressed more in love is
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because it simply hasn't been the priority. Other
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things have crowded it out, not bad things, but
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I've used other yardsticks often on my self -assessments.
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But that's why these verses are so good. They
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just recalibrate, don't they? Yes, spiritual
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gifts matter. Yes, of course, knowledge matters.
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Yes, of course, personal sacrifice matters. But
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the point in these verses is not that love is
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the only thing, but it is that love is number
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one on the list. It's top of the list. And so
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what this means is that love cannot be something
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where you opt in or out of. It cannot be a specialization.
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You can specialize in your theology, but you
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can't say, I'm sorry, I just don't do love. You
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can't delegate it to someone else. You can't
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say, look, I'm just not gifted in that area.
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You can't employ someone else on your ministry
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team to do the love while you do the other stuff.
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No, brothers and sisters, you've got to do this
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one yourself. and so if love has reached a low
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ebb in our life we need to sit up and take notice
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we need to put it back on the top of the list
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yes let's study the doctrine of god but even
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better is to study to be like the god you are
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studying this is crucial isn't it because as
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leaders we shape the communities and the congregations
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and the groups that we lead inevitably they do
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start to take on something of the priorities
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and the character that we live out as leaders
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loving leaders tend to develop loving communities.
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Not absolutely, but they tend to. Love is our
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priority. Secondly, the practice of love. Okay,
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I've done the theory, done the priority. We need
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some action, don't we? And the rubber needs to
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hit the road. Well, 1 Corinthians 13 is action
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-packed. Because all these words in verse 47
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are verbs and not adjectives. As my kids are
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learning in primary school, a verb is a doing
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word. Okay, so love does stuff and it doesn't
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do some other stuff. Love, in other words, is
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not just something inside of us, a kind of feeling,
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an attitude, but it can be seen. And here, these
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verses describe for us what love does do and
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what it doesn't do. In other words, if you have
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love, You will do things you never imagined doing.
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And you will not do some things you could easily
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imagine doing. And what Paul's doing is he's
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holding up a mirror to the Corinthians and actually
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maybe to you and me as well. And he's rather
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uncomfortably exposing their faults and their
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behavior. He is actually twisting the knife a
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little bit here. So when he says love is patient,
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he's kind of saying, because you're not. When
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he says to the Corinthians, love doesn't boast,
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he's actually saying to them, actually, that's
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exactly what you guys do. How about you and me?
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We need help, don't we? Don't we need help? Goodness
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me, we're all a bit of a mess. We've all fallen
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short. Even now, there are things on our consciences.
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Let's go through this. Firstly, love is patient.
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If nothing else, ministry involves bearing with
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people. You can start with vision and pizzazz,
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the flush of energy that comes from starting
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something new, but you will only ever finish
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if you do it with patience. Love is kind. Love
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is kind. I've learned in my own ministry, people
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look at me and listen to me essentially through
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my kindness. It's partly... being a pastor of
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a small church. And a lot of my ministry has
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been amongst the disturbed and the slightly dangerous.
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And what I have realized over the years is that
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when I fail to love that, it rings like an alarm
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bell. But when I do love, it opens up doors.
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I almost need people to kind of get sick and
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go to hospital so I can visit them so they feel
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loved, and then they will listen to the preaching.
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No one's interested in my gifts or how well I
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speak or my preaching or my leadership. They're
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interested in how I love them. Love is kind.
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Love does not envy. Love does not envy. There's
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a terrible chronic disease amongst people in
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ministry. It's called comparisonitis. It's the
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compulsive comparing of myself with other people.
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It is very debilitating and very, very destructive,
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very corrosive. But love does not envy. Love
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doesn't boast. There are lots of very obvious
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ways of doing this and subtle ways of doing this.
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But it is strange when you're at the foot of
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the cross to boast about yourself, isn't it?
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Love doesn't boast. Love isn't proud. Literally,
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it isn't puffed up. It is very easy to secretly
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nourish the belief that I am remarkable, unique,
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superior, and different from all the other leaders
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around me. And I would not be surprised if that
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is going on in our hearts. But not be surprised.
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But love is not proud. Love is not proud, is
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it? Time helps us with that as we fail and mess
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up and get things wrong. It kind of chips away
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that kind of narcissism that easily grows within
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us. Love does not dishonor us, does not dishonor
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others. We need to be careful that parent position
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don't lead us into the mistreatment of other
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people. There is the old adage that so you know,
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Someone, not by the way they talk to the king,
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but by the way they talk to their servants. How
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do we talk to those who don't have power around
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us? Love does not dishonor others. Love isn't
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selfish. Selfishness qualifies everything that
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we do. People sniff it out in us. Last week,
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I had to repent because basically we had a member
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of our congregation who's quite frail, elderly,
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and we're having a weekend away, and we just
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said, I don't think we can take you. It's too
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difficult. And he was quite hurt. And I reflected
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on that. I thought, actually, you're absolutely
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right. We have not stretched for you. We've not
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gone the extra mile for you. And that is not
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the community we need to be. So we basically
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had to repent. And we've tried to sort that out.
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But love is not selfish, is it? It's not self
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-centered. It's not going the easy way. Love
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doesn't get easily angry. Ministry is permanently
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frustrating. I think a lot of pastors really
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struggle with anger. either suppressed or overt,
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because things constantly get in your way. People
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don't do what you're asking them to do. It's
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very strange. It's been so sensible, so obvious,
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and you don't want to do it. We need to be aware
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of that growing anger and impatience within us.
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Love doesn't keep a record of sins. It's strange,
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isn't it, that we should keep a record of wrongs
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when we ourselves confess sins all the time.
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It's strange to keep a record of sins when the
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Lord has wiped our record clean. Love doesn't
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delight in evil. I think the Corinthians might
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have been shocked by some of the stories we've
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had in recent years. Been looking down their
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spiritual noses at us. Love doesn't delight in
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evil. Love perseveres. Verse 7, it always protects,
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always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
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We're called to persevere in loving people. It's
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one thing to care for people for a season. But
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to do it for years and through difficult circumstances
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is very tough. So here we get to see love in
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practice. It's an action. It's a behavior. It's
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basically other -centeredness. And that is at
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the heart of all ministry. Other -centeredness.
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Not thinking about myself, but thinking about
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others. In Acts 20, when Paul is doing his farewell
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speech to the Ephesian elders, right at the end,
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he says, It is more blessed to give than to receive.
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That's the last thing he says to them. And you
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kind of think, oh, that wasn't what I was expecting
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you to say. Other -centeredness is at the heart
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of what it means to be an elder, of what it means
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to be a leader. Of course, in leadership abuse,
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people reverse that. It's more blessed to receive
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than to give. Other -centeredness. I think actually
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people will put up with a lot in us if they...
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basically experience that we love them. They
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might go, oh, his preaching could be better,
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but he is actually very loving. There are better
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evangelists around, but she does welcome in the
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needy into our home. There's others with better
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leadership skills than him, but he does actually
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remember what's going on in my life. Yeah, she
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may not be top flight academically, but you know
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what? She is really kind. Love is a doing word.
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Why not do a little love audit on your life today?
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What does our love look like? How are we treating
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one another? Thirdly, the permanence of love.
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Now, as I've just said, the Corinthians prioritised
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spiritual gifts. They love spiritual gifts. And
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Paul marvels actually in the letter how gifted
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they are. So back in chapter 1, verse 5, he says,
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in every way you were enriched in him in all
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speech and all knowledge. And chapters 12 and
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14 show us the extent of the Corinthian gifting.
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And we would love a bit more gifting, wouldn't
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we? I mean, in our churches, wouldn't we love
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a bit more gifting? There just aren't enough
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gifted people around to do the ministries. There's
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no lack of gifting for the Corinthians. No, there
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was an abundance of giftedness amongst them.
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They were overflowing with gifts. We wouldn't
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mind a bit of that, would we? But Paul... kind
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of turns that on its head in verses 8 to 12.
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Because here their giftedness is relativized.
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And what he basically tells them is that their
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spiritual gifting is a temporary thing that is
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coming to an end and is passing away. Gifts are
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like stabilizers. You know, stabilizers on little
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bikes with kids. You know, you see someone kind
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of riding around when they're 18 with stabilizers
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on. It's a bit weird, isn't it? But when you're
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three, that's fine. Stabilizers aren't meant
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to be permanent. They are a temporary stage.
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And Paul's basic point is that these spiritual
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gifts are stabilizers for God's people. The prophecies,
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the tongues, the spiritual knowledge, he says,
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they will go silent and they will disappear.
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Now, in church history, there's been some debate
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about when this moment is. I don't want to get
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into that with a bunch of theological students,
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but I think most modern commentators say this
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is really about the return of Christ. The point
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is the spiritual gifts are temporary blessings
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looking forward to the end of time and judgment
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day. And that's clear from the way that they
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are described in verses 11 to 12. Can you see
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that? When I was a child, I talked like a child,
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I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.
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When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood
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behind me. For now we see only a reflection,
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as in a mirror, then we shall see face to face.
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Now I know in part, then I shall know fully,
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even as I am fully known. These spiritual gifts
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were imperfect, childish things, a mere dim reflection
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of what is coming. They communicate something
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of Christ, but the reality is Christ, but they
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belong to this age. which is passing away. Perfection
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comes in the future. And when we have that perfection,
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we won't need those spiritual gifts. Now, when
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people walk into a church, almost the first thing
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they notice about the church is the gifts, how
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good the music is, how good the leader is at
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leading, how good the praying is, how good the
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preaching is. But the funny thing about that,
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is that it means that the first impression people
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get is largely based on the things that are most
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temporary and childlike about the church. The
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things about the church that won't be in heaven.
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See, Paul's getting us to look at our giftedness
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in a new way. He's showing us that the giftedness
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is not a sign that we have arrived, but a preparation
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for the arrival of Jesus. They're not a sign
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of spiritual maturity. but a preparation for
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spiritual maturity. So let's not overestimate
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ourselves by our gifts, and let's not be discouraged
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by our lack of gifts. To do that is to assess
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ourselves by what is most temporary and what
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is most passing. Paul's big point is verse 8.
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What lasts is love. Literally, love won't collapse
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or fall over. Now, knowing that something lasts,
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Changes the whole way you relate to it, doesn't
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it? You know, whether it's a cooker or a car
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or a mobile phone, you choose something that
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lasts and you invest in it because it lasts.
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In other words, Paul is saying, invest in that
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which truly lasts. Invest in love. Because love
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is part of the perfect grown -up age that is
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coming. And as Jonathan Edwards said, heaven
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is going to be a world of love. We're going to
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live in that world in the future. And so Paul
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ends in verse 13 with this very striking verse.
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So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three,
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but the greatest of these is love. Now that triad
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is mentioned a few other places in the New Testament,
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but the point here is that love surpasses all
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of those things. Love is more important. In the
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new creation, faith and hope will merge into
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sight, but love will continue and become even
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bigger. It will not pass away. It won't be replaced
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by something bigger and better. It will be the
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oxygen and the fuel of our world. This is what
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we're designed for. This is what the Father,
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Son and Spirit have been doing. And this is what
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they have been preparing for us, a world of love.
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And so in the new creation, we will be busy loving
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and being loved. So let's invest in that. That's
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a very wise investment. Let's throw ourselves
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into acts of love and promote compassion and
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mutual care. There are lots of things we can
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waste our time doing, but you will never waste
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your time becoming more loving. It will be what
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you have been destined to be forever and ever.
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So here we have 1 Corinthians 13, and we are
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called here to subordinate. our relationships
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not to power but to love, to live under the priority
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of love, to practice love, to get a big view
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of the permanence of love. And as you do that,
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you can know that 1 Corinthians 13 has been lived
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out for you. Forget the Corinthians, the Lord
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Jesus was the ultimately gifted one, wasn't he?
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The one who possessed all power, who had infinite
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resources and gifts at his disposal. But he emptied
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himself. He became nothing. for you and me. He
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endured subordination to the power schemes of
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men. He was envied. He was dishonoured. He fell
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into the hands of evil men. But he did it for
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you and me. He did not seek his own good. He
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did not keep a record of our wrongs, but rather
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took the record of our wrongs. And so 1 Corinthians
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13 is the very means of our salvation. How can
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we live for power when we've got a saviour like
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this? How can we subordinate people to our power
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when Jesus was subordinated for my salvation?
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How can I thirst for control when I have a king
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who's given up control? You are much loved and
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you are destined for a world of love. And much
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loved people love other people. This is the heart
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of all ministry and all leadership. Shall we
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pray? Lord Jesus. We are astounded at your infinite
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love. It is incomprehensible. You who are adored
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by a hundred million angels and the seraphim
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bowing down before you. You made yourself not
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just a man, but you went to the cross. You have
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endured shame and hatred. You have borne the
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record of our wrongs. You were envied. You were
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boasted over. And yet you did that out of love
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for us. And we praise you. Oh, Lord Jesus, help
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us. Help us with all the pettiness in our lives
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and the self -centeredness and the self -promotion
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and the sore little egos. Help us. We need your
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fullness. We need your presence. We need your
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life. We need the transformation. Of the gospel
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in our lives. Please Lord Jesus fill us afresh.
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Renew us. And prepare us for this world of love.
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Amen.