Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Heaven Or Dust | Redefining Love (1 Cor. 13)

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. And I'm Keith Simon. Right now, we're working through 1st Corinthians 13, Paul's definition of love. What lasts forever? It's a funny question for most Americans, because we expect to throw out basically everything we own. Who expects to be driving the same car in 30 years? to use the same refrigerator, wear the same clothes, not to mention cell phones and all the other things

Starting point is 00:00:38 that we throw out after just a few years. What lasts forever? Today we are finishing our Bible talks on 1st Corinthians 13. This chapter is Paul's definitive definition of love. He closes this chapter with a statement about what does and what does not last forever. So what do you think? he's going to say, what lasts forever according to Paul? You might assume that he would say, all of your spiritual gifts, or all of your spiritual knowledge, or all of the great things that you've done for God. But you'd be wrong. Let's just read what he writes. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease. Where there are tongues, they'll be stilled. Where knowledge, it will pass away. For we know and prophesy in part. But when completeness comes,

Starting point is 00:01:40 what is in part will disappear. 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 the ways of childhood behind me. For now, we see only a 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. Paul is saying that the greatest spiritual gifts, knowledge, and works for God, they're not going to last. So what does? Well, Paul continues.

Starting point is 00:02:18 Now these three remain, faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. What lasts forever? faith, hope, and love. And above all else, love. It's not the stuff we spend tens of thousands of dollars on. It's not even the mighty things that we do for God. The only things that last forever are the things that we do with love. Why? Well, I think it's because when Jesus returns, he's going to renew all of creation and the renewed creation will be, above all else, a world. of love. The renewed creation is a world of love because people in the renewed creation,

Starting point is 00:03:09 they will no longer live with impatience and envy and evil in their hearts. Instead, they'll live with Jesus, His Father, and the Holy Spirit in their hearts. The renewed creation is a world of love because in it there's going to be work and commerce and creativity all untainted by pride, greed, and selfishness. Instead, it's going to be characterized by humility, generosity, and selflessness. The renewed creation is a world of love because the source of all suffering, sin, death, all that's going to disappear. And the one true source of all faith, all hope, all love will reign. Jesus. What will last forever in your life? Anything that you do with genuine love. An architect once built a beautiful house. It was the best house that he'd ever designed. But the

Starting point is 00:04:16 owners neglected it and the house fell into disrepair. And so the architect, he comes back, he sees it, and he falls into despair. So at great cost of, to himself, he buys the house back. And at that point, he's faced with a tough decision. Does he tear down the house and rebuild it using his original designs, just rebuild it from the ground up? Or does he move into the house and restore it slowly as he lives in it? Many Christians think that God's plan for us and for our world is to tear it all down and to just start all over again. But that's not the story. of Jesus. Jesus moved into the house. Jesus chose to slowly restore it to its former glory. How? Well, he does it

Starting point is 00:05:06 through his body, through the church, through you and me actually. We are his hands and his feet restoring a broken world into the world of love that Jesus always imagined, that Jesus always intended this creation to be. Do you see what that means? It means, just catch this, it means that there will be things that you create, decisions that you will make, people that you will impact, which are going to last forever. Whatever creations and choices we make out of love, they restore the furniture and the walls and the rooms of Jesus' forever home. And Paul is telling us that the only things that are going to remain forever, and that forever home are the things we build with faith, hope, and love, and especially love. We are all, myself included, so tempted to expend our energy and our money on things that won't last

Starting point is 00:06:13 forever. We get bent out of shape when we miss out on things that turn into dust. And all the while, we're surrounded by opportunities to love, opportunities to build things that will last forever. I mean, just looking at my own life, it's a tragedy that I allow emails on my phone to distract me from loving my daughter. I mean, only one of those things is going to last forever. It's a tragedy that I let my work sometimes just become transactional. Because whatever business you do with love, not greed, not anger, not injustice, whatever business you do with love lasts forever. It's a tragedy that I that we blow thousands of dollars in the rat race of envy. When every dollar I give generously out of love for others turns into eternal wealth.

Starting point is 00:07:07 Paul puts it perfectly. We see through a mirror dimly. Our vision is clouded by half-truths, illusions, and lies. But one day we will see reality face to face. We will see reality clearly. we will see that love, that love lasts forever. And if we could somehow see that today, it would radically change how we love. Today, I want you to ask Jesus to give you a vision of the renewed creation.

Starting point is 00:07:40 Ask him to let you see the future world of love that he is building right now in our lives. And ask him to allow you to keep that eternal vision, what that world is going to be like. ask him to help you keep that vision in your mind's eye so that when you're tempted to trade it in for dust, you won't. Thanks for listening to our series on 1st Corinthians 13. Stay tuned for our next set of devotionals on 1st and 2nd Samuel. If you've never read those books before, they tell the remarkable story of David's life, the early monarchy in Israel, and God's plan to ultimately rescue the world.

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Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Heaven Or Dust | Redefining Love (1 Cor. 13)

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