Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What Are Christians Known For? | New Testament | 1 Corinthians 13

Episode Date: June 23, 2023

"They will know we are Christians by our love, by our love." Have you heard this Sunday school song? In today's episode, Keith shares on one of the Bible's most popular passage: 1 Corinthians 13. Find out how this chapter shows Christians a better way to live. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: 1 Corinthians 13

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. If I showed you a picture of people from different religious faiths, you'd probably be able to identify their religion based on their appearance. For example, if I showed you a picture of a guy on a bike and he's wearing black pants and a white shirt with a name tag on it, you'd know that he's most likely a Mormon. Or if I showed you a picture of a woman in a burqa, you'd know that she's most likely a Muslim. a man with a yarmika well he's jewish so how do you tell a christian like what's the sign that a person is a christian t-shirts or have a certain kind of haircut or have christian bumper stickers on their car

or a little fish symbol well in 1970 a guy named francis schaefer wrote a short but important book called the mark of a christian and the message was simple and revolutionary at the same time he said the distinguishing mark of a christian is love a christian isn't known by what they wear or their bumper stickers or how they vote. A Christian is known by their love. Jesus says in John 13, by this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. I want to define Christian maturity by what I know, like having right doctrine or right theology, or I've read the right books, or I've taken the right classes, or listened to the right podcasts. And I want all those things because it puts me in control. For a long time in my Christian life,

I thought that a Christian was known by what they did. And so I did a lot. I was always busy trying to do more for Jesus. Or at least I told myself I was doing it for Jesus. Learning and doing, learning and doing, more learning and more doing. Boy, I must have been a really mature Christian, right? Not so much. Because while I was committed to learning and doing, I was also rude, condescending,

judgmental, self-righteous, and indifferent to others' needs. That's when I encountered 1st Corinthians 13. 1 Corinthians 13 is known as the love chapter because it gives a beautiful poetic description of love. And if you go to many weddings, you've probably heard 1 Corinthians 13 a lot. And that's not completely inappropriate. I mean, like I said, it's a beautiful description of love. And yet, when we take it out of context, we miss its power. Because 1 Corinthians 13 is not a marital love poem.

In reality, it was part of a letter written to a first century church. and 1 Corinthians 13 in its original context was a rebuke. Let's see if we can set the scene. First Corinthians was written by the Apostle Paul to a church in the city of Corinth, which was located in Greece. Corinth was an economic and cultural power. It attracted all different kinds of people. It was a relatively new city because Rome had destroyed it in 146 BC

because the people in Corinth had rebelled against Rome. It went about 100 years of being compromised. completely uninhabited. Julius Caesar eventually puts an army there and wants to make a city out of it. In that city exploded from nothing. There was no tradition because it was brand new. There was no native population. Everyone was visiting. It was multi-ethnic. What bound them together was their ambition. They were all out to make a name for themselves. In addition, Corinth was the place that the big temple of Aphrodite was located. She was the god of fertility. And the city created a new word. To Corinthianize was to live in depravity with no boundaries. So here you have Corinth. It's crowded. It's success-oriented.

It's sex-obsessed. And God tells Paul, I want to plant a church there in that city in the last place people would expect. I want you to plant a church in Corinth. So Paul stays there for over a year and a half. And God works in powerful ways. And a church is launched. Now, the church in Corinth ends up being probably the smartest and most gifted church.

There's a lot that's happening there, but it also has the most problems. It's almost as if the more people who are reached with the gospel, the more people who are far from God who come and listen and finally learn to follow Jesus, well, the more problems the church has. In other words, if you want a pure church, keep it small and don't reach many messy people who are far from God. But as long as we reach messy people with the good news of Jesus, in other words, as long as we reach people like you and me because our lives are messy, well, then we're going to have problems. It's just unavoidable. So Paul says this in 1st

Corinthians 13. If I speak in the tongues of men or angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clinging symbol. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I'm nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to be burned, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Paul says, look, you can have all kinds of spiritual experiences, and you can have spiritual gifts, and you can be busy doing good things, and you can be a part of all these good causes, you can know a lot of theology, and still not be a Christian, or at least be a very immature Christian,

because the distinguishing mark of a Christian is love. There's been a lot of emphasis lately on the giving pledge. These are wealthy people who pledge to give a large portion of their money away before they die. And we should be very thankful for that. There's a lot of good that is done by people's generosity. But none of these people pretend like they're giving away all their money. But that's where Paul goes in these verses. He says, even if you give it all the way, even if you give your body over to be burnt

alive without love, that's nothing. C.T. Studd lived in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and he's an example of a man who gave it all away. He inherited several hundred thousand dollars from his father, and he felt compelled by God to give it all away before he got married. But not quite all away. He actually kept a few thousand dollars back, which he presented to his wife on their wedding day. And her response? She said to him, what did the Lord tell the rich man to do. He told him to sell it all. Well, then we will start clear with the Lord at our wedding. And so they gave away the few thousand dollars that he'd given to his wife as a wedding gift. And their testimony that day

was this, quote, henceforth, our bank is in heaven. We thank God that now, we are in that proud position to say, silver and gold have I none. C.T. Stud and his wife then went off to Africa as missionaries for the remainder of their lives. And the money that they gave away? Well, it did a lot. of good things, including starting the Salvation Army. Giving all your money away is a lot, but being burned alive? Well, that takes it even to a whole new level. It wasn't uncommon in the early church, and even in some parts of the world today, for Christians to suffer great physical hardship for their faith. A man named Polycarp died in 155 AD. He was a leader of a church. He was a student under the Apostle John. When he was 86 years old, he was arrested during one of the waves.

of Roman persecution. He was told to renounce his faith or he would be burned at the stake. In front of a stadium full of people, he said this, 86 years I have been his servant and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my king who saved me? You threaten me with fire that burns only for a season and after a little while is quenched, for you are ignorant of the fire of future judgment and eternal punishment, which is reserved for the ungodly. But why do you delay? Come, do what you will. C. T. Stud gave all his money away. Polycarp surrendered his body to the flames, and we gasped at their sacrifice. We can hardly imagine giving half our money away. Some of us struggle even to give a tenth of it away. We shudder at the thought of a painful death. But even C.T. Stud and Polycarp, as great as their

sacrifice was, if they did not do it out of love for God and love for neighbor, then they gained no reward. That is what Paul is saying. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender, my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Now, that's not to say that knowledge or service or sacrifice are unimportant. Their goodness is what makes this statement so powerful. It's like if I said to my wife, I love you more than COVID, well, you know, that doesn't mean much. But if I tell her that I love her more than Oreos dipped in Nutella, if I tell her that I love her more than football, that means something. See, all the things that Paul is referring to are really good things. love is still better, far better, and far more important. Most of the time, most of us tend to

believe that we do a pretty good job of loving other people, and in some sense, we do. It's just that we place a limit on our love. Like we're ready to give, but only when we have a surplus. We are willing to care as long as it's not too inconvenient. We love people provided they love us back. It shouldn't be that hard for us to admit that we do not love the way Jesus loves. The Apostle Paul was willing to admit it. In 1 Corinthians 13, he uses the first person singular. Rather than saying to the Corinthians, if you speak in the tongues of men and angel and have prophetic powers and so forth, he doesn't say that. He says, if I do these things and if I do them without love, then I am nothing. The Apostle is not scolding them. He's sharing what he's learned in his own life.

So 1 Corinthians 13 was not written to prepare people for marriage. It was written to show self-centered, self-absorbed Christians, that there is a better way to live, not just on your wedding day, but every day of your life. Picking up in verse four, love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud, it does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Have you ever tried to put your name in there instead of the word love? Like, I'll just use mine, but I hope you think of your name instead of mine.

But what if I said, Keith is patient, Keith is kind, Keith does not envy, Keith does not boast, Keith is not proud. I mean, I can even keep reading because it sounds so utterly ridiculous. I fall so far short in every area. But you know whose name you can put in there? You can put Jesus's name in there because Jesus is love. Therefore, Jesus is patient. Jesus is kind.

Jesus does not envy Jesus does not boast Jesus is not proud Jesus does not dishonor others Jesus is not self-seeking Jesus is not easily angered Jesus keeps no record of wrongs Jesus does not delight in evil

but rejoices with the truth Jesus always protects always trusts always hopes always perseveres Anne Lamont tells a story of an eight-year-old boy who had a younger sister dying of leukemia and he was told that without a blood transfusion

his sister would die. So his parents asked if they could test his blood to see if it was compatible with hers. And he said, sure. Well, they tested it and it was a match. Then they asked if he would give his sister a pint of his own blood and explained that it could be her only chance of living. He said he'd have to think about it overnight. The next day, the little boy woke up and he told his parents he was willing to donate the blood. They took him to the hospital. He was put on a gurney beside his six-year-old sister. Both were hooked up to IVs. A nurse took a pint of blood from the boy, which was given to his sister, and then the boy lay in silence as the blood that would save his sister dripped from the IV until the doctor came over to see I was doing.

The boy opened his eyes and asked, how soon until I start to die? See, the reason he had to think about it overnight is because he thought, in order to give his blood to his sister, it would require his life. And yet, he still said yes. Love requires us to put the needs of others above ourselves. It requires us to sacrifice our good for the benefit of another. Amen. Hey, thanks for listening. If you want to go deeper, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talk newsletter.

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