Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Heaven, a World of Love

Episode Date: June 12, 2026

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 19, 1996. Series: Love: The Way to Grow Up. Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel and Life. 1 Corinthians 13 is one of the most well-known chapters in the entire Bible because it is read at so many weddings. The passage is familiar to many people for how it describes love as patient and kind, and that it keeps no record of wrongs. But these verses are not meant to be used as a checklist for good behavior. Today, Tim Keller looks at the deeper meaning of this passage and shows how it points us not to moral perfection, but to Christ and the transforming power of his love. And Paul says, if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging 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 have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It is not rude. 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. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease. Where there are tongues, they will be stilled. Well, where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 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 childish things behind me.

Now we see but a poor 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. and now these three remain, faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love. This is God's word. Look at the passage. And we get to a spot in which we've been learning a great deal about love, but we get to the end where Paul tells us something that is extremely important to know. He tells us what heaven is like.

And there's a tremendous amount in this last passage in which he describes heaven. He tells us what it is, and then he even hints at what it's like. And what we want to do this morning is we want to see what he says heaven is and what it's like. Now, my two mentors as a teacher, C.S. Lewis and Jonathan Edwards are always behind everything I say, even when I don't quote them. But they have a tremendous amount to say about this particular subject. What is heaven? after all I ripped Jonathan Edwards off of a particular title of his sermon. He has a very famous sermon called Heaven, A World of Love, because I just couldn't think of a better title than that.

Lewis, at the end of his book Problem of Pain and a number of other places, at the end of his science fiction novel, Peralandra, gives us a vision of heaven. And as I've been studying the passage and as I was looking back at what they say about heaven, it just leveled me, and I'm a fairly frustrating. man this morning because I know I can't give you much more than a taste or a smell of this. But let's see. Paul says, first of all, he tells us what heaven is by using three metaphors. And then he hints about what heaven is like. And finally, let's draw out the applications and say,

then what difference does it make? What heaven is, what it's like, and what difference would it make for the way we live now? First, Paul gives us three. metaphors. When he describes heaven, he calls it the perfect, the face, and love. See, first of all, notice he says, he says, for we know now in part and we prophesy in part. He's talking about, in verse 8 and 9, he's talking about now versus later, time versus eternity. He says, now we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfection comes. Now he uses a word here. Sometimes it's translated the perfect, usually. The perfect or when perfection comes. This is one of those places where it's very important to know the particular Greek word, because there's a number of

Greek words that can be translated perfect. And I don't think the word perfect is the best word, though I don't really know what the best English word would be. The Greek word that Paul uses is, he says, when Totelion comes. The Telian, the telos is the word that means design. aim the aim you see we even get the idea of a telescope the aim the design and paul is talking about totelion not that he's saying when we get to that which we're all aiming for he's talking about ultimate fulfillment of design he is saying there's a place where we become all that we should be all we were meant to be all we were made to be all we want to be there's a place there's a place place that we're all headed for. There's a place that we all face. There's a place we all yearning for.

There's a place where we would be all that we were built for, designed for. Now, to give you an idea about this, think of a whale on a beach. A beached whale. Is it alive? Not for long. It's dying. Is it moving? Well, yeah. It's swimming. You see, the whale's reflexes are to swim. So the whale, you know, flops its tails around. But all it does is it kicks up sand and it kicks up dirt. Why? It's not in its element. It's not in its teleon.

It's not in the water that it was designed for. I mean, whether you believe in God or whether you believe in, if you're an atheist, evolutionist, everybody agrees that the whale is designed, either by evolutionary, biology and natural selection or by God or whatever. Everybody says, everybody knows the whale was designed for water. His immense size outside of his element is a detriment, but in his element, it's a power. His reflexes outside of his element are frustrated and useless. He has reflexes that there's no correspondence for in that environment. He flaps his tail, it doesn't do a thing. But in the water in his element, all those reflexes, you see, with all those reflexes, he flies. Now, Paul is saying,

we are beached whales. Our souls are out of the water. First of all, look at yourself. We're dying. Now, who denies that? You only die, you only fall apart when you're not in your telion, when you're not where you were built to be. And not only that, We've got reflexes in us. We have reflexes in us to which there is nothing corresponding, for which there is no satisfaction. We want unconditional love.

We've been talking about that for several weeks. There is no such thing. We want justice. We've never even seen it. We want to last. We hate death. We want to last. Why?

Don't you see? There's reflexes. There's things in us to which in this world there is no correspondent reality. There's passions in us to which, in this world, for which there is no satisfaction.

Why? Paul says, because you're out of your element. But the teleon, there is a place, there is a condition where you become all you were supposed to be where all those reflexes and where all those capacities

are not detriments but their power. Or you explode to realize your utter potential the perfect, the telion, your element. Now, that's the first thing he tells us. And the second thing he tells us about this place, this condition, is that it is seeing a face. You notice, he says, you know, then, he says,

we know in part and we prophesied in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. Now we see, but a poor reflection is in a mirror. Then we shall see face to face. And it goes on. I know in part, but then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. What is this face we're going to see? This face is what we're built for.

This face is the water for our beach souls. This face is the thing we've got to have or we die. And what is it? Well, you know how you know? You have to look at the last part of verse 12. You notice it doesn't say, when I get to eternity, when I get to heaven, It doesn't say, I will know, I shall know, and I shall be fully known. He doesn't say that.

He doesn't say, I shall know and I shall be fully known. He says, I shall know, even as I am fully known. The am is present tense. He will know someone and he will see someone face to face who right now knows him fully now. And there's only one person who knows you fully. In other words, this is the beatific vision. This is the Visio Day. This is the face of God.

And Paul says, that's what's waiting for us. And that is the water for our beach souls. That's what you have to have to live. Now, you know, the Old Testament, it's a tremendous story about the face of God. And all through the Old Testament and the New Testament, all through the Bible, you see men and women who lust, and I'm using that word. carefully, who lust after the face of God. But they're scared to death of it too. How could that be? They lust after it. They know. At the deepest level, they know. Psalm 16, they know what they need. Psalm 16, the psalmist says, in thy face is fullness of joy. In thy right hand are pleasures

forevermore. They know that that's what they need. They know they're out of their element. They know they're dying. That's what they need. But whenever you get, near. When Job gets near the face of God, he said, I heard about you intellectually, but now that I'm getting close to your face, I hate myself. I despise myself. When Isaiah gets near the face of God, he says, I'm coming apart. Why? Well, let's be real concrete. What if you owe somebody a lot of money? You avoid their face. Because you know that if you actually meet them, there's going to be a confrontation, and you're going to have to pay. We need the face of God. We need the face of God. but sin has led us all to hijack our lives. All of us run our own lives. We don't give God the rule. He's the only

one that we owe that rule to. The only one who's a rightful ruler of our lives, he created us, he sustains us. We know we owe him because we hijacked our lives and we know that if we actually meet him face to face, and this is so interesting, God even loves us so much that he doesn't want us to meet him face to face. Moses says, I want to meet you face to face. I want to see your glory. God says, if you look on my face, you'll die. What? You're a sinner. If you actually see me face to face, you will have to pay. There will be a confrontation.

You will have to pay, and the wages of sin is destruction. God actually tries to avoid Moses seeing his face. And that's what it means to be human. You know what it means to be human. To want the thing that will kill you. Now, don't you know how many places? This is a whole other sermon. Someday you get a sermon.

What it means to be human. is to want the very things that will kill you. But you see, and you can see that play it out in so many areas. But I'll tell you, it's because of this ultimate area. The thing that we need most is the thing that if we would actually get, would destroy us because we owe. And now you know why Jesus did what he did. When Jesus died on the cross,

what was it that came down on Jesus Christ with such weight that even the eternal son of God would crack under it? What did he mean when he said, My God, my God, that why hast thou forsaken me? I'll tell you. Jesus Christ lost the face of God. And for Jesus, for the son to lose the face of the Father, was not just to throw him up on the beach,

it was to throw him into the fire. But he lost God's face so that we could have it. He lost it so we could find it. He paid the penalty for our sin. This is the gospel. this is what you need this is what you want this is the reason you come to Jesus

this is the reason you love Jesus because he went and lost the thing you most want in life the telion the face the beatific vision he lost what you most need so you could have it but actually that's not even all

there's a third thing that Paul says about what heaven is going to be it's going to be the element finally. And secondly, it's going to be the face. But notice, Paul doesn't just say it's the face. He says it's face to face. And the last word of 1st Corinthians 13 is love. And I don't think that's an accident. The last word is agape. It's not just because that's a nice way to end the chapter. It's because it's the last word. Paul has the audacity to say that right now, temporarily we have three things, faith, hope and love, but even faith and love, faith and hope, are

scaffolding. Even faith and hope are unnecessary in the end. Even faith and hope are not intrinsic to God. Even faith and hope is not really what eternity is about. It's about love. The Visio Day, the experience of seeing God face to face is an experience of taking into yourself a cosmos of love. That's what life's about and that's what it means. Now, by the way, this is so important for this reason. Eastern religions, many, many mystical philosophies do believe in eternity, and they believe that there will be an end to all of our suffering, because their understanding is that when you die and you go off into eternity, you lose individual consciousness. You lose the sense of your personhood. You lose the sense of being a self. You lose the sense of individual consciousness, and you move out into the

collective universal reality, and you just become one with everything else. And as a result, finally, all the tears are wiped away and all the suffering is wiped away, and you are all and all. And of course, therefore, for them, the meaning of heaven, the meaning of eternity is peace, serenity. But that's not the vision of Paul. That's not the vision of the Bible. And I go so far as to say that's not what your heart wants. It doesn't say faith, hope, and peace, but the greatest of these is peace. It says faith, hope, and love. What your heart wants, is not to lose your individuality. You want yourself not to be lost, but to be embraced.

Heaven is a world of love. We want to be taken in. We don't want to be lost. We don't want to be lost. We don't want to be lost in eternity. We want to be found. And this is the reason why Lewis, C.S. Lewis tells us that ultimately, to see the face of God, is to know the love, which is the element.

without which we're just beached whales. He puts it this way. He says, the faint far-off results of those energies which God's creative rapture implanted in matter are what we call physical pleasures. But even thus filtered, they are too much for our present management.

But what would it be like to taste at the fountainhead of that stream of which even these lower reaches proved so intoxicating? Yet that is what lies before us. We long to be acknowledged to meet with some response, to bridge some chasm that yawns. Here, for glory means acceptance by God. Response, acknowledgement, welcome into the heart of things. Welcome into the heart of things. The door we have been knocking on all our lives will open.

We will be called in and we will be received. Heaven is not a world of peace. We don't. We don't lose ourselves in eternity. We find ourselves. We have faces. It's not just that he's got a face, and we lose ourselves in the face. We have a face. And he goes so far. Paul goes so far as to say, right now we see as in a mirror, you see in a confused way. Now, by the way, it's pretty interesting. It's very interesting. The mirrors back in those days were polished metal. So mirrors were always really gave you a distorted image of yourself. And you know what the little green Greek word here is, literally. In the Old King James Bible, it's translated, now we see is in a glass darkly. And here, you know, it talks about we have a confused reflection, a poor reflection

in a mirror. But you know what it says is right now we see ourselves on enigmatae. You know what that means? Enigmatically. It's the Greek word from which we get the word enigma. We are riddles to ourselves. We don't know who we are. The future of the Christian, eternity is not a place of peace, of serenity, where you empty yourself, where you lose yourself. It's the place where you finally find out who you are. It's not just that he has a face. We have a face. It's face to face. Very ironic for me. I found recently an article on how to minister to dying people, and it was written by Jack Miller, a friend of mine who just died. And he says that when he was a chaplain in the hospital talking with people who knew they were dying, they would say to him,

you know, I have trouble getting around this idea of heaven. It sounds boring. Because when they thought of heaven, they thought of peace. They thought of serenity. They thought of gold streets. They thought of harps. They thought of good people. Nice people.

Ooh. And so what happened was they just said, it's boring. I can't get into it. And you know what he used to say? He's to say, where is the time in your life in which you were the most happy? Remember the time in your life in which you were the happiest. And very often they would always find a place. and he says, inevitably, it was a time in which they felt the most loved.

And he would start to reason with them like this. Why is it the teenagers, when they're going out with their friends, you say to them, where are you going? They say, out. Well, where? Out. I'm with the people that I care to be with. We'll find something to do.

See, relationships is what life's about. When you're with someone you love, time flies. Why? Because of where it's from. It's from eternity. That's its source. There's no such thing as boredom in love. He starts reasoning like this, pick up a child and dot on the child and tell the child,

you're beautiful, you're wonderful. Pick up a child. The child wants love the way you want air or what the child. The child is panting for love with its tongue hanging out. And you think you've really changed when you've gotten older? No, you've just gotten cool about showing it. To be in heaven, Jack would say, is to be fully known, but absolutely loved

and he would say the greatest love you've ever had on earth compared to the love you will have there is sort of like comparing an oil rag to a wedding dress we will be loved we will find ourselves as we find him

we will be embraced we will be embraced this is not going off into and also the extremity of it but the familiarity of it we will dance with him he will sweep us off his feet and we will say, you look beautiful today. And he will say, so do you. The extremity and the

familiarity of it. It's not esoteric. And yet it is. It's vast. It's high. It's uttermost, you see. It's extreme. But we will have faces. This is what heaven is. It's a world of love. Now let's go into it. Let me just give you a few implications of what it's like. Paul gives us a couple of incredible hints here about what that world is like. And here's the two. Here's a couple of hints. Then we have to go to application because it makes all the difference in the world. What you believe about heaven, the people who are the most heavenly minded, if you understand what heaven is, will be the most earthly good. But first, what is heaven like? There's two things. First of all, the fact is that everything else stops but love. Prophecies stop. Power stops. But what's so

interesting is faith and hope stop. He says, these three things are here now, but the greatest is love. And if you look carefully, look at verse seven, if you've got it in front of you. Have you ever noticed something? Love trusts all things, love hopes all things. Do you see what Paul's doing? He is saying that faith and hope ultimately are just means to the end. Faith and hope are just outworking. Everything is unto love. Marriage is one of the most significant human relationships there is, but is also one of the most difficult and misunderstood. In the meaning of marriage, Tim and Kathy Keller offer biblical wisdom and insight that will help you understand God's vision for marriage.

Whether you're single, considering marriage, or have been married for a long time, the meaning of marriage will help you face the complexities of commitment with the wisdom of God. The meaning of marriage is our thank you for your gift this month to help Gospel and Life share the love of Christ with people all over the world. So request your copy today at GospelandLife.com give. That's gospelonlife.com slash give. Now, here's Dr. Keller with the rest of today's teaching. And you know why? Jesus needed faith for a while. Jesus needed hope for a while. But faith and hope are not intrinsic to God. Love therefore must be intrinsic to God. It must be intrinsic. And here's

what I mean. And here's the implication of this. If God were unipersonal, if God was just one person, then love would not be intrinsic to him because he would not have been able to love until he created another self. In fact, he wouldn't have been able to love at all because what have we been saying the definition of love is for several weeks? The definition of love, you feel loved when you're delighted in who you are, not in what you bring. When you feel people using you to get something, loving you conditionally as long as you're bringing them something, you're not loved, you're used. you're only loved when you're delighted in who you are, but if God had needed us in order to have relationships, then we wouldn't have been loved by him. We would have been used. But that's not

the case, because God is not unipersonal. He's tri-personal. He's triune. And this is what Jonathan Edwards says, is at the center and the heart of heaven, and therefore at the center and heart of the universe. He says, and I put it in there so you could always have it, he says in the middle of the universe, the infinite essential love of God is, as it were, an infinite and eternal, mutual, holy energy between the Father and the Son, an infinite and eternal, holy, mutual energy between the Father and the Son. The Father and the Son delight in each other, and they are from all eternity pouring into each other themselves, their love, that joy and that delight. Why, therefore, were we created? The spirit comes out to create. It moves across the face of the

water. The spirit comes out from the Father and the Son. Oh, I know this is a mystery. Don't try to understand it. Try to enjoy it for a second, will you? The Father and the Son are an engine of love. it is perfect love because love is intrinsic to God. If he was only unipersonal, love and relationship would not be intrinsic to him, but it is. Because he is always, in a beginningless way, loved. He's been in a relationship. The father and the son, at the center of things, a holy, infinite eternal, holy mutual energy, the spirit comes out and why?

Why does the spirit come out to create? and why does the Spirit come out to redeem? Jesus explains it in the most incredible verse possible. In John 17, he says this, Father, I will that they may be with me where I am, and that they may behold my glory that you gave me, for you loved me before the world began. What is the glory of God?

Did you see that? He said, I want them with me so they can see my glory for you loved me? What does that mean? I want them to see my glory. I want them in the love with us. I want them to be included in the circle. I want them to be included. I want them to have the same love with us that we have with each other. I want them with us. And therefore, when Jesus says that the glory of God, the ultimate glory of God, is this incredible love between the Father and the Son, And he wants us in. That's what Lewis means when he says,

finally we will get into the heart of things. Don't just see. The love between the Father and the Son is the song of which all other songs are just hints and echoes. This is the waterfall, of which all other waterfalls are just hints and echoes. This is the song. This is the drama.

This is the love story. You know, they lost each other, they found each other. This is the dance. This is the marriage. This is the friendship. This is the family. And we're brought into the center of it. Have you ever gotten joy out of a song? Have you ever gotten joy out of a marriage? Have you ever gotten joy out of a waterfall? Have you ever gotten joy out of a mountain or the sea? Have you ever gotten joy out of these things? Where does this joy in those things come from? It's derivative. They're the planets. This is the sun from which all those things reflect what glory they have. And you're asked into the center. And when you're asked into the center, you're in the heart of things. This is your element. Way do you see what you're going to be like?

There's one other hint that we're told about what it's going to be like to be in heaven. And that's where Paul says, I shall know even as I'm fully known. I need to be brief about this, but here's what's so interesting. Many people have pointed out, well, many people ask the question, what will Paul fully know? Now, if you think he's saying, I will fully know God, even as God fully knows me, that can't be.

There's other places where Paul talks about this. The fact of the matter is, you're finite, he's infinite. There's no way you will ever fully know God the way he fully knows you. Just no way. So what's he talking about? Here's what I think.

And this is the amazing thing. Do you know what it means to be fully known? He says, if you're a Christian, he says, I, Paul, am fully known now. Well, you say, of course he's fully known. God fully knows everybody. No, he doesn't. Not the way you're thinking. You remember the place in Matthew 7, where Jesus says on the last day there will be people coming and saying, Lord, Lord, didn't we do great things in your name? And Jesus says, I never knew you. He says, I will say to them, I never knew you. Well, you say, how could he not know them? Because the word no means relationship.

and it means that on the one hand, God fully rel- of course knows about you, but Paul says, I am fully loved. I am utterly and completely known and accepted. Now, do you realize what he's saying? To be fully known and to be fully, to be fully known means that you are holy and blameless in his sight, you are utterly accepted now. If you're a Christian, if you're just abide by faith alone, if you're made right with God through what Jesus has done on the cross, if you are, if you are adopted into the family of God, you are fully known. But, get this, you don't know your knownness. You know why? If I, let me, let me not speak for you, but of course I will. Let me speak for me. If I knew that I was fully known, I would never be bored. I would never ever have self-pity.

I would never be angry in the wrong sense. I would never be resentful. I would never sin. I'd never be anxious. I'd never be afraid. I'd never be impatient. You know what my big problem is? If a woman who's got $200 to her name lends it to somebody else, she's going to be nervous the whole time, and if that person does not pay her back, she'll freak. But if a woman who is worth millions of dollars lend somebody $200, she will do it with a certain amount of peace, and if that person does not pay back, She can be fairly patient and forgiving and kind of work with the person. If the rich woman starts to freak, all she has to do is remember who she is and what she's got. Well, you say, now, how does a rich woman forget who she is and what she's got?

Well, she doesn't, but you do. Are you a Christian? Have you done something for somebody and they haven't paid you back? Have you loved without reciprocity? Have people hurt you or wronged you? Are things going wrong in your life? Are you freaking? You know why you're freaking?

You don't remember who you are? You don't remember what you've got. You are fully known and you don't know that you're fully known. But in heaven, the very first moment of heaven, we will know. And the minute we know, it will inflict a glory on us that will never go out. What will that mean? What will that glory be like? We will become spotless.

Why? Because, you know what? Jesus loves us. Haven't you ever noticed that the people you're in love with, you want them to be spotless, blemishless. You want them to be beautiful. We're told in Ephesians 5, he's our husband, he's going to spend all of eternity adorning us and making us more and more beautiful.

We will be owned and we will own him. You know, one of the big problems with love in this world, have you not noticed this? When you fall in love, when you are really in love, you don't want to be independent. This is a dirty little secret in New York City. You cannot give yourself over to love and keep your independence. Love by its nature says, I want to be owned and I want to own. I want to surrender and I want to be surrendered to. I want to utterly lose my freedom

and I want you to lose your freedom to me. That's what love always wants. The trouble is in this world because of sin, if you do that, if you're not very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very careful, you'll be exploited, but not there. Because we're told that the essence of the covenant is, God says, you will be my people and I will be yours. We'll own each other.

and here's the most amazing thing the glory will be that knowing each other there and knowing God will be a seamless robe some of you heard me mention this last week at the gala at the dinner

on Saturday night there's an interesting place where C.S. Lewis puts it like this. C.S. Lewis had three friends. There were two friends. Three of them that got together a lot. Ronald? C.S. Lewis. a guy named Ronald and somebody named Charles.

Ronald is J.R.R. Tolkien. Charles was Charles Williams. And he said he found something odd that when Charles died, he didn't get more of Ronald. He got less. He says, I suddenly realized that I didn't just lose Charles and get more of Ronald, but I lost the part of Ronald that only Charles brought out that I couldn't bring out. I could never get that part of Ronald that only came out when Charles told one of his jokes, for example. And he said, I began to realize that the way you get to know any person is not by having them to yourself, but by sharing them with other people who they love and who love them, I began to realize that no one human being is big enough to call the entire person into activity

and draw them out. Now, here's what's so incredible. Only as we are loving God together, will we find that we know who he is and see his beauty, because all of us will draw him out for all of us, and only as we are loving all of him and seeing him in his fullness, will we find out who the people around us really are. And that's the reason why Lewis has this great statement about how friendship really gives you insight into heaven. He says, in this way, friendship exhibits a glorious resemblance to heaven where the very multitude of the blessed increases the fruitfulness, which each, pardon me, which increases the fruition which each has, which each has of God. For every soul, seeing him in her own way, doubtless communicates that unique

vision to all the rest. That's why in Isaiah 6 verse 3, if you look, you'll see that the angels are calling out holy, holy, holy to each other. Finally, we'll have what we want. Finally, finally, without sin, we will see that the more we give each other way, the more we have each other, the more we give ourselves away, the more we have of ourselves. The more we give ourselves to God, the more we have of him. Because look, he gave himself utterly away, and now he's ours. But now look, somebody says, wow, this is, this is, gee, inspiring. But, you know, what difference does it make? What difference does it make? Let's run down a couple. First of all, if heaven is a world of love, if heaven is a world of love, if heaven is a world of love.

Let me be real practical. First of all, that means that ultimate reality is ultimately personal. Ultimate reality is about relationships. If there was no heaven, if when we die, we rot, then reality is fundamentally impersonal. If you don't believe in heaven, if you're not sure you believe in God, if you don't believe in an afterlife, I want you to know something. You believe that reality is fundamentally impersonal. A human being lasts 80 years and is gone.

civilizations last for a thousand years. A fortune may last a long time. Art lasts a long time. Cultural institutions last a long time, and you will feel sometimes that it's okay to trample on somebody's rights and somebody's life even in order to bring about a better civilization or certainly to make money. A Christian knows that a person is always more important than a buck. A Christian knows that when there is any conflict between a business goal or an achievement goal or something like that, and a human being and a relationship and a person, the person has to win. Because you see, if heaven is a world of love, the life of a person is eternal. Who cares how long the civilization lasts? Compared to a person, anything here is as the life of a

gnat. This is the life of a mosquito. A Christian becomes a radically personal person. It affects your politics. It affects everything. Let me give you another one. Christian, friends. If heaven is a world of love, now you know why if you have any unreconsiled relationships, your relationship with God, your sense of the reality of heaven, your assurance of your salvation, your sense of the comforting influences of God's love, are just taken away. Because you see, you're breaking your relationship with the great engine. The heart of things. The heart of things is a relationship. And when you are bitter, when you're angry, when you can't face somebody, don't you see why unreconsolved relationships destroy your

assurance and destroy your spiritual access to God? Because heaven's a world of love. Let me give you, let me give you a couple more. If heaven's a world of love, you should be people of passion. Both the Eastern religions and secular therapists, from what I can tell, are basically Stoics. You know what Stoicism is? Stoicism says, the only way you'll be happy is if you just whittle down your desires. This is what secular therapists say. This is also what Eastern people say, and they say is your real problem is that you want too much. Stop crying after the moon. Stop asking for the stars.

This is life. You're only going to get so much love. You're only going to get so much glory. You're only going to get so much. You know, whittle your desires down. Realize, realize that there's only so much you can get. You know, grow up. And Christianity says utterly the opposite.

You know what's wrong with? Listen, parks are beautiful in New York. Are they not? When people try to live in them, they get trashed. Because as beautiful as parks, are they cannot bear the freight of being somebody's home. And God says, look at money, look at success, look at romance, look at family, look at marriage. They're nice things. But they can't bear the freight of home. They're not your tellion. Don't you see what Christianity says? Christianity says,

fan those passions. Cry for the moon. You'll get it. Don't you dare try to make these little things be the satisfaction for those passions, your soul is too great for those things. Become people of passion. Let me give you, let me give you another one. If heaven is a world of love, we can face suffering. Because as Teresa, and we mentioned this last week, as Teresa Vavila once said, from heaven, the first second in heaven will be a consolation for the worst life on earth. The worst life on earth from heaven will look like one night in a bad hotel. And you can live that way. One more.

If heaven is a... Let me see. Actually, I've got about... I wrote down 16, and I've only got time for one more. So I think I'll look it for one more. Let's see. Which one should it be? Oh. All right. Two more.

If heaven is a world of love, Christians will be incredible fighters here. Somebody says, why? I think this idea of heaven means that you won't treat... Earth is a very important thing. Only if you have a very non-Christian doctrine of heaven. If heaven is a world of love, that means that persons last forever. It means that people are more important. If you see injustice in the neighborhood, if you see dishonesty at the office, if you see

cruelty in the family, you speak up. Why? Because first of all, people are more important than real estate. People are more important than your job. People are more important than anything. You're going to fight for them. You're going to fight for their safety. you're going to fight for their well-being in every regard,

but also because you know heaven is a world of love, you can take it. You can lose something. You can make a sacrifice. What in the world could you possibly lose here that really matters in the long run? There's a courage that comes to anybody who knows that heaven's a world of love.

And you become radically idealistic, but you know what? Your idealism is real, is realistic. If heaven is a world of love, idealism is realism. If heaven is not a world of love, you have neither. Lastly, there is a hell.

You know why? If heaven was just for nice people, then you might say it's unfair for there to be people in hell. You know, why doesn't God just lower the bar? You know, just, why doesn't God just sort of, you know, grade on a curve? Why doesn't God just, you know, why does God have such high standards? But heaven is not just for nice people, and it's not just a place of serenity. It's a place for lovers of God and of each other. You can't love unless you lose control.

to love God, as we've been saying, is to say, I give myself to you. Now, if a person comes to Christianity and says, well, okay, what do I have to do to do this and this and this? Will he answer my prayers? You've missed the whole point of the gospel. You have to surrender. You have to give up the rights to yourself. And if you won't do that, then there's no place for you in heaven.

It's not a matter of who's good and who's bad. You either do that or you don't do that. You either love him or you love yourself in the sense of keep control of yourself. And if you keep control of yourself, the only other place is hell. What is hell? Hell is a place where everybody's impatient. Read the list. Unkind.

Never forgets a grudge. Hell is a place where people have held on to themselves, and as a result, they're utterly self-absorbed. Hell is a place where nobody understands you. You know why? Because you're not after trying to understand anybody else either. You're utterly absorbed in yourselves. That's what hell is. Hell is lovelessness.

You've already, a lot of you've been in it. What happens if it goes on for all eternity? Don't you see? If heaven is a world of love, there is a hell. And don't say anything so silly is to say, well, all my friends will be there. There are no friends there. Heaven is a world of love.

Hell is a place of fear and hate and utter solitude. Jesus Christ said, I go to prepare a place for you. In my father's house there are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. Therefore, don't let your heart be troubled. Don't let it be afraid. I'm the great forerunner.

And you know what's waiting for you in those mansions? Now these three remain, faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. Let's pray. Now, Father, help us to see that living in life, of a world of love, an eternal world of love, makes all the difference to how we live here, politically,

relationally, spiritually, emotionally, emotionally, in every way. Help us to see the ramifications of this tremendous breathtaking statement that there is an element, a place where we can come

through the work of Jesus Christ where we can see face to face. Father, bring us there. and help us to hope in that. For if we even hope in that, we purify ourselves and get ready for that day. We thank you for these things, help us to appropriate them and know them and realize them and rejoice in them and be controlled by them. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Thanks for listening to today's teaching. It's our prayer that you were encouraged by it and that it helps you apply the gospel to your life and share it with others. For more helpful resources from Tim Keller, visit gospelandlife.com. There, you can subscribe to the Life in the Gospel Quarterly Journal. When you do, you will also receive free articles, sermons, devotionals, and other great gospel-centered resources. Again, it's all at gospelandlife.com. You can also stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and X.

Today's sermon was recorded in 1996. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were recorded between 1980. and 2017, well, Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.