This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “I Corinthians 13” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, April 28, 1996.
About this sermon
Paul, John, and Romans all speak of agape love, and God reveals himself ultimately as love. That love stands beside God’s wrath, and the two meet in the love of 1 Corinthians 13.
Sermon transcript
This morning we begin our scripture reading in 1 John. This is the first letter of John. We are in chapter 4, beginning at verse 7. Listen to God’s holy word. 1 John 4, verse 7: Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love.
In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. He, in his love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in him. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear. For fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us.
If any man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, that he that loveth God loveth his brother also.
Then turning to 1 Corinthians chapter 13, actually the last verse of chapter 12, this is 1 Corinthians 12 verse 31. But covet earnestly the best gifts, and yet I show you a more excellent way. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and have not love, I am nothing. And finally, Romans chapter 5, verse 8: But God commended his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Great again. Our Father, bless us. Bless us in your word. And as we are wonderfully blessed in your word here in this assembly, may we also be blessed as we read your word privately, and as we take up your word as families. Father, may your word be before us always.
And Lord, may you be pleased to work by your Spirit that we would be conformed to what is stated in it. We know, O God, that at its very center is the Lord Jesus Christ, and we would be conformed to him. To this end, then, Lord, your church preaches. To this end, O God, your church listens and receives.
To this end, Christian individuals and families take up the word that there might be Christ-likeness among us. We pray this through Christ. Amen. I want to remind you this morning, as we begin this message, about the meaning of love, as Paul uses that word in 1 Corinthians 13. The word he uses, the Greek word agape, has actually been redefined by the biblical witness.
In the Greek world, the word meant an affection for that which was best—what one knew to be best, an affection for that which, in its aesthetic and moral qualities, was commendable. It was considered supremely valuable. This reflected Greek esteem for artistic symmetry and proportion. Within Greek society, even as we consider the word love, agape, there was esteem for the principles of impartial justice and for a life lived in balanced harmony, both in community and in personal conduct. Esteem and affection for another person included those who possessed inner and outer beauty. Some of you may have noticed that I have just provided, through an analysis of the Greek word agape, a concise description of the Greek worldview, observable in Greek architecture, Greek drama, Greek poetry, Greek ethics, and Greek social life.
The Roman worldview, which followed the Greek, imitated the Greeks. The Romans were known as imitators, but with a more ruthless, pragmatic, and utilitarian outlook. Whether Greek or Roman, this word love followed a similar pattern.
The passions and affections of the highest love are directed toward what is best. That which, by its beauty and proportion, was commendable was considered inherently worthy. But with the coming of Jesus Christ and the mission of His church, a completely new definition of agape was introduced into the world. This love, expressed in the New Testament, did not lack an Old Testament foundation. Yet now, triumphantly and climactically, this love is fully revealed in Jesus Christ and powerfully presented not only to one nation, Israel, but to all the nations of the earth.
In the biblical worldview and in its Christian reality, the best love is not love for the world’s best. Rather, the best love embraces the unworthy, the corrupt, the wretched, especially those who have nothing at all to commend themselves. There is nothing inherently lovely about love.
In the Bible, the best love embraces the worst sinners, even the chief of sinners, as the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Timothy. The best love embraces the worst, just as it is expressed in the cross, which is the foundation of biblical love. The love spoken of by Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 is the same love he describes in Romans 5, verse 8. For God demonstrated His love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. It is clear, then, that the love we are to have toward one another—such as is described in 1 Corinthians 13—has its source in the love of God Himself.
But when we consider this love of God, we do it a disservice if we limit it to God’s action in sacrificing His Son for sinners. You may be asking yourself at this point: How can we improve upon that? How can we deepen our understanding and experience of love? How can we improve upon God’s action in sacrificing His Son for sinners?
How can we improve upon Romans 5:8?
Far be it from me to improve upon Romans 5:8.
My only purpose is to go behind Romans 5:8 in order to journey to God Himself. To journey to God Himself. Stay with me now. Stay with me. I mean nothing profane by this. I do not intend any proud or irreverent exploration into God’s being, nor any blasphemy.
All I mean is to follow the Apostle Paul’s example, in keeping with the revelation God has made of Himself to His servant, so that we may draw from the great reservoir of divine truth that lies behind Paul’s statement in Romans 5:8.
Paul’s statement here is suggestive of the fact that there is nothing more ultimate in God’s revelation of His identity and being than His love. Let me state that one more time. The statement here in Romans 5:8 is suggestive of the fact that there is nothing more ultimate in God’s revelation of His identity and being than His love. Do you see where we are going? Back from the concrete, historical action of God in the sacrifice of His Son, into the very character of God that produced such an action. Prepare yourself, as you consider love, for a journey into God. Actually, it is not the Apostle Paul who makes this explicit. Rather, it is another New Testament writer who does so. Do you have any idea who that is? Why, of course, it is John. Now, it is well for you to learn John’s place in the New Testament canon. His role is to push you. That is his assigned role in the scriptural context.
It is to push you. Behind and beyond the words and the record of New Testament events as they lie upon the page. John’s gospel, for instance, is the divinely deposited device designated to push you behind and beyond the gospel record to the gospel’s true spiritual intention and meaning. Have you wondered at the uniqueness of John’s gospel, why he is so different in his record of the events of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection from all the other gospel writers? He is utterly unique. John forces you. He forces you, he pushes you behind and beyond the gospel record to the gospel’s true spiritual intention and meaning.
John forces you not only to read his gospel with a much higher appreciation for spiritual truth, he also compels you then to go back, to retrace your steps, and read all of the other gospels with new eyes. After reading John, each gospel becomes distinct and powerful in its own right.
For what is explicit in John, you will find implicit in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Let me suggest a similar line of thought. Consider John’s book, Revelation, with which the New Testament ends. This work of New Testament literature actually corresponds with another book in the New Testament. You may be surprised to learn that it corresponds with the book of Acts, just as John’s Gospel corresponds with the other Gospels.
What I mean is that the book of Revelation is actually a spiritual account of the church’s history. This should be a help to the people of God, as they learn that the book of Revelation is not only about the end times or the events immediately preceding the end of the world. It is actually a spiritual account of the church’s history, covering the entire period from Christ’s resurrection to his return. It is all contained within it. This means that John, in Revelation, makes explicit what is implicit in Luke’s account of the church’s history.
With John’s Revelation in hand, we read Acts with new eyes, seeing the spiritual purpose and eternal matters coming into focus. This brings us to John’s letters. And again, we observe the same pattern. Paul writes about God’s love as he explains its expression in Christ’s cross. John tells us, “God is love.” 1 John 4:8 and 16. John thereby leads us back to Paul with greater appreciation for the ultimate reality in God himself, by which he acts so remarkably in offering up his Son, even his very self, for sinners.
Yes, we go behind Romans 5:8 on a journey that is completely and consistently in keeping with the source from which the Apostle Paul himself has come. We journey to God in keeping with the revelation that God has made of himself. But at this point, you may find yourself disturbed, thinking this journey to God a bit lopsided in perspective.
If we say that there is nothing more ultimate in God’s own revelation of His identity and being than His love, then what becomes of His righteousness, His justice, His holiness, and even His wrath? But to ask the question is surely to answer. You see, it is precisely God’s love that stands inviolable and unchallenged in its supreme place in God’s character, because that very love prevails in God’s actions toward us in Christ, when His righteousness, His justice, and His holiness call for something else altogether. This is what makes Christianity so extraordinary, so rich, so unique, and so glorious.
It is also what makes those who turn Christianity into a religion of wrath not just wrong, but perverse. Now, please do not misunderstand me. Neither Paul nor John mince any words about God’s wrath. It will never do to read that wrath out of our Bibles, as some have done.
For example, John records John the Baptist’s words in John’s Gospel, chapter 3, verse 36: “He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not believe in the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
And in the very epistle where John speaks about God as love, he says this: 1 John 5:12, “He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son does not have life.”
Sounds like wrath to me. And Paul writes, “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” Romans 1:18. And in 1 Corinthians 6:9–10, within the very letter containing the great love chapter, Paul writes these words: Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers shall inherit the kingdom of God. And what do you make of this statement at the conclusion of 1 Corinthians 16, verse 22?
If any man does not love the Lord, let him be accursed. Please do not trouble the Bible with a supposed superior gospel that, in the name of love, dismisses God’s righteousness, justice, holiness, and wrath. The Bible knows no such gospel. And no honorable preacher of the Word would preach such a gospel. By the same token, no honorable preacher of the Word would fail to proclaim the supremacy of God’s love in the gospel, such love which answers the wrath that even His elect rightly deserve.
I plead with you on this matter. And I plead with you, men, because so many of you think love is for women. You are fools. You are fools. But now we come back to 1 Corinthians 13, and we ask, how does all this relate to what we find in this glorious chapter? Now, I do not intend to give you a full answer to that question this morning. You know how my series go. We’ll be in First Corinthians 13 next Easter. But what I must say this morning is meant to wrap up the thought I have been developing thus far.
God’s love for the unlovely, for the deeply offensive, for the morally reprehensible, as shown in Christ’s cross, expresses that which is at the very center of God’s revelation of His being. His love prevails for His people over every obstacle, and His love is reflected in all who are recreated in His image. Therefore, our actions are to arise from a personality in which this love—the love that prevails for the sake of God’s people over every obstacle—is at its very center. What is at the center of our God must also be at the center of our being and our consciousness.
And let me tell you, as you journey more and more in the direction of God and into God and into His love, you will increasingly become conscious of your Savior—His reality, the fullness of His personality, and His sufficiency, the one who perfectly embodies that love. This means, and I say this to prepare you for the messages ahead, that to expound the love described in 1 Corinthians 13 is to expound Christ. O God, in ourselves, such a journey to You and into Your embrace, even to find ourselves dwelling in You, is something from which we recoil at first thought.
And yet, Your word sets before us this truth, this reality. Father, we pray for our own minds and hearts in regard to this. As we are drawn, Lord, even compelled by Your word, we ask You, we plead with You, that our response would be right, that it would be appropriate. Never transgressing what is beyond us or inappropriate for us. Always respecting the distinction between Creator and creature. Never allowing ourselves to wander into false mysticism.
But Lord, we ask that we might be acquainted with You and that, in terms of Your revelation of Yourself, we may live in vital communion with You and in fellowship with our God, as Paul and John and the Scriptures as a whole urge us to do. With this in view, Lord, as we set before us Your love and that You are love, may we be loving, and may there be found at the very center of our existence the love that reflects Your own. Bless us, Father, as we consider all of this in light of Your Son, who is the embodiment of that love, and in whom we find the strength and power to love. For we pray it in His name. Amen.
The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.