A More Excellent Way – 1 Corinthians 13
Introduction:
A Good Teacher and a Great Teacher
"Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go" (Mat_8:19).
A number of years ago a Johns Hopkins University professor asked his graduate students to locate 200 boys, ages 12-16 and research their family backgrounds. The assignment was then to predict their future. The students were sent to the slum area of the city to find the boys. The conclusion reached by the graduate students was that 90 percent of those researched would spend time in jail. The final chapter of this study would not completed until 25 years later.
When the 200 original students were sought after, some 25 years later, John Hopkins sent the researchers into the slum area again. Some of the group still remained in the slums, others had moved away, a few had died. In all they were able to locate 180 of the original 200. What they found amazed them. Only four had ever been to jail (remember the prediction had been 90 percent of 200)!
What caused this figure to be so low when all indications pointed to a larger number? When the researchers began to ask this question they found that they were getting the same answer, "Well, there was this teacher...." Pressed further, the researchers found that the teacher in all cases was one and the same. The boys had all been influenced by the same teacher.
The graduate students traced down the teacher, now living in a retirement home, and inquired about her remarkable influence over a group of boys who were headed for a life of crime. She really could not think of any reason why she would have this kind of influence. She did mention that "I truly loved my students."
1. The Power of Charity
- w/o charity our words are empty
- w/o charity our preaching is powerless
- w/o charity our faith is of no benefit
- w/o charity our giving profits nothing
They Killed My Brother
I vividly remember an incident that took place at our Greek Keswick in Macedonia one year. The Lord had just opened the door for a special ministry among the Turks. After I announced it, a devout Christian woman came up to me, placed some Greek currency in my hand, and said, "I want this used to win Turks to Christ. They killed my brother, but I want to be the first to contribute to their cause." There will be a special reward for that woman at the day of judgment for believers.
- w/o charity our supreme sacrifice is 0
But with charity, our words are made health and healing, our preaching reaches down and touches the hearts of our fellow men, our faith touches the lives of those who will come behind us, our gifts mean so much more than just money, and our supreme sacrifice of ourselves is transformed into something glorious.
2. The Personality of Charity
- Charity is long-suffering; James 5:7
- Charity is kind (gentle in Behavior)
- Charity does not envy (from – BOIL)
- Charity vaunteth not itself (braggart)
- Charity is not puffed up; 1 Cor. 4:6, like bellows. . .
- Charity does not behave unseemly; is not indecent. . .1 Cor. 7:36 “uncomely”
- Charity seeks not her own; 1 Cor 10:24,33; not after personal interests
Christian Love
That great blind preacher, George Matheson, adequately grasped the idea of Paul when he wrote: "Christian love is the only kind of love in which there is no rivalry, no jealousy. There is jealousy among the lovers of art; there is jealousy among the lovers of song; there is jealousy among the lovers of beauty. The glory of natural love is its monopoly, its power to say, 'It is mine.' But the glory of Christian love is its refusal of monopoly. The spiritual artist-the man who paints Christ in his soul-wants no solitary niche in the temple of fame. He would not like to hear anyone say, 'He is the first of his profession; there is not one that can hold a candle to him.' He would be very sad to be thus distinguished in his profession of Christ, marked out as a solitary figure. The gladdest moment to him will always be the moment when the cry is heard, 'Thy brother is coming up the ladder also; thy brother will share the inheritance with thee.' "
- Charity is not provoked; can be good Acts 17:16, or bad Acts 15:39
- Charity thinketh no evil; does not make a list of the wrongs done, like a ledger.
- Charity rejoices not in iniquity; Romans 1:32. . .be careful of your entertainment.
- Charity rejoices in the truth – truth personified as opposed to unrighteousness.
- Charity beareth all things – the idea is of a roof, a protection or covering – 1 Peter 4:8
- Charity believeth all things; not gullible, but having faith in people. . .
- Charity hopeth all things; seeing the bright side, not despairing.
- Charity endueth all things; perseveres as a stout-hearted soldier; Jim Vineyard’s green beret experience in Vietnam walking out with broken bone in his leg.
3. The Perfection of Charity
- Perfect in its endurance, “never faileth”
- Perfect in its expression, the Book
- Perfect in its experience, seeing Him
