Admonition Podcast

Take your Bibles, if you will, and open them to the book of First Corinthians.

First Corinthians chapter thirteen is a chapter that is familiar to many.

It is a chapter that is often termed the chapter of love.

This morning, what we're going to discuss, in beginning at least, in discussion, is what
love is not.

Paul, as he is writing to the church at Corinth, will write these verses, will write these
words concerning love, and he will describe what love is.

He will describe aspects of love.

But he will also describe what love is not.

We're going to spend some time in the next few weeks dealing with this idea.

Because Paul is not writing these things to the church at Corinth just to have an academic
discussion about love.

As a matter of fact, the context isn't love.

The context is the miraculous gifts that were given to the first century church that were
by the power of the Holy Spirit, and that is the context that begins in chapter 12 and

goes through chapter 14.

Chapter 13 is sandwiched in the middle to set a contrast to these temporary gifts.

These gifts that were to serve a purpose, these gifts that were to bring about maturity
within the church.

These gifts that were to demonstrate how that the body, being made up of many different
members, was to work together to produce the results of obedience to Christ.

But as he does that, he begins in chapter 13 and verse 1.

And he says, Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love.

I have become a sounding brass or a clanging symbol.

Paul, as he is dealing with these miraculous gifts, starts first with what the Corinthians
believed to be one of the highest of all the gifts.

They had tiered them.

If you had the ability to speak in tongues, you were right up here at the top.

You had the ability to prophesy, you were right up there with speaking in tongues.

But Paul opens this chapter as we have it divided in our English Bibles and he says,
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love, I am an empty

clanging sound.

Has anybody ever heard a symbol?

Sure we have.

Has anybody ever heard an entire sixty minute musical presentation with nothing but a
cymbal?

Can you imagine how horrible that would be?

Let's just spend sixty minutes hitting a piece of brass.

Let's see how it goes.

Remind you of the music of the 1960s.

Here you have Paul saying, if you can speak with the tongues of languages you've never
studied, if you could out of the gifts of the Holy Spirit speak the language of angels.

But you don't have love?

You are as a sounding brass, a clanging symbol.

You are empty.

But he goes on to say, and though I have the gift of prophecy, he's not just gonna deal
with those who love the speaking in tongues and want to stand up and speak in tongues

where there's not anybody in the congregation that actually speaks that language.

If you go into chapter twelve and chapter fourteen, you will find that in the worship
assembly of the church at Corinth, there were individuals getting up who had the gift, the

miraculous gift of speaking in tongues.

In other words,

By the way, that's what the New Testament describes as speaking a language you never
studied.

They didn't spend time at night going over their Spanish.

They didn't spend time at night going over their Aramaic.

They didn't spend time at night reviewing their vowels and their tenses and their word
structure in the language that the Holy Spirit had made them capable of speaking in.

They could just speak in it.

They could speak in it as if they heard it in their own dialect, as if the person
listening would be able to hear it as if the person had been born and raised up in that

language.

How do we know that's the case?

Because Acts chapter two tells us that's what it was.

Turn to Acts chapter two.

When the day of Pentecost had fully come, verse one, they were all with one accord in one
place.

And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the
whole house where they were sitting.

Then there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and one sat upon each of them.

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues as
the Spirit gave them utterance.

You're not left to your imagination to wonder what was going on.

You're not supposed to assume that they were speaking gibberish, and there were a few
select people who understood gibberish.

Rather, the text tells us exactly what occurred.

They were speaking in other tongues, and the Spirit gave them the ability to speak.

And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven.

And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together and were confused because
everyone heard them speak in their own language.

Do not be confused.

Speaking in tongues is not what mart uh modern individuals who claim to be able to speak
in tongues try and perform.

Speaking in tongues according to the scriptures is speaking a language someone was born
in, grew up in, and speaks every day.

And their hearing, these apostles speak in their own language.

But notice, then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, Look, are these
not all the all are not all those who speak Galileans?

And how is it that we hear each in our own language in which we were born?

Then they were all amazed, and marveled, saying to one another, Look, are these not all
Galileans, uh all who speak Galileans?

And how is it that we hear each in our own language in which we were born, Parthians and
Medes, Elamites, those who dwell in Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontius and Asia,

Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and parts of Libya, adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both
Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs.

We hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.

You see, when the Holy Spirit gave the first century church the ability to speak in
tongues, the purpose of it was so that an individual who was born in Corinth, was raised

in Corinth, who grew up speaking the Greek language in Corinth, could travel to Libya and
speak the language of Libya and teach them the gospel.

And Corinth was a multicultural city.

Corinth had an abundance of gifts because they had an abundance of cultures.

But here's what the Corinthians were doing they were assembling for their worship
assembly, and someone was getting up who speak spoke the language of the Libyans, but

there were no Libyans in the congregation.

There was nobody in the assembly who understood that language who spoke that language.

But because they wanted to demonstrate how wonderful their gift was and how amazing they
were, they would get up and speak the language of the Libyans.

And not a single person in the assembly understood what they were saying.

As a matter of fact, they didn't even understand what they were saying.

But then others would get up and prophesy.

He says, 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, but have not

love, I am nothing.

In the middle of the person who was speaking to the Libyans that weren't in the assembly,
someone else would get up and start prophesying.

So over here you got somebody speaking to the Libyans that aren't there and nobody can
understand them, and somebody over here at the same time is over here trying to prophesy.

But then another person would get up and they'd try and prophesy.

And then another person would get up and they'd try and prophesy all at the same time.

You ever have three people talk to you at once?

You understand what any of them are saying?

How how easy is that to focus and learn and understand so that you can be taught the Word
of God?

When you got three people all trying to teach you at the same time, they're all saying
different things.

Paul says, if you have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries, great.

You don't have love.

You're nothing.

He goes on to say, and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my
body to be burned and have not love, it profits me nothing.

Love suffers long and is kind.

Love, here's where our focus is this morning.

Love does not envy nothing.

Does not parade itself, is not puffed up.

As we go through this study, you're going to see Paul's going to list a number of things
that love is not.

And I found it interesting as I was studying this that every single thing Paul says love
is not is something Paul has already accused the Corinthians of being.

He has already accused them of doing these things.

As he corrects their action, he says, this is not love, this is not love, this is not
love.

Consider a few of those things.

Turn, if you will, to first Corinthians chapter one.

Paul says, love does not envy.

The idea of envy here is to want what someone else has and not want them to have it.

It's not this.

Somebody walks out of the assembly this morning, they walk out in the parking lot, and
they see, oh, so-and-so's got a really nice new truck.

You know, I'd like to have a really nice new truck.

I'm glad they have a nice new truck.

I hope they enjoy their nice new truck.

I am thrilled for them.

I'll rejoice with my brother he's been able to buy a nice new truck.

That's not envy.

Envy is

So-and-so's got a nice new truck.

I bet you if I figure out a way, I can take so-and-so's nice new truck and keep it for
myself.

And I'm gonna keep thinking about every time I see Brother So and So, I'm gonna think
about I'm gonna wonder how am I gonna get his truck?

I'm gonna get his truck.

Now, if any of y'all got a nice new truck out there, sorry, but somebody's got it for you.

No.

That is envy.

I want what someone else has, and I don't want them to have it.

Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 4.

He says, I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you
by Christ Jesus.

That you were enriched in everything by him in all utterance and all knowledge.

Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you came short in no gift,
eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will be con who who will

also confirm to you the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus
Christ.

God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our
Lord.

Paul opens up in his letter to the Corinthians, this congregation he'd spent eighteen
months with.

And he writes to them and he says, You have not fallen behind anybody in any gift.

When he writes to the church at Rome, he writes to them and says, I desire to come to you
so that I may bestow upon you a gift.

You remember in the first century church, the only ones who could give the gifts of the
Holy Spirit were the apostles, and that by the physical laying on of their hands.

And Paul says, You at Corinth, you are not behind anybody in the gifts you've received.

You have received gifts greater than almost every congregation out there.

In quantity and in number.

Rome over here hasn't received any, because no apostle has come to them.

But then notice, he says, Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ that you all speak the same thing, that there be no divisions among you, but that

you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by the house of Chloe or by
those of Chloe's household, that there are contentions among you.

Now I say this that each of you says, I am of Paul, or I am of Apollos, or I am of Cephas,
or I am of Christ.

Is Christ divided?

Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

Paul establishes in the very beginning of chapter one that there are contentions within
the body of Christ at Corinth, because some of them are calling themselves after their

earthly teachers.

And some of them are calling themselves after a different earthly teacher.

And others are calling themselves after another earthly teacher.

Paul wants to know, is Christ divided?

Were you baptized in the name of Paul?

Was Paul crucified for you?

You go over to chapter two.

He says, And, brethren, when I came to you, I did not come with excellence of speech or
wisdom, declaring to you the testimony of God.

For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

I was with you in weakness, in fear, in much trembling, and my speech and my preaching
were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of

power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

Chapter three, he says, and I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people,
but as to carnal.

The idea of carnal here is fleshly.

He says, I would love to have written to you.

I would love to be writing to you right now and speak to you as if you are spiritually
minded people.

But I'm writing to a congregation that is all interested in the fleshly matters.

I'm writing to a congregation that is so entirely focused on physical things.

He says, I'm writing to you as a carnal, as to babes in Christ.

I fed you with milk and not with solid food, for until now you were not able to receive
it, and even now you are still not able, for you are still carnal.

For where there are envy, strife.

And divisions among you are you not carnal and behaving like men?

For when one says I am of Paul and another says I am of Apollos, are you not carnal?

Paul says, I look at you and I hear what's going on.

And I hear about the contentions that are among you, and you're calling yourself after
different teachers, and I will tell you without even being there, that is because you are

fleshly minded and because you are envying one another.

Paul has accused them of envy.

He has con he has accused them of contention.

You go back to chapter one.

Verse twenty six, and he says, For you see your calling, brethren, that not many w are
wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called.

But God has chosen the foolish things of this world to put to shame the wise, and God has
chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty, and the

base things of the world, the things which are despised.

God has chosen the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no
flesh should glory in his presence, but in him.

But of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption, that as it is written, he who glories, let him glory in

the Lord.

Second thing that Paul says, love is not, is he said, Love does not parade itself.

Think about a parade.

Imagine all of us have been to one in our lifetime, or many more.

And what do you always find at a parade?

Oh, You find people marching, you find people walking, you find people going up a street
or in through a through a location.

All all that's true.

But have you noticed you've never been to a parade where there's nobody watching?

Wouldn't be much of a parade now, would it?

Hey, let's have a parade.

Everybody wal walk down the street, nobody stand to the side and watch.

No, that's not what a parade is.

The whole idea of parading is that there are people who are watching.

Paul says to the church at Corinth, love does not parade itself to be seen by others.

But here in chapter one, Paul says, if you're going to glory, the the reason why people
stand and watch the parade is they want to see the sight, they want to rejoice in it, they

want to be happy in it, they want to promote it, they love what they're seeing.

And Paul says, you're walking yourself down the center so that people can look at you and
you are glorying in you.

Paul says that's not love.

You want to glory in something?

Glory in the Lord.

Notice in chapter three

Chapter 3, verse 18, he says, Let no one deceive himself.

If any among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool, that he may become
wise.

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.

For it is written, He catches the wise in their own craftiness.

And again, the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise that they are futile.

Therefore, let no one boast in men.

For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death
or things to come or things or things present or things to come, all are yours, and you

are Christ, and Christ is God's.

Let a man so consider us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.

Moreover, it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.

But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court.

In fact, I do not even judge myself, for I know of nothing against myself.

Yet I am not justified by this, but he who judges me is the Lord.

Therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord comes, who will bring forth to
light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the heart, then each one's

praise will come from God.

Paul says you have people who are constantly worried about being observed by the world and
lifted up by the world and considered wise by the world and promoted by the world and he

says you have no business worrying about what the world thinks.

Because the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God.

He says, I wish you could just become fools.

He says, I clarification.

Paul doesn't want them to go about squandering their money and forgetting everything that
they've learned and ignoring the wisdom of God and ignoring the scriptures.

No, he wants to become that wants them to become fools in the wisdoms of the world.

He says, It's time to put aside all of the philosophies of men.

It's time to put aside all the wisdom of man's knowledge.

It's time to put aside all the things that the Grecian teachers are teaching.

It's time to put aside all the things the Jewish teachers are teaching.

And it's time to be focused on what God teaches.

He goes on to point out, therefore let no one boast in men, for all things are yours, and
if you go back down to chapter 4, verse 5, he says, then each one's praise will come from

God.

He says love doesn't parade itself so that the world can commend you on how wise you are.

The church, the body of Christ that exemplifies the very love of God, is only interested
in the opinion of one person.

The Lord.

And if the Lord considers what you do praiseworthy, Paul says, then you've done something.

Paul looks at himself and he says, I don't even judge myself.

Now be careful with that text because Paul's gonna go through the entire book of First
Corinthians judging the Corinthians.

according to the word of God.

Paul's not judging them according to him.

Paul's not judging them according to Paul.

Paul's not judging them according to his standard.

He's judging them according to God.

Because the only person they should be concerned with, being found praiseworthy of, is
God.

Paul says, if I meet my standard, if I judge myself and I meet my standard, what good have
I done?

Who cares what Paul thinks is in essence what he's saying.

Who cares if I meet my standard?

What about God's standard?

But then consider Paul says

That love is not puffed up.

The idea of parade itself is look at what I have.

So envy was, I want what you have, and I don't want you to have it.

Parade itself is look what I have.

Puffed up is, and I'm better than you.

They had taken the miraculous gifts and they had said, If you uh if you've got the ability
to speak in tongues, you're better than everybody.

And Paul says, if you speak of the tongues, tongues of men and of angels, and you have not
love, you are an empty sound.

And then they had taken the gift of prophecy and said, if you're that, you're one step
down from speaking in tongues, but you're better than everybody else.

And Paul says, if I have the ability to understand all knowledge and to prophesy, and I
have not love, I am nothing.

Chapter four He says in verse six Now these things brethren I have figurally figuratively
transferred to myself and Apollos for your sake that you may learn in us not to think

beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up on behalf of one against
another.

Back in chapter one, he said, Some of you call yourself after Paul and some Apollos and
some Cephas and some Christ.

And then he discusses again in chapter three the ministry that Apollos and that Cephas and
that Paul had had.

But he says, in chapter four, he says, But I'm not really talking about Apollos and Paul
and Cephas.

He says, I've transferred these things to us.

If we were to uh draw on the old dragnet phrase.

The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

In this case, Paul says the names have been changed to protect the guilty.

Because some of your teachers are guilty, and it's not Paul, and it's not Apollos, and
it's not Cephas.

But some of them there are saying, you know what?

Follow me, follow me, follow me.

And you're doing it.

Paul says, I've transferred these things in to myself and to Apollos for your sakes, that
you may learn in us not to think beyond what is written.

He says, I want you to understand that I don't care if it's me who's writing to you.

If I'm not speaking to you the word of God, don't follow me.

I don't care if it's Apollos writing to you.

If he's not speaking to you the word of God, don't follow him.

if we had more congregations that actually practice that today.

Teacher gets up and teaches something that you can't find in the Word of God.

Teaches something that doesn't agree with sound doctrine.

Doesn't agree with what God has said.

And people just follow them because it sounds good.

Paul says, do not follow anyone where you can't find that which is written to go with it.

Do not think above yourselves that b think of yourselves above that which is written.

He says, Stop behaving as though you are puffed up on behalf of one another.

For who makes you differ from one another?

And what do you have that you did not receive?

Now, if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

He's talking about the teachers, and he's also going to be talking about the miraculous
gifts.

He said, Where did you get the gifts from?

Did they originate with you?

Did you produce the miraculous gifts?

No, you didn't.

They were given to you.

You received them from someone else.

You received them from the Lord.

So why are you behaving as if you produced?

What makes you differ from another?

As he goes on in the text, you go to chapter five.

And you find they weren't just puffed up about their gifts and about their teachers.

They were puffed up about immorality and moral degradation within the very body of Christ.

Chapter 5, verse 1, it is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and
such sexual immorality is not even named among the Gentiles.

That a man has his father's wife.

And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned that he who has done this thing, this
deed, might be taken away from among you.

For I indeed, as absent in the body, but present in the spirit, have already judged.

See, I told you his judging wasn't talking about actually judging concerning matters of
God, it's about self-judging.

He says, I've already judged, as though I were present, him who has done this thing.

In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together among

along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan
for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord

Jesus Christ.

Your glorying is not good.

Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

Therefore purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, since you truly are
unleavened, for indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us.

Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice
and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Paul writes to this congregation.

And he says, you are being puffed up because of the sin that is among you.

Now, to be careful, I don't think, my understanding here, okay, my judgment, I don't think
they're glorying in the fact that the individual is committing sin.

I believe this is a similar thing as to what the Romans were promoting in Romans chapter
five and chapter six, where Paul writes to the church at Rome and he says you are telling

people to keep on sinning because the more you sin the more grace you get.

And the glorying is, look at this great sin that this man's being forgiven of.

Look at the amazing grace this man must be receiving to be a Christian and to be living
with a woman who he doesn't even have a right to have.

My opinion, I think that's the where their glorying was.

Paul says, your glorying is wrong.

You should have put this individual out of the congregation.

You should have delivered him back to the world, back to Satan, because that's who he
belongs to.

until he repents of the sin.

He says you're puffed up about your gifts, and your gifts came from God.

You're puffed up about your teachers, and your teachers are causing division and proving
that you're carnally minded.

You're puffed up about sin when you ought to be dealing with it.

He goes on.

Chapter seven.

And says, But as God is distributed to each one, as the Lord has called each one, so let
him walk, and so I ordain in all the churches.

Now, Paul is in the midst of this dealing with questions from the church at Corinth on
different matters.

This particular set of questions was on marriage, and whether or not in the current
circumstance it was good for a person to be married, because the situation in Corinth is

not good for them physically.

They're under persecution.

Paul's going to say God is distributed to each one, as the Lord is called each one, so let
him walk, and so I ordain in all the churches.

Was anyone called while circumcised?

Let him not become uncircumcised.

Was anyone called while circ uncircumcised?

Let him not become circumcised.

Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of
God is what matters.

Let each one remain in the same calling in which he was called.

Were you called while a slave?

Do not be concerned about it.

But if you can be made free, rather use it.

For he who is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord's freedman.

Likewise he who is called while free is Christ's slave.

You were bought at a price.

Do not become slaves of men, but let each one remain with God in the state in which he was
called.

uh

Who's in this state?

Who's in that state?

Who's circumcised?

Who's uncircumcised?

Who's a Jew?

Who's a Gentile?

You've got all this going on.

He says, why don't you just become a servant of God?

And now that you've become a servant of God, why don't you just stay a servant of God?

Instead of being worried about yourself.

Paul says to the slave, you know what?

If you can become free under the law, then use it to do the work of God.

If you're a slave, be a slave to Christ, knowing you're free in Christ.

You're free?

Great.

You're a citizen of Rome?

Amazing.

But you've got to remember you're going to become a slave to Christ.

Use the state you're in to do the work of God.

He says verse eight of chapter sorry chapter eight, verse one.

Now concerning the things offered to idols, we know that we all have knowledge.

Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.

Paul's going to discuss the matters of the conscience.

Paul says, you know what?

A bunch of you have a good deal of knowledge.

You know the law, you know what God has said concerning these things, except what you're
doing is you're using it to hurt your brother.

Because you're puffed up by your knowledge.

Why don't you use love instead?

So you can build up your brother instead of

Puffing up yourself.

You go over into chapter ten.

In chapter ten, Paul will write concerning the temptation and the fall of the Israelites
in Exodus as they come out of Egypt, and how many of them

did not enter the rest of God because of their sin, because of their iniquity, because of
their rebellion against God, because they wanted to be in control instead of submitting to

God.

Paul writes in chapter ten and verse eleven, Now all these things happen to them as
examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have

come.

Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

Paul says, You puffin' yourself up as if you are something?

I already know how that turns out.

It turns out just like Israel.

And God said, You're not entering my rest.

Chapter 11.

You find in vers twenty seven.

as they've Paul has discussed their abuse of the Lord's Supper, whereas they were
assembling together, as they were assembling on the first day of the week, they were

coming together, and some of them were rich and they had food, and some of them were poor
and they had nothing, and some of them were workers and laborers and couldn't get there at

the very beginning, and others were

free men and they had no obligation, so they would be there on time, and the free men and
the rich men would get together and they'd partake of the Lord's Supper, but they'd turn

it into a common meal and they'd be full and they'd be fat and they'd be happy.

And then when the poor people arrived and when those in deep poverty arrived, there wasn't
anything left.

And that would be a eh, sorry, tough luck.

Paul will write to them verse twenty seven and says, Therefore whoever eats this bread and
drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and the blood

of the Lord.

But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup, for
he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not

discerning the Lord's body.

For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many are fall many are asleep, for
if we would judge ourselves we would not be judged.

But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord that we may not be condemned with the
world.

Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.

But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment, and the
rest I will set in order when I come.

Paul says if you're so hungry you need a common meal instead of the Lord's Supper, eat at
your house.

But when you come together to partake of the Lord's Supper, as I taught you how to do, as
I was given commandment by the Lord, and he has just rehearsed for them back in twenty

three through twenty six, he says, You wait for everybody.

The rich people don't partake of the Lord's Supper and say to the poor people when they
arrive, Sorry, nothing left.

Should have been here all the time, too bad you had to work.

Chapter twelve.

He writes, beginning in verse fourteen, verse as let's begin verse twelve, for as the body
is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one

body, so also is Christ.

For one by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether
slaves or free, and have all been made to drink into one spirit.

For in fact the body is not one member, but many.

If the foot should say because I am not a hand, I am not of the body, is it therefore not
of the body?

And if the ear should say because I am not an eye, I am not of the body, is it therefore
not of the body?

If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing?

If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling?

But now God has set the members each one of them in bot in the body just as he pleased,
and if they were all one member, where would the body be?

But now indeed there are many members yet one body, and the eye cannot say to the hand I
have no need of you, and again the head to the feet I have no need of you, no much rather

those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.

Paul, as he's discussing the miraculous gifts, will say, here you are, and you're puffing
yourself up because you're the I.

You've got this gift, and you're so important.

Or you're puffing yourself up, you say, I'm the head.

I don't need the feet.

They're so lowly.

So go ahead, get around.

See if you can.

Paul over and over and over and over again will correct the church because they were
envying, because they were parading themselves, because they were puffed up and

self-interested.

Paul says, I know what love is, because I know that God sent His Son to die on the cross
for our sins, to be crucified, and to die a horrible death, so that I could preach the

gospel, the good news to you, so that you could have redemption and salvation,
sanctification and justification in the very blood of Christ, because you were bought with

a price.

And now you're wanting to promote yourself?

He says, I know what love is and that isn't love.

Rather, love is demonstrated in God's actions through Christ for our redemption,
salvation, and sanctification.

If you're outside the body of Christ, know this.

God loves you.

And God sent his son to die for you.

Not so that you could parade yourself, not so that you could have what others what others
have and you don't want them to have, not so that you can puff yourself up in comparison

to others, but rather so that you can become a slave to Christ and a free man in Christ.

You're outside the body of Christ, you enter into that body by hearing the word of Christ
and believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

By repenting of your sins, as many of them had done in the past, because once they had
been ungodly, once they had been unrighteous, once they had been those who were sinners

and separated from the Word of God.

But Paul says, You've been washed, you've been sanctified, you've been justified because
they've repented of their sins and confessed the name of Christ.

And been immersed in water for the remission of their sins.

Rising up, not as something significant, but as babes in Christ, children of God, through
the power of Jesus Christ.

If you want to do that, that opportunity is available today to be added to the body of
Christ.

It's not the end of the things God commands, it's the beginning.

The Corinthians were having a

few problems with the steps that came after.

But that's okay.

Because God is loving and forgiving and merciful and long-suffering.

If you're a member of the body of Christ and you have departed from the love of God and
become self-interested, self-motivated, self-promoting, why not repent and come back to

the love of God?

If have need of the invitation, why not come now as we stand and as we sing?