Dive deep into the core of 1 Corinthians 13 as we explore the profound definition of love as God intended. This episode challenges our modern misconceptions by revealing love not just as a feeling but as a mark of spiritual maturity. Through David Hawking’s insightful teaching, discover how love is a lifestyle, a conscious choice of patience and kindness that withstands life’s adversities and embraces truth.
00:25:21 Concluding Thoughts and Invitation to Connect
SPEAKER 01 :
Sometimes I wonder why judgment hasn’t fallen on this nation of ours for the tremendous immorality and violence that we have in our society. And the answer is the long suffering of God. But as we often say, payday someday. We should never presume upon God’s love and his loving kindness in this matter.
SPEAKER 03 :
This is Hope for Today, the Bible teaching ministry of David Hawking. Love is one of the most misused words in the world. People say it, they sing about it, they sell it and empty it of the truth God gave it. But 1 Corinthians 13 does not play games. It shows us love the way God defines it, not as a feeling that comes and goes, but as a mark of spiritual maturity and a test of what is really in the heart. Today, David Hawking continues our series in 1 Corinthians 13 with day one of his message, How Love Really Works, as he takes us deeper into the kind of love that doesn’t exalt itself, doesn’t keep score, and doesn’t walk away from the truth. We’ll be back in 1 Corinthians 13 in just a moment. First, well, Matt, we’re going to share a listener letter today that has come all the way from Santana, California. Folks, we’re laughing here because that’s just down the street here. But I love what Mike has said here in this letter. So encouraging. And share that with the folks. You know, it is.
SPEAKER 02 :
He says, I just want you to know that I thank God. for your father’s messages. And he says, the ministry is alive and it’s such a blessing and always great to hear the word of God as he preaches it. Thanks again.
SPEAKER 03 :
The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible.
SPEAKER 02 :
Amen.
SPEAKER 03 :
And I hope folks that you aren’t tired of hearing that, but in a world where there’s so much compromise, So much cherry-picking about scriptural truth. So much distrust of what God actually said. I find it very refreshing when David says the Bible, the whole Bible, nothing but the Bible, because there is one source of truth, Matt, that you can always rely on, and that is? The living word by the living God, the Bible. The Bible itself. If you have a note for us, folks, do get in touch, and we’ll tell you just a bit later how you can do that. And here’s David.
SPEAKER 01 :
Take your Bibles, please, and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. 1 Corinthians chapter 13, the great chapter on God’s love. If you’ll follow along in your Bibles, please, we’re going to read verses 4 to 7. In English, there’s about 54 words in the old King James. I think 56 in the new King James. But in Greek, there’s only 41 words. Let’s read it. 1 Corinthians 3, beginning with verse 4. Charity, or love, suffereth long and is kind. Charity envieth not. Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. does not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Will you join me please in a moment of prayer? Our Father in heaven, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, how thankful we are for the Bible. And thank you, Lord, for all the wonderful things we learn about you. And I pray, God, that you’ll open up our minds and hearts to what it really is to love with the love of God. You told us many times, both in the Old and New Testament, to love one another. And I pray, God, that we’ll understand that all the law and the prophets are resting on those two great commands of yours, to love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind and strength, and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Thank you, Lord, for what you’re going to do in every heart. In the wonderful name of our Messiah, our Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen. God’s love is certainly unusual. We talked in our previous messages about the differences in love. God’s love is not eros, the erotic sensual love of the Greeks, although God does teach sensual love in the Song of Solomon. God’s love is not merely storge, the love of parents or the love among animals in a clan. Though storge is used of believers loving each other. It is not merely phile, which is probably more correctly translated friend. It’s used much of God and used of our relationships with one another, but God’s love, agape is the word, is something far more. And in all the books that I have in my library on the subject, nothing equals or compares with the concise, powerful words that are in our text in this paragraph. This is God’s love. If verses 1 to 3 was the point God’s love is essential, in verses 4 to 7 the point is God’s love is explained. It’s explained in detail. And again, as I said, there are only 41 words in Greek. Interestingly, the verbs in this section in the Greek system, the largest language in the history of the world, is built on the verb system. There are 15 of them in Greek, 15 verbs in this paragraph, and all of them are in the present tense. The present tense in Greek is a continual habit of life or a lifestyle. And it reminds us of the point that he ended chapter 12 with. You remember that? Verse 31. When he said the last phrase, I show you a more excellent way. It’s a lifestyle. It’s a way of doing things. Now, another interesting thing about verses 4 to 7, if you’ll look at your Bibles carefully, the word love only appears twice. And both of the statements are positives. There are two positives. And then eight negatives follow it. The two positives are. The love, for the definite article in Greek is in front of love, meaning God’s love. The love, this particular love, is long-suffering or patient. And the love, now in my old King James it eliminates it there, but it’s in the Greek. The love is kind. So apparently long-suffering and kindness summarizes all of God’s love. And we’re going to show you why here in just a moment. Then he tells us eight negatives as to what God’s love is not. The things that do not make it long-suffering. The things that do not make it patient. And then in verse 7, you’ll notice the emphasis is on all things. A very unusual verse showing us how God’s love reacts to the changing circumstances of our lives. And that’s a powerful point as well. If you want to outline how God’s love is explained, we’re going to look in verse 4 at the character of God’s love. And then when we come down to look at the negatives that follow, we’re looking at the contrasts of God’s love. And then we’ll finally summarize with the circumstances that God’s love controls. Let’s start with the character of God’s love. He is long-suffering and he is kind. The love is mentioned twice in front of long-suffering and in front of kind in the Greek text but doesn’t appear in any of the other verses. And the first thing I want you to know is that love, the love of God, suffers long with people. There are two words for patience in Greek. One means patience toward people. That’s the one used here. The other usage is of patience toward things, which, by the way, is used in verse 7 concerning all things. God’s love is patient toward people. He is a long-suffering God. And according to the Bible, this is one of his major characteristics. It certainly isn’t ours because a lot of us are very impatient with one another. Even to stand and listen to somebody tell you something. Many times we’re impatient or we think about what else we want to do. The Greek word is makrothumia. Makro, macro means large in contrast to micro meaning small. And thumia is a passion but comes from a root meaning to boil. So you actually could translate it taking a long time to boil. Long suffering is rooted in the word time. Time. It means that you really would like to bash somebody in the face for what they’ve done, but you’re going to take a long time and think about it first. Amen? Long suffering. Of course, I’m not speaking of you, but people in other states have this problem. In the Old Testament, the Jewish Tanakh, we have the words slow to anger repeated over and over again. Interestingly, if you put that into Greek, you come out with the same word used here, makrothumia. Long-suffering. Our God is described as being slow to anger. In 1 Peter 3.20, we read of how the long-suffering of God was operating in the days of Noah. It was a wicked generation, violent and immoral, and God’s judgment was deserved. But God waited patiently. It appears that there were 120 years in which the patience of God was waiting while Noah built the ark. And the Bible calls it the long suffering of God. Sometimes I wonder why judgment hasn’t fallen on this nation of ours for the tremendous immorality and violence that we have in our society. And the answer is the long suffering of God. But as we often say, payday someday. We should never presume upon God’s love and his loving kindness in this matter. But it is used of the Lord in Romans 9, 22, when it says of people who don’t believe in him, that calls them vessels of wrath. And it says they are endured by the long suffering of God. And it’s interesting, one of the reasons we are not consumed and slaughtered by God, even though we deserve it, is because of his long suffering, his mercies, his compassion. Go to Exodus, please, chapter 34. Exodus chapter 34. You know, Moses learned to be long suffering in the wilderness. How would you like to take 650,000 men, not counting women and children, and guide them for 40 years in one of the most barren deserts of the world? Naturally, Moses needed to know the long-suffering of God. Well, he also needed to know who God is. Do you remember when God called him to deliver his people out of Egypt and all the excuses that Moses gave? Do you remember one of them that he asked? Well, I’m not going to go unless I know your name. So what’s your name? And in Exodus 3.14, we read the words in English, I am that I am. I have books in my library that describe page after page what those words might mean. Personally, I think they’re very simple. What God was saying is, whoever I am, I am, and whether you know it or not doesn’t make one bit of difference. Do what I tell you. We will never know the nature of God. His greatness, the Bible tells us, is unsearchable. His ways are past finding out. But Moses has got another problem again. And in Exodus 34, he’s going to find out about God’s name. Actually, the story started in chapter 33. Look at verse 18. Moses said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. Well, who wouldn’t want to see the Shekinah glory of God? Who wouldn’t want to see a visible demonstration of the awesome might and power of God? And he needed it. He was living with rebellious people and didn’t know how to lead them, was asking God for help. And then the Lord said to him in verse 19, I’ll make all my goodness. pass before thee and I will proclaim the name of Yahweh the name of the Lord before thee and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show mercy on whom I’ll show mercy and of course he was unable to see his face but down in verse 5 of chapter 34 we have the event that God is speaking about when he’s going to proclaim the meaning of his name the Lord descended in the cloud And stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. Here is the one passage in the Bible where the Lord tells us what his name is. It’s rather lengthy. Watch this. The Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God. Actually, it would supply in English, the little word is. The Lord is God. Amen? Case closed. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. I need no more from you. That’s all I need. The Lord is God. There isn’t anything he can’t do. Now watch this. Merciful and gracious. And here’s our word. Long suffering. And abundant in goodness and truth. Keeping mercy for thousands. Forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. And that will by no means clear the guilty. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children. And upon the children’s children. Under the third and fourth generation. That doesn’t mean children are cursed because of their parents. Ezekiel clears that up and tells us. The sins of the children are never put on the parents, nor are the sins of the parents ever put on the children. What it’s talking about, if these generations continue to turn their back on him, God will continue to bring his judgment. By the way, he also will show his love and mercy to a thousand generations. It’s an idiom expressing the fact that God will respond as each generation responds to him. Now turn to the book of Numbers and look at chapter 14. Again, we’re talking about the fact that it is the character of God when we call love what it is. For God is love, not merely love and only love, but all that he is is loving in every way, shape, and form. And the character of God means the love suffers long with people. It takes a long time to boil. And that’s what we’re talking about. In Numbers 14, verse 18 and 19, we have another instance of the meaning of God’s name and his character and his attributes. Look at verse 18. The Lord is long-suffering. Once again, we have an issue of rebellion on the part of people. They deserve to be crushed. But the Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. Moses is repeating what he heard in Exodus 34. Now look what he prays. Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy. And as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt even until now. And the Lord said, I have pardoned. according to thy word God answered his prayer pardoned and forgave the people and the very first attribute that is brought to our attention in verse 18 is long suffering taking a long time to boil if we had somebody in modern literature or a journalist today write about love they would never begin with this word They would begin with some infatuation or vibes that we felt or some little selfish need in all of us. But they would not begin with the fact that that which characterizes the true love that you and I desperately need in our lives, that which is the character of God himself is long suffering. Now, to answer that question of what that is, if you’re taking notes, I want to give you just five simple things that describe the long suffering of God. Number one, and probably the most clear of all, it is slow to anger. Now, you may be making excuses with your spouse or your children or your family or your friends about your outbursts of anger. I know what that is. I get mad, you get mad. There is a time to be mad. To be mad at that which is unrighteous and unjust is certainly legitimate. But my friends, we often are mad at people in a way that is not pleasing to the Lord. We fly off the handle. There’s an outburst of anger. The long suffering which characterizes God’s love is slow death. to anger. Open your Bibles to the book of Proverbs and go to chapter 14, and let me show you what slow to anger means. And I think you’re going to be very amazed. The Bible’s very clear about what it means to be slow to anger, to have the loving, long-suffering of God characterizing us. In Proverbs 14, verse 29, it says, “…he that is slow to wrath…” Slow to anger is of great understanding. But he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly. So one thing it means is you have great understanding. Sometimes we fly off the handle because we haven’t heard the other side. Or because we don’t know the reasons why it occurred. Or because we’re too proud and arrogant to have anybody else contradict what we already believe. You are of great understanding, the Bible says, if you are slow to anger.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s David Hawking, and this is Hope for Today. David will be back to close out our time, so do stay with us. First, Matt Hawking is here, and we’re going to share a terrific home Bible study resource with you.
SPEAKER 02 :
A real boost during our school days is prepared study notes. Before a vital lecture or a test, the teacher or professor hands out an outline with key points, supplemental information, definitions, and illustrations.
SPEAKER 03 :
They guide you along and keep you on track in class and recalling the essential information of the class session. Studying for a test, for example, is much easier and more efficient.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, study notes are like a roadmap capturing the beginning, end, and everything in between, right? Including insights you might otherwise miss.
SPEAKER 03 :
And this is exactly why Hope for Today, Matt, has published the original sermon outline study notes for dozens of your dad’s, David Hawking’s, Bible teaching series. You know, and this month… We are offering a fantastic resource offer bundle. Matt, this is wonderful. We’re bundling together all of the study note packs for your dad’s Old Testament teaching series, 35 message series in this pack. Sermon note packs to help you as you listen to upcoming radio series here on Hope for Today. or to help you get the most out of a teaching series for a personal or group Bible study. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Does your dad’s sermon note pack cover each message in those books? Yep. How about powerful stories in Joshua, 1 and 2 Samuel, sermon note and outlines by your dad here? Yeah.
SPEAKER 02 :
How about the challenging book on pain, suffering, and God’s will? Or Job? Prophecy books? All the Old Testament prophecy books? Yep, they’re all covered.
SPEAKER 03 :
And even more. Again, these are your dad’s original sermon notes and outlines that he used to preach the messages for all 39 message series that we have in our catalog. These are the sermon notes for those as a package bundled together, and it’s yours for just $75. Order and download today on our website. Or call to purchase and we’ll send them to you on a PDF CD. Yeah. To order, call 875-BIBLE. That’s in the U.S. 875-242-53. In Canada, call 888-75-BIBLE, 888-75-24253. You can also order anytime you like at davidhawking.org. Hey, and before David returns, I want to let you quickly know that when you give to Hope for Today, when you make a donation, you help make sure this kind of clear, strong, verse-by-verse Bible teaching continues day after day. Thank you for joining us. Or maybe they can’t walk into a church. It helps us encourage believers who are weary or standing alone and strengthen people who are hungry for the truth in a time when so much is shallow, soft, or compromised. Your giving also helps us continue making trustworthy biblical resources available through this ministry so that people can keep growing in their understanding of the scriptures long after the broadcast ends. So if the Lord leads you to stand with us with a donation that’s beyond any resource you might purchase, we would be deeply grateful for your help. Call us at 1-800-75-BIBLE. That’s in the U.S., 888-75-BIBLE in Canada. And again, Bible by the numbers 24253. You can give online if you like at DavidHocking.org. And if you’d rather send a gift by mail in the U.S., write to HopeForToday.org. Box 3927, Tustin, California. That’s Tustin, T-U-S-T-I-N, California, 92781. In Canada, write to Hope for Today, Box 15011, RP07OAKS, Abbotsford, Abbotsford is A-B-B-O-T-S-F-O-R-D-B-C-V-2-S-H-P-1.
SPEAKER 01 :
And let’s get back to David. While we’re continuing our study of 1 Corinthians 13, let me mention to you that my commentary on this entire chapter, rather lengthy commentary, 1 Corinthians 13, called Love is the Greatest. You want to get a copy of it from us, just call. They’ll be glad to help you. Or you can order off our website on the front page. And our website is davidhocking.org. You can also listen to the radio broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And I hope it will be an encouragement to your heart. This series on 1 Corinthians 13 is so strategic to our understanding. And from chapter 13, verse 4, down to verse 7, he is describing love, giving characteristics of it. Actually, there’s two positives that begin that section, that paragraph in the Greek language. One is that charity or love suffers long. In other words, it’s patient. And number two is that it’s kind. Then to describe both patience and kindness, there are eight negatives. And we’re going to go over every one. And I hope that it will really help you to understand what love is. Then in verse 7, he switches from loving people to the matter of circumstances and how love will sustain you in all the difficult times. God bless you, and thanks for listening to Hope for Today.
SPEAKER 03 :
Thank you, David. And hey, one more thing before we go today. Let us know where you’re listening from. Now, that may sound simple, but it matters. It helps us know where this broadcast is being heard, where God is opening doors, and how to be good stewards of the money he provides through his people. We don’t want to guess. We want to handle this ministry with wisdom, honesty, and gratefulness before the Lord. So when you call or write, tell us the city and station where you hear the program and how you found Hope for Today. That information really does help. Tomorrow on the program, David continues this message called How Love Really Works. 1 Corinthians 13 doesn’t give us a soft or polished version of love. It gives us God’s standard, the kind of love that doesn’t parade itself, doesn’t keep score, and doesn’t walk away from the truth. We’ll be back in 1 Corinthians 13 next time on Hope for Today. Hope for Today
