Participants: J. D. Quinn (Host), Tom Shepherd
Series Code: HPOV
Program Code: HPOV000025A
00:16 Welcome to Heaven's Point Of View.
00:18 We have a very wonderful time in store for you today. 00:23 We're gonna be talking about a series called 00:26 Love, Marriage, Sex and Divorce according to The New Testament. 00:30 And it is my privilege to introduce to you 00:33 our host Dr. Tom Sheperd. 00:38 Now Dr. Tom Sheperd, 00:39 he has so many degrees that it gets me confused 00:43 and so I think what I'd like to do right now. 00:45 Tell us a little bit about, something about you, Tom. 00:48 And then we'll go from there. 00:51 Well, I grew up in California. 00:54 And when I was sometime later was a teacher 00:57 in Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska 00:59 and I mentioned that. 01:01 And somebody said "Well, we'll forgive you for that." 01:04 Really, that's a great university. 01:07 I, I went to school the Civic Union College 01:10 in Northern California. 01:11 And then I went to Loma Linda University. 01:14 I did the theology in under graduate. 01:15 Then I went to Loma Linda University, 01:17 the school of public health 01:18 and I did a masters in public health 01:19 and public health nutrition 01:22 and what they call then the doctor of health science 01:24 but now it's been grandfathered 01:26 into what they call the doctor of public health. 01:28 So it's a public health training degrees 01:30 and so some of what we talk about in these programs, 01:32 we just get into a little bit of our health statistics 01:34 a little bit as we talked about marriage-- 01:38 Then my wife, I met my wife at Loma Linda, an MD. 01:42 And her first name? 01:43 Sherry. Sherry. 01:44 Yeah. Amen. 01:46 And we went to Illinois 01:47 and we were there for several years. 01:49 Then we went as missionaries to Africa in Malawi. 01:51 Oh, my goodness. 01:52 And there I used my public health training a lot 01:55 but eventually I felt like 01:56 you know, I want to, something closer 01:58 to the ministry of the scriptures. 02:00 I was trained in theology and pastoral work. 02:04 And so came back to Andrews, 02:05 did the MA and PhD in New Testament. 02:08 Oh, my goodness. 02:09 Too much, yeah. 02:10 And then we were missionaries in Brazil 02:12 for two and half years. 02:14 And then at Union College 13 years. 02:15 Now I'm at the Andrews University, 02:18 been there for, since 2008. 02:20 Amen. 02:22 And Andrews is a great place to work. 02:24 I work with the group of people in the seminary. 02:27 Wonderful faculty, it's a great school, 02:29 we have about 350 students in the seminary itself about, 02:33 oh, I guess about maybe, what is it, 02:36 I don't know 3000 or something in the whole university. 02:40 I tell you something about Andrews. 02:41 It's interesting. 02:43 Andrews recently started a project. 02:45 It came from the president of our university. 02:50 We want to become 02:51 the healthiest university in the United States. 02:53 Amen. That's our goal. 02:55 Now how do you do this? 02:56 Well, if they've got this one thing 02:58 that they're doing, it's a project 02:59 to have this wonderful wellness center 03:01 that they want to develop. 03:02 But we have a group of people 03:04 who are actually looking for a wellness director where, 03:08 and I'm on their search committee. 03:09 I like to keep my fingers in that public health stuff. 03:12 And I'm the chair in the seminary 03:14 of something we called the health promotion committee. 03:16 So we are trying to help people, 03:19 give people good health information. 03:21 Develop a program so they can be involved 03:24 in walking and cooking school. 03:26 We did a wellness fair one time. 03:30 And, and then structural change, 03:33 you know, how do you change things, 03:34 how do we do things 03:36 that are harming people's health, 03:38 what can we change to make it work better. 03:40 You know, like in lunch hour, like a culture of movement, 03:43 getting people walking and stuff like that 03:45 so it's kind of be exciting. 03:46 So I still keep my hands little bit 03:48 in that public health stuff. 03:49 Amen. 03:50 Did you pick up all of those degrees? 03:53 It just absolutely amazes me. 03:56 Now I'm J.D. Quinn, 03:57 I'm the co-host and I'm a student here today. 04:02 So this is gonna be exciting for me. 04:04 Now I think that we're talking about love, marriage, 04:08 we're talking about sex and divorce 04:10 according to the New Testament 04:11 because this is your specialty, the New Testament. 04:14 Exactly. 04:15 Now let's back up a little bit and have a short review 04:18 over the definitions of love 04:20 that you've covered up to this part 04:22 because we're gonna go into agape love. 04:25 But what other kind of loves is defined out there? 04:29 Well, in our first two programs 04:31 we described a love in the Old Testament, 04:33 we looked at the rare words and the common words. 04:35 The most common words were ahab and hesed 04:38 and these two different concepts, 04:40 we described particularly, hesed. 04:42 It is one my favorites. 04:44 It's a loving kindness, this idea of, 04:45 of God's loving-kindness 04:47 and enjoying loving-kindness to one other. 04:49 When we came to the New Testament, 04:50 we noticed the four different Greek words. 04:53 Two of which don't even appear in the New Testament, 04:55 surprisingly for most people the word Eros 04:58 which we get the word erotic but physical love 05:01 that term doesn't even appear in the New Testament. 05:03 It was you know, it was a pagan terminology, 05:07 it was pagan god named Eros. 05:09 And actually, the Old Testament translated into Greek 05:13 didn't, tended to focus on the word agape and agapao. 05:16 And so they used that, so the two terms 05:18 used in the New Testament are philos or phileo, 05:22 which is friendship love and then it's agape love, 05:25 agapa is the verb which means the love of God 05:28 and the kind of love that He shows. 05:30 And the passage we're gonna look at today 05:32 is the epitome of this whole idea 05:36 of agape love is 1 Corinthians 13. 05:39 I think that 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter. 05:44 That's right. Amen. 05:46 One that we should read a lot 05:48 and so we want to read the passage 05:50 through if you read that, what version are you using? 05:53 I'm using the New King James. New King James. 05:55 I have the ESV, the English Standard Version, 05:58 English Standard so between the two of us. 06:00 We get some good stuff. We get some good stuff. 06:02 Okay. 06:05 Would you like for me to start now? 06:07 Please. Okay. 06:08 This is 1 Corinthians 13, 06:11 "Though I speak with the tongues of men 06:13 and of angels, but have not love, 06:16 I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 06:21 And though I have the gift of prophecy, 06:23 and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge, 06:26 and though I have all faith, 06:28 so that I could remove mountains, 06:30 but have not love, I am nothing. 06:33 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, 06:36 and though I give my body to be burned, 06:39 but have not love, it profits me nothing. 06:42 Love suffers long and it's kind, 06:45 love does not envy, 06:46 love does not parade itself, it's not puffed up. 06:49 It does not behave rudely, it does not seek its own, 06:54 it's not provoked, it thinks no evil. 06:56 It does not rejoice in iniquity but rejoice is in the truth, 07:00 it bears all things, it believes all things, 07:03 it hopes all things and it endures all things. 07:07 Love never fails 07:09 but whether there are prophecies 07:11 they will fail. 07:13 Whether there are tongues they will cease, 07:15 whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 07:18 For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 07:22 But when that which is perfect has come, 07:26 then that which is in part will be done away. 07:30 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, 07:32 I understood as a child, I thought as a child. 07:35 but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 07:39 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, 07:41 but then fact to face. 07:44 Now I know in part, 07:45 but then I shall know just as I am also known. 07:50 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three, 07:55 but the greatest of these is love." 07:58 Wow, amen. Beautiful. 08:01 It's almost like a poem. 08:02 Wow. 08:03 Almost like poetry. Amen, amen. 08:06 Now when you look at this passage, 08:09 it actually breaks down into three sections. 08:12 Into three sections. Yeah. 08:14 The first is section is in verses 1 to 3, 08:17 we could call it the absence of love 08:20 because he describes what it's like, 08:22 if you don't have love. 08:24 "But have not love." Yep. 08:25 And verses 4 to 7, 08:28 we could speak of the actions of love. 08:32 Some people would want to say the definition of love 08:34 but I think it's probably better to say 08:36 the actions of love. 08:37 I like, I like action better. 08:38 Yeah, and then the last section, 08:41 verses 8 to 13 is about the supremacy of love. 08:44 Oh, yes. Okay. 08:47 Okay, so now are you gonna explain, explain one of-- 08:50 starting with one of them or-- 08:52 Yeah, we'll start with the first section. 08:53 Okay. 08:54 Yeah, so we, we look back there. 08:56 So we're looking at the absence of love. 08:57 The absence of love, this is verses 1 to 3. 09:00 So Paul starts off, he uses three examples. 09:04 He talks about speaking in tongues, 09:09 the gift of prophecy, 09:11 mysteries, knowledge, faith and giving up everything. 09:16 Wow. 09:17 So before we get too far into that 09:20 we ought to, we ought to 09:21 set this whole chapter in its context. 09:23 Okay. Okay. 09:26 The context is Ancient Corinth. 09:29 This was a church 09:30 you would not want to be the pastor of. 09:33 They were-- And why not? 09:34 Well, they were people with so many troubles. 09:37 They had factionalism. 09:39 They had somebody involved in incest. 09:42 They had people involved in sexual immorality on one side 09:46 and then on the other side people involved in asceticism, 09:49 it said maybe even that if you're married, 09:52 you shouldn't have sex even if you're married. 09:54 They were people that were-- 09:56 giving the gift of tongues all mixed up, 09:58 they had misunderstanding about the Lord supper. 10:01 They didn't understand well about the resurrection. 10:04 I mean, on top-- 10:05 So their doctrine was just all over the place, 10:08 if there was. 10:09 It was a mess. Yeah. 10:10 You know, it was mess. 10:12 So Paul dialogues with this sick church. 10:14 You know, it's a church with trouble and problems. 10:17 And he actually, probably had 10:19 about the most difficult relationship 10:21 with any other churches that he helped to established, 10:23 he had the most difficulty with this church. 10:26 And he writes two different letters 10:27 and you read you know, 10:29 the way he has to argue and everything. 10:30 They were people there that didn't trust him. 10:33 And that, that is really hard 10:35 to deal with if you're a pastor. 10:36 You bet. Now so-- 10:38 You got nothing to build on really, I mean. 10:39 Yeah, in this section of the book, 10:42 he is talking about spiritual gifts. 10:45 Okay. 10:46 He is describing spiritual gifts 10:48 and he talks about things like prophecy. 10:52 He talks about the gift of tongues, 10:54 he talks about all kinds of other gifts 10:57 that you would have, apostles, the gift of being a teacher 11:01 or miracles, administrations this is all in chapter 12 11:04 where he describes these kind of things. 11:07 And he asked a question, 11:09 series of questions at the end of chapter 12, 11:13 does, is everybody an apostle, 11:15 does everybody have the gift of tongues, 11:17 does everybody heal, does everybody-- 11:19 And the answer that he expects because there is a way in Greek 11:22 to tell what answer you're expecting, 11:25 the answer he expects is no. 11:27 They're, not everybody has this. 11:29 And then, he introduces this chapter and says, 11:30 I'm gonna show you even a better way. 11:33 The better way is the way of love. 11:35 So he plunks us down, right in the middle 11:37 when he goes to chapter 14, 11:39 he comes back to prophecy and tongues again. 11:41 So he imbeds 1 Corinthians 13 right in the midst 11:45 of the whole discussion of spiritual gifts. 11:47 And that's what makes it so powerful 11:50 because he says, you know, 11:52 what if you have all the spiritual gifts, 11:55 but you don't have love. 11:57 So he starts off, what if I have-- 11:59 He is a very bright man and-- 12:00 Very bring man and if he starts off 12:02 and he says, "If you have the tongues of 12:04 you can speak with the tongues of men and of angels.'' 12:06 I mean, this is somebody who is a better preacher 12:08 than, than Mark Finley 12:11 or better preacher than any preacher you ever heard. 12:13 You know, he's just got silver spoon in his tongue. 12:16 I mean, he can say anything 12:18 and it's just, just blow you away. 12:20 You'll be so impress with it. 12:21 He says, "But if you don't have love, 12:25 it's just like you lost the ability to talk 12:28 and you're just a cymbal that people are just clanging, 12:30 a bell that's clanging there. 12:32 Now I'm assuming that brass probably didn't have much of, 12:35 it's probably more of a thug, 12:36 thug rather than something sharp and clear. 12:39 Yeah, might not be so it's sharp and clear. 12:40 Well, it's a difference between human speech 12:44 and any kind of metal. 12:48 You know, they can make a sound but it's not a voice. 12:52 Right so that's what happens when you don't have love, 12:54 you lose your voice. 12:56 Then he talks about prophetic powers 12:59 and mysteries and knowledge and faith. 13:02 And the overriding word 13:05 that he uses again and again there is the word, all. 13:07 All. 13:08 If I have all of this and all of this 13:10 and all of this and all of this 13:12 but I don't have love, I am nothing. 13:16 It just profits me nothing. 13:17 A big zero. 13:19 Yeah, he is pushing into the limit 13:22 whenever he's saying all. 13:24 Yeah, he has, he has this contrast 13:25 that he sets up, it's all or it's nothing. 13:28 And when you have, when you have all that stuff 13:30 but you don't have love. 13:32 What you have is nothing. Yeah. 13:33 Then he talks about if I give everything away 13:37 and if I deliver up my body to be burned 13:40 but I don't have love, I gained nothing. 13:43 So this would be kind of a sense of a martyr, 13:45 a person who gives, he is a philanthropist 13:47 and he gives everything. 13:49 But if you don't have the love motive underneath it, 13:52 you don't really gain any honor from it 13:54 because it's all based on the wrong kind of motives. 13:57 So if love is missing, 14:00 your life is really devoid of what it needs. 14:03 No, kind of like, I mentioned a while ago, 14:04 you have no foundations build anything off of. 14:07 Yeah. 14:08 Do you think that they understood it, 14:10 I mean, was he talking their language? 14:12 Oh, yes. 14:14 What they were interested in was tongues, 14:16 they were interested in prophecy 14:18 and all these other kinds of things. 14:20 There was a honor shame society and they would tried to 14:23 you know, focus and emphasizing get everything all lined up. 14:27 In their society you did things that increased your honor 14:29 and you're avoided things 14:31 that made you increased your shame. 14:32 So you try to have all the stuff all lined up 14:35 so he's, now he is very much talking to them 14:38 and saying, look if you have all that stuff 14:40 but you don't have love, 14:42 your life is devoid of its meaning 14:45 that you're trying to grasp at. 14:47 All right so the next thing he comes to-- 14:53 I guess we are looking at the second. 14:54 That's right. Right. 14:56 Number two. You know, the second part. 14:58 Is verses four to seven, 15:00 maybe we should read it again just to-- 15:02 Yeah, man, this is strong. It is. 15:05 "Love suffers long and it's kind, 15:08 love does not envy, 15:09 love does not parade itself, and it's not puffed up. 15:12 It does not behave rudely, it does not seek its own, 15:16 it's not provoked and it thinks no evil. 15:19 It does not rejoice in iniquity but rejoices is in the truth, 15:23 it bears all things, believes all things, 15:26 hopes all things and it endures all things." 15:29 Yeah, it's a beautiful, beautiful section. 15:31 Now the first point that we should make here 15:36 is that everything that Paul says 15:38 about love is a verb. 15:42 Okay. 15:43 Now usually when we get this into English 15:46 and we say I like the way your New King James said it, 15:50 "Love suffers long." 15:52 Yeah, mine says, my ESV says, "love is patient." 15:57 Well, patient is an adjective. 15:59 "Love is patient and kind," it says. 16:01 And kind is an adjective. 16:03 But actually, in Greek these are all verbs. 16:06 All right, so the first thing to remember 16:08 and this one he's defining love, 16:10 is that love is something you do. 16:12 Yeah, it's action. 16:14 Yeah, it's an action. 16:15 Now there are the-- 16:16 some of these verbs are kind of stative, 16:18 that means like being a kind of sense sort to it 16:20 so it's not wrong to translate love is patient and kind. 16:24 But I like trying to put it into everything in verbal sense 16:28 in translating so love acts patiently, 16:31 love acts kindly, so people get that look, 16:34 love is something you do, 16:37 which is quite reminiscent of the Old Testament word hesed 16:41 that we studied earlier, 16:42 which focuses on action, things that you do for people, 16:48 you do loving-kindness towards them, 16:50 God does loving-kindness towards us. 16:52 So the love of God is an active love. 16:56 And the love of God in the Christians life 16:59 is to be an active kind of a love and-- 17:03 So basically, now we've got away from that, 17:05 from say the Old Testament. 17:07 And now we're going to more and where we are right now, 17:11 more of an adjective type. 17:13 Well, the way sometimes it's translated 17:14 but actually Paul is verbal. 17:16 Yeah, now he is coming back around though 17:18 now I see bringing it back to their attention. 17:20 Well, he is bringing to their attention 17:22 but he what he really wants to show them 17:23 is that love is something you do. 17:26 Okay. 17:27 Which is honoring, okay. 17:29 Here, here is a church 17:30 that's all messed up with factions 17:31 and sexual misconduct and all kinds of things 17:34 and he says, what you need to do 17:35 is get back to the actions of love. 17:37 Agape love, that is the love of God. 17:39 Now it's really interesting to look at this. 17:42 There are six things he affirms about love, 17:45 he says, love is like this or love acts this way. 17:48 And there is kind of two transitional terms 17:50 and then there are seven negations. 17:53 There are things that love does 17:55 and the things that love does not do. 17:57 Okay, so the, 17:59 the six affirmations are like this, 18:00 love acts patiently, you might say love waits. 18:04 Amen. 18:05 "And love acts kindly, that is, love shows mercy. 18:09 It keeps all confidential, 18:12 it believes in all, it hopes for all, 18:14 it patiently endures all things." 18:17 Okay. Those are the affirmations. 18:19 Then there is these two transitions. 18:21 I call them transitions 18:22 because they kind of link together 18:24 kind of like hooks. 18:26 One says, it does not rejoice in injustice 18:29 of course, that's a negation 18:30 but then it says, it rejoices in the truth. 18:33 All right, so those two kinds of go together. 18:36 And then he comes to his some of his negations. 18:39 He says, it does not act jealously. 18:42 It does not brag, 18:43 some of this comes before the transition part. 18:45 It does not jealously, does not brag, 18:47 it does not put on airs, it does not act shamefully, 18:50 it does not seek its own advantage, 18:52 it does not burst out in anger, 18:53 it does not keep track of wrongs. 18:56 Now if I said that to you 18:58 and you were to look at all these terminologies, 19:01 what, is there any kind of overriding concept says to you, 19:05 wow, that's what love is really like? 19:06 Yeah. 19:08 Well, yes. 19:11 Yeah, what would you, what kind of concept 19:13 especially links up for you, you have some-- 19:16 Let me share a little bit. Okay. 19:18 I'm interested in the focus here on 19:21 it keeps confidences 19:22 I like the idea that it doesn't-- 19:27 when, when somebody goes wrong, 19:29 it doesn't parade that out in front of other people. 19:32 Yes. 19:33 It keeps quite when things go bad 19:35 but when the person does right, 19:37 it's there cheering on the sidelines. 19:39 Amen. Affirmations, yes. 19:40 Yeah, it gives them affirmation so it keeps quite over failure. 19:44 Yes. Yeah. 19:46 I also noticed there is an interesting focus 19:49 here on the issue of anger. 19:50 Yes. 19:52 It does not burst out in anger. 19:54 The term actually we get, 19:56 an English word from of this, paroxysm. 19:59 That's when somebody just oh, just burst out in anger, 20:02 a paroxysm of anger they call it. 20:04 It comes from a Greek word, that's right in here. 20:06 And love doesn't act that way, 20:09 you know, when in the home somebody you know, 20:14 burst off into anger, that's not the loving way. 20:16 That's not the Christian way to approach things. 20:18 Oh, boy, just seems like, 20:20 boy, you think of today domestic violence. 20:23 Yes. Man, that's-- 20:25 That's completely out of line. Yeah. 20:27 I mean, wow, this is really interesting stuff here 20:31 because today, we've got a long ways away 20:35 from verses 4 through 7 here. 20:38 Now I just give a little preview 20:41 when, when we're gonna talk about Christian marriage. 20:43 This is the kind of love that Paul is talking about 20:46 in Christian marriage. 20:47 This is what he expects people to, to do. 20:51 There is another interesting here that 20:52 it, it doesn't keep track of wrongs. 20:56 Amen. 20:57 You and I are probably old enough 20:58 to remember what green stamps are. 21:00 Yes. 21:01 S&H green stamp. 21:03 Yeah, S&H green stamp, we have to explain this 21:05 for those who are little younger. 21:06 You used to go to as a store and when buy some food, 21:09 they would have this little machine 21:10 and they would, all the food that you got, 21:12 you got little stamps 21:14 and then they had all these books 21:15 that you would glue them into. 21:17 Probably people today are like 21:19 "Now, why would you want to do that?" 21:20 But you would glue them in 21:22 and then they had these redemption stores. 21:24 And you can take like 20 of these books 21:26 and get a toaster. 21:27 You know, and if you saved up thousands of these books, 21:30 you could get a trip to Hawaii. 21:32 I remember-- 21:34 So you know, you saved up the green stamps. 21:36 Now some people are saving green stamps in their marriage. 21:41 And what they do is, they know that this, 21:44 you know, kind of this instruction says, 21:46 you know, you're not supposed to act in this way, 21:49 you're not supposed to get angry. 21:50 All right. 21:52 And so they, they don't get angry, 21:55 they don't burst out in anger 21:56 but they put the green stamp in the book. 22:00 But you know, but I'm gonna remember 22:02 what happened here you know, 22:04 and then they, so they keep adding them on 22:06 into the book you know, 22:07 and then when they get the last stamp in the book, 22:10 some little things you know, she burned the toast 22:13 or something like that, some little thing, 22:15 cash in the book and explodes in anger 22:17 and the other, your spouse is like-- 22:19 "Uh, what did I do?" 22:23 Because the person didn't communicate overtime 22:25 to keep the other person in aware of, 22:29 you know, what was hurting them, 22:30 what was painful to them, 22:32 where there were challenge is in their life. 22:34 And they just burst out at the end. 22:36 I mean, that's not really the way of love 22:38 and keep each other-- 22:40 From as far away 22:42 as love suffers long and it's kind. 22:45 I mean, that's really getting away from. 22:47 But I notice, I know that 22:50 lot of this goes on today in homes 22:52 and it just breaks your heart. 22:54 Yeah. 22:55 I know that, Shelley and I do a lot of counseling 22:59 and conflict resolution is a big one. 23:02 That's just one, if you ask what would like to work on, 23:05 how do we handle conflicts? 23:08 And oh, this is fantastic. 23:11 Well, let's go back to 1 Corinthians 13. 23:14 So we got to go now down to the last section. 23:18 Which is all about 23:19 how Paul illustrates the supremacy of love? 23:21 The supremacy of love. 23:22 So remember he has placed this 23:24 in the context of the spiritual gifts 23:27 that he's talking about where the Corinthians for them, 23:31 I mean, speaking in tongues, 23:32 speaking prophecy whatever you think that is, 23:35 you know, they were, they were, that was big stuff for them. 23:38 This was like you go to church 23:39 and this is a really where it's at. 23:41 And so Paul comes back to that and he says, love never ends. 23:47 As for prophecies 23:50 oh, that things that you love so much, 23:52 Corinthian Church, that stuff that's really mean to you, 23:55 guess what's gonna happen to that. 23:57 It's all gonna pass away. 23:59 Oh, those tongues you love to speak in, 24:01 they will cease. 24:03 They'll vanish. 24:04 Knowledge, it will pass away. 24:06 Well, why Paul, why is it gonna pass away? 24:08 "For we know in part, and we prophesy in part." 24:12 So our prophecy, even today, 24:15 you know, we study the prophecies of the Bible, 24:18 they are wonderful prophecies. 24:20 But they don't explain every single thing. 24:22 They're just partial. 24:24 We're like people who were looking through, 24:28 you know, just the fog trying to understand 24:30 where things are headed, when is Jesus coming back 24:33 and some of those kinds of issues. 24:36 And Paul says, you know, as good as prophecy is, 24:39 as good as tongue is are they, they're just partial. 24:43 But when the perfect comes 24:44 so now, now he's going to start talking about 24:48 several comparisons 24:50 to show how partiality is replaced by 24:54 that which is complete, that which is full, okay. 24:58 So he says, when the perfect comes 25:01 the partial will pass away 25:03 and he tells a story about childhood. 25:04 Amen. 25:06 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, 25:09 I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. 25:12 Now I have some grandchildren, do you have some grandchildren? 25:14 No, but we have a lot of spiritual grandchildren. 25:17 Oh, that's nice. 25:18 Amen. That's nice. 25:20 I've got five grandchildren, I'm a very rich man. 25:21 You're a very rich man. 25:24 And those are the kids-- And it's so exciting. 25:26 Oh my, I've got this little three year old 25:28 and he's talking you know, he's making little senses 25:30 and describing things you know, 25:33 so it's, talking with him is so cute. 25:35 But if that was what was happening 25:37 when he was 15, 25:38 or when he was 20 that would be sad. 25:41 We got, we got an issue. 25:42 So Paul says, when I became a man, 25:45 I gave up childish way. 25:47 So he's-- he's really illustrating 25:48 how the partial is gonna be replaced by the mature. 25:53 "For now we see in a mirror dimly." 25:56 I like the way the, the New English Version puts 26:00 that says, "we see the puzzling reflections in the mirror." 26:05 The mirror is back then we're not shiny 26:07 and like ours-- 26:09 You know, he says, we see the puzzling reflections, 26:11 like we can't totally understand 26:13 where things are headed 26:15 but then face to face, from where we get that song 26:18 "Face to face with Christ my savior. 26:20 "So now I know in part, then I shall know fully 26:22 even as I've been fully known." 26:24 So then he comes to the three that always abide, 26:26 faith, hope and love. 26:29 But he says, that the greatest of these items is love. 26:33 Isn't it a beautiful chapter? 26:34 I mean, I just to-- yes, it is. 26:38 We have an older couple 26:40 that every Sabbath they read this to each other. 26:44 You know, and I've always thought 26:45 that's my intention, 26:47 Shirley, is to do that some day, 26:50 you know, whenever I get pass 26:51 this childish stage into manhood, 26:55 well, I want to do it because I've just-- 26:57 Yeah, Ellen White actually says 26:58 that it would be good to read this chapter everyday, 27:01 we go to meditate on it, you know, memorize it. 27:04 And it really illustrates the kind of love 27:08 that is to be in our marriages. 27:09 Now the only way to get this love 27:11 is for the power of the Holy Spirit, 27:13 the power of God to work in our life 27:14 because it's not something we can manufacture on our own. 27:17 Yes. Not at all. 27:18 You'll never be in completely manhood 27:22 or adulthood or maturity 27:25 without the aid of the Holy Spirit. 27:26 Exactly. Amen, amen. 27:28 All right. 27:29 So it's a, it's a wonderful passage, 27:32 enjoyable to, to ponder 27:34 and to understand the great definition 27:36 the Paul brings to us. 27:37 This is the definition we have to keep in mind 27:39 as we come to Ephesians 5 27:41 when we talk about Christian marriage. 27:42 Agape love, agape love, just remember that, A-G-A-P-E. 27:48 I want to thank you 27:49 for spending this 30 minutes with us. 27:51 I hope that you've gleaned some affirmation over here. 27:56 It helps make some things clear. 27:58 I love the way that Dr. Tom Sheperd teaches. 28:02 Calmly, resolutely and just, 28:06 just thank you Jesus for being here. 28:08 God bless you. |
Revised 2016-02-25