Heaven's Point of View

The Supremacy of Love

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: J. D. Quinn (Host), Tom Shepherd

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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.


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Revised 2016-02-25