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Colin Smith: I’m wholly persuaded that the greatest need of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ today is a fresh outpouring and filling of faith and of hope and of love. When we are filled with faith, hope, and love, we will shine like lights in this world, and people who are in darkness will be drawn to the shining light.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I’m Steve Hiller, glad you’re with us today. Colin, where have you seen this play out?

Colin Smith: Well, all around me. In the church that I’m privileged to serve as senior pastor. The initiatives that Christian believers take that express the love of Christ in people’s hearts. People who go and serve in prison and seek to help people who are coming out of prison.

People who drop everything and will drive to areas where there has been a natural disaster and will help with disaster relief. A young mother who’s started a club after school for children that don’t have a place to go. I mean, it’s just wonderful to see how God’s people reflect the love of Christ by taking initiatives that shine like lights in the darkness of the world that is around us.

And of course, this is why we’re all wanting to grow in love, so that a reflection of the love of Christ may actually become visible to other people who are around us.

Steve Hiller: Well, we’re in the book of 1 Corinthians. We’re in chapter 13 as we begin our message called "Love Is Our Greatest Need." Here is Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Last week, we saw that we must grow in love because love is our distinct calling. Jesus said, "A new commandment I give to you, that you must love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must love one another. By this," Jesus said, "by this, by you loving one another, all people will know that you are my disciples." So this is the distinctive mark, the distinct calling of the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And our world, of course, is becoming increasingly angry and divided, and the natural response to more anger and hostility in the world is going to be more anger and hostility in churches as well. But Jesus calls us to something different. Here’s our distinct calling: "By this, by the fact that you love one another, people will know," Jesus says, "that you are my disciples."

And our Lord does not present this as an option. It’s a commandment. "A new commandment I give to you," Jesus says. So love is our distinct calling, and as the world becomes harsher and harsher, our calling will become all the more distinct. That’s why I’m wholly persuaded that the greatest need of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ today is a fresh outpouring and filling of faith and of hope and of love.

When we are filled with faith, hope, and love, we will shine like lights in this world, and people who are in darkness will be drawn to the shining light. Now, 1 Corinthians 13 gives us three reasons for pursuing love. We looked at the first of these last week. Love is essential for effective ministry.

In the first three verses of this marvelous chapter, Paul identifies six gifts that are given to Christian believers. He speaks to us about eloquent speech, about spiritual experiences, about brilliant minds, about outstanding achievements, unusual generosity, and courageous commitment. These are all marvelous gifts from the hand of God.

But we saw last time that every gift brings its own unique temptation, and Paul warns us that it is possible to engage in ministry without love. And that if we exercise our gifts without love, then we will gain nothing. And we noticed how remarkable it is that Paul offers himself of all people as the example.

He speaks in the first person. This great apostle says, "If I do not have love, then all of my speaking and all of my spiritual experience is nothing more than a repulsive noise. And if I do not have love, then despite all of my knowledge and all of my grasp of theology and all of my work of planting churches, despite all that, I am nothing," he says.

"And if I do not have love, then despite all I have given, all I have sacrificed, and all I have suffered, I will gain nothing." And if that was true for the Apostle Paul, how much more is it true for me and for you? We all need to grow in love because love is essential for effective ministry.

So I’m inviting you to join me in asking God that we will grow in love this year, that we will pursue this as a priority together. If you’re married, ask God that this year you will grow in love for your spouse, that your love will be deepened, that your love will be refreshed, and that your love will be renewed.

Now, you provide for another person, you work, you maintain a home, but always remember it’s possible to do these things with very little love. If you have children, ask God to renew your love for your children. I mean, you work tirelessly for them. You provide for them, a home, the best education you possibly can, but you know it’s possible to do all of these things with very little love.

If you’re employed, ask God that you will grow in love for your colleagues. You know, it’s possible to be very efficient, very effective at work, but to remain detached and actually to show very little love to the people who are around you. Think about your neighbors and your friends, some of whom will not know the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ask God that you will grow in love for them. You don’t want to be a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal when you speak to them. And then think about someone with whom you deeply disagree. Think now about someone with whom you might easily end up in conflict. Who is it that comes to your mind?

Ask God that you will grow in love for that person. Ask him that you will grow in love for him or for her. And then ask Christ that you will grow in love for his church. Remember that Christ loves the church. The church is the bride of Christ, and he loves her with all of her many blemishes and imperfections.

Ask him that you may grow in love for his church, too. And then ask Christ that you will grow in love for a lost world. God so loved the world. Ask God to deepen your compassion for the needs of other people around you and then to move you to take initiative and to greater endeavor. Love is the fountain of all effective ministry, and effective ministry is impossible without love. So grow in love.

Steve Hiller: You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and a message entitled "Love Is Our Greatest Need," part of a series called Grow in Love. And if you ever miss a broadcast in the series, you can always come and listen online. Our website is openthebible.org. There you can stream the program or download an MP3 for free.

You can also listen through the Open the Bible app. The app is free, you’ll find it at your app store. It’s a great way to stay connected with Pastor Colin’s teaching when you’re on the go. Well, if you did join us a little late, you might not be surprised since we’re looking at the topic of love that we’re in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 today.

Again, looking at the question of why we should grow in love. Again, we’ve looked at why love is essential for effective ministry. Let’s head back and take a look at reason number two. Here’s Colin.

Colin Smith: Today we’re coming to the second and the third reason for pursuing love here in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Why should we grow in love? Well, the Apostle Paul makes very clear here that love will equip us for life. Paul identifies six ways in which growing in love will change you and equip you for life.

Let’s look at these wonderful words beginning at verse 4: "Love is patient and kind." Now, it would be very easy to misread these verses and to feel completely and utterly overwhelmed by a sense of your own failure when you get to the end of them.

And the good news is that if you have felt overwhelmed by a sense of your own failure in reading these verses, it is very likely that you have not understood them correctly. Let me give you an illustration. Think with me for a moment about baking a cake. The first thing that you need to do is to get the ingredients.

You need the butter and the flour and the eggs and the sugar. So you get all your ingredients out on the counter, and you mix them together, and then you put them into the oven. But without the ingredients, you can’t bake the cake. Now, when you read these verses, it may sound like a list of ingredients.

Love is patient, love is kind, love does not envy, it is not irritable, it does not insist on its own way. And so, you see, someone might read this and say, "Well now, this is very clear. If I’m to have love, I need to have the ingredients. I have to be patient, I have to be kind, I have to get rid of all envy, I have to stop being irritable, I have to quit insisting on my own way."

But here’s the problem: I don’t have the ingredients. I’m not very patient. I’m not very kind. I struggle with envy. Too often I’m irritable, and in all honesty, I really like getting my own way. I don’t have the ingredients. So then how can I grow in love? Well now, thank God these verses are not telling us what we need to have in order to grow in love.

What these verses are telling us is what love will do for us. It’s telling us what love will give to us. It’s telling us what we will receive when we have love. So please now forget the picture of baking the cake, because that’s not the right way to understand these verses. And think about a different picture.

Think about a tree that is bearing beautiful fruit. And now hear these words again. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not envy. Love is not irritable. Love does not insist on its own way. You see, this is telling us that if you have love, you will have all of this good fruit growing in your life.

If you have love and you’re growing in love, you will have patience. You’ll grow in kindness. The more you have love, the more you’ll find that you’re not envying and not irritable and not insisting on your own way. The good fruit that love brings will flourish in your life as you grow in love.

Paul is telling us why it is that love is the supreme gift. Why is this the thing we should be going after? Why is it so valuable? That’s what the whole chapter is about. And in these verses, he’s telling us that love is of supreme value because of the marvelous fruit that it will bear in your life.

So I want you to try and take the hope and encouragement that is in these wonderful verses that are before us today. Some people are going to try your patience. I mean, this is just a normal part of life. It happens to all of us. But when someone tries your patience, you’re going to be tempted to be harsh in return.

But what this is telling us is that if you have love, you’re going to be patient. And if you have love, you’re going to be kind. In other words, love will actually restrain the impulse of your flesh to respond in anger when someone hurts you. Love is going to lead you to trust God for that person’s repentance.

And you’ll wait for it patiently even if there isn’t any sign of it on the horizon. And what are you going to do while you’re waiting to see that repentance? Well, you’re going to be kind. This is how God has loved us. It is his kindness that leads us to repentance. Love will produce the good fruit of patience and of kindness in you.

They are the fruits of growing in love. And then there’s more because that’s just the beginning. Look at what he says: "Love does not envy." Now, again, try and get this settled in your mind. This is not saying, "Oh, if you’re going to grow in love, well, you have to get rid of all envy."

No, it’s the other way around. It’s saying, "If you grow in love, you will be delivered from the destructive power of envy." And this is really good news, because somewhere in your life, you’re going to experience someone being given something that you feel should have been given to you.

You’ll feel that someone else was shown favor that should have been shown to you and that they did not deserve what they received. But what we’re learning here is that when that happens, it’s love that will deliver you from the self-destructive power of envy. And therefore, the more you grow in love, the more content you’re going to become.

Love, in other words, is God’s antidote to envy. Love will release you from the self-destructive power of bearing a grudge. It will enable you to rejoice when God gives to someone else something that he did not give to you. The more you love, the more content you will be. And then the apostle goes further. He says, "Love does not boast. It is not arrogant."

And here, of course, love is dealing with the opposite temptation. Envy focuses on what my neighbor has and I do not. Pride, of course, focuses on what I have or what I’ve done and my neighbor has not. Pride wants other people to see who I am and what I have done, and love is God’s antidote to pride.

Love does not boast. It is not arrogant. Love is going to produce the good fruit of humility in your life. The more you love, the more humble you will be. And then notice what Paul says next: "Love is not rude. It does not insist on its own way." It’s interesting looking at different ways in which this phrase "rude" is translated in other versions of the Bible.

The most literal translation is that love does not act unbecomingly. The old King James Version of the Bible says, "Love does not behave itself unseemly." Another way that we might say that today is, "Love does not behave inappropriately." Now, one writer catches the meaning of this very important phrase well when he says that love considers the fitness and the propriety of things.

It is careful of what would touch painful feelings. It is attentive to the courtesies of life. Now, the point here is that it’s very easy to get so taken up with yourself and your own world and what you’re trying to get across in what you’re saying or whatever, that you speak in a way that is insensitive and that causes hurt or offense to another person.

You didn’t intend to do that. It’s just that you didn’t think. You were so taken up with yourself that you didn’t think about how your words would actually affect another person, how your words would land on them. Now, this verse is telling us that love is God’s antidote to putting your foot in it.

You know, we all know the person who’s like a bull in a china shop, and no one wants to be like that person, unaware of him or herself, unaware of his or her own impact on other people. And what we’re learning here, and it’s very important, is that love will equip you to be able to discern how to come across, what to say, how to say it, and when to say it.

Another way that we might say this today is, love will help you to grow in emotional intelligence. It will equip you for sustaining healthier relationships. That’s what’s being meant by this remarkable phrase and this statement of the Apostle Paul. Growing in love will enable you to behave and to speak appropriately.

You’ll learn tact. You’ll have greater self-awareness, and the reason that you’ll grow in these things is that you are more aware of the needs of others and you’re less taken up with yourself.

Steve Hiller: Pastor Colin Smith with part of a message called "Love Is Our Greatest Need," part of a series called Grow in Love. And if you ever miss a broadcast in the series, you can always come and listen online. Our website is openthebible.org. You can stream the program or download an MP3 for free. Again, that’s at openthebible.org.

Another way to listen is through the Open the Bible app, which you’ll find for free at your app store. It’s listening on demand as it fits your schedule. Or you can order a copy of the series on CD. Ask about Grow in Love when you call 1-877-OPEN-365. That’s 1-877-673-6365, or you’ll find ordering information at our website. Come to openthebible.org.

Well, Open the Bible is a listener-supported ministry. That’s just what it sounds like. It’s your generosity that allows us to continue bringing you Pastor Colin’s teaching. And as you give a gift of any amount, we’d love to send you a copy of Pastor Colin’s brand-new 30-day devotional book called Grow in Love. And Colin, what’s one thing that you’d like people to take away from this book?

Colin Smith: Well, I think that most of us feel that we need to grow in love, especially when it comes to loving those with whom we deeply disagree. But here’s the question: Do you think it’s possible for you to become a more loving person than you are right now? See, the thing is, if it simply depended on what you can generate from within yourself, the answer would have to be no.

Our love would depend on our experience, and if we hadn’t been well-loved by others, well, we wouldn’t be able to give love to others. But the good news is that love really can be learned. It’s possible to grow in love, and God’s Holy Spirit is given to every Christian believer for this purpose.

So the thing I’d want people to take away from this is the wonderful hope that as you experience the love of God poured into your own heart by the power of the Holy Spirit, so you will be better able to love others really well.

Steve Hiller: Well, we want to send you, as our way of saying thank you for your financial support, a copy of Pastor Colin’s new book, Grow in Love. You can find out more online at openthebible.org, or you can give your gift over the phone by calling 1-877-OPEN-365. Again, that’s openthebible.org or 1-877-673-6365. For Pastor Colin Smith, I’m Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening, and I hope you’ll join us next time. This program is a listener-supported production of Open the Bible.

Colin Smith: Everyone has questions about heaven, but the question that matters most is how do you get there? Many people have the idea that if a person was to get into heaven, they’d get there by living a good enough life. Well, the thief on the cross hadn’t lived a good enough life, and he wasn’t in a position to start living a good life.

But Jesus said to him, "Today you will be with me in paradise." Well, if the thief could get into heaven, so can you. Heaven, How I Got Here is a compelling 60-minute film in which Stephen Baldwin portrays the thief on the cross in a one-person play. Many have found that this story opens their eyes to the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and to the hope of heaven.

You can watch the Heaven, How I Got Here film for free on the Open the Bible website. For more information, visit openthebible.org/heaven. That’s openthebible.org/heaven.