Last week we learned that love is a person and that we have to meet love in order to do love. The church of Corinth were gifted people but they were serving God and others not out of love, but out of power.
In part I of chapter 13, Paul teaches the definition of love, wants us to be judged by the definition of love, and to meet love. And now in verses 8b to the last verse, verse 13, Paul is seeking for us to look to the future. In verse 10 he says something is coming. In verses 9 to 13 Paul talks about heaven and what heaven is like. Paul calls heaven "perfect" in verse 10, he calls it "face" in verse 12 and, he calls it "love" in verse 13.
Look at verse 9 says, "For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, what is in part disappears." Here Paul talks about now versus later. He was talks about time vs. eternity. He says "when perfection comes..." Here the word "perfect" that Paul uses is the Greek word "To Tellion" is which means "design for" or "the aim." Paul is talking about the ultimate fulfillment of design. Paul is saying that there is a place where we become all that we should be, all that we were meant to be, all that we were made to be, all we want to be. There is a place where we are all headed for. There is a place where we are all built for, or designed for.
To give you an idea about this, imagine a fish washed on the shore. Its alive but not for long. Its struggling to live. It's moving and it tries to swim. The reflex of the fish is to swim so it flaps its tail around but all it does is kicks up sand and dirt. It flaps its tail but doesn't do anything. Why? Because it's not in its element. It's not in its "tellion." It's not in the water where it's designed for. But in the water, when in its "tellion" when it does its reflexes, it's powerful.
Now Paul is saying that we are like the fish on the shore. We are out of the water and we long for something. We have these reflexes in us that the world cannot adapt to. One of them is what we talked about last week which is to be loved unconditionally. We want to last and so we hate death. Why? because Paul says we're not in our element. We're not in our "tellion." But Paul says that there is a place where you become all you are supposed to be and all your reflexes becomes power to you.
Look at verse 12. "For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in this part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." Here it's says it's seeing a face. What is this face were going to see? This face is what we're built for. This face is the water. It's a thing we have got to have or we die. Verse 12 says, "Then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." The word "am" is present tense so this means we will know someone and see someone who right now knows us fully and there's only one who knows us fully. Therefore we will the face of God. Everything that we know about God in the bible we will see and we will see God face to face. That's what's waiting for us in heaven.
Look at verse 13. Verse 13 reads, "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." Here Paul tells us that heaven is a place of love. We will live in love for eternity. The book of Revelations says no more tears, no more crying and no more pain because in heaven we will be embraced. If you think the love you are experiencing from God now lifts you up. Well it's nothing compared to the love you will receive when you get to heaven. We will be loved! We will find ourselves as we find him. The bible says it's a like wedding banquet. We will dance with him. He will sweep us off his feet and we will say, "You look beautiful" and he will say, "So do you." This is what heaven is like. It's a place of love.
When we have Jesus love and when we believe heaven is a place of love, then we will see others with love. If heaven is a place of love then we know that a person is more important than anything because we know that the life of a person is eternal. When we have Jesus love in us and heaven is a place of love, we will be caring more about others than getting something from others. And out of love we will give our all for others to meet love and be in a place of love. In this chapter we learn that love is a person and heaven is a place of love. When we know what love is, then we can experience true love, and serve others with love.
