Love Without Limits (January 30, 2022)

LOVE WITHOUT LIMITS

Text: I Corinthians 13:1- 13

1 Corinthians 13:1-13  If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  (2)  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  (3)  If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.  (4)  Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant  (5)  or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;  (6)  it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.  (7)  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  (8)  Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.  (9)  For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part;  (10)  but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.  (11)  When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.  (12)  For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.  (13)  And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love (NRSV).

Luke 4:21-30  Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."  (22)  All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, "Is not this Joseph's son?"  (23)  He said to them, "Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, 'Doctor, cure yourself!' And you will say, 'Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.'"  (24)  And he said, "Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown.  (25)  But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land;  (26)  yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon.  (27)  There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian."  (28)  When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage.  (29)  They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff.  (30)  But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

Someone has said, “Love is stronger than steel; softer than a cloud; more supple that a bow; mightier than hate; warmer than an electric blanket; more refreshing than mountain water; deeper than the deepest well; and so all-encompassing that it contains all of the best and highest of which humans have been capable since the day of creation. And yet our world is filled with hurting people because those who have known and experienced the love of God have withheld His love from others in a million intensive ways; nor have we spread His love in positive affirmation to others as we should have. Thus, we might say the only thing in really short supply in our world is love. The only thing that keeps all of us from living in mansions of delight all across God’s world is lack of love.” (Wayne McLain and John Borchet. eds. The Newsprint Pulpit. Greenville: A Press Printing, 2001, p. 100). Love is indeed the greatest of the three between hope, faith and love Paul tells us.

Now if love is supposed to be the greatest, and it is, then why did Jesus’s preaching about love in Luke 4:21 -30 provoke those in the congregation so badly? It provoked them so badly, that they wanted to throw Him off a cliff! Was it because they had the kind of love that keeps score? What about us? Do we ever practice a love that keeps score? What if God’s love kept score? Who would be able to stand (Psalm 130:3)?

We all have gifts that God has given us for ministry. We all have journeys that we will take in our ministry. Unconditional love unlocks our potential. Without God’s love---God’s unconditional love in our hearts we are nothing! Today we look at the gifts, our journey and unconditional love.