1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13
Love. A lot of things come to mind with that short work. If I asked each of you to come up with a song title that used the word Love, I’ll bet we could each come up with a different one. We like to talk about love, to hear love stories, to share about when we first met our spouses. It’s all good stuff no doubt. It’s nice, it’s sweet, it makes us feel all warm inside. But is this kind of thing all there is? In fact, is this kind of thing really “love” at all, at least as far as God is concerned.
I was listening to a podcast of a radio program a couple of weeks ago. It was a program that does a wonderful job of just telling stories about ordinary people who experience some pretty extraordinary things, and one of these stories stuck with me. It was a true story of a young graduate student who went to China to study, and learned how to speak enough Chinese to participate in a Chinese opera. Kind of a crazy deal! But the story really took off when you discover that he fell in love with a gal who played in the orchestra for this opera.
And it was so funny to hear his account of trying to ask her out, and the cultural differences they struggled through (he ended up inadvertently eating a fried chicken’s head on their first date). And of course, in such a huge nation, with such huge cities, he came back to the US, lost track of her, and went back a year later to find her. He did, and they got married. AHHHH!
Great story, but this isn’t what stuck with me. What stuck with me, is the interview they did after being married for awhile. They recounted the real and genuine struggles they had to overcome after they got married. They had huge cultural difference, a language problem, very different family backgrounds. It was really hard for 6,7, 8 years, really hard. But they made it, and are still married, and enjoy being married. But here is the line that I don’t think I’ll ever forget. Ready? He said, in the interview, “Everyone wants to know the story of how we met and fell in love, but nobody asks us to tell the story of how we stayed together.”
Wow! What a powerful thought. And true. The real amazing story is never how someone fell in love. To fall in love is about as hard to do as falling off a bike. The real love story is always found, not in the emotions, but rather in the choices, in the commitments, and the sacrifices in a relationship. Real love is an activity. And real love isn’t easy.
I say that as we take a look at our Epistle lesson for today, and we have some verses that deal with the whole idea of love. How many of you either had these verses read at your wedding, or have been to a wedding where the verses were read? They are good ones for a wedding for sure, because they help us understand how God sees love, and the kind of love he created us to share with one another.
But if you look at the context, these verses are meant to be applied, not just to marriages, but really to how we interact with all people as those who follow Christ. In short, these verses are counter cultural. They were back in the days they were written to the church in Corinth, and they are today. So this morning we are going to learn a little more about what God thinks of love, and what the word LOVE means to GOD. And we’re going to come away with 2 things: A deeper appreciation of God’s love for us, and a deeper sense of what it means to reflect God’s love to one another. And just like real love, this is not going to be an easy journey, but it will be a blessed one.
The first part of our journey starts with looking at what it means to have an absence of love. Just like in the movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” Jimmy Stewart’s character can’t see how important his life has been until what? That’s right until an angel takes him around and shows him what the world would have been like without him. Sometimes, that’s the best way to understand how important something is.
And this is exactly what Paul does in the opening verses. “And I will show you a still more excellent way.” What a great way to start off a reading, makes you want to listen!
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 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 have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”
This would have really hit home with the Christians in Corinth. As we had talked about last week, they were a truly gifted group of people, but they were not using their gifts to glorify God. And what Paul is saying here, is that what they have isn’t a gifts problem, or an abilities problem, what they have is a LOVE problem. They think they are loving one another, but when the light of Christ’s love is shed on the situation, another reality comes to bear.
In chapters 1-4, we see that there are serious factions and divisions within the church (not the mark of love). In chapters 5-6, we learn that the Christians in Corinth think that they are being loving by NOT confronting some very serious sins among their brothers and sisters in Christ (not the mark of TRUE love). Although even today people try to pull that, don’t they. “Hey, don’t talk to me about my sin, that’s not nice, that’s not loving!” That’s NOT LOVE! If your friend is about to run a red light, you would say, “HEY, STOP!” so they won’t get hurt. If a family member has a lesion on their arm, you would say, “Hey you better go get that looked at!” not, “whatever, I’ll just try not to look at it!” You get the point, sometimes confronting sin is the MOST LOVING thing we can do. But I digress. In chapters 8-10, Paul condemns their lack of concern for the weaker in faith and their selfishness in eating food sacrifices to idols (not the mark of Christian love). In chapter 11, we see how divided they were in their practice of the Lord’s Supper (Definitely not love!). And the list gets longer, but you get the point.
So Paul speaks boldly. You have so many gifts, you have been so blessed with so much, but if you don’t have love for one another, none of it matters. Speaking in the tongues of men and angels, you might as well hit a gong. If you have all power, and understanding, and amazing faith, you really don’t have anything that’s worth anything, if you don’t start with love. You can make the most amazing sacrifices, but if they are not done in love, it just doesn’t matter. So we learn how important love is, by seeing how much is lost without it.
So what does it look like then, when true love for your brothers and sisters in Christ IS present? Paul paints a powerful picture of this as well: Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Notice what Paul doesn’t say: Love is a flutter in the heart, love is a feeling, love is like a drug, or anything like that. No, Paul speaks of love in only 2 ways, in terms of actions, and in terms of choices. It’s not very romantic I’m afraid. These lines have never found their way into a Barry Manilow Song. But this, according to how God sees things, it what love really is.
Love is patient and kind, it doesn’t get angry, or selfish, or carry a grudge. Love celebrates the Truth, and bears all things (afflictions, strife), and believes all the best about others, and hopes for the best for others, and endures and perseveres all for the sake of others. Pretty amazing and inspiring! But you want to hear something scary? Read this again with me, but this time, every time you see the word love, don’t say “love,” or, “it” but insert your own name.
Let’s read it together: NAME is patient and kind; NAME does not envy or boast; NAME is not arrogant or rude. NAME does not insist on its own way; NAME is not irritable or resentful; NAME does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. NAME bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
How do you feel after reading that? If you are like me, it maybe feels a little like you got kicked in the gut because, as I read that, I am confronted with some pretty harsh realities. I have not always shown the kind of love that God asks me to, in fact, commands me to. I’m not always patient, or kind (Anne can attest to this). I do get jealous and boastful, and arrogant, and rude, and insist on my way, and all the other stuff. It’s interesting how Luther talks about the last verse (believes all things). In the 8th Commandment, we read that we should not bear false witness against our neighbor, but as Luther says, “Excuse him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest possible way (best construction).” Do you do that at work, or school? Or do you fall into gossip, and unkind words, or imaging the worst about someone? We all do it, and that’s truly sad.
So what are we to take away from these verses? That we aren’t good enough, so why even try to love one another! Not at all. But these verses do point out our weaknesses don’t they. They do help point us away from ourselves, and to rely wholly and completely on the TRUE source of love, that is Jesus Christ. Because he CAN put his name in the statement we just read, and it will be a true statement about who he is, and how he loves.
And he bore out every part of that love statement for you and me. He did it by coming into this world, born of a virgin, to live among us. He did it by fulfilling the law of love perfectly, where we fail miserably. He did it by willingly, actively loving us, by CHOOSING to go to the cross and die for ALL of your sins, and my sins, and all the times we haven’t loved like we should. He lived out his love by rising from the dead on the 3rd day, so we too could rise, and we too could go and be with him, and live in the brightness of HIS perfect love, forever and ever.
True love, starts with God. It always starts with God. True love starts with understanding that we can’t do it on our own, that we will fail, and that the true miracle in our lives, is that God still loves us. Not that he doesn’t care about sin, or take it seriously, but rather that he does take it seriously. That our sin should have been an impassable barrier to God, but his love for us caused him to smash that barrier into a million pieces, with his very own life, death, and resurrection. THIS IS LOVE!
And when we understand the kind of love that God has for us, we better understand what love is, and how to love one another. When we understand the importance of forgiveness in our own lives, and how much we depend upon it, we can better forgive one another, and ask for forgiveness from one another. When we understand how God chose to love us, even though we were unlovable in our sin, we can more freely seek to love our brothers and sisters in Christ when they are at their worst, and not just at their best. Like I said, it LOVE always starts with God.
And the best part of God’s love, is that it is forever. God never intended to love us for awhile, or while we live on this earth, or as long as we were good enough, or did the right things, or anything like that. God’s intention was, and is, and will be to love us for all of eternity. To have a love for us that WILL NEVER PASS AWAY. Let that sink in for a second.
Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
God’s love for us will lead us to see him face to face, to fully know him, and to be fully known by him. That’s the kind of love God has for you. And that is the kind of love that God has for the person sitting next to you, and at work, and at school, and on the plane, and wherever you might be. And even if that person isn’t easy to love, remember that you weren’t easy for God to love either. But God CHOSE you, and acted in love, even when it was so very hard. And our calling as Christians is to be counter-cultural, and to love others in the same way. To make the tough choice to love even when it’s hard. That doesn’t mean to be a doormat, but it does mean that are not to be lead into love by our emotions, or feelings, or anger, but rather, that we are to be led in love by Christ. It’s rarely easy. But it’s always blessed.
Remember that God redefined love, and what it really is. And he did it all for you. So that you can be confident, every moment of every day that you are loved, by God. You are precious to God. And you are surrounded by people who are also loved and precious to God.
Love: A lot of things come to mind when I say that word. But only one truly matters most. Only one will last forever; the Love won for you with Christ’s own blood.
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
AMEN
