Intro
If there’s ever been a part of the Bible that we’ve used--and abused!--it’s 1st Corinthians chapter 13. We’ve understood that chapter in so many different ways that we’re not even sure what point Paul is making, except that it’s something about love. To understand what Paul was getting at, we need to know why Paul wrote the great love chapter, why he wrote 1st Corinthians chapter 13. Otherwise, we’re just the blind leading the blind.
And so, why did Paul write 1st Corinthians chapter 13? He did so to help heal and restore unity to a divided and bickering congregation. He did so because they weren’t living the unity of the faith that they had been given. They were a dysfunctional congregation.
Main Body
God had blessed the congregation in Corinth. He had given many within the congregation different spiritual gifts. But instead of using those gifts to live out the unity of the faith, they began to brag about the gifts they had. I suppose some wanted to show how superior they were over others, that they could do what others could not. And if God had given some folks more gifts than others, obviously He must love them more, right? Otherwise, why would He have given them more gifts?
But the Apostle Paul had nothing but scorn for that sinful thinking and attitude. For when we boast about our gifts and abilities, they mean nothing if the love of Christ does not move us to use them properly, to use them from a heart of love.
It’s true, some in Corinth were prideful and arrogant in their abilities and skills, and used them to show off. They would often disrupt the worship services. And instead of speaking with one voice, they spoke with many, dissonant voices, sounding like a “noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1). And so their worship services looked more like a circus, a freak show, than something that strengthened and unified the body of Christ.
What is it about us that makes us want feel like we’re better than someone else? We know the answer to that, don’t we? That’s our old Adam rearing his ugly head. That’s our sinful self lurking in us all, always seeking our own self-interest, and not that of Christ’s. That’s not how it’s supposed to be in Christ’s Church. That’s why Paul had such harsh words, even in his love chapter.
God has called us to live out the same love that He has shown to us through His Son’s life, suffering, death, and resurrection. The term Paul used for “love” was agape. Agape has nothing to do with what we call “romantic love.” Paul is talking about a self-sacrificing love, a love that seeks the interests of others, not a sentimental love that makes me feel a certain way.
That’s the love Christ lived for us. That’s the love Christ had when He died for us. The cross where Christ died was an ugly execution, a painful place, a place of suffering. But it was there, moved by His sacrificial love, that Christ took our sins into Himself and died because of them. That’s an unstoppable love that presses on to meet the needs of others, to shine forth the love of God. That’s the love Jesus has.
Agape isn’t a romantic love. Agape isn’t even a brotherly love, as good as both of those are. No, agape is a giving of self, a giving that sees no sacrifice as too great, that others might live, that they may live in and know the love of God.
We know from God’s written, revealed Word that Christ does not choose to love us because we somehow deserve it. He loves us because we don’t deserve it. Although we’re not good enough to deserve His love, He still loves us anyway. We have disobeyed God and--even despite that--He still loves us!
That, that, dear saints of God, is the love that 1st Corinthians chapter 13 describes. We have been baptized into Christ. We now bear His name. And because of that baptismal grace, we too are called to live lives, giving out the same love that we have received. This love of Christ we are to live doesn’t revolve around what we can get. No, such agape love, instead, reflects the nature of God Himself.
That’s why such love is always patient. Agape love is kind. It isn’t envious or puffed up, full of pride. Agape is not conceited and it is never rude. It doesn’t think only of self and it doesn’t get annoyed. Such love is not resentful and it never delights in sin. Agape always stands with truth, and is pleased when truth will win. Such love endures under everything, it believes the best in all, it has no limit to its hope, and it will never fall. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)
But if you’re like me, you’ve found that you can’t live out this Christ-like love. You don’t have the ability. You can’t do it. So what can you do? If it’s beyond your ability--and it is!--then you need something from outside yourself to give it to you.
You see, to have the love of Christ is to have more of Christ. It’s that simple. You need more Christ. Come then to the Word of God to get more of Christ. Come then to the Sacraments of God to get more of Christ. For here in Word and Sacrament Christ comes to you, for you, that He may be Christ in you, that the Christ in You becomes the Christ through you. Here you receive what changes you, what transforms you, that you will know, all the more, God’s great love for you. And that love will become a part of you, that you may live out the love of Christ to others.
But know this: this love, this godly love, doesn’t deny the truth. This is a love that is so strong that it refuses to compromise the truth, just like Jesus refused to compromise truth. Jesus didn’t overlook lies, but loved us so much that He died because of them. Christian love rejoices in the truth, because truth leads us into the unity of the faith. That’s why Paul wrote, “Love does not delight in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:6).
The Corinthian congregation was divided because they had a self-centered attitude about the gifts that God had given them. They saw spiritual gifts as something to use to build up themselves instead of building up the Church.
That’s not why God the Holy Spirit gives out spiritual gifts! He gives out His gifts so His people can use them according to God’s holy will. Gifts are given to speak with one voice, to point to Jesus Christ, to reflect the one true faith.
Division is the way of the world, not the way of the Church. In John chapter 17, Jesus said: “May they all be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You. May they also be one in Us, so the world may believe You sent Me” (John 17:21). The Apostle Paul also echoed that in 1st Corinthians: “Now I urge you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all say the same thing. Do not have divisions among you, that you may be perfectly united in the same mind and the same judgment” (1 Corinthians 1:10). Christian love yearns for the unity of the body of Christ. That unity comes to us through Word and Sacrament.
In the end, we will finally know the fullness of God’s love. “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up my childish ways. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we will see face-to-face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:11-12).
And Paul closes the 13th chapter in this way. “Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13). Why is love the greatest? Because, in the end, when God calls us to our eternal home, we will no longer need faith, for the faith given us will be fulfilled. Then we will know God face-to-face. We will no longer need hope, for our hope will be realized. But that which continues through all eternity, love, will be the height and depth and breadth of our experience in eternity.
Conclusion
In eternity, and imperfectly here while we still live in this fallen world, we will know the one true faith. But in heaven, we will know the perfect unity that eludes us here. May God continually immerse us in His Truth, that Christ’s self-sacrificing love will transform us by His grace. Amen.
