Freeing 1Corthinians 13: 4-7 from hijacking
I am sure that you have attended a wedding maybe this year or at least not so long ago. There are certain things you can expect at any Christian wedding. It’s good to have a bride and a groom that helps, and a pastor officiating the ceremony, and without a doubt, if it is a Christian wedding, someone is going to read 1Corinthians 13 4-7. I officiate the vast majority of the wedding I but there was a time and don’t know about you but sitting next to Sheri this is generally how it would plays out or maybe guys this is how it plays out with you and your wife.
It begins like this. The person reading starts “Love is patient” and you get the look. Husbands does your wife have the look? And you get the point “are you listening?”. Then “love is kind” and you get the elbow. Are you listening to this? You are sitting there trying to make notes about what you are going to do tomorrow and you are getting the elbow. And as this thing goes on “it’s kind, it’s not jealous, it suffers long” and this other stuff you start to get elbows then you start to get hits.
By the end of the service she is sitting there crying and you’re sitting there hurting. You look like the walking wounded going out to the drinking fountain or to the reception. If her eyes had been laser beams she would have melted your face off! Have you ever been there?
1Corithians 13 has been hijacked, shoved into the context of weddings, and many of us sitting here today think it was written for weddings and that is where it belongs. I have some great news for you men; you will never have to suffer this again.
That passage of scripture was written to the church. It is an organizational value that is to be woven into the context of the church. 1Corithians 13 falls between chapters 12 and 14, and yes, it did take me many years of advance University of Miami math to figure that out.
But those two chapters deal with the gifting of the body. It talks about how everyone in the church is gifted to do something great. Some of you may have been laid off. Punted from you jobs. You have poured your heart and soul your life into an organization, a corporation and they have looked at you this past year because of the bottom line or whatever and they’ve said to you “sorry, but we can’t have you anymore”.
Men, if this happens to you I know how you feel; it happened to me, twice. You feel rejected. You feel worthless. At a minimum you feel under valued.
I have great news for you today; in the family of God you are never fired. You are never rejected. You are never put on a shelf. Your value before God is infinite. Listen, in Chapters 12 and 14 he talks about how wonderful all of you are put together. How you can do unbelievable things for the kingdom of God.
In the middle of those two chapters, he places chapter 13, where he talks about love. Where he says to each of us, as you do what you do in the organization called the church, this is how I want you to act. This is how I need the church to act.
This is how I want you to be towards one another. Now think about this, if you have a friend in Fairfax County or maybe you are this person who is checking church out, you’re checking Jesus out, you’re maybe trying to weigh if this whole is worth anything. Imagine this. Imagine coming into a community where this kind of love is painted upon the canvas of every soul you see.
Where love is patient. Where love is kind. Where it isn’t selfish. Ladies and gentlemen, if we will capture this one truth this morning, if we will dedicate ourselves to live this out this year, this love, this love we are going to talk about that is beyond reason, there will be radical transformations in your families, in your friendships, in your church, even on your job.
If you will capture one thing this year, and that is this, say to the Lord right now “God paint these words we are about to hear upon the canvas of my soul for everyone to see”. I promise you that there will be transformations in your sphere of influence that will stager you. It will be wonderful.
Paul paints this love for us. What it is supposed to look like, what it is supposed to be and he does in words and it is found in 1Corithians chapter 13 verses 4 through 7.
This is what it says Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 [b]bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
As we go through these qualities, brush strokes if you will, I want you to assess which of these could be said of your life. Which of these brush strokes has God painted upon the canvas of your soul?
We begin, Paul says love is patient. Now if any of you have ever had children or been around children you are probably struggling with this brush stroke. Love is patient. What does it mean to be patient? It means that you have the ability to stand firm when you are offended.
When all the atmospheres in your life, when friends and family, coworkers and pals, when everyone seams to be coming against you, when everyone seams to be offending you, when a friend has plunged a knife deep into your back by betrayal, when that worker has under cut you to get that promotion, when that spouse has cheated on you, this concept of patience that God wants to paint on the canvas of your soul says you have the ability to stand firm.
In other words, when your life feels like all the forces of evil has crashed in on your life, and it is pushing you down and under, this concept of love, this brush stroke, which God want to paint upon the canvas of your life, says that when all of this stuff is raining down on you, you can stand firm. Can this brush stroke be true of your life? That of patience.
The second one is kindness. It says, “Love is kind”. This is a difficult concept to put into words. If I were to put it into words it would be this; if grace had a face it would be kindness. If grace had a face it would be kindness. Have you ever known anyone kind? Have you known anyone where you could look into his or her eyes and see that there was a substance that was so decent and so good?
In describing these people it usually starts with my grandma. PIC Maybe you have watched them go through some calamity in their life some peerless time in their life and you could look into their eyes and still see a depth of kindness that was unexplained? This part of love, this brush stroke that God wants to paint on your life and on mine says that we are to be kind. Could this brush stroke be added to the canvas of your life?
It goes on and it say, “It is not jealous”. Love is not jealous. In other words it is not displeased at the success of others. That’s what jealously really means. Remember, these verses, this chapter, falls in the middle of explaining how an organization is to function.
As an organization of the church this is how we are to operate. Think about your work place, when you and a coworker are up for a promotion, and you have fought and done your job well and they have fought and done their job well, and finally the word comes down that your partner got the promotion. How do you feel? How do you act?
In this day of cut backs and downsizing I just have to mention it because I know, I have talked to some of you and you are hurting because of this. How did you feel when your buddy got kept and you got let go?
As the world looks in upon organizations they would expect you to be jealous, bitter and angry. But God says in his organization when he takes someone and promotes them to a higher level, you are not to be jealous. You’re to be happy. You’re to rejoice. Love isn’t to be jealous.
If we just stopped there, and we added these brush strokes to the canvas of every ones soul, and we begin to treat one another like this, and we began to treat the people at work like this, and we began to treat our friends like this, we couldn’t build building fast enough to hold the people that would want to begin to understand these few points of this kind of love. This is truly a love beyond reason.
Do you think folks would want to be a part of this? Where your advancement caused great joy in their heart. Wow, what a wonderful place. If any body of believers would capture just these things it would be amazing to see what God would do. Could this brush stroke be true of your life?
Next it goes on to say, ”love dose not brag”. If you translate that word brag, it is where we get the word windbag. If you truly embody this kind of love then you are not a windbag. You know what a windbag is? A windbag is a bag that holds wind (blow up a paper bag).
Now what happens when you pop it (pop the bag)? It's good for nothing. It doesn’t even hold wind anymore. Have you ever known anybody who claims to be loving, consistent and faithful? Their words are lofty platitudes and interesting concepts but at the end of the day their actions are pretty much as useful as this bag. Emptied and popped.
If we really love, if we understand what God is calling us to we will realize that love has to have action. There has to be work associated with our words. Can we paint this on the canvas of your soul? Are you more than a windbag? Are you more than just empty promises?
Then it goes on and Paul says, “It is not arrogant”. In other words it is not prideful. It is not all consumed with self-importance. Have you ever meet some people like that? I have – Not you but people I know.
C.S. Lewis says that pride is the first sin we are quick to point out in others and so reluctant to see in our selves. That’s true isn’t it? Pride in this context is just an ugly word. We don’t like to be around people who we perceive to be that way. It is contrary to what we desire and want.
Another way of looking at this is love is more interested in giving itself then asserting itself. Love is more interested in giving itself than asserting itself. In the body of Christ it is our responsibility we are to give ourselves away to one another rather than assert our self upon one another.
When was the last time you gave yourself away to someone else? That you said here I am as your servant. When did you say to another member of the community I want to be your servant for today. If we begin to have this brush stroke painted upon the canvas of our life that is going to be true of all of us.
How different from the world. How obtuse. The world glorifies pride. Get all you can, grab all you can, go for the gusto, whatever it takes to get to the top get there. But in the community of faith, in the body of Christ, we are about giving ourselves away not asserting ourselves upon one another.
Do you think the world would be attracted to an organization like this? Do you think people would be compelled to find out why this is possible? Maybe how it is possible. I think so.
It does not act unbecoming. The Bible says that God created the world and God owns everyone in it. It also teaches that Gods does not want any to parish but to come into eternal life. God has placed a clear value statement, a high priority on ever person that lives.
You have never looked into the eyes of anyone that God did not love and does not want to redeem. Regardless of how evil they may be, God love them and has a plan for their life. Now if that is true, all people should be treated the same.
When the Bible says you do not act unbecomingly, I think it is saying that we have to treat everyone the same. In a corporation that simply isn’t true is it? The boss, when he walks into the room gets preferential treatment. A member of the board walks into the room they get preferential treatment. When somebody who rates you or evaluates you they get nice words but let me ask you this to test and see if this brush stroke is on the canvas of your life; how do you treat the janitor?
How do you treat a person that can do nothing for you? In the community of faith, in the church, we are to treat everyone the same. A level playing field. Regardless of how many zeros are in your bank account, regardless of how educated you are, regardless of how gifted you are, we are to treat everyone the same. Paul says this brush stroke needs to be on the canvas of your soul.
We go on and it says “it does not seek it’s own”. In other words love is not consumed with it’s own agenda. At the root of this is selfishness. We would sing the song it’s all about me. If we truly love we don’t live for ourselves, we live for others. Brush stroke?
It goes on to say “it is not easily provoked”. You cannot push its buttons easily. Do you know what those buttons are? They are those little pockets of self-interest and pride and selfishness that when offended they are pushed. So as God paints this upon the canvas of our life those button stop working. Do some of you need to take some of those buttons away today? Are our button easily pushed? This kind of love says that your buttons are not easily pushed because you are living for others and not yourself.
Love does not keep a record of wrongs. Just to show you how much wrongs can add up here is a list of wrong from just yesterday. That is just one day of wrongs. Imagine if you were to keep a record on people for a week, year, life. You would have a library. They would have a library on you.
Aren’t you glad God doesn’t do that? God has redeemed us. He has separated our sins as far as the east is from the west and he doesn’t hold them against us. I am thankful that within the character of God he forgets. Aren’t you? If we are going to have this love truly painted on the canvas of our souls we are going to have to have a big eraser. Love has a big eraser.
We go on and Paul dose something interesting he gives us a phrase that has balanced sections. He says it does not rejoice in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. The first of the phrase says it doe not rejoice in unrighteousness. Those of us who have been in church for a while or maybe grew up in church think that no one rejoices in other people’s sins. That just doesn’t happen. Oh reeeaallly.
Follow this; Padric is a member of your sphere of influence. Padric has offended you. That offence has taken root in your life. It’s become a seed planted in your soul. Well some months pass since this offence or series of offences and you here something through the Christian grape vine.
Usually in the form of a prayer request. Most Christian gossip is in the form of a prayer request. You know you never really pray about this you are just like “Oh man, we really need to pray about this”. That is sort of how it comes to you.
You hear through the grape vine usually in the form of a prayer request and here is what you find out. Padric, that’s offended you, has gone to the doctor and has a sporadic liver. You see Padric has harbored a secret sin for years, he is a closet alcoholic.
And as you listen to this prayer request, on the surface you say we need to pray for him but we never really pray for him. We get in car and drive home and on the way home deep in the recesses of our soul, back in the quit place of our mind, that hidden place where we sometimes think even God can’t see it; this is what we say; Padric got what he deserved.
At that moment you have rejoiced in someone else’s unrighteousness. It is subtle and slippery but it can creep into our lives and cause us not to reflect this glorious love. This love that the world is crying to know.
He balances it. He says it not this but it is sort of like this, it does not rejoice in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. Well how do you do that with someone like Padric that is so grading on your soul? If you are here today and you have come to know the Lord and maybe you have walked far away from God there is still something true of your life and it is this; there are those God areas of your life.
Those areas that still hold the residue and picture of God’s work of grace in your soul. Regardless of how vile you may be, regardless of how you have sinned against your family, regardless of what you have done, there are still those areas of your life that God is working on.
And Paul says in this portrait that we are painting, this masterpiece of love, this love beyond reason, Paul says guess what, if you to be a part of this communities of love and faith the church, we are going to look at the God areas of your life not the unrighteous area of your life.
Have you ever needed some one for a minute to look at the good that God has done in your life because you have been made so aware of the bad and you are hurting. This kind of love says we are going to look at the good. Can this be true of your soul? Can we paint that brush stroke?
Paul goes on and he says this “love bears all things”. Translated means love covers over the wrongs of others. I have a daughter, Amanda, who is now 30 but when she was little she was a bankie and bear kid. When I got her from her nap here was the protocol; she hands you the bankie, she hands you the bear, then she hands you her. You had to have the right equipment.
I used to play the Where’s Amanda game. I would trough the blanket over her and say where’s Amanda. Don’t look at me like that. You have all done it. We would play the where’s Amanda game and we would peek a boo and look and while she is covered up you still that bump on the floor and you can even hear her some times laughing.
What you choose to do with the wrongs is throw the cover over them and choose not to see them. This love, this portrait that God want to paint upon your soul, says that you might have a lot of faults, you might have a lot sin, you might have a lot of issues, well join the club we all do, but in this community we are going to throw a blanket over them. And yes we may still see the bump, yes we may still hear them, but we are going to choose not to look at them. Love covers up the wrongs of others.
Love believes all things. It trusts that God is at work in your life. It not naive, it is not dumb, it doesn’t take things at face value and never questions but what it does do in the mist of all the conflict and turmoil, it trusts that God is at work in your life.
For this to be painted on your soul you have to incorporate this, he who has begun a good work in you will be faithful to complete it. I know that as you look at me and cover up all the wrongs, and believe me I know that there is a lot of them, if you understand this, you know that in a year from now those wrongs will be less because God who has begun a good work in me will be faithful to complete it. As I journey some of those wrongs will go away. You know what? I know that of you as well.
Love hopes all things. This is really a great attitude statement. Love has an attitude of what can be. When we meet us you, you are going too engaged with an attitude of what can be true in your life. When you come into the church the community of love, you are going to be engaged with an expectation with an attitude that tomorrow is going to be better than today because we have a love that transcends.
Paul ends by saying this “love endures all things”. It never stops. It never stops doing this list.
1Corthianis 13: 4-7, isn’t this beautiful? Do you get this at work? Do you get this at home? Do you get this with your friends? Are we doing this ourselves? If we embrace this, the next brush stoke produces this picture. God has given us the paintbrush. Who wants to take the brush and see what masterpiece we can create to glorify him?
