Love That’s Out of this World
1 Corinthians 13:1-13 February 10, 2019
[Please contact me at kerry.n.haynes@gmail.com for sermon outline in Word.]
Have you ever been around someone who is obviously brilliant, magnificently gifted, and just a pain in the neck to get along with? That’s kind of what today’s scripture is all about. Remember a couple of weeks ago, when we were talking about Paul’s letter to First Church of Corinth? Evidently, that church was a mess. It was full of self-centered braggarts who wanted nothing more than to toot their own horn. Paul spent a considerable time writing to them about spiritual gifts—everyone has one, everybody’s is different from everybody else’s, and we need each other in the church body.
In the very next chapter, Paul wrote, “Now let me show you a more excellent way.” Then came his most beautifully composed script, the love chapter of the Bible, what you often hear at weddings. He starts it, though, in the context of those spiritual gifts he’s been talking about. Paul says you can have the most amazing gifts ever—like speaking in the language of angels, or having enough faith to move mountains, or giving everything you have to the poor—amazing ways to serve God, but if you don’t have love, you have nothing.
That’s how important today’s subject is. Love trumps every spiritual gift, love tops every miracle God may work through you, love precedes every course of action you might take. Love stands above them all!
Certainly, our world today is infatuated with...lust. It’s lust, not love. Lust is about getting, while authentic love is all about giving. We have hosts of online dating services. We have reality TV shows where people pick a spouse. In Hollywood, a first-date kiss always leads to sex. The porn industry in America makes more money than all professional sports teams combined. Meanwhile, lots of people are living lonely, loveless lives.
So what is love? Well, the Bible says, “God is love.” 1 John 4:8 says God is the very definition of love. The more we get to know God, the more we understand love. Jesus, the God-man, also personifies love. C.H Dodd once said, “I Corinthians 13… is a portrait for which Christ Himself has sat.” If you want a role model in how to love, you have only to look at the life of Jesus.
Paul chooses the Greek word “agape” to describe godly love. It is more than the romantic sexual love of “eros,” although that also comes from God. It is more than the friendship bond of “philia,” or the parental sacrifice of “storge,” although those both come from God as well. Agape is a sacrificial love which seeks to do what is best for the other. “For God so loved the world, that he... gave.” Agape love is a giving love.
An anonymous writer sought to describe this kind of love with the poem, “What Is the Love of God?”
The love of God is like ... a mother’s calming words, a father’s strong embrace, a friend’s laughing countenance, telling my soul, “I am not alone in this world,?there are others who travel with me.”
The love of God is not like ... a list of joyless burdens, a symbol of power, a religion that spews hate and anger toward otherness, and makes God in its own image.
The love of God is like ... a safe place, a gift, a helpful note on life, love, responsibility, and death.
The love of God is not like ... a competition,?a salary earned,?a scolding from abusive parents who are not happy with how you turned out.
The love of God is like... a perfect day,?a one of a kind love,?a relationship so wonderful that words fail to do it justice.
?That’s just one description. The Bible pictures agape love, God’s love, as “love in action,” not “love in abstraction.” True love acts! Let’s face it: words are cheap! You can tell someone you love them, but do your actions match up? Does your walk match your talk?
Donald Barnhouse took the fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5 (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control), and showed how love shines through each. He writes, “Love is the key. Joy is love singing. Peace is love resting. Long-suffering is love enduring. Kindness is love’s touch. Goodness is love’s character. Faithfulness is love’s habit. Gentleness is love’s self forgetfulness. Self control is love holding the reigns.” Love acts.
Today’s scripture gives 15 attributes of true love in action. Don’t worry; I love you too much to put you through a 15-point sermon today. And really, they speak for themselves. On the positive side, Paul says love is patient with people and gracious with generosity. He also says what love is not: Love never envies, or brags, or is arrogant, since that is not selfless service to others. Love is never rude or overbearing, love never wants its own way. It is not irritated or angered over personal offense, and finds no pleasure in someone else’s sin, even the sin of an enemy. On the positive side, love is devoted to truth in everything. Love protects, believes, hopes, and endures what others reject. Love never fails.
This is love in action, love that puts the other person’s needs first, love that serves, love that builds into the lives of others, love that helps. It’s the kind of love that prompts you to sit in a hospital waiting room with a loved one, to drop off a note of encouragement, to have that hard discussion with your friend about moving to a new level of care. It’s the love that takes note of the other person’s interests, the love that brings over a cup of coffee or piece of dessert, the love that patiently teaches someone how to play bridge.
Does the world need this kind of love? Yes! Yes, it does! God gives it to us, and God wants us to share it with others. Jesus urged people to be radical and not just love your friends but also love your enemies. Does that include the staff member who has frustrated you? Does that include the resident who always gets on your nerves or the relative who said something uncaring to you? Yes, yes, and yes. The gospel writer John records Jesus as saying, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34). Jesus got John’s attention so much with that message that, later, in his elderly years, John wrote a short letter to young believers (1 John), telling them no less than five times, “You must…love one another.”
Think about this: If love can be commanded, then it is not simply an emotion. You can’t command someone to be happy or sad. True love isn’t an emotion; it’s a decision; it’s an action. Love is the tool with which God builds up the body of Christ. And love for unbelievers is the bridge over which the gospel can cross. As the song states, “They will know we are Christians by our love.” And then there’s that popular saying: “They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” True love cares.
Love doesn’t just help its recipient but it benefits the giver, too. As the good book says, “It is more blessed to give than to receive,” for love is the antidote to our selfish, self-centered hearts. Ogden Nash once said,
If you want your marriage to sizzle
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you’re wrong, admit it;
Whenever you’re right, shut up!
The theme of love as selflessness is at the core of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. Behind all the divisiveness, all the puffed-up sense of self-importance, all the cliquish activity, all the gossip, the Corinthians suffered from self-centered pride. And Paul says, the antidote is love, love that acts, love that serves, love that builds up another. Paul introduced the chapter by saying, “Let me show you a more excellent way.” And he has. Now he ends by saying that love is the greatest gift of all—better than faith, better even than hope itself.
Keep the faith. Don't lose hope. And above all else, let your lives be filled with Christ's love. Then, let that divine love flow out of you into your church family and everyone you meet. Let us pray…
Dear Lord, thank you that you are the very definition of love. Help us to receive your love shown most visibly at the cross. Help us to take that most perfect model of love and pass it on to others—those we like being around and those we do not, those who love us and even those who hate us. We need your help to do this, God, so we commit ourselves to you, in Jesus’ name, amen.
