The Greatest of these is Love: A Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Advent.
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
The verses we have just read from First Corinthians has been called “The Love Chapter.” It has been read at many weddings to set an example of how the bride and groom should love one another. /if this were a wedding sermon, I would bring this love out. But as this is the Season of Advent, I will be looking at love through this lens.
Advent is a four-week season which begins the Christian year. In the last three weeks we have covered the Advent themes of hope, peace, and joy. The theme for this week is love. During Advent, we reflect on these themes in the light of the Lord’s return. So what does love look like in the light of the return of Jesus?
We just mentioned about this love chapter being read at weddings. If we read Scripture, we will see that Advent is a wedding also, the wedding of the Lord with the bride, His church. We talk about the great wedding feast of the lamb. A wedding of this scale needs much preparation. On the part of Jesus, he has returned to heaven to prepare for us a place for us to abide with Him forever. (John 14:1-6) On our part, we prepare for the day the Lord returns for us. In a secular world, the bride prepares for the wedding by inviting guests, getting the right wedding dress, choosing bridesmaids, and such. these serve as a metaphor for our spiritual preparation. We are motivated by the expectation of the Lord’s return. We process through sanctification so that our lives and the life of the church might be pleasing to God,
In Israel of Jesus’ day, weddings were contracted some time prior to the actual ceremony. The bride and groom were legally married but did not cohabit until the wedding feast. the wedding feast happened when the groom had made everything ready. then he would journey with the best man and a trumpet to the bride’s village. the trumpet would sound, and the bride, bridesmaids and guests would drop everything and follow the groom back to his village. Everyone in the bride’s village needed to be ready, day or night. Jesus even spoke a parable about the five wise and five foolish bridesmaids. (Matthew 25: 3-5). These five foolish bridesmaids were denied entry to the feast. So the call to be prepared is serious. Advent should be taken seriously.
Paul talks about the glorious return of Christ in 1 Corinthians 15:53-58) in a well-known text preached at funerals. But he hints at it here in this chapter when he says “when that which is perfect shall come. (1 Corinthians 13:10) In that day, hope will be seen and fade away. Faith shall become sight. Hope helps us prepare, but will no longer be necessary. Faith will become faithfulness. Love shall remain in its perfection. This is why it is the greatest of these. Our joy of expectation will be pure joy. We shall no longer have to be joyful even in our tribulations, for our troubles will cease. We shall have uninterrupted peace. The swords will be beaten into plowshares and the spears into pruning hooks. We shall not learn war any more. (Isaiah 2:4). We believe that God will do this for us.
It is good to take stock of what sort of groom we are engaged to. In this world, it is sad that the one someone thinks he or she is marrying does not turn out to be the person they thought. There is much room for disappointment, But as we read in our Advent Candle Litany this morning in which our theme has come from Romans 5:1-8, our hope in Jesus will not disappoint us. (Romans 5:5) Jesus has already proved his love to us, so we do not wonder. We also read in the litany this morning in Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” This is Paul’s John 3:16. He proved His love for us by dying for us, even though we were at enmity against Him. This is why He left His glory above and became flesh and lived among us. (John 1:14) By His life among us, He wooed His bride and provided for her. He gave all.
Jesus did great things among us. He fulfilled perfectly Paul’s idea here that works must be done in love or they are nothing at all. He was no gong or clashing cymbal. In fact, hr called out the Pharisees for doing exactly that. They did everything to be seen of men that they rather than God might receive the glory. The works of a Christian must not be like that. It would be better to be that unknown Christian soldier, known but to God than to be acclaimed for wonderful works and teaching not done in the spirit of love we see demonstrated in Jesus Christ. If Jesus chose to glorify Himself, He would have every right as God the Son, the equal to the Father and Holy Spirit. Yet He made Himself of no reputation and became a servant (Philippians 2:5-11).
We have fables about the prince who marries a pauper. We have a sort of example when King Edward VIII gave up the throne of England to marry a commoner, Wallis Simpson. This he did out of love. whether he later regretted the decision or whether Prince Harry will regret the choice he made to marry Meghan Merkle, I do not know. All human love falls far short of the love of God. Even the unconditional love of a dog for its owner falls short. The fact that Jesus died for such wretched sinners like us is beyond comprehension. We rejoice that He did, even when we wonder what He did in us. thanks be to God that He is almighty and will perform what seems impossible to us.
As the bride prepares by inviting her guests to the wedding, we are summoned by God to invite guests to come. there is plenty of room. Jesus even compels us to go into the highways and hedgerows to invite those to come (Luke 14:23). God has demonstrated his love and faithfulness in Jesus Christ. We return this love He has shown us by inviting others. Paul tells us that love is not selfish, nor does it puff itself up. when we invite others to come, we are inviting them to be part of the Bride of Christ. We need to make room for them. We must not keep Christ to ourselves. Jesus wants ,em and women from all nations to come. It is not for a particular race or culture. Many of the Jews had problems inviting Gentiles in Paul’s days. Yet as we remember the traditional wedding vows that a woman pledges to obey, we show our love in obedience. If God wishes to extend the invitation to all, then we must obey. In earthly marriage, our human limitations prevent us from extending love to others outside the covenant of marriage without diminishing or destroying our love for our spouse. In earthly matters, God has ordained monogamy between a man and a woman for this reason. But God has no such limitations, Inviting others to join the bride of Christ in no way diminishes His personal love for us.
the bride also prepares herself by maintaining her virginity. she belongs to her husband just as her husband belongs to her. The problem is that before we came to Christ, we were sinners. We worshiped ourselves or other things. We were anything but faithful. We have memories of what we were, and Satan will try to keep these things in our minds. This is why we must be aware of Satan’s deceptions. We need to be nourished by the Word of God and think upon these things. We need to keep in mind who and whose we now are rather than what we were. In this, we have the help of the Holy Spirit who brings and applies to our hearts the words of Jesus. The “Love Chapter” is certainly a good place to start, but all of Scripture rightly understood is God’s love story to us.
We are preparing for the great Advent of the Lord. We engage in all sorts of speculation about what this day will be like, But however much we reflect, reality will be infinitely greater than our expectations. As Paul tells us, we are not seeing through a glass darkly (1 Corinthians 13:10), we have a limited vision of that day. Even the prophesies of Scripture which are totally inspired by the Holy Spirit and true fail to fully reveal what that day will be like. But as we have said before and say again, the reality will exceed even our greatest expectations of that day. Marriage is our greatest metaphor of true love that we have on earth. This is why Scripture uses this metaphor so much. Unfortunately, and by no fault of the Lord, our experiences and observations of marriage taint the metaphor. our sins and failings try to dim our expectation. We must resist these incursions. Love is what God says it is.
On the night Jesus was betrayed, John reminds us that God loved His disciples to the uttermost (John 13:1). I like the King James using “uttermost” rather than other translations. the Greek word behind this is “telos” which can be translated “end,” or better in this context “perfectly” or “completely.” But what is this perfect love. To find out we must go to John 19:30 which is translated “It is finished.” The Greek word here is “tetelesthai.” If you notice the “tel” in this Greek word, you should notice its relation to “telos." Loving His disciples to the uttermost is demonstrated in His atoning death. This is perfect love.
We do not know our future. We might have to allow our bodies to be burned as many saints have been burnt in the past. In some parts of the world, they are still being burnt today. We atone for no one, not even ourselves if we should have to die the death of a martyr. But we demonstrate the love of God for the world if we should die for our faith. In the end, dying for Christ when done in love and faithfulness for Him and for His church means everything. We must realize that we are to carry our cross and follow Him, We do not look for trouble or martyrdom. we are called to live, as much as possible, in peace with all men (Romans 12:18). But and if it becomes necessary, we certify the love of God. Our hope in Him will not be disappointed even if we die. We will all die anyway at some point of the Lord tarry, so it is good to live our lives for Him. So let us love Him with all our hearts, soul, mind and being (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). And let us love one another. (Leviticus 19:18). Let us give ourselves to God and each other in all things, Amen.
