“The Protection of Love”
I Corinthians 13:7
March 2, 2003
Love of Another Kind – I Corinthians 13
Pre-Sermon Thematic Introduction
We’ve been talking about love, about how important it is, and what it looks like in our lives.
Coming, as do most of us, from the left-brained branch of Christianity, we pride ourselves
on correct doctrine; we put an abbreviated doctrinal statement in our bulletin. Important!
Without love, our doctrinal precision is worthless…worthless.
We’re known for vibrant worship…without love, it is worthless.
“Without faith, it is impossible to please God.” Faith is essential. Still, extreme, mountain-moving faith is of no value without love.
Some of us give sacrificially; without giving sacrificially, it is difficult for us to imagine that we are truly following Jesus. You can’t get around that: as I told a friend this week, and as I’ve said here before, the depth of your Christian commitment is shown more accurately in few places than in your willingness to give financially. And yet, without love, you can give your last red cent to no avail!
Today, our theme begins a summary section in which Paul uses four parallel descriptions in order to demonstrate the superiority of love.
Love, we might say, acts like Armor-All! It protects others.
“Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial.” Thus said Cassio in Shakespeare’s Othello, on the occasion of his military demotion for having gotten drunk. Proverbs 22:1 says, “A good name is to be more desired than great wealth; favor is better than silver and gold.” We speak today about the importance of love acting to guard the good name of another, because love protects!
Read Scripture.
Paul is speaking, in verse 7, in hyperbole to make a point—a point which careful Bible students won’t stretch beyond Paul’s intent. He is not saying that love bears lying and bragging and ungodliness without taking a stance; he is certainly not saying that love is neutral on issues of holiness. Love does not bear blasphemy against God without opposing it. Calvin says, “we are not to bear with vices, so as to give our sanction to them by flattery, or, by winking at them, encourage them through our supineness.” There is a time when sin has to be exposed, of course; Paul himself argues this.
Rather, the word stego means to cover or to support; while it has been translated various ways in various translations, it seems that the idea involves protecting another. When I am walking in the love of God, I protect others, their reputations and their name, from ridicule or harm. I won’t gossip if I am serious about loving others. When there is sin involved, I will attempt to deal with it in such a way that it causes the least possible harm to all involved—and the most possible help. Love doesn’t expose, gloat, or condemn pridefully.
Regarding the church, it involves a basic disposition which recognizes brothers and sisters as members of the same body. Paul in speaking on spiritual gifts has made this point in chapter 12. Thus, to tear down another ultimately hurts me. Developing in our lives, then, this characteristic of love leads to unity in the body, so important to Jesus!
What is it that ought to prompt me to protect another?
I. I Know that God’s Grace Covers My Sin
We find in the Old Testament such a rich treasure of understanding about the nature of the God Who loves us. One item found in the ancient tabernacle, the center of Israel’s worship, was the mercy seat. We find this spoken of in Leviticus 16. Blood of the sacrifice would be sprinkled on the mercy seat by the high priest. The mercy seat was a covering for the sins of the people, typical of a God Who would throw the mantle of His love over sin in the cross of Jesus Christ. When God forgives us, He doesn’t bring up our past sins; they are buried and gone. God’s New Covenant promise to us is that our sins will be remembered no more. “As far as the east is from the west,” the psalmist reminds us in Psalm 103, “so far has he removed our sins from us.” One said, “God remembers to forget”.
On the other hand, the Bible indicates that it is Satan who is labeled the “accuser”, not God. It is he who will continually drag our sins out of the closet and try to beat us over the head with them. How many of us have been beaten up and beaten down by the work of Satan suggesting to our minds the wretchedness of our sin in an accusatory fashion. There are some Christian people who struggle with their understanding of God’s grace, who really, when it comes right down to it, don’t believe that God’s grace is truly sufficient for their sin.
Sometimes people speak of the need to “forgive themselves”. Now, we don’t find anything of this sort in the Bible; we certainly are incapable of forgiving ourselves, and thus we ought not try. But I think I know what they mean when they use that faulty terminology, so let me try to straighten things out Biblically. Instead of trying to do the impossible and forgive ourselves, let’s instead take God at His Word rather than believing the lies of Satan. If God has forgiven you of your sin—and the promise from Scripture is that He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness—then it is up to us to believe Him. He will not bring up our past mistakes for the purpose of beating us up; to the contrary, it is Satan who will. Therefore, the issue is not forgiving yourself, but rather believing that God has forgiven you! Take God at His Word!
Let me speak to another troubling trend. I take issue with anyone who would identify himself by his sin. AA means well, but they err when they say that a person who is an alcoholic is an alcoholic for life. That’s incorrect; while it may very well be true that the temptation to that particular sin is one which in many people doesn’t lessen very much, even after years of sobriety, we are not labeled by our sin. Some people want to call themselves “homosexual Christians”. No, there may be true Christians who are tempted with homosexuality, and may even on occasion give in to that temptation, but God does not label a person by his sin, but rather by the righteousness of Jesus. All of us struggle with pride; do I wear the label “Christian egotist” or “Christian jerk”? No—even though sometimes I might act like an arrogant jerk! I’m not a Christian jerk—I’m a Christian, who sometimes acts like a jerk (well, some of you are, at least!). God’s grace covers our sin!
Second, I will be prompted to protect another when
II. I Truly Value Other People
Corinthians certainly needed this word. They had little concern for one another; though they were believers in Christ, their orientation remained to look out for themselves. Do I see others through the lens of the grace and love of God? And not just people I like or people I get along with or people who agree with me, but everybody.
This certainly cuts across the grain of human nature; crucifying people is a sport in contemporary society. Check out the newsstand at the grocery store to find out the latest alleged dirt on the celebrity du jour.
Someone once said that, “Christians are the only species on the earth to shoot their wounded.” I don’t believe that that is true, but it is a sad indictment that we, who ought to have the best understanding of God’s grace, are often the quickest to condemn and ostracize and gossip about brothers and sisters who have fallen or stumbled. We who ought to know most clearly the need for grace often Pharisaically condemn others.
Proverbs 10:12 says that “hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all transgressions. When we love a person, we do all we can to put the best face on things (not to the point of dishonesty, but when we love someone, even when they fall, we want to see them in the best possible light, and portray them that way to others). Conversely, when we act without love, indeed with hatred, we say, “well, that’s just typical of so-and-so”. And then we spread that venom to others.
Love doesn’t take pleasure in the exposure of the faults or problems or shortcomings or frailties of another. George Clooney lost a whole lot of credibility when he made light of Charlton Heston’s Alzheimer’s disease, and then defended himself instead of recanting. Love doesn’t rejoice to see even an enemy stumble. One writer says that love is a virtue that “throws a cloak of silence over what is displeasing in another person.” Just because something is true doesn’t mean it needs to be said!
It all begins, I think, with valuing other people as those created in the image of God, as those loved by God, as those for whom Jesus died. Jesus told us to love others as we love ourselves, and we’re pretty good at that! When I truly place upon every other person the value that is inherent in them; when I heed Paul’s words in Philippians 2 to “esteem others as better” than myself, then I will be sensitive to the need to be protective. That’s how love acts, Paul tells us! Now, practically,
III. I Make it My Business to Mind My Business
Paul chastises those who are busybodies, who always seem concerned to mind the business of others. In II Thessalonians 3, Paul speaks of this, in effect urging people to do their own work and not meddle in the business of others. And that is a good word for us as well!
I garnered a lot of my spiritual heritage from the man I gained my physical heritage from, my dad. He has taught me in many ways what it means to be a Christian, and I will be eternally grateful for his example. One of the things I admire most about my father is this very thing: he is a man who knows what it means to mind his own business and not poke his nose into things that don’t pertain to him! It is difficult for me to remember my father engaging in character assassination or gossip about another person; I just don’t have that in my memory bank. I am grateful for that legacy!
Great minds, someone has said, think and talk about ideas; small minds think and talk about people. If I make it my habit to mind my own business—and not the business of others—I will be more likely not to allow my tongue to stray into hurtful gossip, and I’ll avoid damaging the good name of another person.
IV. I Protect—and Promote—Others
The old adage is “if you can’t say something good about someone, say nothing at all.” How about, “find something good to say!” We try this on our kids sometimes. When they are back and forth sniping at one another with criticisms, and we get tired of it, we’ll sometimes instruct them to pay three compliments to the other person. The whole exercise usually ends in laughter, of course; the kind of compliments we get are usually of the variety of “for a fat guy, he doesn’t smell that bad”.
That’s not what I’m talking about, really! I’m talking about protecting others, but going beyond this to promoting their reputations, their growth, their spiritual development, their welfare in every way. This means that I am interested in building up the person to his face, and behind his back as well! This means that I speak well of others, not just refuse to gossip and tear down. I was noticing the Armor-All; it protects and beautifies!
I like the words of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who in his poem, “Youth and Age”, wrote, “friendship is a sheltering tree”. One preacher, in commenting on the shelter that love ought to be, suggests that we learn to build shelters of love and friendship large enough to take in all the particular aspects of others. Sometimes we only see the obvious things, the things that hit us in the face, so to speak, about another person; sometimes those are nice things, but often not so nice! We ought to learn to look for the positive qualities in others, and then do what we can to point these out to others, to fan them into flame, to encourage the good and cover the bad. That’s the way love acts!
Love protects—and it is willing to go to great lengths to do so. John MacArthur tells the story of a young soldier sentenced to die during the reign of Oliver Cromwell in England. The soldier was engaged to a young lady who loved him dearly, and she pleaded with Cromwell to spare his life, but to no avail. The young man was to be executed when the curfew bell sounded, but when the sexton pulled on the rope repeatedly there was no sound to be heard from the bell. The young lady had climbed into the belfry and wrapped herself around the clapper in order that it was unable to strike the bell. Her body was smashed and bruised, but she refused to let go of the clapper until the bell stopped swinging. Finally, she managed to climb down, bruised and bleeding, to meet those awaiting the execution. When she explained what she had done, Oliver Cromwell was so moved that he commuted the young man’s sentence. One poet recorded the story thusly:
“At his feet she told her story, showed her hands all bruised and torn.
And her sweet young face, still haggard with the anguish it had worn.
Touched his heart with sudden pity, lit his eyes with misty light.
“Go, your lover lives”, said Cromwell, “curfew will not ring tonight!”
Paul writes, “love bears all things”. Love protects!
