That's What Love Is

That’s What Love is 1 Cor 13:1-8

Where does Love come from?

This time of year we might think the florist is where love comes from in the form of a dozen red roses.

Why I was talking to Sean Smith (one of our teenage boys in the church) just yesterday and he said a friend of his had paid 75.00 for a dozen roses for a certain girl.

I said that must be quite a special girlfriend your friend has.

Sean said

" Oh no...it’s not even his girlfriend ..he’s just hoping." Now some would say that is either love.... or insanity.

(But that’s not really love)

Some might think that love comes in a heart shaped box and in the flavors of caramel or sweet chocolate.

But that’s not really love.

I think we are just beginning to understand love...when we agree that REAL LOVE comes from a Holy God to Man.

God helps us to understand love in the great love chapter of 1 Corinthians 13.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails....

In a day and age where promiscuity seems to rein in many lives and where casual affairs have become common place. There is a great need for understanding the definition of REAL LOVE.

Tragedy comes to marriages....so it came to one after 15 years of marriage where a woman was shocked, saddened and her whole life seemed shattered as she found out that her husband had been unfaithful to her with another woman.

Her life suddenly seemed to be the picture of a terrible train derailment.....a scattering a debris of emotion here and there.

.

At first there was the anger of..... how could he.

Then there was the sadness of..... how could he.

Then there was the inadequacy she felt of :... how could he.

She was a Christian woman and loved her husband with God’s kind of love.

Because she knew that she truly loved her husband her question changed from How could he to ....How can I....

How can we....

How can I..... keep this marriage together

The first thing I would have us to consider about love today is this:

I. Love keeps no record of wrong and love seeks to be strong.

Look again with me at the end of verse 5...there at the end of verse 5 there is something that we need to understand about love.

It says about love that ...IT KEEPS NO RECORD OF WRONGS.

How many of you have a spouse out there that keeps reminding you about that "thing" you did last week...last month....last year...or all those years ago?

Some are saying wait a minute preacher you just stick to preaching and don’t start medaling.

Well I am just trying to say what the word of God says and it says that when there is REAL LOVE and there is forgiveness...there needs to be a clean slate, and empty file in the folder of wrongs.

Keep your place in 1 Cor 13 but peek back over into Ps103 with me for just a moment....

Who knows love better than anyone? God .....right!

Now when you have wronged God what happens...?

Does He stop loving you?

So what happens when we sin....

Well if we ask forgiveness for our sin ...then 1 John says that He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.

Now that is wonderful news to know that Jesus forgives but I like what Psalm 103:12 says:

look at verse 12

as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. (Psa 103:12 NIV)

It is the picture of God saying I have forgiven you for your sin and it is no more. The record clear, clean not to be brought up again.

Love does not keep a record of wrong...

Let’s go back to that marriage of 15 years that beached against the jagged rocks of an unfaithfulness. What can repair the hole in that marriage what can make it whole again?