The Challenge To Love

- Facing the Challenges -

THE CHALLENGE TO LOVE

1 Corinthians 12-14

Introduction

There are many challenges to living the Jesus Life. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians reminds us that we serve a living Savior but we also have our human brokenness to deal with. This can bring many challenges.

Paul identifies several problems in the Corinthian church. Among them he names quarreling, jealousy, sexual immorality, strife, lawsuits, inconsiderateness, and division. This seems like a church no one would want to go to. In modern times they would be scandalized, cancelled, FB Blocked and memed.

Paul doesn’t do that. He begins his letter by calling them the Church of God, Sanctified, Saints, Recipients of Grace, not lacking any gifts, and affirms in 1:8 NIV “He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The kinds of problems that the Corinthians have are seen in our world today - and we cannot claim that they are never seen in our churches - and that is Paul’s main concern. These kinds of problems make it hard to love others. The challenge to love is always present in the church. The differences among us can be a source of struggle, whether backgrounds, ideas, convictions, attitudes, and actions.

Thus Paul reaches the highlight of his message in chapter 13 - the love chapter. This is the message for us today.

Chapters 12-14 contain principles that will help us grow in love - which is what the world needs now more than ever - the love of Christ in the people of Christ. Today we notice three qualities of the love that Christ calls us toward.

1. EMPATHY (1 Corinthians 12)

Paul teaches us that in Christ we become one body. (12:12-14)

1 Corinthians 12:12-14 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. 14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many.

This directly applies to the divisions in the church at Corinth. It reminds us today that there is something that rises above our own thoughts, convictions, attitudes - and that is the way to love.

1 Corinthians 12:26 “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.”

Empathy is not always easy to understand. We get sympathy easier - we are sorry someone else is hurting. Empathy seeks to join the person who is struggling so they are not alone.

Brene Brown wrote about attributes of empathy:

-To be able to see the world as others see it. This requires putting your own "stuff" aside to see the situation through your loved one's eyes. Paul was a master of reading the room and speaking in such a way as to empathize with his listeners. In 1 Corinthians 9:20-23 Paul relates the need to understand where another person is coming from. "To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings."

-To be nonjudgmental. Judgement of another person's situation discounts the experience and is an attempt to protect ourselves from the pain of the situation. Luke 6:37 “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned…”

-To communicate your understanding. Rather than saying, "At least you..." or "It could be worse..." try, "I've been there, and that really hurts," or "It sounds like you are in a hard place now. Tell me more about it. Galatians 6:2 "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ."

It’s easy to dismiss or turn away, but Christ calls us to enter in. Paul declares in 8:13 “Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.” He didn’t agree that eating meat sacrificed to idols was sin. But he empathized with his brother who did think of it as sin and joined him in his perspective. Challenging? Yes! This is the power of empathy.