The greatest of these is Love

 Read 1 Corinthians 13

See if any of this sounds familiar.

We take the word of God to the world and make disciples.

We trust in the Lord completely.

We keep our eyes fixed on him and press on towards the goal.

We desire to please God more than we fear that which we must overcome.

We trust and obey.

I hope that sounds familiar. How about this?

I am a soldier of the cross. I serve God and put his commands into practice and they are not a burden. I am prepared to give my life to the One who gave his for me.

I will never surrender to the enemy, for in Christ I am victorious.

If I am surrounded, I will strengthen what remains.

If captured by the enemy, I will trust God’s Spirit to give me the words to say.

I will never stop trusting God and obeying his commands.

I will never forget who I belong to and will give my life to bring glory to his name.

That one was of my own construct, but biblically based. Check the online version for links to the originating scriptures.

But let’s say we did all of those things; would our lives be complete?

You might think that you left out the tithe. You left out prayer. You left out partaking of the Lord’s Supper.

Really?  How can the list be complete without the peace that goes beyond understanding?

You would be right, but adding twenty more statements wouldn’t get you to completeness. Twenty or fifty more after that won’t help either.

Remember that what I gave you in this short mantra was in the spirit of being a soldier of the cross. That was the context.

But let’s think to being complete as a disciple of our Lord. What’s missing but so essential?

Love. Being known by our love. Resting in the love of God and getting off our butts motivated by love.

I don’t enjoy preaching the Love Chapter as much as you might think. Why?  Because Paul nailed it. It’s poetry.  Wedged between chapters talking mostly about spiritual gifts is what we have come to know as the Love Chapter.

This Love Chapter actually begins at the end of chapter 12.

 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.

And yet I will show you the most excellent way.

What is Paul talking about?

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

If I am eloquent—fancy—but don’t have love, I’m just making noise.

 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 do not have love, I am nothing.

Even if I have a spiritual gift—that’s got to be a good thing, right—but don’t have love. I’m nothing. God expects to see love at work in us.

Even if I have the faith that moves mountains but don’t have love, I am nothing. God expects to see love emanating from us.

Spiritual gifts, prophecy, healing, and faith are some big ticket items, but without love they don’t amount to diddly.

If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

If I am doing the stuff that I am supposed to be doing but doing it without love, I have gained nothing. I’m just a hamster on a treadmill. I’m running my race like crazy but not getting anywhere.

The church at Corinth had spiritual gifts and practiced godly things but missed the love that went with these things.

Does that sound like anyone you might know from the gospels?

How about the Pharisees? They knew the law backwards and forwards but missed the love—the divine heart of God—that was essential to their understanding and employment.

What happens when a church embraces the hypocrisy of the Pharisees? We miss the target. We think we are running a good race but we are on the wrong racetrack. We are missing the target.

So, what is it about love that is so essential?

Understand that in the Greek language, there are three main words that mean love. There is eros which is romantic love. There is phillia which is brotherly love.

That’s two of them, but there are other lesser known words such as Storge, Philautia, and  Xenia. These are love as in parents for a child, self love, and what we might call hospitality today.

And finally, there is agape love. This is selfless, sacrificial, and unconditional love. This is the love of which Paul writes.

Let’s do a little etymology. That’s words, not bugs.  Agápe is the love that God prefers. Agape is the highest form of love.

Strongs describes it this way.

In the Greco-Roman world, various forms of love were recognized, but agapé was distinct in its emphasis on selflessness and sacrifice. Early Christians adopted this term to describe the love that God demonstrated through Jesus Christ, particularly in His sacrificial death on the cross. This concept of love was revolutionary in a culture that often valued power and self-interest.

Agapé is not based on emotions or feelings but is an act of the will, characterized by a commitment to the well-being of others.

Let’s continue in chapter 13.

 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, 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 is not in our nature but must be in our new nature, for it is God’s nature. God is love.  The apostle John told us that if you don’t love, then you don’t know God for God is love.

If you studied what composes the human body, you would discover that about 60% is water. Hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, calcium, and phosphorous make up much of the rest. There are other elements in trace amounts, but we are mostly water.

God, on the other hand, is in his very essence love. You can’t find that on the periodic table, but when you get down to the rat killin’ we find that God is love.

Love must be our first nature as a new creation. Let’s give Paul a little more time with us.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

Everything that we know on this earth is temporary. God is eternal. Love is eternal.

Our obedience is important. Love is essential.

Our faith is important. Love is essential.

Our hope is important. Love is essential.

Our prayers are important. Love is essential.

Our trust is important. Love is essential.

Do you remember The Money Message? I did a number on debt. Debt steals much of the abundance in abundant life.

But do you remember the one debt that we should all have?  It is the continuing debt to love one another.

The debt is owed to Jesus but payments on that debt are made to our fellow humans.

Do you remember reading about the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15?  Part of the discussion was the inability of even the Patriarchs to fulfill the law. They couldn’t do it. No one ever had.

Jesus said he came to fulfill the law and he did.

We think that we can never fulfill the law either, but I say we can. We can fulfill the law.

We are told that love fulfills the law. Some think this is a cop-out. Some think it’s an easy way out, but it is far from it.

Love—unconditional love—is more difficult that following a list of rules. Sometimes the rule-following seems easy, and sometimes, it seems impossible.

Jesus told his disciples that he was giving them a new command. That command was to love each other as much as he loved them. Jesus gave his life for them and for us. That’s a whole lot of love.

Loving like Jesus loved is really tough, but if we live a life of love, we can fulfill the law. In love we may satisfy the demands of the law.

In fact, we find part of our identity in this new command. We are to be known as followers of Jesus by our love.

God is love. We are made in his image and continually growing in the image and likeness of Christ Jesus.

We are becoming love. It’s how we are to be known and our true identity as a new creature.

Peter wrote that love covers a multitude of sins.

John Lennon wrote that all you need is love. That’s not too bad for a Brit with a bowl cut.

Let’s conclude with Paul’s words.

And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.

As you depart today, I want Paul’s words, not mine, to echo in your mind. Just listen.

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have 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 do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

 

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, 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. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.  For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Faith, hope, love, abide these three, but the greatest of these is love.

Amen.