What is Love?

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC 2/3/13

Scripture 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Our scripture for today is probably familiar to most of us. We can  probably quote from memory different parts of, “Love is patient, love is kind.” Or “Faith, Hope, and Love abide, the three, and the greatest of these is Love.” In fact this scripture is such a popular scripture about love that I would guess that some of you here used it in your wedding. Even the movie Wedding Crashers plays on the popularity of this passage.  In the movie the two main characters well they crash weddings, and in one scene they make bets about which scripture is going to be read, and one of the bets was this passage from first Corinthians. It’s words about love are so beautiful, so deep, so inspiring, that it seems natural to have it at weddings. But what if I told you that the original intent of the text was not for marriage but was instead intended for a struggling church; and what if I told you that the words about love were not originally intended to be about two people in a romantic relationship, but rather the love shown to each other within that church? Well, its true, while these words are definitely fitting for the bond of marriage, Paul wrote these words as an attempt to calm disagreements happening in the church in Corinth.

            At that time, the church in Corinth had started to grow, and as it grew many different leaders started to emerge in the church. Some of the leaders had the gift of prophesy, some were able to speak in tongues while still there were others who were great teachers. While at first these many gifts seems like a blessing for the church, the diversity of these gifts started to cause a division with the church. Those who spoke in tongues thought that their gift was the most important and believed they were the clear leaders of the church, while those who were teachers and had other gifts all felt the same about their own gift.  As I said, this created a division in the church because each person believed that they knew what was best for the church. In the previous chapter Paul talks about the importance for the unity of the church, saying that all are members of the one body, each playing an important and significant role. From there he moves onto his words in this chapter, and focuses on the importance of love.   

            Paul doesn’t start by talking about what love is, but instead talks about the futility of Christian life without love. He says, “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” Paul pretty much tells the people of Corinth that all of their spiritual gifts are useless if they do not have love. On the surface this seems like a no brainer, and yet how often do we find ourselves needing to be reminded of this simple fact. So often we ask questions like what do I have to do to get into heaven, or what makes me a good Christian? Our answers are usually that we must follow the precepts and commandments of the Bible, or that to be a good Christian we must always be in service, while others would argue that we must use the gifts that God has given us for ministry. None of these answers are actually wrong, but they are missing something. If I speak in the tongues of mortals but do not have love I am a noisy gong, if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing, If I give away all my possessions but do not have love, I gain nothing, All of these actions seem to be great indicators  of Christian life, but without love they are useless. After all when Jesus was asked by the Sadducees and Pharisees about what the greatest command was, or in other words the most important aspect of the religion, Jesus replied with, “Love your God with all of your heart, all of your mind, and all of your soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus’ response was love.

            The reason love is so important is because we are a broken a flawed people. We’re not perfect, and we certainly don’t perfectly understand God or the ways in which God works in the world and in the church. And yet because of our brokeness, our pride, I desire for recognition or acknowledgment, or desire to feel important, we so often act as if we have all the answers. Just like the people of Corinth who each thought their gift was the most important for the church, we far too often act as though we have all of the answers. Paul addresses then when he says, “For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.” Paul acknowledges our faults and our limitations, he tell us that when we think we have all of the answers we only have part of it, as if we were standing in front of a dimly lit mirror able to possible see the outline of the object that stood before us, but not able to fully see. Paul shows us that if we were to simply act upon our faith, or to simply act upon our hope that we have in Christ, then we can do more harm than good. You could have all of the faith in the world but without love you could be doing more harm than good. You could have the greatest gifts for ministry, or you could be walking the straightest line, but without love all of that would be useless. We do not see the full image in the mirror, we only can see in part, and that is why love is so important. Love is the remedy. As 1 John says, “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.” We act in love because love comes from God. When we act in faith, when we try and use our gifts, when we go into the world in service, we do it with love so that even we fail, even when our faults are made visible, you are still showing God to others, because you are showing love.

            All of this leads to one final question,  what is love? If we are supposed to live in love what does that mean?  I could try to explain it the best of my abilities but all of it would fall short of the answer, and so I will simply leave you with the beautiful explanation that Paul gives, “ Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never ends”