Rev. David Holwick
First Baptist Church
West Lafayette, Ohio
August 10, 1986
To Be In Love
1 Corinthians 13 (NIV)
Yesterday was the 6th anniversary of my marriage to Celeste. Today is the 40th Anniversary of Bessie and Luther and next week Dan and Virginia celebrate their 50th. Each couple would say they are in love - and they really are.
But what is love? I have known the answer ever since high school. Love is a morning break period where you didn't have to mingle with the guys in the lounge because you had a girl to sit with on a step. In my high school, each step from the lounge to the second floor was occupied by a couple in love. They sat this far apart [hold fingers two inches apart] and had to wrap their arms all together. It looked pretty complicated but I didn't have to worry. I just mingled with the guys in the lounge.
Love is an important part of life. Just turn on any radio station and at least eight out of ten songs will focus on it. Boy meets girl - hearts go pitter-pat. Girl dumps boy for someone else. There's a lot of truth in that. Everyone is searching for love, yet many never find it. Some even give up. I think it is Tina Turner who says, "What's love got to do with it? What's love, just a second-hand emotion."
For all of our emphasis on love, most of us would be hard-pressed to say exactly what it is. I believe 1 Corinthians 13 is a good place to start. It's probably the best chapter in the Bible on love and it is certainly the most beautiful. [If you have a King James Bible, don't be thrown off by "charity." This is carried over from the Latin and means love, not the giving of goods to poor people.] Paul uses the Greek word, agape, which was chosen by Christians to express a special kind of love.
According to this chapter there are four things you should know about love:
Love is necessary.
Love is concrete.
Love is permanent.
And love is superior.
First, let's look at the necessity of love. In the first three verses Paul compares love with religion. The religion he describes is not half-baked. As a matter of fact, most of us don't even come close.
He mentions speaking in tongues of men and of angels. This is probably a reference to charismatic tongues. The tongues that came upon the apostles at Pentecost were human languages that the crowd understood. There are also tongues that no one can understand unless God gives someone an interpretation. In either case, whether human tongues or angelic, Paul is talking about a supernatural ability. It's a God-given eloquence. I wish I had eloquence. I guess I do all right as a preacher but I know I'm not first-rate. Have you ever heard a speaker who captivated your attention, brought goose bumps out on your arms?
The four years I went to Wheaton College I was required to attend chapel services every day; someone up in the balcony actually took attendance. I heard around six hundred speakers. But only two of them really inspired me. Paul is talking about an eloquence that would blow these two away. He then talks about the gift of prophecy. The way it is used here, it means being able to see into the mind of God. Nothing would be hidden from you. Paul goes to mountain-moving faith. This faith is not the belief in Jesus which results in salvation. He's talking about faith that can work miracles. Have you done any miracles lately?
It would be a wonderful thing to be spiritually eloquent, to perfectly know the mind of God, to work miracles by snapping your fingers. But if you lack one thing, love, all of these abilities are meaningless. According to Paul, these people would not just be lacking something - they would be lacking everything. There are Christians who take pride in how well they know the Bible, or how bold they are in witnessing, or how much they do for the church. But without a loving attitude, all of their energy is wasted.
Love is absolutely essential in the Christian life. Take love away and you cannot be a saved person. You would only be making noise and going through the motions. Love is necessary.
It is also concrete - The Bible does not stress the emotions of love like our popular songs do (being in and out of it). The Bible focuses on what love does. There is another difference. Our culture focuses on the object of our love. If you want to be loved, you've got to pour on the make-up, punch little holes in your ears, put a toupee on your bald spot...we do all this so someone will love us.
The Bible says forget about being loved - Do the loving. The secret of God's love is that it is for the unworthy. We don't deserve it. The book of Romans says:
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (5:8)
Love proceeds from God because it is his essential nature. If you are a Christian, love should be your nature. You love people because of who you are, not because they have something to offer you in return.
Do you ever feel loved out? You try to be like Jesus in how you treat people, and then it seems like they suck you dry. So you get depressed, irritable. You want to take a vacation from being a Christian. We all feel like this from time to time. But we are barking up the wrong tree. You are focusing on those you have to love. God wants you to look at yourself because that's where the love is going to come from. Verse 3 to 7 describes the concrete qualities of love. It's not so much what love is but what it does and what it doesn't do. Christian love is patient. When this word is used in the New Testament, it always refers to patience with people, rather than with circumstances. It also goes beyond patience - you don't let resentments build up.
Love is also kind. If someone mistreats us, we are good to them in return. Love doesn't envy. We are not irritated with the success others have. Love is incompatible with pride.
Verse 5 tells us love is not rude or self-seeking. "Is not easily angered" is translated by Philips as "is not touchy." Christians need thick skins. Love doesn't keep a record of wrongs. Like when you have a family argument and you're tempted to bring up all the dirt from their past to strengthen your position. Christians shouldn't do that.
Verses 6 and 7 are mostly positive. Love rejoices, protects, trusts, hopes, and perseveres. All of these traits focus on the one who loves, not the beloved. To really make them concrete, read these verses out loud to someone who knows you well. But every time you come to the word "love", substitute your own name.
"David is patient, and is kind. David does not envy, he does not boast, he is not proud...."
Take careful note of their reaction....
Love is necessary and it's concrete. Verses 8 to 12 show that it is permanent. Spiritual gifts are very important but someday they will all disappear. They will no longer be necessary. But love will remain. Paul draws an illustration from growing up. When we are children, we think we know it all. If you don't believe that, just ask Rebecca. As we grow older, we see how inadequate our childish attitudes were and we put them aside.
Spiritually, we are all children. We think we have it all figured out but we don't. In verse 12 Paul says our "seeing" is only a poor reflection in a mirror. The King James puts this picturesquely as seeing "through a glass darkly." Ancient mirrors were usually made out of highly polished metal. The city of Corinth was famous for them. The cheap ones most people could afford did not give a good reflection. They made you look wavy and dim. Right now we only God dimly even when we feel the closest to him, but the day will come when we can look him right in the face. On that day, we'll really know what love is all about. We will never outgrow it.
Love is necessary.
Love is concrete.
Love is permanent.
And love is superior.
Three things will remain for eternity: faith, hope and love. This kind of faith doesn't stress miracles but believing in Jesus. Without faith, no one can be saved. Hope is knowing that God will always have good things in store for us. We can't see it all right now but he promises it is there. Both of these are crucial. But love is superior because faith and hope are directed to God while love is something that flows both ways.
Do you love God? Do you love? Perhaps need to refocus your attention on what God expects and provides for you.
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Typed on July 10, 2006, by Sharon Lesko of Ledgewood Baptist Church, New Jersey
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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