1 Corinthians 13:1-13. Love is the answer!! 31/1/10
(1) 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. {2} 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. {3} If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. {4} Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. {5} It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. {6} Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. {7} It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. {8} 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. {9} For we know in part and we prophesy in part, {10} but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. {11} 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 childish ways behind me. {12} Now we see but a poor 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. {13} And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Here this morning we are reminded of the one thing that is essential in all that we say and do, and which must undergird all of life. We are given some very important advice, for our lives and the life of the church that is as important today as it was the day it was written. The issue then and here now, is no different. We therefore need to listen very carefully to the message that God has here for us.
Really, the question for us here is; what is it that is essential for us as we go forward as the people of God? What are those things that are the good and enduring qualities that the Church needs as it faces the future and carries out its mission and ministry here in this community? This reading here has some very good advice for us in this regard; and it flies in the face of a lot of what we hear today, and even what probably, many of us might think.
Now today, as it was in Corinth with the people that Paul was speaking to, there is great emphasis on what we do: the focus is on ourselves; our gifts and abilities; or our weaknesses; and this is what drives us, and which we look for in the qualities of individuals and churches. We hold up things like, someone who can preach and teach in a remarkable way. Or someone who has a charismatic personality: or who speaks in tongues or prays long and beautiful prayers, or who can give wonderful testimonies, or can have and display the good feelings that we think are ‘Christian’; And I could go on. Now these may all be good and important characteristics of a Christian, but are they most important, as many seem to suggest today?
Also with our Annual meetings coming up soon, the same things applies there. Do we need a wiz-bang chairman, elders, Sunday School teachers, ushers and the like, for our congregation to go ahead and be what God wants it to be? As we go about life, is it that we have to be able to speak well for us to be able to witness to others: that we need to know our Bible and Lutheran doctrines backwards: do we need all the latest technologies and entertainment strategies for our worship services; and the like? Now again, many of these things may be good and we need to work at doing the best can in these areas, but in the end are these things all essential for our wellbeing?
Well here, we are reminded that there is one gift that is needed more than any of these other abilities that we so often hold up as being of utmost importance. Well really, we are reminded that there are three gifts that are essential – with one being the greatest. And without these three, and the last one in particular, all the rest of what we do, no matter how good they are, will not work. The best pastor in the country; the most accomplished chairperson, Sunday School teacher; and all the rest will not achieve the results that are needed, if we do not have these gifts.
However, the trouble is; it is on all these other things that we today so often place so much value on. We too often think that it is these things which will make the Church what it should be and help it grow. But in reality, I believe, we are simply looking for the easy way out, so that we can have the results without any difficulty on our own part. And of course, we like to have that which draws attention to ourselves and make us look important.
Now if we think of our reading here and the people to whom Paul was first of all writing to; that was the sort of situation and thinking that they were into. They prided themselves on their display of the great gifts within the church: Speaking in tongues, good speakers, and the ability to lead people in a powerful way: All the kinds of gifts that draw a crowd and get the people in and look up to them: as well as quibbling over who and which is more important and better. But we can see that as they put an over-emphasis on these things, it caused a great deal of disharmony and hurt within the congregation. The church was not as it should be, even though it had some very gifted people in their midst. So Paul has to write this letter to them; and in this chapter gets to the heart of the matter. In many ways, he says if they want to know what Christianity is really is all about, and if they want to be super Christians and have a genuine impact on their community, then they shouldn’t look primarily to those spectacular gifts, but instead concentrate first and foremost on faith, hope and love; and in particular love.
Paul points out that here in the kind of love that is mentioned in this chapter we have the best gift from God that his Church could ever have. It is greater and more powerful than any of those other, so called, spectacular gifts that were being sought after by so many, even today; such as a great speaking ability, healing the sick, speaking in tongues, and the like. No, for Paul the answer to the needs of God’s people and his Church is love: love more than anything else. So he continues that call of Jesus to his followers, where he reminds them and us of the great commandment to ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbour as yourself.’
Now here we need to remember that this love mentioned here is not to be understood in the same as way as it is so commonly understood in everyday life today. The way the word love that is used by so many today, has little or no connection with the way it is used here. This love is an all giving love: a giving without some sort of expectation on the other person. It is a love that places great value and importance on the other person and not on oneself. It puts the focus on them, and is always seeking of their good. Let me read again v.4-7. ‘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.
Now there we have qualities that build relationships rather than tear them apart. There we have that which draws people together and helps them and us to be what God intends us to be. Paul reminds us of this very clearly when he points out what happens when this love is absent: we see the negative results. Yet how often don’t we see and hear the same thing today: ‘They call themselves Christians, but look how they fight and quarrel, and run others down.’ ‘Or look how he knows his Bible, but couldn’t care less how much he hurts or takes down others.’ ‘Or see how they are involved in all these things merely trying to impress people and get them in, so that they can rake in the crowds and get the money in, or so that others can see how good they are.’ There were and are many gifted people in the church who are having a negative impact on others because they are using their gifts without love: without concern for others.
So here, we are reminded of the importance of love in all our actions as God’s people; and that is very much Paul’s point here. It is love that gives credibility and worth to all those other gifts we may or may not have. If love does not accompany the things we do then we are wasting our time and we might just as well forget it all. It is this all-giving love that should undergird anything and everything we do as Christians: and that is what is needed here in this congregation and in all our lives as we look to the future.
Here I am sure that we all could do with a little more of this gift of love; and faith and hope as well. It sure would be of great value to this church as it faces the future. Now look, I know that this love is there in this congregation – very much so – but at the same time we all could improve greatly. And with this genuine love that Paul is talking about we as a church will continue to go on having an impact on our community; building relationships and togetherness; and helping others to see the greatness of our God and his love for us.
Now of course this is not something we can achieve by ourselves. Our sinful human nature cannot come to grips with this attitude; but it prefers to change the meaning of this love and much sooner bring oneself into every situation. That being the case we need to look beyond ourselves if we are to find this true love: this love that makes all the difference. We need to look more and more beyond ourselves to source of love: to our Lord himself: For it is God alone who is love in the fullest sense of the word. It is his Spirit who gives, works, builds and encourages this love in and through our lives: and he continually points us to the Lord Jesus Christ himself who not only showed us what this love is like but he extended it to each one of us personally.
So there in Jesus we see the fullest expression of this love. We see how God gave his own Son into death on the cross, for us: paying the penalty for our disobedience and rebellion: loving us even though we have done nothing to deserve it or warrant it: forgiving our failure, and freeing us to love and serve him and each other. The more that we read, hear, and meditate on, and thereby understand the Good News of Jesus Christ, the more his Spirit is there in our lives enabling us to share that love of his with those around us. With the Lord Jesus central in our lives our faith, hope and love will remain strong, no matter what is before us.
And that is our encouragement this morning as we look forward to the future. Let us therefore seek to know and understand more and more this love of God in Christ Jesus: allowing his love to lead us, and fill us with his love to the point where it flows out more and more to others around about us. So yes, love is the answer to our future: the love of God, flowing through Jesus Christ to you and me, and then outward to those in the community around us. Now may this love and God’s peace go with you now and always. AMEN.
Pastor Roger Atze
Glandore/Underdale Lutheran Parish
(1) 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. {2} 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. {3} If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. {4} Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. {5} It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. {6} Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. {7} It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. {8} 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. {9} For we know in part and we prophesy in part, {10} but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. {11} 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 childish ways behind me. {12} Now we see but a poor 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. {13} And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Here this morning we are reminded of the one thing that is essential in all that we say and do, and which must undergird all of life. We are given some very important advice, for our lives and the life of the church that is as important today as it was the day it was written. The issue then and here now, is no different. We therefore need to listen very carefully to the message that God has here for us.
Really, the question for us here is; what is it that is essential for us as we go forward as the people of God? What are those things that are the good and enduring qualities that the Church needs as it faces the future and carries out its mission and ministry here in this community? This reading here has some very good advice for us in this regard; and it flies in the face of a lot of what we hear today, and even what probably, many of us might think.
Now today, as it was in Corinth with the people that Paul was speaking to, there is great emphasis on what we do: the focus is on ourselves; our gifts and abilities; or our weaknesses; and this is what drives us, and which we look for in the qualities of individuals and churches. We hold up things like, someone who can preach and teach in a remarkable way. Or someone who has a charismatic personality: or who speaks in tongues or prays long and beautiful prayers, or who can give wonderful testimonies, or can have and display the good feelings that we think are ‘Christian’; And I could go on. Now these may all be good and important characteristics of a Christian, but are they most important, as many seem to suggest today?
Also with our Annual meetings coming up soon, the same things applies there. Do we need a wiz-bang chairman, elders, Sunday School teachers, ushers and the like, for our congregation to go ahead and be what God wants it to be? As we go about life, is it that we have to be able to speak well for us to be able to witness to others: that we need to know our Bible and Lutheran doctrines backwards: do we need all the latest technologies and entertainment strategies for our worship services; and the like? Now again, many of these things may be good and we need to work at doing the best can in these areas, but in the end are these things all essential for our wellbeing?
Well here, we are reminded that there is one gift that is needed more than any of these other abilities that we so often hold up as being of utmost importance. Well really, we are reminded that there are three gifts that are essential – with one being the greatest. And without these three, and the last one in particular, all the rest of what we do, no matter how good they are, will not work. The best pastor in the country; the most accomplished chairperson, Sunday School teacher; and all the rest will not achieve the results that are needed, if we do not have these gifts.
However, the trouble is; it is on all these other things that we today so often place so much value on. We too often think that it is these things which will make the Church what it should be and help it grow. But in reality, I believe, we are simply looking for the easy way out, so that we can have the results without any difficulty on our own part. And of course, we like to have that which draws attention to ourselves and make us look important.
Now if we think of our reading here and the people to whom Paul was first of all writing to; that was the sort of situation and thinking that they were into. They prided themselves on their display of the great gifts within the church: Speaking in tongues, good speakers, and the ability to lead people in a powerful way: All the kinds of gifts that draw a crowd and get the people in and look up to them: as well as quibbling over who and which is more important and better. But we can see that as they put an over-emphasis on these things, it caused a great deal of disharmony and hurt within the congregation. The church was not as it should be, even though it had some very gifted people in their midst. So Paul has to write this letter to them; and in this chapter gets to the heart of the matter. In many ways, he says if they want to know what Christianity is really is all about, and if they want to be super Christians and have a genuine impact on their community, then they shouldn’t look primarily to those spectacular gifts, but instead concentrate first and foremost on faith, hope and love; and in particular love.
Paul points out that here in the kind of love that is mentioned in this chapter we have the best gift from God that his Church could ever have. It is greater and more powerful than any of those other, so called, spectacular gifts that were being sought after by so many, even today; such as a great speaking ability, healing the sick, speaking in tongues, and the like. No, for Paul the answer to the needs of God’s people and his Church is love: love more than anything else. So he continues that call of Jesus to his followers, where he reminds them and us of the great commandment to ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbour as yourself.’
Now here we need to remember that this love mentioned here is not to be understood in the same as way as it is so commonly understood in everyday life today. The way the word love that is used by so many today, has little or no connection with the way it is used here. This love is an all giving love: a giving without some sort of expectation on the other person. It is a love that places great value and importance on the other person and not on oneself. It puts the focus on them, and is always seeking of their good. Let me read again v.4-7. ‘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.
Now there we have qualities that build relationships rather than tear them apart. There we have that which draws people together and helps them and us to be what God intends us to be. Paul reminds us of this very clearly when he points out what happens when this love is absent: we see the negative results. Yet how often don’t we see and hear the same thing today: ‘They call themselves Christians, but look how they fight and quarrel, and run others down.’ ‘Or look how he knows his Bible, but couldn’t care less how much he hurts or takes down others.’ ‘Or see how they are involved in all these things merely trying to impress people and get them in, so that they can rake in the crowds and get the money in, or so that others can see how good they are.’ There were and are many gifted people in the church who are having a negative impact on others because they are using their gifts without love: without concern for others.
So here, we are reminded of the importance of love in all our actions as God’s people; and that is very much Paul’s point here. It is love that gives credibility and worth to all those other gifts we may or may not have. If love does not accompany the things we do then we are wasting our time and we might just as well forget it all. It is this all-giving love that should undergird anything and everything we do as Christians: and that is what is needed here in this congregation and in all our lives as we look to the future.
Here I am sure that we all could do with a little more of this gift of love; and faith and hope as well. It sure would be of great value to this church as it faces the future. Now look, I know that this love is there in this congregation – very much so – but at the same time we all could improve greatly. And with this genuine love that Paul is talking about we as a church will continue to go on having an impact on our community; building relationships and togetherness; and helping others to see the greatness of our God and his love for us.
Now of course this is not something we can achieve by ourselves. Our sinful human nature cannot come to grips with this attitude; but it prefers to change the meaning of this love and much sooner bring oneself into every situation. That being the case we need to look beyond ourselves if we are to find this true love: this love that makes all the difference. We need to look more and more beyond ourselves to source of love: to our Lord himself: For it is God alone who is love in the fullest sense of the word. It is his Spirit who gives, works, builds and encourages this love in and through our lives: and he continually points us to the Lord Jesus Christ himself who not only showed us what this love is like but he extended it to each one of us personally.
So there in Jesus we see the fullest expression of this love. We see how God gave his own Son into death on the cross, for us: paying the penalty for our disobedience and rebellion: loving us even though we have done nothing to deserve it or warrant it: forgiving our failure, and freeing us to love and serve him and each other. The more that we read, hear, and meditate on, and thereby understand the Good News of Jesus Christ, the more his Spirit is there in our lives enabling us to share that love of his with those around us. With the Lord Jesus central in our lives our faith, hope and love will remain strong, no matter what is before us.
And that is our encouragement this morning as we look forward to the future. Let us therefore seek to know and understand more and more this love of God in Christ Jesus: allowing his love to lead us, and fill us with his love to the point where it flows out more and more to others around about us. So yes, love is the answer to our future: the love of God, flowing through Jesus Christ to you and me, and then outward to those in the community around us. Now may this love and God’s peace go with you now and always. AMEN.
Pastor Roger Atze
Glandore/Underdale Lutheran Parish
posted by Roger at
3:11 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home