Sunday, February 3, 2013

For the Love of God

Preached to the Saints at Zion Lutheran Church, Cola. City, In., 2.3.13


If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic abilities, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.
Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child; I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
So now faith, hope, and love (remain), these three; but the greatest of these is love.
(I Cor. 13:1-13)

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Today’s Epistle reading is all about love.  This is a very beautiful passage, and one that has been used in many weddings, and hangs in many houses.  However, St. Paul wasn’t writing it to very beautiful people.  In fact, he was writing to a church that was trying to destroy itself.  In last week’s epistle reading, we heard about how the Corinthian church had fragmented itself, with each member seeking their own satisfaction through their own gifts, without any regard for their fellow Christians.  But this week, Paul gives them a most excellent way—one that is much better than their self-serving gifts which set them against one another in the church.  This much better way is the way of Love; and it’s not just any love—it’s the Love of God.

This Love of God is a very special love.  While we have one word for Love in English, there are at least four that are used in the New Testament.  One type of Love is STORGAY.  This is the love of something familiar, such as chocolate, or your own bed in your own home. 

Another type of Love is PHILIA.  This is the type of love that comes from having respect for each other, and having things in common. 

And still another type of Love is EROS, or the mutual love between a man and a woman.  Remember, though, that with EROS, this is a mutual love, and cannot exist unless both the man and the woman have it for each other.

The interesting thing about each of these types of Love is that each one of them is based on our feelings, needs and desires.  However, none of these is the Love that Paul was talking about in this passage.  The love that Paul writes about is AGAPE.  What, you may ask, makes AGAPE special?  It’s not based on our feelings.  It’s not a Love that is traded for well-being or gain.  You cannot have AGAPE if you are going to receive something back for loving.  All too many times we tell each other “I Love You,” either after we get something that we want, or because we hope if we say it, we will be rewarded.  AGAPE is the Love that Jesus talked about when he told the lawyer “You shall Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  And…you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mt. 22:27,29) 

This AGAPE, it ALWAYS serves the other person.  St. John actually wrote that God is AGAPE, that is, He is Love (1 John 4:8).  We can see this all through the Bible…from the time of creation when God created all good things and gave them to Adam and Eve, His creation, through the Exodus of His people from Egypt, through the prophets that He sent to preach repentance, all the way to the coming of Jesus as a baby, a human, so that He could pay for our sins through His death and resurrection, something that none of us could ever do on our own!

AGAPE Love is foreign to you.  It is not what you were born with, and it is no easier to find than Jesus, without the Holy Spirit bringing Him to you through the proclamation of the Word and Baptism.  But, in the same way that the Holy Spirit grants you the faith to believe, He grants you the ability, the power to show AGAPE love to your fellow man.  The Corinthians had this same ability, the leading by the Holy Spirit to forgiveness and hope for eternal life, and the ability to show love to each other as God had shown it to them.

The Corinthians did not show this Love to each other.  While they were Christians, they certainly were not showing love for each other.  Instead, they were caught up in the gifts that each one of them had.  From our reading, it is obvious that every one of them was certain that his gift was the very best gift, far superior to anyone else’s gift.  And those that had the same gift, well they were grouping together, forming groups that lorded their abilities over the others.  Those who could prophesy were better than those who had faith, and they were both better than some other gifts.

They forgot the Love of God, and became full of love of themselves and what they could do.  Although they had been taught that all of the good gifts of God were from him and existed because of His Love, His AGAPE for them, they fell down and could only see themselves.

Beginning with verse 4, Paul explains to the Corinthians exactly what the love of God looks like, and how it is not like the self-serving love that they felt for each other and themselves.

Love is not jealous of what others have or do.  It does not allow you to envy another person.

Love does not brag.  It doesn’t puff you up because you can do something that someone else cannot do.

Love does not insist on its own way, or serving itself.  It doesn’t cause you to get irritable with other people, or to resent them for who they are or how they act. 

Love certainly does not rejoice at wrongdoing (that’s sin, by the way).

Love is actually the exact opposite of all of those.

Love is patient, some would call it longsuffering.  This means that Love is willing to wait, and to forgive while waiting.

Love is kind.  It isn’t harsh with others when they don’t look or act in just the “right way.”

Love rejoices in the truth.  Remember Jesus said “I am the way the truth and the life.” Love realizes that this Truth is the better way.

Love bears all things.  This includes the shortcomings of our families, our friends, our teachers, and our employers.

Love believes all things.  Love is not gullible, but it is trusting.  This is putting the best possible construction on the actions of others, and taking them at their word.

Love hopes all things.  This hope comes from faith, believing that the other person will do the right thing, regardless of how they have acted before.

Love endures all things.  This love does not die, and it does not give up.  AGAPE cannot die. It is the Love of God, and it is God Himself, providing for us, not for His benefit, but only for our benefit.

The Love of God never fails.

The love of the Corinthians did fail, though. They spoke in tongues, prophesied, and were given all the great Christian doctrine of their day.  And they strutted around pointing to themselves and others like them saying look at what I can do.  They pointed out the ones that could not do those things and made fun of them.  They were so caught up in doing the Good Christian works, showing off their abilities, that they forgot that they were given these things because of the Love, the AGAPE, of God.  They enjoyed their gifts so much that they did not use them for the church, only for themselves.  

Today, we are not gifted in the same ways that the Corinthians were.  We still have gifts and talents that God provides us, and He even shows us the best way to use them for each other, both to strengthen our faith and to grow His church in the ways that He wants to grow it.  But to look at these gifts, and how we misuse them, we are nothing more than 21st century Corinthians. 

What are we to do then?  Repent, seek His forgiveness, given through His AGAPE for us, and seek His will, that we will Love and serve Him just as He has loved us and served us.  This morning, even before the service began, we confessed our sins, and our inability to have AGAPE toward God and our fellow man, before his altar. And as He promises in His Word, He forgave us.  We remember our baptism, when He first showed His great Love for us, by instilling faith in us through water and His Word, by the Holy Spirit. 

As we prepare to come to His table, where we will consume the body and blood of His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, we know that our faith will be strengthened, and we rejoice in the hope of our salvation, granted to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Christ.  And through these gifts, we can Love anew, because He first loved us.               Amen.

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