Whats love got to do with it?

The peace of the Lord be with you brothers and sisters in Christ!

Whats love got to do with it? No, I am not talking about Tina Turner’s song in which Tina Turner says that love is just a second hand emotion. The love that I am speaking of is the love that St. Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians 13. This is the Epistle lesson for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany and picks up on where our Epistle lesson left off for the Third Sunday after Epiphany. Paul has been addressing the issues going on in the church at Corinth. He had just used the analogy of the human body to speak on the importance of the body of Christ. For just as the human body was crafted and brought into existence by God and each part of the human body has an important function, so Christ serves as the head and the Church serves as the body of Christ. Each member equally important to the function of the Church and to carrying out the mission of Christ today in this dark and sinful world. So what does love have to do with the body of Christ? What does love have to do with the spiritual gifts that He has given to each member of the body? Well, love is certainly no second hand emotion according to Paul. More importantly, love has everything to do with carrying out the mission of Christ Jesus here on earth as the body of Christ. As St. Paul explains it, you can be blessed with spiritual gifts from God. But if you do not have love, what use are those spiritual gifts in service to the kingdom and to your neighbor? Therefore, Paul goes on to express and breakdown the importance of what love is. He writes:

13 4Love is longsuffering, is kind; love is not jealous, love does not brag, is not puffed up, 5does not behave improperly, is not self-seeking, is not provoked, does not keep a record of wrong, 6does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but joins in rejoicing in the truth. 7Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

As we learn in catechesis, we ask the question of: What does this mean? Love is long-suffering? Kind? Not jealous? Does not brag? Is not puffed up? You get the idea. But what does this mean? What does this mean for us today as Christians? Love’s first and great characteristic is to be long-suffering. In contrast to the feverish emotionalism of our culture and society today, “Christian love is marked not so much in the expression as in the extension of emotion, the drawing out, taming, literally the lengthening of emotion.” That is, the Christian is not to be short-tempered, but long-suffering with others. Or in other words, we are to be patient with others. Whether its our brothers and sisters in Christ, or those we work and live among in our daily lives. In our long-suffering with others, we imitate God and exhibit the love of God who has always displayed long-suffering in His dealings with us poor-miserable sinners. God’s long-suffering with His people, is to be reflected then, in the long-suffering Christians are to show one another. We know that our love being long-suffering doesn’t come naturally. But it is a gift from God and a fruit of God’s Spirit (Gal. 5:22). Thanks be to God.

Now the second characteristic of love as described by St. Paul is that love is to be kind. The reality is, our love toward our brothers and sisters in Christ and toward our neighbor isn’t always kind is it? Often times, we disguise our true intentions in the name of love. Let us repent of this when we do so. However, it is God who once again sets an example by showing unfailing kindness in the creation, the preservation, and redemption of His beloved people. Because of His kindness shown to us in the life, death, and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ, that kindness then bears fruit (should bear fruit) in the life of the Christian (Gal. 5:22, Col. 3:12). After emphasizing these two important and positive characteristics of love, Paul then changes gears and speaks on what love is not. Love is not jealous. Unfortunately, the Corinthians had fallen prey to jealousy through their competitiveness and warring factions among one another. Hence, Paul has to remind them that they had not been walking in the way of love. After all, jealousy is a monster that is never content with the gifts that it has received and is always eyeing what others have. How often we too fall prey to jealousy as the body of Christ? How often are we faced with competitiveness and warring factions within Christian congregations today? Therefore, Paul’s letter to the Corinthians is just as relevant and important for us to take to heart today as well. There is no room for jealousy and envy within the body of Christ.

Paul goes on to say that love also does not behave like a braggart or windbag. Apparently some of the Corinthians, with their delight in eloquent and impressive speech, had fallen into that trap. Paul had to educate them about the world’s false wisdom and eloquence; the world’s wisdom is foolishness to God, and Paul deliberately avoided superficial eloquence in his presentation of the Gospel. Nor does love condone the closely related sin of being inflated with self-importance (“is not puffed up,” 13:4). A number of times Paul has had occasion to chide the Corinthians for being puffed up because of factional pride and arrogance, for their toleration of immorality, and for their disregard for his directives as a called apostle of God. Now he points out that ballooned, inflated egos are totally incompatible with Christian love. Egoism fractures the unity of the body of Christ.

How often do we allow our egos, self-importance, pride, arrogance, and so forth keep us from loving one another and loving our neighbors just as God has loved us in and through the life, death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ? Especially in this current politically polarized climate, how often do we let our pride and opinions, our egos and arrogance get in the way of loving our neighbor, even though we might have disagreements with one another about many things? Beloved, our love is to be long suffering and kind. As Paul goes on to say, love does not behave improperly and love is not self-seeking. Paul had admonished the Christians in Corinth not to be self-seeking and not to do everything that may be permissible, but to seek the edification of others. Thus they would be imitating his example of not seeking his own benefit but the salvation of many. Beloved in the Lord, love is not about the edification of ourselves. It is, however, about the edification of our brothers and sisters in Christ and the edification of our neighbors. That is how the love of Christ is made known to others dear friends. Through the mutual encouragement, uplifting, and strengthening of one another with the love made known to us in and through Christ Jesus.

Furthermore, love is not easily provoked. Now we all been easily provoked. Even St. Paul had become provoked during an argument with Barnabas about whether or not to take John Mark along on the second missionary journey (Acts 15:39). He may have come to regret his impatience on that occasion, for Mark proved a valuable church servant (2 Tim 2:20–21; 4:11). More important, however, than any personal regrets on Paul’s part was the widespread tension in the Corinthian congregation, where the factional rivalry had led to a great deal of provocation. His admonition here is in line with his general concern that Christians control their anger (Eph 4:26, 31–32). Easier said than done sometimes, right? Controlling our anger? Maybe you have had a rough day and someone cuts you off on the highway and sends you into a rant as you spew out anger toward the other driver. Maybe you have some family issues that have been burdening you for a while, and someone says something to you that just sets you off. We have all had those moments. Moments where we have expressed anger toward our brother or sister in Christ. As well as moments of anger expressed toward our neighbor. When those moments happen, we should repent of our anger and ask God to help us approach the situation with long-suffering and kindness.

Here comes a very important piece of this letter to the church at Corinth. Love does NOT keep a record of wrong. Do I say this louder for those in the back? Love does NOT keep a record of wrong. Jesus Christ, took your sins, my sins, and your neighbors sins and He took them to the cross. Not only did He take your sins to the cross and was crucified for our sins, but He took our sins to the grave tomb and He buried them there. Christ was then resurrected from the grave, but our sins and our wrong doings were left buried in the grave. Beloved, our Lord erased thee sins of His people from His ledger (Rom. 4:8, Col. 2:14) so that He remembers them no more. Beloved, love does not carry a chip on its shoulder so to speak nor does it nurse a grudge. Rather, love forgives just as Christ has forgiven. Imagine what kind of kingdom impact the body of Christ can make in this dark and sinful world when we allow our love to keep no record of wrong and we allow grace, mercy, and forgiveness to abound. Imagine what kind of reconciliation would take place if we truly allowed our love to keep no record of wrong and allow our love to be a love filled with forgiveness? How might you ask God to help you with this in your life as a Christian if this is an area of love that you struggle with?

Now moving on, Paul continues on with the last of the “love does not” statements. That is, love does not rejoice in unrighteousness. “In place of jealousy, rivalry, rudeness, pride, and other forms of self-centeredness listed in 1 Cor. 13:4b–6a, Christian love leads all members of the body to rejoice together when one of their number is honored (12:26). Instead of placing their bodies at the service of wickedness, they join with others in rejoicing in whatever is true, constructive, and edifying.” In a similar vein Paul encourages the Philippians: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things” (Phil 4:8 NIV).

Moving on from there, Paul moves back to summarizing his description of loves activities with four brief clauses. That is, “love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. These four descriptions take us back to the first part of Paul’s description of love. That is, love is long suffering and kind. Love that “bears all things” puts up with other people and circumstances which try its patience. Love “believes and hopes all things” introduce faith and hope in Paul’s description of love, therefore preparing for the closing comment of the triad of “faith, hope, and love” which concludes chapter 13. Now it is important to note that “love believes all things” does not mean that love is always gullible and always believes other people. “Rather, faith generated by God’s love in Christ perdures in all circumstances. Similarly, love never gives up its hope in God.” Finally, “love endures all things.” Endurance is one of the great characteristics of life under the cross in Christ’s kingdom (Rev 1:9).

Lastly, “love never falls.” This is verse 8 in chapter 13 of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. It is here that Paul turns to love permanence and abiding value. Beloved in the Lord, just as the Word of God never falls to the ground ineffective but always accomplishes its purposes (Isaiah 55:10-11), so Christian love will retain its honored place throughout time and eternity.

Back to the question I asked at the beginning. What’s love got to do with it? What’s love got to do with the body of Christ? Love has everything to do with it. We love beloved, because God first loved us, that while we were still sinners He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross for us and for the forgiveness of our sins. That’s true love. Unconditional love. Undeserved love. May we all, with the help of God and the work of the Holy Spirit, exhibit the kind of love that is long suffering and kind, bears all things, hopes all things, and believes all things.

Beloved in the Lord, in everything that we do, let us do it in love toward one another. For love has everything to do with how we walk with and serve our neighbors. Love isn’t just a second hand emotion. For love bears all things and endures all things. Love covers a multitude of sins. For Jesus poured out His love for us on the cross of Calvary. He buried our sins in the grave tomb. His love for us keeps a record of no wrongs. Therefore, rejoice in this great love for you dear friends. Then take that same great love, and share it with others. Amen!

References and Scripture: Gregory J. Lockwood, 1 Corinthians, Concordia Commentary (Saint Louis: Concordia Pub. House, 2000).