1 Corinthians 13:4-8 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. Love never fails.
The concept that God is love is a hard one for us frail, sinful, self-willed beings to imagine and to embrace fully. To fathom a world of sustained, sacrificial, deferential love, a place where laws would disappear, seems beyond us. We struggle in a world that lacks peace and harmony; daily we see the absence of unconditional love. For sure, our basic instincts, our survival tendencies, are not in line with an existence of pure love. Going our own way, doing what is right in our own eyes, seems a better way for survival in a sinful world. However, the initial sin in the garden of questioning God's authority in our lives has caused division, estrangement, wars, abuse, and great pain in humankind. Every day in our news reports, we see what our will and our self-orientation has wrought. Countries, cities, families, relationships are torn apart, destroyed by the selfishness of humans and their lack of love. People are not patient; they are not kind. Rather than harmony and peace ruling in this world, cruelty and violence win the day. If God's authority ruled, relationships, families, nations, and the world would look completely different. In a world under God's love, policemen would find another job; laws would serve no purpose for people would choose to do right. Generosity towards others would be common place, so the homeless would find care along with the sick, the helpless, the disadvantaged, and all in every community who needed a helping hand. We would love each other as we love ourselves. We would fulfill God's Word: Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. (Romans 13:8) God would not have to say to us as he said to Cain: “Where is your brother Abel?” (Genesis 4:9) No, we would understand that we are our brother's keeper. God expects such love from us, for his love in us should compel us to be our brother's keeper. We should defer to others rather than demand that our own will take preeminence in our relationships with others. Love is not self-seeking. . .It (Love) always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. In every interaction, Love NEVER fails.
In our scripture focus, Paul continues his instruction to the church on love. He knows that God's love provides the glue that holds a body of believers together in good times and in bad. God's love will always bring harmony, peace, and justice into any body of believers. Positions, giftings, and responsibilities in the church will not hold the body together if God's generous love is not present. Jesus told believers: You are the light of the world. (Matthew 5:14) Then He told them to let their light shine. But if the church is not functioning under the authority of God's love, we will be nothing more than a fraternal organization, meeting to talk about good things but not showing the love of God to a hurting world. James confronts this lack of love in believers, their lack of deferring to others, as a serious problem. What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (James 4:1-3) When a church loses its way, anger, disputes, and selfish ambition will be in the center of every interaction. People will hold grudges and bitterness toward others because their hearts are cold. Rather than forgiving a hurt in a relationship, unruly and ungodly people will get their pound of flesh by either directly striking back or by sowing seeds of discord in the church. Of course, disharmony is always the product of such sinful actions. This lack of obedience to Christ and his love, can reside in anyone, regardless of their responsibility, position, or gifting within the church. Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. (James 3:13-16) No matter your position in the body of Christ, you should be wise and understanding, listening to the Holy Spirit's leading. You should know the church operates in love, depending on the love of God functioning in every part of the body. If love is not allowed freedom, then disorder and evil practices will rise up and bring disorder.
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 dislodges every evil intent of the heart. Love will take the back seat in any interaction. Love will not promote self; rather, love promotes God and his desires. Love brings God to the table in every situation. If we are to reveal God to the world, we must take Paul's instructions on love seriously. These words are often read at marriage ceremonies. The couples usually ascent to these words. In their prospective marriages, they really want to love each other with a whole heart, an honest heart. But the flesh quickly comes between them. They find that they have to put aside their own vision for their life and consider the vision of their spouse. They discover they have to accommodate the other person's ideas about how to construct a meaningful life. They realize their self-centeredness has to give way to another person's self-centered ideas. This is hard and gets harder. This is when a third person is needed in the relationship, someone who can be the counselor, the advocate for peace, the comforter. Every relationship needs this person. Jesus said He must go away so He could send the mighty Counselor, the Spirit of truth and peace who would teach them all things. When the Holy Spirit fell upon the believers, this third person of the trinity became the reality of God's presence in a Christian's life. No longer would we be alone, in a position of faith in the God of heaven: we would have the Holy Spirit abiding within us, advocating for God's love. Marriage relationships break down because God's love is not operative in our interactions. But love will never slip away if we listen to the Spirit of God abiding in us, teaching and guiding us. We must open our ears to his urgings. He is asking us to love others even if it costs us a great deal. He wants to bear fruit in God's children: the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23) If anyone should be hurt in a relationship, let it be us, for love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never ends. Let it begin today in us!
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