"What Is Love?" a sermon on 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

1 Corinthians 13:1-13
“What Is Love?”
Sermon preached Sunday, January 30, 2022

Today we’re going to talk about love.

I know, big shocker cause “Love” is never a word I say from the pulpit. And that was obviously a joke, I talk about love a lot. I was curious as to how much I actually talk about love so I looked at the last 6 sermons I’ve preached to you - and factoring in Christmas Eve and Lessons and Carols so no sermon on that day, we’re talking about just about a month of sermons. So based on my manuscripts I preached 7964 words from the pulpit. Of those, 153 of them were some form of love: love, loves, loved, loving. Doing the math, that means over my last 6 sermons, about 2% of the words I’ve preached to you have been love. And that number includes words like the, a, an, and…So I would venture that of the words that carry meaning and importance, maybe closer to 5% of what I say to you every Sunday is “Love.”

We worship the God who is Love, so that makes sense. One of my favorite passages of Scripture is 1 John 4:7-12:

“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.”

And for the record, in the passage of Scripture there are 119 words and 15 of them are love. That’s 12 percent.

Another of my favorite passages of Scripture is the two greatest commandments, Matthew 22: 27-39: Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

Love is obviously an important part of our faith. Our God is love. Love is from God. Love was revealed through Jesus, Love incarnate. We are called to love God and to love neighbor as self. Others will know God and know we love God, by our Love.

Paul was definitely on to something when he said, “And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.”

Love is, arguably, the greatest and most important thing in our faith and how we live it out. So yes, I talk about love a lot from the pulpit. I’d rather be faulted for too much love than too little.

And today we are presented with what is known as “the love” passage in Scripture. And while this passage is often read or preached on at weddings, this passage’s definition of love goes far beyond marital love. It is, primarily, about God’s love and God’s love reflected through us.

And this passage from 1 Corinthians could be our dictionary entry next to the word love. We spend a lot of time talking about Love in church, and yet I wonder…how often do we define love? For there are a lot of things that this world labels as “love” that are not love, that do not reflect God’s love but that we are fooled or lied to so that we accept it as love. Or we compromise and settle for a poor definition. When love is used so much its definition, its understanding can be diluted, twisted, misunderstood. So today, using this famous love passage we are going to go line by line and define our Biblical understanding of love.

“If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”

For starters, love is the only thing that matters. If you don’t have love: It doesn’t matter what you say. It doesn’t matter what spiritual gift you have. It doesn’t matter what you know. It doesn’t matter if you believe all the right things. It doesn’t matter what you have or what you don’t have. It doesn’t matter how generous you are. It doesn’t matter if you even die for the faith. All of these are secondary to love and they don’t even come close. Now I’m not saying they don’t matter at all. I’m not saying that we’re not called to use our gifts and to grow in wisdom and to have faith and to be generous, I’m not saying that. I am saying that without love, none of that matters. Love is what gives everything else meaning.

“Love is patient.”

Love will never stop waiting for you. God will never stop waiting for you. As Methodists we call this prevenient grace - the grace of God, the love of God, that was there before you even knew there was grace and love to be had. At no point does the God of love give up on you, at no point does the God of love get tired of waiting for you to awaken to God. God will not rush you or hurry you, God will be patient all through our lives.

“Love is kind.”

To say love is kind is to say God is kind. Our God is not mean. There is a word in Hebrew, chesed, that some Bibles translate as loving-kindness. Hyphenated. Not that kindness is what you are loving but that loving-kindness is one word, one trait of our God. “Chesed means giving oneself fully, with love and compassion.” This love and compassion is geared toward us, being kind, considerate, loving.

“Love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.”

If love is not envious, that means that love is content and accepting. Love does look upon others and who they are and what they have with an attitude of “why do THEY have THAT” or “I WANT that.” Instead love rejoices with others instead of envying. Love gives thanks for what one has rather than always thinking about more. In the same line, love is not boastful. Love at its core is also about humility. There is no room in love for tooting one’s own horn over another. Again, because love is not rude. Love considers others. Rejoices with others. In kind, humble, content love there is no room for rudeness.

Love “does not insist on its own way.”

Love is the opposite of “my way or the highway.” Love journeys with others no matter what path they are on. God journeys with us no matter what path we are on or where we find ourselves in this life. Love meets us where we are - not forcing us, pushing us, making us - love comes to us and walks with us, ever patient, ever extending grace.

Love “is not irritable or resentful.”

A relationship where you always feel like you are walking on egg shells, afraid the other person could blow up and lash out - verbally or physically - is a tell-tall sign of an abusive relationship. And it is the antithesis of love. There is no walking on egg shells with love, there is no fear of annoyance or rubbing the wrong way - the God who is Love accepts us freely as we are. There is no need to tread carefully around the God who is Love. God rejoices when we are out in the open, free, fully who we are. So too with resentfulness. Love does not hold things against us. God does not weaponize our mistakes. God doesn’t hold grudges. Because God is Love, God freely forgives, again and again and again.

Love “does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.”

Sometimes in this world, we rejoice in wrongdoings. We do. When that person we don’t like messes up or has something awful happen to them. “Ha! Serves them right! Karma.” Well, that’s not love. Love looks at virtues, not vices. It celebrates all that is good, all that is true. There is no place for lies in Love. Love is open and honest and virtuous and true.

Love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

“Ain't’ no mountain high enough, ain’t no valley low enough, ain’t no river wide enough…” Marvin Gaye was on to something. But really: there is nothing that will keep you from God’s love. The Apostle Paul says elsewhere in his writings, in Romans 8:

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

When it comes to Love, the God who is Love, there is no obstacle too great, no situation too hard, no burden too heavy.

Love bears. Love endures.

Love also hopes - always looking forward to that day when all of Creation is redeemed in God’s love. And Love believes too - even when the troubles of this world seem so heavy - love never loses sight of God.

Which brings us to:

“Love never ends.”

Paul ends this passage on love with this famous line: “And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.”

One day, faith will become sight.
One day, all that we have hoped for will become reality.
But love? Love will never fade, love will never cease, love will never end. And that is why love is the greatest.

In conclusion, today’s sermon, once all said and done is 1810 words, 142 of those are love. Or about 8%. It’s a lot! Well above my average…And while I said love a lot today, love matters, love is the only thing that matters.

I pray and hope that through spending time with the definition of love, we may all better understand what it truly means to say that God is Love and that the two greatest commandments are to love God and love neighbor.

May we know we are loved by God and may we love like God loves.

Amen.