What Is This Thing Called Love? 1 Corinthians 13 Rev. Michael D. Halley June 22, 2014 Suffolk Christian Church Suffolk, Virginia Second Sunday After Pentecost ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There are times in life when we come to a dead end, and this week was one of those times for me. When I first started working on the passage from Jeremiah chapter 20, it made perfect sense to pursue that text as the basis of my sermon today. However, no fruit grew on that tree. No water was found in that well. No words flowed forth suitable for a sermonic treatment of that passage. So with your indulgence this morning, I will walk with you down another path. Yesterday was one of those unusual days in the life of a church. We had two weddings. At 2 o clock Nancy Bangley and Charles Chip Setnicky spoke their vows to each other, and at 5:30, Ashley Christopher and Christopher Ashcraft spoke their vows to each other. What drove these two couples to the altar to pledge themselves to each other? Probably there were several reasons, but chief among them, I am sure, was that they loved each other. And so in both weddings I read for them this passage which I called the greatest essay on love ever written. And this morning I ask the question, What is this thing called love? In 1929, composer Cole Porter wrote the hit song which asks that very 1
question. It became one of his most performed compositions. What is this thing called love? Ask the Lord in heaven above, what is this thing called love? That is a great question, whether it is asked in a classroom, a church service, or in a popular song, what is this thing called love? Love seems to be everywhere. We love strawberries. We love certain cities. We love our girlfriend or boyfriend. And we even sing, My Jesus, I love thee, I know thou art mine. Page 2 If you read the New Testament any at all, you discover over and over that we Christians are called to be people of love. In fact, Jesus said, the sign of our discipleship is whether or not we love one another. Paul told the Roman church that we must not owe a thing to others except the debt of love. He told the Galatians that the fruit of the Spirit, the evidence of Gods working in your life, is first of all love. Then, in this passage from 1 Corinthians 13, Paul says that it is good to exercise your gifts. But if you do so without love, those gifts accomplish nothing. They make you nothing. No matter how impressive your sacrifices are, whether of money or self, if they are done without love, you gain nothing at the judgment seat of Christ. So again, the question is an important one: What is this thing called love? The people in the first century may have been just as confused about love as we are. The Greeks had several words for love, the most common of which was the word phileo. This word described the ordinary every-day word for love the love you have for friends, for people in your family, and love for your country. There was another word for love that was very common in the ancient world, and that word is eros. In English, we get our word erotic from eros. But the ancient Greeks used this word in a much wider sense, such as the
feeling you get during a moving moment in your life. A moment, for example, like when you stand at Niagara Falls and you see millions of gallons of water pouring down and feel the spray of the water on your face. The Greeks would say that is eros. Or how about when you witness a moving performance of Handel s magnificent work, Messiah? That, too, is an eros moment. Eros is that rush of feeling when we are moved by beauty and masterpiece. Tears of joy might accompany such moments. Page 3 We love those moments, don t we? Our culture puts a great deal of emphasis on this kind of love, just as the Greeks did, but the word eros is never used in the New Testament. If you asked Paul that question, What is this thing called love?, he uses another Greek word, agape. There is a strange thing about this word agape... it is seldom used outside the Bible. Classical scholars tell us that agape is only used four times outside the sacred writings of the Bible, and each time it is used it is translated something like good will. But in the Bible it becomes a major word. A word that is used to describe God s love for us, our love for him, and our love for each other. And get this: What characterizes this kind of love -- agape -- is that it s not primarily a love having to do with emotions. In biblical use, agape love is a setting of the mind, an orientation of the will. Agape love is a determination of our will that we will seek the highest good for other people. This is why Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, can say, Love your enemies and he also said, Pray for those who persecute you. And he also said, Do good to those who despitefully use you. The German philosopher Immanuel Kant, who lived in the 1700s,
Page 4 dismissed these words of Jesus. He said it was impossible to command people to love. He was actually right, in one sense. If you are talking about a feeling kind of love, then love like that can t be commanded. But agape is not about feelings! Agape is a setting of the mind. Even if we are dealing with an enemy, we Christians can determine and decide that we will do no harm to that person. We can determine and decide that we will not respond to their cursing by cursing back at them. We can determine and decide that we will not respond to their bitterness with bitterness of our own. Agape love seeks the highest good of other people. But what is this thing called love? Can we be more specific about how it actually works? If I said to you, for example, Music is the science of the art of tones, you would have no idea what music is, would you? But if you would listen to an Irish tenor singing Danny Boy, then you would have a much better idea of what music is all about. And so Saint Paul helps to define agape by describing it and showing how it acts. Looking at the list in 1 Corinthians 13, you discover that Paul uses fifteen phrases to describe agape. The first two phrases serve as a sort of umbrella for everything that comes after. These two are that love is patient, and kind. Then, Paul lists eight negative things that love doesn t do. If you do any of these things, Paul is saying, then you are not loving. Here they are: Love does not envy. Love does not boast. Love is not proud. Love is not rude.
Page 5 Love is not self-seeking. Love is not easily angered. Love keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil. Then Paul gives us five positives. Agape, he says Rejoices with the truth Always protects Always trusts Always hopes Always perseveres Let s look at the first two traits of agape love. First of all, Paul says love is patient. If you were writing this list, would you start with patience? Maybe not. Many of us are impatient with patience! As one writer put it, Patience is a virtue, Possess it if you can. Found seldom in a woman, Never in a man. This kind of patient love Paul speaks of is possible because it comes from God. It is God s love in us. Did you realize that God is patient with us so he can lead us to repentance? Imagine if you were to confess your sins, and God says to you, Wait, wait, wait. Which sins do you have in mind? Then you begin to spell them out specifically, and God says, Wait, wait, wait. You were here three days ago confessing those sins. In fact, you were here three times last week, confessing these same sins. Three strikes and you re out!
But God doesn t do that, does he? He does not deal with us according to our sins or reward us according to our iniquities. He s patient with us. He works with us. That s the nature of the God who gives us agape love. God does for us what we should be doing for others. Page 6 We can also be patient if we take seriously the Christian doctrine about men and women, the doctrine that we are depraved. We re sinners, all of us. We all mess up. In fact, when we think we ve got sin conquered, it comes back again. We struggle with sin, and other people struggle with it, too. So, we need to be patient with people. We are patient with people because the work God does in them doesn t happen overnight. Bishop Fulton J. Sheen once said, Patience is power. Patience is not an absence of action; rather it is timing. [Patience] waits on the right time to act, for the right principles and in the right way. The love of which Paul speaks is not only patient with people, but it is also kind. Patience and kindness go together like a couple in a good marriage. All of us along our life journey are on an uphill climb. All of us carry heavy burdens. All of us need kindness. Mark Twain said, Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. One winter morning on a college campus in New England, the residents awoke to find that all their cars were snowed in. One professor wondered what he was going to do, since he did not have a shovel. Not long after, he saw the wife of a Korean student go out with a shovel and started digging out the cars. Soon two or three men came out of their apartments to help her. What a lovely kindness that was. As you know, we have a task force thinking and praying about ministries
Page 7 and programs that will help to build our church. But we can look no further than this teaching from Saint Paul about love. If we live a life of agape love, people will flock to this church. They will want what we have. They will be amazed that Christians can actually love others the way God loves. So it does not start with a program or a new thing to be offered, it starts right here, in our hearts. Won t you be a part of the radical movement to actually be and do what God wants us to be? Let God s Spirit work in you so that we can show his love to others. Let us pray: Our Father, help us to love. Not selfishly or with ulterior motive, but honestly, openly, with patience and kindness. May our church family be a haven of love. May we be a place where others are accepted and valued and loved. We pray this in the name of Jesus, who loved us enough to give his life for us. Amen +==+==+==+==+==+==+ All Scripture references are from New International Version, NIV, copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc., unless otherwise indicated. +==+==+==+==+==+==+ Sunday Sermons from Suffolk Christian Church are intended for the private devotional use of members and friends of the church. Please do not print or publish. Thank you. Suggestions for sermon topics are always welcome!
Page 8