A series on 1st Corinthians 12 & 13
We’re in 1st Corinthians 13 now, which means we’re going to be talking about LOVE! Here’s something that happened during the week:
We were driving past ‘Broken Hearts Burger Club,’ I noticed it and Norah was listening, so she asked what broken heart means (tough one!)
I ended up saying my hearts NOT broken because she and her mum are in it, filling it up. Then Evie and I were saying how we’re in each other’s hearts, but what did Norah say to that?
She said no, we can’t be in her heart, because God’s in her heart.
So good! No room for mummy and daddy because God’s in there! Obviously.
Then we said how God gives us people to be in our hearts, but she wasn’t so sure about that…
A recap of what been looking at so far:
Week 1: spiritual gifts > being informed, ONE spirit different gifts
Week 2: Body of Christ, where the gifts of the Spirit are played out! Unity & diversity in the body, living lives of HUMILITY > not being focused just on what we need or want for ourselves, but fixing our eyes on Jesus, being more and more like him.
Last one today, we come to 1 Corinthians 13: the chapter about LOVE.
It all comes together today, our last bit of GLUE > what we receive (gifts), where those gifts play out (body), where they come from (love).
If you know this chapter you know it’s all about love, the many ways love operates, how essential love is. Might hear verses from this chapter at weddings, used in all sorts of contexts where love is being talked about.
Here’s what Paul says about love: ‘Love is patient, love is kind, love never fails. Love always protects, trusts, hopes, perseveres.’
‘If I don’t have love,’ Paul says, ‘I have nothing.’ So the gifts of the Spirit & Body of Christ HINGE on this, they hinge on LOVE. God’s love. Faith and hope as well, but the greatest of these is LOVE.
Really important today that we round out this series on the ‘GLUE that holds us all together’ with this most essential ingredient! God’s love for you, for me, for all people.
If we have a look through this chapter we can see lots of contrasts here from Paul –
Things love is, things love isn’t. Things we do want, things we don’t want.
Nobody wants to be a ‘resounding gong’ or a ‘clanging cymbal!’
Nobody wants to ‘gain nothing.’
Nobody wants to be said to be self-seeking, easily angered or keeping a record of every wrong. These are not things we want to be, but WITHOUT love, that’s all we are, that’s all we have, that’s all we do.
LOVE is such an important part of who God is, and how he calls us to do life together.
If love is missing we’re going to notice it.
Another thing about glue – we’ve heard how if it’s doing it’s job right we don’t see it – but you also notice if it’s NOT doing it’s job, if it’s NOT there!
Love is like glue, you notice it if it’s NOT there.
The defining characteristic of our relationship with Jesus, that is the relationship with our God that our heavenly father calls us into through the work of the Holy Spirit, is what? It’s LOVE.
We see this at work in our relationships with other people, the ones we value most and hold dearest? What are they defined by? Love.
We might even have enough love for someone that we can forgive them, and accept them for who they are. That’s the sort of relationship we’re called into – in this sort of relationship God’s love works in us through the gifts of the Spirit, as part of the body of Christ.
There’s a big picture to that, and a smaller one that’s closer to home – our local church community right here in the people around us. God is at work here among us, his love is reaching us as we gather together in God’s house, as we share in community and fellowship together, as we go out into the world filled up by his Spirit and the good news we have to share.
What else is God’s love, on top of what Paul says here?
It’s gentle, it’s comforting – Jesus calls us to come to him and we will find rest.
It never ends, even if we think it should it doesn’t!
Paul has more to say about love than just this chapter of this letter > Love ‘surpasses knowledge’ he says in Ephesians (3), it’s too great to be fully understood.
And in Romans (8) he says nothing can separate us from it, nothing can separate us from the love of God, not even death.
God’s love is not just ‘warm and fuzzy,’ not just a nice thing to tap into, something that makes us feel good; it’s also fiercely protective, sacrificial, almost aggressive we could say. Our God loves his people, and he will stop at nothing to reach us – not even death will stand in his way.
To round out this series let’s go to our gospel reading today, where we hear how Jesus is rejected in his own hometown – not only rejected, he’s nearly killed!
What brings on this angry response from the people listening to him? He talks about how God can provide for gentiles, not only Israel but all people. And in that we see God’s love at work: it’s not only for a select few, not only for people who appear to be good and upright in the Lord’s eyes, not only for me or you or the Lutheran church or any select group. FOR ALL. That’s how big God’s love is, how strong the GLUE of God’s love is – it can hold all of us together!
Jesus is not chasing popularity or fame or anything for himself, because he knows where his true value lies. It’s not in what people say or think but in what our heavenly Father has decided, even before we were born: we were set apart (Jeremiah 1), we’ve been welcomed in, he is with us, we are loved.
So as we reflect on the gifts of the Spirit among us, on who we are as part of the body of Christ, on where this love comes from and what truly sustains it, we come back to the glue that holds it all together – the love of God. Lets’ pray that the love of Jesus would be at work in our hearts and flow out of us in all we do.
Heavenly Father we thank you for the gift of your love for us. Thank you that we are covered in your love, we are kept safe and secure in the promises you have for us. Help us to love others as you have first loved us, in all we do as part of our local church and as part of the body of Christ. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Tom Kitson 