What is Love?

I remember learning about a church that seemed like it was doing well on the surface but underneath it wasn’t going so well. You see there were enough people within the congregation that were felt that the church wasn’t going in the right direction. They had moved campuses and that left a bad taste in people’s mouths, their finances were not doing well, and from there people felt that it was up to them to fix things. In the end they let staff go including one of their pastors and just attempted to fix all the things they felt were wrong with the church.

However, in the process of doing all of these fixes, the people who felt that change was for the best, never really consulted everyone. They talked with each other because they were all on the same page, but they never talked to the staff. They never talked to the pastors. They never talked to the rest of the congregation to see how they felt about all of these issues. They all agreed with each other and so they assumed everyone else would see the changes that were being proposed and that were being done, and that they would be thanked for all the changes they were making on behalf of everyone.

It ended up that the youth director left, one pastor was let go, and the other pastor resigned not long after. It was a huge mess for the entire congregation because a group of people felt that they were doing what was best for the congregation without, as I said, consulting the entire congregation. In the following months and years after, the church shrank in attendance and ended up selling their campus and building a church on a smaller piece of land. I think back upon this example and I wonder if the people were acting for their own benefit and if they really considered all the reasons behind the things they were doing to make the church better. Were they acting out of frustration of the past? Where was love of God and neighbor present throughout this whole process?

Paul wants to point out the importance of love to the church in Corinth. We already learned last week that the church was broken up into factions based on leadership, but now we learn there is even more going on here. In the previous chapter 1 Cor 12 we often lift this up as a great way to understand the gifts that the Holy Spirit gives to people, but we often forget the reason Paul is having this conversation with the Corinthians is to point out the fact that every gift is important and no one is better than another. This is because they were arguing about the ranking of spiritual gifts. So Paul uses the image of a body and impresses upon them that all body parts are necessary to make the whole body work.

So when we get to the love chapter 1 Cor 13 we see Paul impress upon the Corinthians that above everything else love is the most important spiritual gift we can have and share. He even goes so far as to point out what were considered some of the most valued Spiritual gifts like speaking in tongues, prophecy, complete faith, and philanthropy and how if any of those are used without a spirit of love then there is no benefit whatsoever. And given the example of the church I shared I would even say that doing things without love not only have no benefit, but that using our gifts without love can even be harmful to ourselves and others.

Which then means that love is not just a feeling, it is not just something to internalize but it is an action. It is something to be lived out each and every day in our lives. Which is what Paul points out by listing all the things that love is and isn’t. In fact Paul lists 17 characteristics of love. Take a look at the passage and look at all of them. The love of God that we receive is something Paul ultimately points out is the one thing in this great big world that will never fail and never end. In fact, in the list of things that will eventually end include some of those beloved spiritual gifts the Corinthian church was set on arguing about which was better. What does it matter which one is better than the other if they are all necessary as he points out in chapter 12, and if every single one of them will eventual go away? And what do any of them matter if they are done without the act of love being involved in all of it? There isn’t. Love is the glue, the binding agent that holds everything together.

And if we take a look at a passage from 1 John 4:8 then we see John flat out tell us that God is love. He then goes on to say that God showed love by sending Jesus so that we can live through him and that love was acted out in Jesus’ through this life and through his sacrifice to deal with out sins. So, he says, if God loved us in this way then we should love each other in the same way. So we see in John’s letter that he agrees with Paul by saying that love is an action. Love was acted out on this world by God through Jesus and that we should carry out that love in every way that we can. John even says that we do that through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. This is exactly what Paul is telling the Corinthians. The same Spirit that gives us gifts gives us God’s love.

So if God is love and Jesus is the embodiment of God’s love acted out on this world through his life, death, and resurrection then we can clearly see that love has existed from the very beginning of creation until this very day. Love is the one force in this world that has always existed and will exist beyond our time here on this earth. Everything God has done for us has been out of love which just continues to prove that love is an action that should be done all the time. What we say and what we do should be love so that love can emanate from our very being.

We can accomplish so many things in this world and in this very congregation, but what drives us to do the things we do? Do we do things to have power and influence? Do we do things to have status and recognition? Do we do things out of selfish gain? Or do we let the never ending love of God so influence our decisions that the very love of God shines through us so that we can better glimpse through the mirror, so that we can be more fully know God because we have been so transformed by the life giving power that is God’s love for us and this whole world. Amen.