Love in Action

Andrew & Kelsey today is the day you have been waiting for, for a while. There were so many different details that lead you to this point as you stand here before God and each other to declare and confess your love for one another. Now when you are thinking of the all the things that you need at wedding, there are so many details, so many important things not to forget. As you look around and see all of your planning come together - you checked quite a few things off the checklist. First, there is the venue - well check it looks great, all the decorations ways it was put together - check. Then there is the wedding dress, nice choice you did well - check. Or you get to the flowers or the decorations - those are crucial and important to highlight the theme of the day - looks great - check. And last, but not least, you have yourselves - your groom and your bride standing here before you today - you made it -check, mark that one off the checklist. These would all be important things that you don’t want to leave out - its hard to have a wedding without these things.

In the reading that you have chosen for today, 1 Corinthians, the apostle Paul is talking about what true love looks like. He is providing a checklist of things that love should or shouldn’t do or be. First he says, “Love is patient and kind; it does not envy or boast.” Andrew and Kelsey in your relationship, or even for all of us, we can remember times when we aren’t always patient or kind to other people. There are moments when we jump to the first reaction we have instead of hearing the full story, or we snap and lose our cool. If we are honest with ourselves - we don’t always check that one, patience off the list. Paul continues to describe love, he says [love] does not insist on its own way. There are perhaps moments as you reflect back on your relationship, your interactions with each other that you may have put your own way first above everything else. Instead of deferring to the other person, our human nature is to look out for ourselves. If we are honest, we don’t always check that box in our love towards each other. Our Paul continues to describe love, he says, it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. As we reflect on our lives, we realize that we don’t and can’t live up to that commitment, that endurance that is described here. As we hear love described, - we realize that we are missing these things quite often.

This love described in 1 Corinthians 13 isn’t just love for one another - but it describes the kind of love that Jesus Christ has for you. Jesus, bore all things for you as He went to the cross to take your sins away to give you the forgiveness of God. And because Jesus rose from the grave - you are loved by God. His love for you is full of patience, it is kind, it does rejoice in the truth, and endures all and bears all things for you. You are loved in Jesus and this is the kind of love He has for you! And Jesus has loved you - He is your source of love for one another, especially in marriage. This love that Jesus has for you is meant to be shared with other people in our lives. So Andrew & Kelsey, what does this love of Jesus look like in marriage?

First, it looks like having patience, having forgiveness with one another. There is a temptation to immediately looking to having our needs met. There is this temptation to become frustrated with each other when someone makes a mistake. But Jesus has had and still has patience with you. He has completely forgiven you and we are encouraged to share that same forgiveness with other people over and over and over again.

Second, this love that Jesus has given us to share with other people, it does not insist on our own way. Within marriage, as you grow in your marriage, you will spend time figuring out what life, what your daily routines look like. Before you are married you figure out what those routines look like for you - and we tend to think we always know best, we tend to think we have everything figured out for ‘me’. But in marriage, love looks like setting aside our own ways for the sake of the other. Setting aside out preferences for the sake of the other person. You are no longer a me, but a “we”. And this is the kind of love Jesus has for us - as He set aside His glory for you as He came to this earth - to go to the cross for you!

Lastly, love that Jesus has given us, it endures all things. This love you are confessing before one another today - it isn’t just a feeling. But it is a love that endures, it endures and lasts through the arguments, it lasts through the hardships that come within marriage. Jesus and His love give you the strength to endure all things together because He is the source of your love for each other.

Andrew and Kelsey - you are loved by Jesus. As you enter into the marriage - may you continue to love one another as He has loved you!