Quinquagesima
1
Cor 13:1-13
2/7/16
When I first started to drink wine,
I only liked white ones. I was happy to
drink white zinfandel, Riesling, or gewürztraminer. I was fine with chardonnay if that was
served. But I did not like red
wine. I didn’t want any part of it. The taste was just too strong and I couldn’t
understand how anyone could find that enjoyable.
But somewhere along the way, things
changed. I can’t even remember when or
how this took place. But I do know that during the time I have lived in Marion,
I have even come to prefer red wine. I
enjoy a merlot, a shiraz or a cabernet sauvignon. What used to seem too strong,
now seems like a robust wine that I enjoy more than the lighter white ones.
Much like this shift in my feeling
about wines, I have also experienced a shift when it comes to my attitude
toward our text, 1 Corinthians chapter 13.
1 Corinthians chapter 13 is probably one of Paul’s best known writings. It is because it is so often read at
weddings. A couple may never see the
inside of a church except on their wedding day, but they know for sure that
they want 1 Corinthians 13 read at their wedding.
And admittedly this was part of the
reason I wasn’t a huge fan of this chapter.
It is read at wedding after wedding where frankly, Jesus Christ really
isn’t in the picture. In this setting,
the chapter is heard as a paean about romantic love – a celebration of the love
that the couple has for one another. It’s enough to make one gag.
But there was also a deeper reason
that I was not really a fan of 1 Corinthians 13. And this reason is that I considered it to be
nothing but law. As our catechumens have
learned, the law is what we must do; the Gospel is what God has done for us in
Christ. The law tells us what we must
do. And when we find that we don’t do it
perfectly in thought, word and deed, guess what?: The law has just shown us our
sin.
I mean, listen to what Paul says
this morning: “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not
arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or
resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
Who can possibly measure up to that? Are
you always patient? Are you always kind?
Of course you are not. Do you ever envy? Are you ever rude? Do you ever insist on having your own
way? Of course you do. We all do.
Talk about concentrated law! There is no doubt, when you compare your
life to Paul’s words, you will find that you are a sinner in need of
forgiveness.
Yet over time, I began to realize
that there is more to this chapter than just an expression of law that shows us
our sin. Like red wine, it is true that
what is here is strong. But that is not only a negative thing. Instead, like when a red wine is appreciated,
there is in fact a robust and substantial flavor present that is very good.
1 Corinthians 13 is in fact an
interlude in the midst of Paul’s discussion that runs from chapter twelve to
chapter fourteen. In this section, he is
discussing how the Corinthians should view the gifts that the Spirit provides
to the congregation. Many Corinthians
wanted to focus on those things that called attention to the person. In particular, they were enamored with
speaking in tongues.
Now you can read a lot of
scholarship about what Paul is referring to when he talks about speaking in
tongues – and I have. But let me save
you the effort and give you the short version: we aren’t really sure what Paul
is describing. There is no way to know
if it was anything like what now takes place in charismatic churches of the so
called Pentecostal movement.
What is clear is that these tongues
could not be understood apart from someone providing interpretation. Therefore Paul instructed that no one should
speak publicly in the worship in a tongue unless someone was there to whom the
Spirit had provided the ability to interpret.
If not, speaking in tongues doesn’t do anyone any good. Paul says that prophecy is to be preferred
because it serves to build up the church as it speaks God’s word in an accurate
and authoritative way.
In the previous chapter Paul wrote:
“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties
of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is
the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the
manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” He had emphasized that just as a body has
many different members which all do different but necessary things, so also in
the Body of Christ Christians have different gifts and roles that the Body as a
whole needs.
The Corinthians want to focus on the
showy gifts. These are the ones they
consider better. Along with this, we know from earlier in the letter that they
consider themselves to have great spiritual knowledge. So in the verse just before our text Paul
writes, “But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still
more excellent way.”
That more excellent way is the way
of love. What Paul does in our text is to redefine what “greatest” means. He says, “If I speak in the tongues of men
and of angels, but have not 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 have not love, I am
nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,
but have not love, I gain nothing.” The apostle says that without love, none of
the things that enchant the Corinthians mean anything.
Instead, the more excellent way is
the way of love. Paul speaks about love
and what it does. But everything that he
says is built on one thing. In his
second letter to the Corinthians Paul wrote: “For the love of Christ controls
us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all
have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for
themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” Christ’s love
for us in giving himself as the sacrifice for our sin – in delivering himself
to God’s judgment as our substitute – serves as the foundation for everything
that Paul says in chapter thirteen. Or
as he expressed it to the Romans, “For while we were still weak, at the right
time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous
person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God
shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Jesus’ love for us was not just
something he said. It was not just something he felt. It was something
that he did. It was an action – an action of service. The almighty Lord
humbled himself to play the role of the servant. Paul told the Philippians: “Have this mind
among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the
form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied
himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the
point of death, even death on a cross.”
This is what Jesus Christ did for
you. But he didn’t just die. On the
third day, the Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead. And now through the Word and baptism you have
received the same Spirit. The Spirit has
caused you to be born again – regenerated. Through baptism you have shared in
the death of Jesus the risen One. And because of the Spirit who raised Jesus,
already now the power of Jesus’ resurrection is at work in you. Paul told the Romans, “Do you not know that
all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his
death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that,
just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too
might walk in newness of life.”
This means that now your life is one
of faith working through love. This love
is Christ’s love for you, received by the work of the Spirit, and now passed on
to others. Jesus is the source, and so
this life of love looks like Jesus. Paul
says that this love is patient and kind toward others. It does not envy or
boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on always having its own
way. It does not provoke others just to
do it. It does not rejoice at
wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. This love bears all things, believes
all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Do we do this perfectly? No. There will always be reason for repentance –
always reason to return to the water of our baptism and the forgiveness we find
there. But at the same time as we are
nourished by the Means of Grace, this also becomes something that we want to do. The Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead is
at work in you. He has made you a new
creation in Christ – he has created the new man in you. And that new man wants
to walk in the way of love. He wants to
walk in the way of Jesus. That’s why you hear Paul’s words and think, “Yes,
that’s what I want to be.”
Until Jesus returns or you die,
there is also sin still present in you as well – the old man who fights against
the new man and God’s will. And that is
the very reason why God addresses this word to you today. Created by the Spirit, the new man hears this
word and says, “Yes, that’s it!” And the
Spirit also uses this word to restrain and repress the old man in you. Like a pick set in basketball, the Spirit
blocks and hinders the old man, so that the new man guides the way you as an
individual live.
So is there law in 1 Corinthians
chapter thirteen? Yes. Does it show you
your sin? Yes, it always will. But at the same time it also describes how you now want to live because of Jesus’ death
and resurrection for you. This desire does not come from you. Instead, it is the Spirit who raised Jesus
who gives it to you. It is the new man
he has created within you who sees in these words a description of the life you
want to lead. And as you hear these
words today, the Holy Spirit uses them to put the selfish old man in his place
so that you can share the love of Jesus Christ with others.
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