Quinquagesima
1
Cor 13:1-13
2/19/23
To
be honest, I am not a fan of Valetine’s Day. My low estimation of this
“holiday” operates on several different levels.
Theologically, I don’t like the fact that a man who was martyred for
faith in Jesus Christ has become the occasion for a holiday that has nothing to
do with the Christian faith.
It
seems very clear that a clergy member named Valetine was martyred in Rome in
269 A.D. He died because he confessed
Jesus Christ before the Roman government who at different times and place
killed people simply because they were Christians. He gave the ultimate witness to faith in
Christ by dying for it.
However,
everything else that has given rise to the practice of Valetine’s Day as we
know it – an occasion of romantic love in which people give cards or “Valetines”
– really has no historical basis. Its all based on contradictory evidence which
itself is of dubious historical value.
Certainly, the Feast of St. Valentine only became associated with
romantic love during the late medieval period.
In the final analysis the modern associations of Valentine’s Day with
St. Valentine are bogus.
Next,
I don’t like having a day when I am told I have to be romantic. And for the record, Amy is right there with
me on this. I think spontaneous
expressions of love and affection are great and meaningful. A day when I am
told that I must do something or else I have failed some kind of
responsibility has little appeal to me.
And
as I have gotten older, have been married longer, and have served as a pastor
longer, I find the whole focus of Valentine’s Day to be misguided and harmful. The day is, of course, about romantic love. This
is the kind of love that gives a warm fuzzy feelings inside. While this ephemeral feeling of love may be
at the start of a relationship, it can never last. There may always be a vestige of it, but it
can never be the basis for a lasting and healthy marriage. Love must mature into something more. Much of the problem with divorce in our time
finds its source in the fact that people allow this romantic view of love to
determine their expectations about marriage.
I
find it appropriate that our text from 1 Corinthians 13 often occurs very close
to Valentine’s Day. Here Paul gives us a needed correction about the true
nature of love. He describes the love
that finds its source in Jesus Christ and what it looks like in our lives.
1
Corinthians 13 is an interlude in the midst of Paul’s discussion that runs from
chapter 12 to chapter 14. He begins
chapter 12 by saying, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I
do not want you to be uninformed.” The
apostle takes up this topic because in their pride, the Corinthians had focused
upon one spiritual gift: speaking in tongues.
We don’t really understand all that
this entailed. It is clear that it was
language that was given by God but was not intelligible. It was also language for which God provided
interpretation by others. The
Corinthians liked to think of themselves as “spiritual people” – as individuals
who already arrived and had victory in Christ. The showy demonstration of
speaking in tongues was the kind of thing that appealed to them – it made them
feel special.
Paul is in the process of putting speaking on tongues in its proper place. He is making the point that God gives a variety of gifts, and that they are all valuable. He has just written, “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.”
Next, in his famous description of the Church as the Body
of Christ he says, “For just as the body is one
and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one
body, so it is with Christ.” The apostle points out that that human body
has different members. They carry out
different roles. They are all needed and are all important.
Immediately before our text, Paul makes the point that God has in fact given different gifts to the Church. They are not all the same, but they are all needed. He writes, “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?”
Then
Paul adds, “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. Rather than pridefully desiring gifts that
call attention to themselves, the apostle holds up love as the more excellent
way that should guide Christian life.
Paul begins our text by saying, “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.” The apostle says the speaking in tongues or
prophesying or working miracles without love is meaningless.
The love that he speaks of finds its source in Jesus
Christ. In 2 Corinthians Paul writes, “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.”
We may not be focused on speaking in tongues like the
Corinthians, but pride is no less present in our lives. We think of ourselves first, and our neighbor
second. We ignore the needs of others
around us. Because we sin in these and
so many other ways, Christ loved us by dying for us on the cross. He redeemed us from sin – he freed us – by
offering himself as the sacrifice in our place.
He died for our sake. But he was also raised for our sake. God
vindicated Jesus on the third day. He demonstrated that the humiliation of the
cross had been the means by which Christ won forgiveness for us. And the resurrection itself was also the
beginning of the new life that will be ours on the Last Day.
We live for Christ who loved us. And that means we love our
neighbor just as Christ loved us. Paul
told the Philippians, “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count
others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to
his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 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 made
himself nothing, 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.”
Paul describes this love in our text as he says, “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.” This
has nothing to do with the romantic love that Valentine’s Day celebrates. This
is love that serves others. It is
patient. It is kind. It bears all
things. It endures all things.
This love is not irritable or resentful, because it
forgives and overlooks the wrongs and weaknesses of others. Because it is a love that comes from Christ,
it does not rejoice in wrongdoing.
Instead, it rejoices in the truth as defined by God’s Word.
Because of Jesus Christ’s love for us, this is the love
that now characterizes our lives. In
baptism we have been born again of water and the Spirit. We have been made a new creation in Christ.
The Holy Spirit who has given us this new life leads us to live in Christ’s
love. Jesus’ love for us now shapes and
forms the way we live with others.
Through the work of the Spirit we live by faith in Jesus
Christ. We have confident trust that our
Lord is the One who was crucified for our sins and rose from the dead on the
third day. We believe in him as our
Lord, and therefore we have hope. Peter
praised God as he wrote, “Blessed be the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us
to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead.” This living hope gives us comfort as we face the death of loved
ones, and as we encounter the challenges of this world.
And Paul tells us in our text that
when we live in Christ’s love and share it with others, we are participating in
the one thing that will last forever.
Right now our understanding of God and his ways is saving. But it is
also partial. We do not understand everything. We cannot understand everything.
But it will not always be that way. Paul
writes, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now
I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”
This means that the partial will come
to an end. The apostle tells us, “As for
prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for
knowledge, it will pass away.
For we
know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass
away.”
Even faith and hope will pass
away. Paul says at the end of our text, “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but
the greatest of these is love.” Love is
the greatest because when our Lord returns in glory, we will no longer live by
faith. Instead, we will live by
sight. We will no longer live in hope,
because what we hope for will have been fulfilled. It will be present.
But the love of God shared with us in
Christ will continue. In fact, our
experience of it will be even greater because we will no longer be hindered by
the devil, the world, and our own sinful nature. God is love, and we will share in that love
perfectly.
While that is our future, already now
we participate in this love because of what Jesus Christ has done for us. When we were unlovable, God loved us by
sending his Son to die on the cross for us and rise from the dead. Baptized into Christ we have received this
love, and now we share it with others as we seek to serve and support those
around us. This love made possible by
the Spirit defines our lives as Christians now, and the perfect experience of
God’s love is the future that awaits us.
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