Our Sermons

Bible Passage: 1 Corinthians 13
Pastor: Pastor Schlicht
Sermon Date:  February 3, 2019

I wanted a piece. I really wanted one. When I was a kid, my mother was making some chocolate something or other from scratch. She had all the ingredients on the kitchen counter including  what looked like big chunks of chocolate. She told me again and again that I wouldn’t like it. But I kept on bugging her until she gave in and let me have a taste. Well, she was right. It didn’t like it. It was horrible.  It was bitter. Some of you probably already know what was wrong. The pieces were from a 100% pure cocoa baking bar. Just cocoa nothing else. That was the problem. It lacked something essential to make it taste good; it didn’t have any sugar. And when it comes to making chocolate sweet, sugar is the key ingredient.

But what if the recipe isn’t for chocolate? What if you’re looking for the recipe to a strong marriage, a healthy family, a vibrant Christian life? What if the recipe is for a God-glorifying, Christ-centered Church? What’s the key ingredient in these? Well, today we look at 1 Corinthians 13, the famous chapter of the Bible you’ve probably heard at a wedding, or seen stenciled on a wall, or maybe even tattooed onto someone’s skin. This chapter is all about love. But it isn’t some fuzzy feeling or undefined emotion. The love Paul speaks of is agape love, the active, selfless love which God first showed to us. The Holy Spirit who inspired these words wants us to focus on God’s love and in turn act in love to others. Because no matter what station of life you’re in, whether on earth or in heaven, love is the key ingredient.

Listen to how beautifully Paul makes the case for love: If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. What an incredible explanation of the supremacy of love. Paul says it doesn’t matter how beautiful your words are, even if you could speak like an angel, without love you sound like a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. I think we’ve all experienced the truth of his words. When someone has failed to love you in their actions, the content of their words might be beautiful and complimentary, but because it isn’t backed up by love all you hear is noise. Beautiful words are drowned out by the clanging cymbal left in love’s absence. Paul then goes on to apply this with more examples:  If I have the gift of prophecy and know all the mysteries and have all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. This is incredible: Even if you are a learned theologian who can expound every doctrine of the Scriptures, even if you have great knowledge of the Bible and a trust in God so strong it could move a mountain, Paul says, even if you are a giant of faith, without love, you are nothing. And finally, he culminates saying: If I give away everything I own, and if I give up my body that I may be burned but do not have love, I gain nothing. Even a martyr’s death, without love, gains nothing. Heaven itself will be taken away from someone if they have no love, no matter how pious they look or sound. Just like no matter how good chocolate looks, no matter how skilled the baker is, without sugar it will not taste good. Love is the key ingredient!

So if you want a marriage so sweet it rots your teeth out, if you don’t want to be a clanging gong in church, if you want all your knowledge and striving in faith to amount to more than a hill of beans, how do you do it? Paul tells you. If you want to practice this love, Paul helps us by defining it. In verses 4-8, “love” is the subject of 16 verbs in a row; it takes action in every phrase. That may not come through clearly in English translations, where love is usually described by some rather static adjectives (“love is patient, love is kind, etc.”). But these are verbs! Paul claims that love “shows patience” and “acts with kindness.” Here, love is a busy, active thing that never stops working. It is always finding ways to express itself for the good of others. Paul doesn’t give us a flowery description of what love “is” in some abstract and theoretical sense, he tells us what love does.

“Love is patient.” The word for patient in Greek (macrothumei) has to do with being slow to avenge injury. This means that love isn’t just patient, as in waiting for things to turn out; it means that love is actively patient with all people, even or especially those who have hurt us. And notice there are no qualifiers here, agape love always shows patience.

“Love…is kind.” Love doesn’t just put up with hurtful people; it is actually kind to them. Love genuinely wants the best for people, regardless of how they have acted in the past. It is no credit to us when we return the favor of kindness. Everyone does that! As Jesus says, “What credit is it to you if you love those who love you? …Instead, love your enemies, do good and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the unthankful and the evil” (Luke 6). Regardless of reciprocation, love is kind.

“Love…does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.” Envy, boasting and pride. The terrible trio of insecurity, at once wanting what others have and yet boasting in themselves despite being discontent with who they are. “Proud” here refers to “puffing up” or “inflating.” Paul says, love is not puffed up with empty talk. One who loves doesn’t parade their accomplishments in front of others. The one who loves, in faith, knows God’s love for themselves, and therefore they do not need to artificially inflate their own sense of worth.

“Love…does not dishonor others.” Love does not gossip, or tear others down. This is one to not pass by too quickly. Love is attentive in everyday conversation to protect the reputation of its neighbor. It seeks to shield the honor of others and does not let sinful details leave its lips unless absolutely necessary. Love has control over its tongue and uses it to God’s glory.

Love…is not self-seeking.” I notice more and more that love often works anonymously. It does not have to have the limelight or attention to do a good job, or to be satisfied with the result. Love gives because it loves to give, not out of the sense of praise it can have from showing itself off. Sometimes the people who seem to work the hardest at love are the ones the furthest from it. They do things many would perceive as loving, yet they do them in a manner that seeks to benefit their reputation. This isn’t love; it is pride looking for praise, because love is not self-seeking.

Love…is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” Paul just keeps going. I could give a sermon on each character of agape love, but it is at this point that I sense each one of us almost gets buried under the weight of Paul’s description. Do you know what I mean? These are pretty words, but wow are they heavy if you are honest. If we take these words seriously, which our Lord does, it is overwhelming! Who can love so selflessly as this chapter’s description? Who always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres?

Can you imagine if instead of “love” you had to insert your own name? (Peter is patient, Peter is kind…etc.) That’s quite something, isn’t it? I can hardly even say it without injecting the words “some of the time” or “on my best days”. If you had to take a test on how well you’ve loved, what grade would you give yourself? I don’t know what I’d get, but I know it wouldn’t even be close to 100%. This issue isn’t the description, it is my lack of love. And the burden of Paul’s description begins to crush me when I remember that I will hand this test in to a holy God who asks for perfect love.

But thankfully, our tests are collected and corrected by the man with the holes in his hands and feet. The man “whose wondrous name is Love.” Jesus Christ has a right to grade us for not only do we claim his name as our own as “Christians”, but because he’s the only one who ever completely and perfectly loved the way that Paul described. Only Jesus aced the test, a test he wrote in his own blood. The same blood he uses to correct yours and mine and change our grade from failing to perfect. As John writes, This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4:10) Do you want to know love? The answer is Jesus! Jesus Christ lived to show you what true love is like, he died to bring it to you, and he rose from the dead on the third day to show you that its power is greater than sin, death, and any other obstacle you may face. The more you focus on your Savior, the more love you will have. And the beautiful truth of the Gospel is that he not only loves you but is at work in you to produce active agape love.

Now it is at this time that a question arises, but what if we don’t feel like loving? Does that mean that Jesus isn’t at work in our hearts?  It can get confusing in our age of authenticity which tells us that love isn’t real unless you feel it. But the truth is that selfless love will always cut against the grain of our selfish sinful nature. So yes, ideally, our affections will always lead to our actions of love for God and others. But unless I’m all alone, we know they often don’t. Our feelings are fickle, sometimes we want to complain or scream. Sometimes we feel like giving someone the silent treatment or say something passive-aggressively. Sometimes we feel like shaking our fist at God. In other words, if we only love when we feel like it, you’ll never love many people and there will be many times that you will separate yourself from God.

The good new is that because of the love of Christ which compels us, we can act in love whether or not the affection is present. Love is the still key ingredient even if we don’t feel it in the moment. So, in practical application, instead of waiting to feel the appropriate love for someone, ask yourself this question: How would Jesus love them? Would he get off the couch and apologize to his wife? Would he talk to his children about their temptations? Would he call that family member or friend he hasn’t spoken to for years? Would he ask his neighbor over for supper? My friends, picture what Christ’s love looks like, and then do it. Respond gently to that coworker’s email as if you loved them, praying to God that he would work in your heart genuine love for them. Just having this thought process will be evidence that he is already shaping your heart to be more like his Son’s. On this side of heaven we will not have perfect love, but our Lord will continue to pour out sugar on us until we sweeten up. He will always love us with his boundless love and he will purify our love until the day he perfects it in heavenly glory. Just think of that, despite the struggle and the sin that clouds our eyes, we will one day see clearly him who loved us and gave himself for us. We will be with our Savior and we will know perfect love.

So let us love, brothers and sisters! Let us strive to love actively as Jesus did and as Paul describes, for this love is critical to the integrity of all that we believe. It’s the difference between a clanging cymbal and a beautiful symphony. It’s the difference between failing a test and getting an A+. It’s the difference between bitter cocoa and sweet chocolate. Love is the key ingredient!

Amen.