1 Corinthians 13 - Sermon Given February 3, 2019 - "Love Is"

Love is the guiding force for us as Christians, we are to observe it as the greatest of all commandments as stated to us by Christ Himself.  The verses that I preached over this past Sunday are probably best known for their use in wedding ceremonies.  Love is... here in 1st Corinthians Paul gives us these verses generally applied to marriage but this is not the context in which he uses these verses in 1st Corinthians.  Though it is entirely possible to impose these verses onto marriage, here they have nothing to do with the love between spouses.  

Here in the 13th Chapter, Paul is telling us that in order to use our gifts as outlined in the 12th Chapter of 1st Corinthians, that we must first use the gift of love.  If we do not, our gifts are simply hollow imitations of what they are meant to be... we are called to love each other and to live and work together in love.  We use our gifts to further the 'Body of Christ', that larger being than ourselves.

Reality can often get in the way of this command to us by Paul.  Among our number are those that are difficult to like, in fact, each of us is difficult for some other member(s) of this body to like... but, we are not called to like each other.  We are called to love each other, we can care for and regard each other even if we don't like the manner or the methods of another.  This I'm afraid is something that has been lost by both sides of the spectrum of the church today.  We need to find again the message of Paul here in the letters to the Corinthians.  Paul has a very contentious relationship to this church, it would have been very easy for him to hate members of this church body.  But, here in Corinthians, we find him reaching to the congregation (even while chastising them) and desiring nothing more than to be reconciled to them.  Paul for all his flaws, warts, and shortcomings understood this aspect of being the 'Body of Christ'.

Let us contemplate this message and try our best to live it daily.

Be a blessing to someone today.

In His Glory,
Roy

1 Corinthians 13 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
The Gift of Love
13 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 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 do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast,[a] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly,[b] but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

Footnotes:
a) 1 Corinthians 13:3 Other ancient authorities read body to be burned
b) 1 Corinthians 13:12 Gk in a riddle

1 Corinthians 12 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
Spiritual Gifts
12 Now concerning spiritual gifts,[a] brothers and sisters,[b] I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans, you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak. 3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says “Let Jesus be cursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.

4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

One Body with Many Members
12 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. 13 For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

14 Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many members, yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; 24 whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, 25 that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.

27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.

Footnotes:
a) 1 Corinthians 12:1 Or spiritual persons
b) 1 Corinthians 12:1 Gk brothers