“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 power, 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. 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. Love never ends.” I Corinthians 13:1-7
“Mr. Moderator, may I ask that you please remind this young man that should he ever address this distinguished assembly again, he should show the respect of wearing a coat and tie.” These were the words I heard many years ago as I sat in a presbytery meeting, and a young man before us was getting ready to deliver his sermon for licensure. The man who had stood up and made this request of our moderator, then sat down, arms folded across his chest, and frown etched upon his face. The young man preparing to preach looked absolutely mortified and afraid. He wasn’t dressed in street clothes; his choice was more “office casual” rather than “office formal”- nice khakis, dresssy polo shirt. And his demeanor was quite humble, even more so, now that he had been publicly embarrassed. Thankfully, I think the moderator declined the request and reminded presbytery that coats and ties were more of a preference than a requirement. But I couldn’t help feeling both frustrated that this had even happened and also a large amount of empathy for the young man who now had the task of bringing God’s word to a man who had just humiliated him. And lest you think that I think the problem is just “those kind of guys”, I will remind you that both I myself and you also have allowed ourselves the luxury of at least entertaining unkind thoughts, if not outright releasing such venom from our mouths. A painful irony, isn’t it, that we can be “right” about our beliefs; practice so many godly disciplines; give of our spiritual gifts and our time and our money, and still be so utterly wrong.
This very thing is what Paul is warning us about in today’s passage: it is possible to be doctrinally right, gifted, generous and brave…and to “be” all these things without love, profiting nothing. He then goes on to point out what love actually looks like: patient, kind, not envious, not boastful, not arrogant rude or selfish, not irritable or resentful, not happy about wrongdoing, but happy about truth, willing to help others, willing to believe the best about others, holds out hope for others, willing to put up with others, and never-ending. While we will, I believe, unanimously affirm with Paul that this is a good description of love, I think that if we’re honest, we will see that we frequently fall short of the items on this list. We have times where various items are true of us, and we have, likewise, times where they aren’t. So It’s important that we don’t first and primarily identify others’ failure to love, but that instead, we recognize our own. It is in this very recognition that we fall short, that we also see the solution to our problem. Because while we haven’t consistently loved others, if we are Christians, we have consistently been loved. We have consistently seen what love really looks like, because it is the way Jesus has loved, and continues to love, us. What’s more, we therefore also have consistently seen the example of how to love someone who doesn’t deserve to be loved; we have experienced it personally.
So what applications may we take? There are many. First, friend- do regularly assess the way you have loved God and others, and let that honest assessment humble you before you take offense at others or casually consider yourself not so bad. Second, practice the virtues to which God calls his children, but practice them with humility, remembering that even if you’re doing well, it matters nothing if you don’t love others (because virtue without humility goes by several rather nasty names: pride and hypocrisy, clanging gong, noisy cymbal- you get the picture). Third, if we would improve our love for God and others, it is important that we begin by keeping a fresh appreciation for the love we’ve been shown (first by God, but often also by others); an appreciative heart has a much larger reservoir for love, caring and affection than an entitled one. Finally, dear Christian, don’t be overwhelmed nor dismayed that your love falls short; to fall short at least part of the time is a guaranteed outcome in life this side of glory. Rather, remember that Christ’s love for you does not waver when yours does. His patience doesn’t run out the way yours does. And he believes the best about you, because the “best you” is what he is busy turning you into. So then, practice, repent and repeat; do this until your Lord calls you home.
Sealed By Grace 