MESSAGE TEXT
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
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INTRODUCTION
There are two approaches to this song of perfect love: either this is primarily something you do OR it’s someone you meet. I argue against the first notion – that it’s something we do before we get love. It’s not do and be all these things and you’ll get love - like ingredients to bake a cake. That would be overwhelming! Rather it’s meet the person who sits for this portrait of love - the Lord Jesus, the love of Paul’s life - and then look at all the things that love will produce in your life. We will be delivered from many of the negatives in the passage as Jesus gets bigger in our life. We receive love before we have it.
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CONTEXTUALIZATION
The Corinthians had a rough past but by God’s grace, they received a new life. Paul teaches them how to live out the life of true love. They were divided. They bickered over spiritual gifts. They marginalized people of lower status at their monthly potlucks. They flirted with idolatry. They prided themselves in being open-minded sexually. They took legal action to resolve disputes. And they were questioning the resurrection of Jesus and what that meant. In so many words, Paul says “We can solve all of this right now with one chapter – 1 Cor. 13. This text becomes a subtle commentary on what is rotten in Corinth.
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PROPOSITION
Love (that corresponds to the truth) - matters more than anything else. Love really shines bright when we seek the highest good of another person, regardless of emotions or circumstances. We’ll be known for our opinions or viewpoints, but we’ll be remembered for our love.
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OUTLINE
This song to love comes in three stanzas: it's an encomium (a praise or hymn in form but an exhortation in function):
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Stanza 1 – The Importance of Love (13:1-3)
“Love is really important.”
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Stanza 2 – The Facets of Love (13:4-7)
“Love is positive action and resisting negative reaction.”
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Stanza 3 – The Permanence of Love (13:8-13)
“We will be known for our opinions or viewpoints, but we will be remembered for our love.”
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CONCLUSION
When Paul wrote, “Love suffers long,” how could he not have been thinking about the One who said, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” There is infinite suffering out of love. When it says “love does not keep a record of wrongs”, how could he not be thinking about the One who said, “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing”? When he says, “Love always protects, always hopes,” how could he not be thinking about the One who said, “… today you will be with me in paradise”?[1] Jesus the Man of Love, who never fails, sitting for the portrait Paul paints here in 1 Corinthians 13.
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If you say, “I see the love that I cannot give. It drives me to the Man of love, and by rejoicing in the truth every day, rejoicing in the truth as I stand before the person who is hard to love, Jesus Christ sings through me to this person,” love never fails. You have to meet love before you can do love. Before love becomes a behavior in you, it has to become a person to you. Love happened. Love was a Person. When love meets you like that, it changes your whole approach to God and, therefore, to self and everyone else.
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Love is going to look so good on you! The New You.