Fourth Sunday After The Epiphany
These words or portions of them from 1 Corinthians 13 frequent weddings either as a song or a reading. There is nothing wrong with that as long as everyone understands their context. I have a wedding ceremony crafted around the love hymn; but I also include 12:27-31 in the reading. In my wedding homily I remind the couple that the love hymn is in the context of spiritual gifts and that each has been blessed with at least one spiritual gift and maybe more. I tell the bride and groom that they are to use those gifts with committed love to strengthen the marriage, each other, and the church.
While the popular song of some decades ago, “Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing,” is true, love can also be a many-fickled thing. That’s why I stress to couples whenever I use the 1 Corinthians 13 ceremony that the love addressed here is not a sexually erotic kind of love; instead, it is a “committed love.” If the love is committed, then the erotic stuff takes care of itself. Love can be fickle because we can “fall in love” with just about anybody. That doesn’t mean, however, we are committed to that person. It is one thing to be “in love” with someone; it is quite another to be “in committed love” with someone.
There are four unique Greek words that translate “love” and none of them sounds alike. There is eros (not used in the New Testament), which is sexual love (attraction); there is philia, which is “brotherly” or “sisterly” love (friendship); there is storge, which is affectionate love (family); and then there is agape, which is wholehearted, selfless, unconditionally committed love. It is the love with which Christ loves humanity so much that He willingly died on the Cross. There is nothing wrong with any of these kinds of love. But without agape the other three have no meaning. It is this word agape that is used in 1 Corinthians 13.
Most would agree there is a shortage of love in the world. There is especially a shortage of the agape love of 1 Corinthians 13. If you don’t believe that, just listen to the dozen plus persons who are vying for the office of President of the USA (the older I get the more I detest presidential election years!). All of them (not just The Donald), at some point during the campaign, have been rude to each other and the citizenry. My gut tells me that the “rudeness” will continue and become even more intense after each party has nominated its candidate. But agape “…is patient, kind, not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; doesn’t rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth” (vv. 4-6).
So the candidates who claim to be God-fearing, Bible-believing, washed in the blood, born again, and heaven-bound Christians are missing the mark terribly when it comes to love. In truth all of us are. Some of us know we are and work on hitting the mark while others don’t know it or do know it and don’t care. So much for love being the greatest!
It is true. Nothing lasts forever – not spiritual gifts or institutions like marriage or the Presidency. But three things will remain forever: “faith, hope, and love. And greatest of these is love” (v. 13). Of course it is.
So let us live like it is.
Join us for worship this morning at 8:45 a.m. and/or 11:00 a.m. at Garden Lakes Baptist Church in Rome, GA where I am the Senior Pastor. Bible Study is at 9:45 a.m. and there is a class for every age. During the 11:00 a.m. gathering we’ll be dedicating Tyson Botts and his mom and dad, Amy Deese and Kevin Botts. We’ll also be blessing and commissioning John Chaffin, who is headed to Zambia in southern Africa for a two-year stint with the Peace Corps.
