Jump Start # 1334

1 Corinthians 13:4 “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant”

  The ‘love chapter’ of the Bible is where our verse comes from today. Tis the season for weddings. This Spring I have been invited to three weddings so far. I’m doing the ceremony for two of them, and they happen to be on the same day. That will be a first for me.

These love verses some how make their way into most wedding ceremonies. It is fitting, although contextually, these words are not about a husband and wife. Paul, in three chapters, is discussing the value of spiritual gifts and how they were to be used. The Corinthian church was inside out on that topic. They felt that to have certain gifts was a sign of spiritual superiority. They ranked the gifts by importance. And all of that crooked thinking led to jealousy, further division and pain. It took three inspired chapters to iron out all the bumps in their thinking. In the midst of this falls the love chapter. This is not about holding hands, candle lights or engagement rings. This is about folks who are not getting along and how they need to do better.

These words are personal. That’s the way they are to be taken. It’s not, as we often would rather it be stated, the other guy comes to me and the other guy is to be nice and the other guy is to do this and that. Instead, it’s about each person. Love is the foundation. This is the highest form of love. It has nothing to do with how you are treated. It is not a reaction but a choice. Love decides to do these things because this is the right thing to do. Lacking these qualities is real proof that one doesn’t love others. That is a huge problem. That is greater than any of the spiritual gifts. If, in a congregation, we are not on the same team, maintaining the same love, hope and spirit for one another, then the bottom will fall out. It always does. People will be suspicious. Gossip will flow. In our times today, some will leave and find another congregation. That wasn’t an option for the Corinthians. They couldn’t go to Ephesus, too far away. There was no Northside and Southside congregation. Instead of leaving Dodge, the better solution was to love one another.

There are fourteen things that love does. Love needs to do all of them. This is not a menu and you pick out the easy ones. You do them all. It’s a package deal. Of these fourteen, half of them are presented in the negative. Love does not, the apostle tells us.

It’s quite a list: patient, kind, not jealous, not bragging, not arrogant, not acting unbecomingly, not seek its own, not provoked, not take into an account a wrong suffered, not rejoice in unrighteousness, rejoices with the truth, bears all, believes all, hopes all, endures all.

You’ll notice several statements that seem to be repeated: not bragging, not arrogant, not seeking its own. Paul is hammering and hammering on this. Pride was behind this. Thinking too much of self was killing the good in that church. All of those statements would cause one to consider what they said before they said it. All of those statements would lead to one thinking about the other more than self.

What is really interesting about this list is that you could replace the word “love” with the name of Jesus. Jesus is kind, Jesus is patient and is not jealous. Jesus does not brag and is not arrogant. Go through the entire list. Jesus fits. He fits every time. He fits because He is love.

Now, what is very humbling is to go through the list again. Replace the word ‘love,’ with your own name. Boy, that’s an eye opener. For instance, Roger is patient, Roger is kind and is not jealous. Roger does not brag…” That’s about enough of that. Doing that makes us feel very uncomfortable. We see failures in our own lives. We see holes in our character. However, this is what Paul was expecting the Corinthians to do and become. Love wasn’t something outside of them, it had to be within them. Love is something that they either were or were not. This is something that we need to be.

Some of the fussing that goes on among brethren would probably stop if we truly put on love. Love works. It works in a church that is upset about spiritual gifts. It works in a family that is upset with each other. Love will kill the jealous spirit. Love will end the judgmental spirit. Love will build bridges and upon those bridges relationships can be established and encouraged.

Love is. This is hard. This is hard when you start off being mad, jealous, divided and upset with others. That’s where the Corinthians were. That’s were some of us are. We as soon lob a bomb to the other side as extend a handshake. We’d like for the other side to leave. We’d like the other side to change. There’s little to talk about. There’s little to do.  However, Paul adds one thought to this equation, love.

Love is. Maybe it’s time to put down the tomahawk and find the peace pipe. Maybe it’s time for us to take the first step. Maybe it’s time to look in the mirror and ask, “Do I really love my brethren?” In the midst of a battle we forget that. We also forget what John says about that in his epistles. Without love, we don’t have God.

Serious stuff.

Love is.

Roger