The Value of Love
February 14, 2010 – Douglas Scalise, Brewster Baptist Church
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
February is a month where love is in the air as our culture harps on and sings about love on Valentine’s Day. Popular songs through the years have had a lot to say about love, but it is amazing to consider the messages of just a few songs that were #1 in the US through the years. The Mills Brothers believe You Always Hurt The One You Love (1944), but as far as Benny Goodman is concerned it is still worth Taking A Chance On Love (1943). We say with Bing Crosby, I Love You (1944), (I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons (Nat King Cole,1947) but Perry Como tells us that just makes us a Prisoner Of Love (1946). The Four Aces said Love Is A Many Splendored Thing (1955) so Elvis sang, I Want You, I Need You, I Love You (1956), Love Me Tender (1956). Elvis could sing that because he was A Big Hunk O’ Love (1959). You might not be an Elvis fan, but the Teddy Bears thought To Know Him, Is To Love Him (1958).
[powerpress]Pat Boone might offer to write you Love Letters in the Sand (1957) but the Shirelles are not impressed and wonder Will You Love Me Tomorrow (1961). Ray Charles claimed I Can’t Stop Loving You (1962) but the Supremes wondered if that was so Where Did Our Love Go (1964). Peter and Gordon didn’t want to live in A World Without Love (1964) so the Dixie Cups invited them to go with them to the Chapel of Love (1964). The Beatles were right, Can’t Buy Me Love (1964), especially the Young Rascals agreed, not Good Lovin’ (1966). The Supremes couldn’t make up their minds about love – on the one hand they said You Can’t Hurry Love (1966) but Baby Love (1964) started hurrying pretty fast because Diana Ross had to sing at the top of her lungs, Stop! In The Name of Love (1965), then realized All You Need Is Love (Supremes, Beatles,1967), only to discover Love Is Here and Now You’re Gone (1967) leaving nothing but a Love Child (1968). Herb Alpert said, This Guy’s In Love With You (1968) and Lulu replied To Sir with Love (1967). While Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders played at the Game of Love (1965) the Righteous Brothers are heartbroken that You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ (1965).
All George Harrison asked on Valentine’s Day was Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth) (1973). Is that all? There were a lot of people on board the O’Jays Love Train (1973) including the Jackson Five singing The Love You Save (1970) a little louder than the Partridge Family singing I Think I Love You (1970).
Today some of you may be thinking, Love Bites (Def Leppard 1988). But I’m here to tell you The Power of Love (Huey Lewis & The News,1985; Celine Dion 1994) is amazing which is why I’m Addicted to Love (Robert Palmer 1986). After all this you probably feel like Foreigner, – I Want to Know What Love Is (1985) so let’s see what the most familiar song about love in the Bible has to say.
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 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.
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. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.
It does not insist on its own way;
It is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends.”
“The really amazing thing about 1 Corinthians 13 is that even hundreds of thousands of schlocky weddings and inspirational posters and bad Christian coffee mugs can’t kill it. Paul’s song to love is perhaps one of the most recognizable texts in the New Testament. And it is really beautiful… but it has just about nothing to do with romance.” Rather, self giving, self sacrificing love is at the heart of being a follower of Jesus. It is what defines us.
If you were to ask a group of people, “What is the distinguishing characteristic of a Christian?” you would get a variety of answers. Some people would answer religious experience, especially of a particular and dramatic kind that must be reproduced in everyone else. Speaking in tongues is viewed by some as the authenticating mark of a real believer. But Paul says, “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.” Love is greater than religious experience.
Some people might say that knowledge or correct doctrine is the mark of a believer. Only those who agree with a certain theological perspective (usually ours) are to be accepted as true followers of Christ. Some might answer faith, because by grace we have been saved through faith, not works, so that no one may boast. Some believe faith alone is the mark of Christian. But Paul says, “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.” Love is greater than knowledge. Paul claims, “Faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” Love is greater than faith. Perhaps another answer to the distinguishing characteristic of a Christian is service; especially to the poor; giving of our resources, time, and compassion to alleviate suffering – that is the mark of true disciples. But Paul says, “If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”
The first fruit of the Spirit is not power or dramatic manifestations, but love.
Love is the distinguishing characteristic of a Christian.
Love is the authenticating mark of a follower of Jesus.
The value of love is hard to overstate. 1 Corinthians 13 teaches us to aim at love above all else and it is not written for a husband and wife, although what it says about love applies to spouses, but 1 Corinthians 13 is directed at Christians in the church in our interaction with each other. It seems the Corinthians had been placing too much emphasis on their individual gifts and not enough emphasis on the right use of their gifts to build up each other. Love must govern the use of all the gifts of the Spirit.
“Love, Paul tells us, is patient, kind, free of jealously and arrogance, is not rude or self-seeking, is not easily angered and keeps no record of wrongs, takes no joy in things that are wrong but instead in what is true. It always protects, always accepts, always hopes, and endures everything. And it never quits.
Notice that it is love that does these things, not us, and what we are to do is to pursue love. As we “catch” love, then we find that these things are actually being done by us. These godly actions and behaviors are the result of dwelling in love. We become the kind of person who is patient, kind, and free of jealousy.
Dallas Willard notes, “Is it hard to do the things that Paul says love does?
It is very hard indeed if you have not been substantially transformed in the depths of your being, in the intricacies of your thoughts, feelings, assurances, and dispositions, in such a way that you are permeated with love. Once that happens, then it is not hard. What would be hard is to act the way you acted before.”[1]
Love, then, is not a higher or better gift. It is the manner of life in which all the spiritual gifts find their proper place. So much of popular music is about love, but much of it not the kind of love the Bible teaches. Love is more than a feeling, more than a second-hand emotion. Love consists of specific acts of patient and costly service on behalf of others. That’s the power of love. Paul presents no mushy, sentimental notion of love. Paul describes, “a rigorous vision of love that rejoices in the truth and bears all suffering in the name of Jesus Christ.”[2]
Jill and I were so happy to be at Anne Perkins home yesterday with many of her family members and friends to celebrate her 100th birthday. What an amazing thing for our church to have three people reach 100 years in less than a year. Anne is amazing. Her mind is sharp as ever, and she is loved because she gets what Christian love is about. Ann Wolf, one of our BBC caring ministers who visits Anne regularly said that part of Anne’s secret is that she is so interested in you. She asks questions about your family and she remembers who they are and what they are involved in. Anne has also long understood the song in the musical Annie, You’re Never Fully Dressed Without A Smile. She has a smile for everyone and consciously tries to brighten other people’s day.
Love is ultimately about treating others as more important than yourself. Love is giving yourself, in small, sometimes significant, and even totally, for the sake of others. “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. (John 15:13).”
Examine your life this week, asking, “How much love is demonstrated in my life?” List what you need to change about your attitudes and actions toward those around you.
In what small or significant ways can you demonstrate the gift and fruit of love this week?
John Wesley wrote, “We should always remember that love is the highest gift of God. All our revelations and gifts are little things compared to love.
There is nothing higher in religion.
If you are looking for anything else, you are looking wide of the mark.
Settle in your heart that from this moment on you will aim at nothing more than that love described in the thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians. You can go no higher than this.”[3]
When God’s love is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us, we can live influenced by the recognition of how fragile and precious and fleeting life is. If we love, we will lose people we love. But they would tell us to go on living in a way that honors them and keeps the fruit of love growing in all of its radiant beauty. Life and the gifts of the Spirit are fleeting, but love is eternal. Paul concludes his song of love in 1 Corinthians 13 with these words:
“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.
For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, 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.
And now faith, hope, and life abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.”
A great love song that never reached #1 on the US Billboard chart says simply, “Jesus loves me, this I know, For the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong; they are weak but He is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so.”
Tina Turner wants to know What’s Love Got to Do With It (1984), well actually quite a lot, especially when it comes to being a Christian. We are loved unconditionally and steadfastly by God – never, ever forget that. On our part, self-forgetful love is the way to joy and true happiness. God offers us a Higher Love (Steve Winwood, 1986), an Endless Love (Diana Ross and Lionel Richie 1981) and asks us in return How Deep Is Your Love (Bee Gees1977-1978). My hope as a pastor is that Captain and Tennille are right that Love Will Keep Us Together (1975). So join the Bellamy Brothers and Let Your Love Flow (1976).
Blessing: “And now faith, hope, and life abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. Let all that you do be done in love.”
1 Corinthians 13:13, 16:14
[1] Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, Harper San Francisco, 1998, 182-183.
[2] Richard B. Hays, First Corinthians, John Knox Press, Louisville, 1997, 222.
[3] Richard Foster & James Bryan Smith, Editors, Devotional Classics, Harper SanFrancisco, 1990, 282.