Pastor Tom Johnson, January 30, 2022
Our Scripture from 1 Corinthians 13 is often called “the love chapter.” Paul introduces it as “the more excellent way.” You’ll remember that the earliest name for Christianity was “the way.” To follow Jesus is to follow the path of love. Last week we saw the diversity of spiritual gifts in the unity of the Body of Christ from the previous chapter. Here Paul wants us to make sure we don’t lose our way toward the goal of love in our pursuit of self-realization. In other words, without love at the core of our being, we may deceive ourselves into thinking we are on the right track. But without love we are not following the way of the Lord. We are following meaningless, empty, false religion.
Paul tells us what love is not. Love is not impressive speech. Love is not measured by theological prowess. Love is not complete when we merely give our time, talent, or treasure. Without love, our thoughts, words, and deeds mean absolutely nothing. Love can be identified by the following attributes: patience and kindness. The following attributes are contrary to genuine love: competitiveness, pride, rudeness, insisting on one’s own way, irritability, resentfulness, or enabling sinful behavior. Love and joy increase with the truth. Love is bearing one another’s burdens. Love is characterized by putting the best construction on all things. Authentic love creates the byproduct, hopefulness. Love gives us strength to face our challenges ahead. Love never ends. Love does not come into our lives with an expiration date. Love is born out of Christ’s love for us since before the foundation of the world. Love is something that is either growing or dying in our lives. God’s design is for love to gush out of our tender and spirit-filled hearts. As for all the other spiritual gifts, God has richly blessed us. But these gifts are a temporary aid on this side of eternity. Our gifts are there to build love up in us and among us. The gifts and talents themselves are not the goal but to increase love. This Scripture calls us to self-examination: is love a priority in my life? Is love at the core of who I am and what I do? Or do I throw temper tantrums when I don’t get what I want or things don’t go my way? Am I maturing in love?
One day when my children were very young, I had an epiphany. I was reflecting on the love God had placed in my heart for these little ones in spite of my irritation with them and their irritation with me. Even though it was a new experience to be a parent, there was something familiar. I looked into the proverbial rearview mirror. I had flashbacks of my childhood—my ingratitude and my ignorance of all the love both of my parents showered on me. Looking at my kids through the lens of a parent caused me to look into the mirror dimly of who I was so long ago. I picked up the landline phone, punched in my parents’ phone number, apologized for my years of ignorance and ingratitude, being a thorn in their sides at times, but most of all to thank them and tell them I love them. In these moments of clarity, we discover how much growth is possible in love. We are often blind to the love around us. We look dimly at our own reflection. We may only vaguely see the love that is lavishly poured out into our lives each day. If we look at ourselves in this mirror of self-reflection, we will discover Christ’s image dimly reflected in our lives. We see love beginning to take root and priority in our lives as we grow in our Christian faith and as we journey together as God’s people.
The Christian life is like taking a shower in a bathroom without an exhaust fan—or an open window. God washes away all our filth through the water, Word, and Holy Spirit of Holy Baptism. The old loveless and lovesick self is drowned. The renewed beloved one is raised from the dead. We look into the mirror as we anticipate the new day—the day Jesus takes us to be with him face-to-face. When we first begin to look into that mirror we may not even see the outline of our own humanity. Over time, we begin to see the image of a child of God. But we do not see or recognize ourselves. We do not recognize the image of Christ in us nor through us. But with patience and time, our newly baptized selves begin to emerge. We see our own selves fearfully and wonderfully made. The dimness fades. The fogginess evaporates away. We see in our reflection that beloved child for whom Christ died and rose again. We see Jesus who loves us so much he will one day be willing to be thrown off the cliff by our sins. We discover that we are not the only ones in the mirror. We also see family, friends, church family, and neighbors in the background. We see the love we need to give and the love we need to receive. Soon we are no longer so focused on our own image. We see the love of Christ poured out through them to us. We see the love of Christ begin to percolate and then pour out of our own lives toward others. Love becomes a priority. Love starts to become the core of our being.
We all long to see authentic love in this weary, broken, and sinful world. Genuine love restores our faith in humanity. We need love to increase our faith in a benevolent and loving God. They will know that we are his disciples by our love for one another. Love gives us hope that God is not done with is and at work in us and through us. Love gives us hope that what he has begun in us he will bring to completion when Jesus comes to bring us to our heavenly home. We will not need spiritual gifts in heaven. We will not need faith or hope any longer. Love will be fully realized. This perfect love will cast away our fears and wipe away our tears forever. Love will make all other gifts fade away and dissolve like the steam on the mirrors we look into today. Jesus will finally render our mirrors obsolete. He will take away our preoccupation with our selves. We will close our mirror-fixated eyes in this life and open them in the very presence of him who created us and redeemed us. As Scripture says (1 Jn 3:2), “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.” We will finally see him face-to-face. We will fully understand that God is love. Love created us, love sustains us, and love grows us into eternity. What an awesome and exciting truth about love: “Eye has not yet seen, nor ear heard, nor heart imagined” the love God has for us now and the love to be finally revealed when we see him face-to-face.
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