IT'S THE GREATEST

Dr. Richard J. Henderson January 28, 2007

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Psalm 71:1-6 (responsively)
I Corinthians 13:1-13

Introduction

Our scripture reading this morning is a favorite at weddings. What better time to talk about love than at a wedding, or maybe on Valentine's Day? This passage is probably the best known in the Bible, after the 23rd Psalm and John 3:16.

Sometimes being well-known works against you. Just a few months back I had a wedding where the groom said he didn't want "that love reading" in the wedding service. He thought it was too well-known. He considered it trite.

Sometimes the problem with a passage being popular is that people don't really know what it says. Everybody thinks they know it; nobody really knows it. For example, list the Ten Commandments!

I

Some see Paul's words here as sappy and romantic. Some people say these words aren't related to real life; they're naïve. Some consider them to be like the words to a Barry Manilow or Barry White song. As if they used LOVE as a four syllable word - too sweet, too unrealistic, or maybe like a bad greeting card on Valentine's Day.

II

I don't think people who see Paul's words this way have read it carefully. Paul isn't throwing out general platitudes about some mushy feeling. He's dealing with a very real and difficult situation. He didn't write these words as a generalized song about love. He wrote to a specific group of people who were dealing with particular problems.

The church at Corinth was a congregation you might consider dissolving. It was a mess. They were teaching ideas that were wrong. Many in the church were acting immorally. Some in the church were corrupt and corrupting others. The place was a disaster! I'm sure Paul must have considered closing the place down and starting all over again.

In writing to them to try to make things right, Paul must have considered several options. "Shall I take on one of the issues they're dealing with and say what's wrong and what they should be doing? Should I yell at them and tell the worst offenders to get out - just leave the church because they were doing more harm than good?"

Instead, Paul decides to write them this letter saying that love is the most important thing in being a Christian.

Paul is not at all naïve. He knows exactly what he is up against and just what they need. He boils down the essence of Christianity to love, then spells out for them what loving really means.

III

Love is the heart of what Christianity is about. Beliefs are important. Sacrifice is needed. Understanding this faith is valuable. Hope comes from Christian living. Faith is critical. But Love counts most of all. If you have all those others, but you don't have love, you're not being Christian.

Even the cynical atheist, Friedrich Nietzsche, understood that the heart of Christianity is love. He wrote, "The most subtle artifice that distinguishes Christianity from other religions is a word: it speaks of love."

Far from bland generalizations, Paul spells out what he means by love: if you're a spellbinding speaker but you aren't loving, you're just clanging noise. If you understand all about faith and have prophetic powers, and believe so much that you can even move mountains, but you aren't loving, you don't have anything. If you make huge sacrifices, so that everyone is impressed, but you don't love people, it means nothing.

When we see people whom others consider great Christian leaders, we can decide by one rule - are they loving? Never mind how much they know about the Bible or how persuasive they are, do they really care about other people.

Remember the televangelist Jim Bakker? I was always impressed with how well he knew the Bible - he could quote chapter and verse. To many he was an impressive speaker. But it was a different story when we look at the bottom line Paul gives us. How loving is a person? How well do we care for other people?

IV

Paul gives us the details about love. He isn't talking about bland generalizations, he spells out what love is. The person who brags, is impressed with himself, and is rude, isn't loving. The one who is arrogant and insists on his own way, isn't loving. The one who is resentful, envious, or sees himself as superior to other people, isn't loving. You've seen the person who is all puffed up with his religiosity, impressed with how religious he is. That isn't the compassionate person Paul is talking about.

Just the opposite. It is the person who is kind, humble, and caring, who loves. These are the people Jesus referred to as "the poor in spirit:" the gentle, caring people who have a realistic appreciation of who they are.

The surprise for me in Paul's description of love is that love is patient and enduring. We don't always associate love with patience. But the loving are able to hold on, to wait, to see a situation through. Those who love endure, hold on to hope, and trust God through all that comes to them.

Conclusion

Paul isn't talking about romantic feelings here - but tough actions, compassionate courage, not giving up. I had the privilege a few years ago to hear the great black preacher, Gardner Taylor. At one point in his discussion he talked about the difficulty he had dealing with his son, who had become addicted to drugs. Here was a humble father talking about a crisis in his family.

He said, "I don't know what tough love is, I just know that we had to keep loving our son and loving him and loving him, until - with God's help - we were able to help him work through it. You can't ever stop loving."

If we had to boil down the Christian faith to one word, we know what word it would be.

Amen

© Richard J. Henderson 2007