“Faith, Hope, and Love” 1 Cor 13: 1-13

In the past ten years of ministry, every single wedding I have officiated has picked this particular text to be read as part of their service. In fact, that’s probably where we best know this passage from - hearing it read at wedding ceremonies or on the front of bulletins for the special day. 

But if we just relegate 1 Corinthians 13 to wedding ceremonies, we miss what the Apostle Paul is trying to communicate. We miss the teaching that can be held for the church today. 

The thing about this passage from 1 Corinthians is that it wasn’t written by Paul primarily to make people feel good - it was supposed to be a word of challenge to a church in disarray. If you read just one chapter earlier in the letter you find that members are acting in ways unbefitting of being the body of Christ. Some were claiming that they were more important because of the spiritual gift that they had. They aren’t sharing. They are abusing the freedom that they have in Christ. They are trying to seek their own recognition first and foremost, no matter what the cost to their neighbor of the church. 

It is right after Paul speaks about the mess that the church finds itself in that he speaks about love. 

Whenever I teach confirmation classes I like to make a distinction between spiritual gifts and spiritual fruit. We read about spiritual gifts throughout the New Testament in places like 1 Corinthians 12. A spiritual gift is a particular gift given to a particular person in order to benefit the body of Christ. It is unique to that person. But Paul goes on to warn us that no gift is better than another. They all are meant to come together within the body to compliment one another for the sake of the mission that we have through Jesus Christ. 

In contrast, we find words about spiritual fruit in Galatians. Spiritual fruit should be seen in all Christians and grow in us as we grow in Christ. It’s not for a particular person. It is a manifestation of our relationship with Jesus. 

Love falls into the second catagorey brothers and sisters, which means that it is not optional. There are not some of us within this body that are equipped to love through the Holy Spirit and others that are not. Paul is trying to remind the church in Corinth that love isn’t a spiritual gift, its a practice. Another way to say this would be that love isn’t a virtue, it’s simply who we are in Christ. It is a state of being. 

The love that Paul is talking about isn’t even possible without Christ. Because it is based on the presence of God’s love in our lives in the first place. Paul isn’t talking here about how we feel about one another. He is talking about agape love - the absolute highest form of love - the love that God has for us and we have for God.

Pastor Jason Micheli wrote in his book Living in Sin: Making Marriage Work Between I Do and Death that he tells every single couple that he does premarital counseling with that he will not preach on 1 Corinthians 13 at their wedding. They can pick any scripture but that one. But he almost always ends up preaching this passage anyway, because it shows us how to love one another. To love another as Christ loves us.

The problem comes when we think that the love of 1 Corinthians 13 is only relegated to that particular relationship in our lives. When Paul was writing this section of his letter, he certainly wasn’t thinking that. Instead, he is speaking to a church in conflict and calling them to account for their behavior towards one another. Why? Because they are to be reflecting God’s love in the world. 

When we think about the circumstances that the church in Corinth found itself, it is really easy to say that we as the body of Christ aren’t that bad. But the whole reason Paul had to write them in the first place is that we are often blind to the lack of love in our own lives. We think we are doing an okay job, when really we are hurting the people we share this call and mission and ministry with. 

In other words, when we look at the type of love that Paul is talking about here, we should realize that we aren’t there yet. But that doesn’t give us an excuse to not try. Sometimes we will fail to live into the type of love that Paul is talking about, but we keep trying because we want others to know the love of a Savior. 

Conversely, when we read this list of the characteristics of love, we should also see glimpses of hope. Yes, we realize that we are still growing in love, but we also have seen this love manifested through us and in us as the body of Christ in a way that binds us together and changes us. 

I think Paul urges us to ask ourselves some hard questions about love. First, what is most important? Paul is telling the church in Corinth that the things they think are most important - their gifts, even their spiritual gifts. What’s most important is faith, hope, and love. And above all love. 

The leadership we show as the Church should be done in a spirit of love. In fact, everything that we do as believers should be done in a spirit of love. But when folks who do not yet know Christ hear stories about Churches fighting or when we talk poorly about one another, it does not make people want to come. Pastor Max Lucado was on the podcast For the Love a few months ago and he said something that has stuck with me ever since - “who wants to join a table where everybody’s squabbling?” When faith, hope, and love are the most important things everything else fades away. 

On the same podcast episode, Max was sharing the story of being a young seminarian and  being asked what the most important things are to the Christian faith. And everyone shouted things out. But then the professor asked a question very similar to what is the most important thing - what is the core, what is essential. And it was death, burial, and resurrection. Friends, that is the summery of John 3:16, is it not? That is what Christ did in love for us, so are we sharing that love with the world?

The second question that Paul has for us about absolutely everything that we are doing is “are we doing this in love?” And if the answer is no, then stop! But this question also requires us to be so very honest with ourselves. Perhaps a better version of this question for us to wrap our minds around is “how can we be showing greater love?” Because if love is the greatest of that which is the center of our faith, then we need to keep getting better and better at showing it to a hurting world.

Friends, I deeply believe that our world needs to know the love of a Savior. But I also am honest enough to say that sometimes as the Church we have not done the best job over the years. Let us move into the week examining our own blind spots of where we can love better and evaluate whether love really is the center of our faith life. Let us be a people who bear the love of Christ into the world. Amen.