Simply Love

This is a sermon I presented back in 2023.

John 3:16

New International Version

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

1 John 3:16

New International Version

¹⁶ This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

Most commonly, when we think of Love, how it feels, or even how we can define and describe this feeling, we must lean on the words of some tortured poet or philosopher.  So, following that pattern, let me begin with a reading of my own.  This, however, is not the words of a tortured soul, but rather from the heart of a poet who loves God and knows the power of God’s love.

Love is patient, love is kind

No eyes of envy, true love is blind

Love is humble, it knows no pride

No selfish motive hidden inside

Love is gentle, makes no demands

Despite all wrong, true love still stands

Love is holy, love is pure

It lasts forever, it will endure

Love is loyal, believes the best

It loves the truth, love stands the test

Love is God sent in His Son

Love forgives all we have done

These few lines are from the song “Love” written by Bob Hartman around 1990.  I have always felt a special connection to the lyrics written by Bob Hartman because it always seemed he was writing about the things that I felt - almost as if his songs were written just for me.  Let’s be honest, Bob Hartman has never even known that Kent Hesselbein existed, but that is the thing about exceptionally talented artists, and more especially an artist who is led by God…They know how to touch those places in our hearts that prompt the greatest emotions and make us feel that their work is just for us.

This song is, to me, the best interpretation of the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians.  Follow along with me in your pew bible, or with your own copy of the Bible.  I will be reading from the New International Version since that is what we have here.  I personally love this particular passage from the King James Version because of its poetic flow. Hear now the Word of God:

¹³ If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Let’s pause at this point and review what is being said.  I could be the greatest orator the world has ever known.  My words could motivate you to take action in your own life that would bring you to greatness.  I could sing with the heavenly beauty of angels, or speak with the authority of the Archangels…Yet, if

I do not have love…I am nothing but a noise that is heard but not substantial enough to endure.

I may be able to uncover the greatest mysteries of the universe, find solutions to humankind's most troubling problems, or be so confident that I can even do the seemingly impossible…yet if I do not have love, I am nothing.

I could be the world’s most generous philanthropist…Yet, If I do not have love…it all means nothing.  Just putting all these in perspective.  The scripture is not only telling us that the things we do have transparent motives when done without love, but more importantly, these tell us that without love, there are no acts of greatness we can do that will be fulfilling for US.  When the scripture says “I am nothing but trivial”, “I am nothing”, and “I have gained nothing” it is also meant to bring our attention to the fact that for all our greatness, we will never be fulfilled until we do these great things with love.

Let’s return to the scripture, verse 4…

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

So, we left the first section discussion feeling like nothing we have done amounts to anything.  We see that all our perceived goodness is in reality nothing unless we have done all this with love.

Our second section begins with hope.  Hey, I can be patient and kind…I can try not to be envious or boast…I can be humble for the most part….And the list just gets harder and harder and since we’re being honest here, more and more humanly impossible. To prove the impossibility of this list, let's look at perhaps the most difficult item on this list - “keeps no record of wrongs”.

Since we are being completely honest before the Lord, who knows us all the way down to how many hairs we have left on our heads, I’m not going to ask how many of us can say we follow this one.  But here is where we see the truth that the only way love can exist is as the divine attribute so perfectly demonstrated in the life and perfect example of our Blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  

Nothing is more human than to say, “I’ll never forget what you’ve done to me.”  or “Fool me once, shame on you - Fool me twice shame on me.”  “After everything you’ve done, I could never trust you again…”  Yet, according to the scripture, these self-protecting record-keeping practices are not protecting us but pushing us further from the love we desire to display in our lives.

But thankfully, “God so loved the world that he gave His only Begotten Son.”  Thankfully, He loved the world soooooo much! He gave his most loved possession - his own Son, so we might be saved and have a perfect example of that potential we were created for.

Now, let’s look at the final few verses.

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

We’ve spent our time doing good works, works that have built up individuals, our families, and our church family.  We learned that while these things were beneficial, we may not have done these works with the proper motivation.  These works did help others, but we have to ask ourselves if, in our desire to demonstrate acts of kindness, helpfulness, and love, we actually perform according to the kind of Love the scripture has defined for us.

It is without fail that every time I prepare a message, it seems to be on a topic that I need to be preached to about myself.  I have a problem saying no, and I seem to attract people into my life who just seem to know that about me.  Most of these people will ask me to do something that we both know I don’t want to - but we both know I am going to do it, whether I want to or not.  I’ll go along, do the dreaded thing, and move on.  But guess what I’m doing the entire time?  That’s right, I’m keeping a record.

That record that I let keep growing and festering until there is no love of any kind remaining in my actions.  I’m sure every one of us has those friends, and sadly, family members, with whom we maintain records of our acts of love.  It is our defense against hurt and not being loved ourselves…but should love need to be defended?  Should we always feel the need to hold on to times when we perceived that we were wronged when all we were trying to do was show love?

As we see in this last passage, we read - all these things will eventually become unimportant.  Our efforts to act according to the teachings of the Holy Scripture in our interactions with our fellowman, unless these are wrapped in true love as demonstrated by our precious Savior, will ultimately amount to nothing.

Most of us have children, all of us are children, and there is no place where human love and compassion are more demonstrated than between a parent and a child, nor is there a place where this same love is more abused.  But thankfully, we are all children of our Heavenly Father, the Father who gave his most loved Son to show the rest of us just how much He loves us.

The final several verses of 1 Corinthians 13 basically tells us this: 

I have told you what love is.  I have told you that many times what you think love is…well, it simply is not. I explained to you that love is to build up, be unconditional, and never fail.   So, you are no longer children with only limited understanding; you are adults, so start listening to what I’ve said.

1 John 3:16

16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

This is not telling us that we have to die for each other, but more reminds us that we are obligated to live lives of service and sacrifice for each other.

Mother Theresa had a unique phrase to describe this Christ-like love.  She once wrote:  “We must grow in love and to do this we must go on loving and loving and giving and giving until it hurts—the way Jesus did. Do ordinary things with extraordinary love: little things like caring for the sick and the homeless, the lonely and the unwanted, washing and cleaning for them. You must give what will cost you something. … Then your gift becomes a sacrifice, which will have value before God. Any sacrifice is useful if it is done out of love. This giving until it hurts—this sacrifice—is also what I call love in action.” **end quote  (A Simple Path, Ballantine Books, 1995, p. 99)

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Let’s pray.