1 Corinthians 13:1-13 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
Fifth Sunday of Easter Sunday, May 15, 2022 “Live in Real Love”
Mary sat very still, just sort of staring out the window. Tears filled her eyes, and occasionally one rolled down her cheek. The tears had come before throughout this process, but for a moment, things just seemed to hit harder. The emotions: the pain, the sadness, the regret, the fear. The divorce had been coming for months and even years, but suddenly it felt more final than it ever had before. And through the tears and in the pain, Mary kept thinking back to a much happier day. She kept playing through her mind the Scripture reading from her wedding day, the same reading in front of us this morning. “Love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not envy. It does not brag. It is not arrogant.” On that day she thought it sounded so obvious. She loved him. She could feel it. Of course life and love would be wonderful and natural and easy. But he was so often impatient. He was so often unkind. He was so often irritable and petty and angry. After days and weeks and years, the feeling of love was harder and harder to come by. And then he had gone and done what was previously unimaginable. He did what could be considered the most unloving thing possible: he loved someone else in the way he was only supposed to love her. Things really unraveled once that came to light. Things progressed all the way to the divorce, but Mary still wondered. Could she have done more? Could she have prevented all this? It was hard to admit, but Mary knew it was true: she had also been impatient and unkind and unloving. Does Mary’s story sound familiar to you? It sounds familiar to me in a lot of ways even though I never knew this Mary personally. Mary’s story, though, is like a lot of stories I have come to know. Too many marriages end in divorce, and that always means pain and sorrow. Too many marriages don’t reflect the sort of love that God asks them to reflect. Too many people don’t love the way God calls on us to love. Mary’s story is a lot like my story from time to time as I wish that other people would be more loving toward me. Like her, I sometimes begrudgingly admit that I could be a little more loving, too. But when my conscience speaks the loudest and when my attention gets sharply focused, I unfortunately relate too closely with Mary’s husband. I act in ways that are not just unloving, but are actually the complete opposite of love. If you are anything like me, and I know that you are, you need to listen to what the Apostle Paul says about love in the “Great Love Chapter” of the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13. For Mary, this was part of her wedding service. That may have been the case for some of you, too. This is a very popular Scripture reading for weddings. But it’s not actually about weddings. It’s not about marriage. It is about love. Paul here is telling all of us, and all of the Christians in that ancient city of Corinth, that they are to live in real love. This is about life. It is about worship. It is about relationships of all types. It is about marriage because marriage is about love and relationships, but this reading is about much more and should not be limited to weddings. The Corinthians would have seen in this chapter many references to other things Paul had told them. In this letter, which God led Paul to write, he had already addressed concerns that the priorities of the Corinthians were misplaced. This congregation was blessed with many spiritual gifts. At times people spoke in tongues, speaking God’s Word in languages that they had not learned or previously known. Sometimes others in the congregation understood and could interpret those words, but not always. Others in the congregation had been blessed with the ability to heal people and do other miraculous signs. Still others were blessed with deep knowledge and understanding. And people started choosing their favorites. They started picking the gifts that they wanted. They started to envy others who had them when they did not. They didn’t always appreciate that God gave a diversity of gifts that could all be used together to build up the congregation. And they certainly did not appreciate that God had given those gifts in order for people to serve others. They didn’t appreciate that everything they did was to be done in love. Someone could have all the best and flashiest of gifts, but it didn’t matter if they didn’t show love as they used their gifts. The person who spoke like an angel with incredible beauty and eloquence, but didn’t love others was like a “clang clang clang” of a gong or a cymbal. Real love serves.
Real love says, “Whatever I have I am going to use it for the benefit of others.” Real love is patient with them, willing to suffer for a long time if that is what is necessary. Real love doesn’t get jealous or envious of the gifts others have. Real love doesn’t keep track of the past in order to make myself feel better in the present. Real love, in fact, doesn’t even think about myself. It focuses on others. Real love is so much more than a feeling that can come and go, that is sometimes strongly burning and other times cools off more quickly than the desert at sunset. Love bears and believes and hopes. The Corinthians needed to hear this. You need to hear this. Don’t settle for counterfeit sorts of love. Don’t settle for defining love as a feeling. Live in real love. There is a problem, though, isn’t there? We are always going to fall short of this description. We have had and will continue to have times when we are less than patient and kind and truthful. Maybe it is in our marriages, but that’s not the only place it shows up. It shows up wherever people interact with and relate to each other. When you are at work or at school or at church, when you are in your neighborhood or your own home, God says, “Live in love,” and you and I fail. That’s why I want to tell you another Mary’s story. The one that introduced this sermon was made up to reflect some real stories, this one is all real. This Mary is Mary Magdalene, and we heard her story on Easter morning. Mary just sort of sat there and stared through her tears. She felt the pain and the loss. It was not her husband who had been taken away from her. It was someone who had been closer to her than any husband could. This man, Jesus, had always loved her. He had cast demons out of her. He had been patient and kind and caring. And he had been that not just for Mary but for everyone who truly cared to listen to him. He was even patient with the enemies who were so often unfair to him. Mary’s tears came because the only person she had known to truly show love, to constantly show real love, had died. He had been buried. And he had been taken away. She was sitting at the tomb where he was laid and not seeing him. As far as she could tell, love was dead. But love came back from the dead. The same Jesus she had known, and who more importantly knew her, appeared and spoke to her. Love continued to serve her. He came back to assure her that her sins were forgiven and that her future was certain. If you want to see real love, you look to Jesus. His very purpose was serving others. He died for your sins, not his own. And he is alive to serve you. That is why love, selfless love, marches victorious over self-gratification. Jesus loves and serves you, and now he enables you to love and serve others. He empowers you to live in real love, a love that reflects his own. And because of what he has done, true love will never end. Real love endures. That’s how 1 Corinthians discusses it. Love never comes to an end. But if there are prophetic gifts, they will be done away with; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be done away with. All of the gifts that intrigued the Corinthians would have their time and then would no longer be needed. Not so with love. Love always has a purpose and a usefulness. That is an important reminder when we are tempted to love only for a time. Anyone can show love for a little while. True love, real love, endures. Even when the person we love annoys us or frustrates us. Even when we get to know them well enough to know all their maddening habits. Love doesn’t give up. Love lasts. When we love in a way that lasts, our love reflects our Savior’s love. Love even lasts into eternity. We will see our loving Savior face-to-face and we will know love in a way that we could never fully appreciate before. Along with faith and hope, love will endure. The greatest of these is love. God is not faith. God is not hope. God is love. When your moments like Mary’s come, that’s what you can rely on. There will be times when you wish others had loved you better. There will be times when your love falls short of your expectations. But you have Jesus. You have the forgiveness he won. You heard him say to you like he said to his disciples, “Love one another. Just as I have loved you, so also you are to love one another” (John 13:34). In other words, live in real love. Real love serves. Real love endures.
The Text: 1 Corinthians 13 (EHV) If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and know all the mysteries and have all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give away everything I own, and if I give up my body that I may be burned but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4Love
is patient. Love is kind. Love does not envy. It does not brag. It is not arrogant. 5It does not behave indecently. It is not selfish. It is not irritable. It does not keep a record of wrongs. 6It does not rejoice over unrighteousness but rejoices with the truth. 7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8Love
never comes to an end. But if there are prophetic gifts, they will be done away with; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be done away with. 9For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part, 10but when that which is complete has come, that which is partial will be done away with. 11When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put away childish things. 12Now we see indirectly using a mirror, but then we will see face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I was fully known. 13So
now these three remain: faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.