Love

When I got married we chose specific scripture passages to have read at our wedding. While I didn’t know the exact verses I wanted, I did know what passage I didn’t want to be used—1 Corinthians 13. The main reason being that, in my opinion, it was over used. One could argue words from the Bible can never be overused, and I agree. I guess what I mean is, I had heard the verses so often in the context of what love should be that I had grown numb to the message. It felt almost cliche. Still to this day, I slightly zone out when someone starts reading from 1 Corinthians 13. 

This week I decided to investigate what the Bible says about love and 1 Corinthians 13 seemed like a good place to start. So, here I am, facing the very verses that I have glazed over for so many years, asking God: what is your design for love? 

Love can feel like a tricky adversary. Many people seem to have different understandings of what love is or does. We have different expectations for love in our lives. Love is not easily defined. It’s relational but not always reciprocated. It’s able to take on many forms: friendship, familial, romantic, spiritual. There isn’t only one way to demonstrate love. It can be performed or expressed in many ways: affection, service, provision, words, actions. And yet, love is a cornerstone of the Christian faith. 

So what does God want us to know about love from this passage in 1 Corinthians? 

1. Love brings our actions to life. 

2. Love looks outward. 

3. There is one for whom love never ends. 

4. Love is not alone.

Love Brings Our Actions to Life

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3

In the beginning of 1 Corinthians 13 Paul discusses other actions of faith that were commonly used at that time: speaking in tongues, prophesying and performing miracles. In today’s culture we don’t typically run into people who have these gifts and so these examples can sound a bit outdated or foreign. It’s easy to tune out this part of the verse because it doesn’t seem to apply to our daily encounters or actions. But, what Paul is saying is that any action in the name of Christ that is not fueled by love is an empty action. 

Instead of speaking in tongues, prophesying and performing miracles, think about the things that people do now in the name of Jesus: volunteering in a shelter, sharing scripture on instagram, serving at church on Sunday mornings. Paul is saying that if we do these actions in the name of Jesus, but don’t truly carry love in our hearts for Jesus or the people we are serving, these actions are empty and are being done to serve ourselves and our reputation. And when we’re focused on serving ourselves, we gain nothing. 

Love brings our actions to life. Our love for Jesus, and for those who he loves, changes our actions to be driven not towards what is convenient or makes us look the best, but instead, towards sharing our faith in meaningful ways. 

Love Looks Outward. 

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7

There is a lot said in these verses. And like I said earlier, I tend to tune them out due to the frequency that people quote them. But, when I stop and look at the description of love in these verses, it makes me a little uncomfortable. These verses are often quoted at weddings, but the truth is that is a limited scope of what Paul is describing. While these words can apply to love within a romantic relationship, when you put them in the context of the verses that come before and after them, you realize that the love Paul is talking about is the love we Christians hold towards the world, not just those we are closest to. 

Love is designed to look outward. When I read these verses in relation to how I interact daily with everyone I encounter, I am confronted with the limits of my love. While love has the capability to make us feel good in many of our relationships, that isn’t its primary goal. Love isn’t designed to make us feel good, it’s designed to make us act good—patient, kind, humble, polite, respectful, open minded, giving, honest. Does my love look outward to share these attributes with the world, or does my love look inward to see how I feel and make sure I’m getting what I think I deserve? 

There is One for Whom Love Never Ends.

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When 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 gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
1 Corinthians 13:8-12

While many of our earthly relationships are only for a limited time, there is a love that never ends. God’s love for us is for eternity. His love for us is sacrificial, as seen in the death of Jesus for our redemption. While other gifts from God are only for a time in our lives, and limited to this world, love transcends this world and carries us into eternal companionship with God. 

But it’s hard to understand this perfect unending love. As Paul writes in verse 11 we are children in our faith. We are unable to understand the complete depths and unlimited love that God offers us. For this time on earth we know a limited understanding of a limitless God and his love. But don’t let this discourage you or stop you from attempting to participate in this perfect love. Rather, take heart in the words that Paul states, one day we will fully know what we can only partially understand today. 

Love is Not Alone.

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:13

There is a theme within Paul’s writing, he writes about love with two other companions: hope and faith. Hope is the ability to look towards something with positive anticipation and faith is believing in something you can’t prove. These two entities—faith and hope—while easier to define than love, are sometimes harder to maintain. They are concepts that dwell in the unknown. 

I’d like to easily package up the relationship between these entities and say that there is a process in which one leads to another, but it’s my belief that faith, hope and love are intertwined and dependent on each other. When we refer back to verses 4-6 we are faced with the characteristics of love. These characteristics, as previously stated require a pouring out of, rather than a taking in. They require a denial of selfish desires for the good of others—sometimes people you have no personal connection with. Faith fuels our love and hope but in turn, love brings our faith and hope to a deeper understanding. The three work together to enrich our relationship with this world as well as with God. 

>>Other references of hope, faith and love in Paul’s writing: Galatians 5:5-6, Ephesians 4:2-5, Colossians 1:5-4, 1 Thessalonians 1:3 and 5:8.<<

While the English language uses the word love to cover many meanings, within the Bible there are actually different words to describe different types of love. These different types of love are another example of the complexity of love and the many purposes it can hold for us. Of these four concepts about love is there one that you find hardest to employ or understand?