All You Need is Love
Are you a loving person?
If I took a poll of everyone reading this question, I’d assume 98% would answer, “Yes!” After all, you aren’t intentionally mean to others, you give regularly to your church, and you have many friends. Like everyone else, you may have your “moments,” but generally you feel confident that you are more loving than not.
Around 50 A.D., the Apostle Paul planted a church in the crazy metropolis of Corinth. It was strategically located on the crossroads of the world which made it perfect for trade and commerce. Fortunes were regularly made and lost, pagan rituals formed the foundation of everyday life and sex was easy and often. In this toxic soup of sin, the Holy Spirit blew his life-giving breath, birthing the Corinthian church. In Paul’s first letter to this church, he challenges them with the same question: ARE YOU A LOVING PERSON? He had to ask the question because there was very little evidence of love within this network of house churches. They regularly argued, they sued each other, and they were routinely rude to one another.
The way Paul got their attention was to pen the most eloquent description ever written on the subject of godly love. We know it as 1 Corinthians 13, the “Love Chapter.” While it is most frequently read at weddings, a deeper look at the passage and its context reveals it as a pointed rebuke of their bad behavior.
The first thing he says about love is that it is patient. You know, the ability to endure stress and difficulty with a quiet, uncomplaining attitude. Oh dear. Unfortunately, the list doesn’t get any easier. Love is kind, not just wanting the best for someone else but actively working to make it happen. Love does not envy by setting its heart on what someone else has or feeling negatively when someone else gets what I want. Love does not boast about its accomplishments, setting a trap for someone else to be envious of me. Love is not proud, focusing on itself with inordinate self-esteem or conceit.
The list goes on and on. Based on Paul’s description, we all obviously have a long way to go. Is he just trying to make us feel like failures? No. It is because God isn’t just loving. He is love (1 John 4:8). And if we say we are Christians – little Christs – than His nature should be increasingly seen in ours. If He is love than we should become more and more loving toward all who meet us and interact with us. Our words and actions should be a striking contrast to worldly people who only love those who love them and are most concerned with themselves.
The best news of all is that God is patient toward us as we slowly learn to reflect His love to the world. Psalm 103:14 says, “He knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.”
Pastor Nancy Bontempo
Friends Community Church, Sturgeon Bay
If I took a poll of everyone reading this question, I’d assume 98% would answer, “Yes!” After all, you aren’t intentionally mean to others, you give regularly to your church, and you have many friends. Like everyone else, you may have your “moments,” but generally you feel confident that you are more loving than not.
Around 50 A.D., the Apostle Paul planted a church in the crazy metropolis of Corinth. It was strategically located on the crossroads of the world which made it perfect for trade and commerce. Fortunes were regularly made and lost, pagan rituals formed the foundation of everyday life and sex was easy and often. In this toxic soup of sin, the Holy Spirit blew his life-giving breath, birthing the Corinthian church. In Paul’s first letter to this church, he challenges them with the same question: ARE YOU A LOVING PERSON? He had to ask the question because there was very little evidence of love within this network of house churches. They regularly argued, they sued each other, and they were routinely rude to one another.
The way Paul got their attention was to pen the most eloquent description ever written on the subject of godly love. We know it as 1 Corinthians 13, the “Love Chapter.” While it is most frequently read at weddings, a deeper look at the passage and its context reveals it as a pointed rebuke of their bad behavior.
The first thing he says about love is that it is patient. You know, the ability to endure stress and difficulty with a quiet, uncomplaining attitude. Oh dear. Unfortunately, the list doesn’t get any easier. Love is kind, not just wanting the best for someone else but actively working to make it happen. Love does not envy by setting its heart on what someone else has or feeling negatively when someone else gets what I want. Love does not boast about its accomplishments, setting a trap for someone else to be envious of me. Love is not proud, focusing on itself with inordinate self-esteem or conceit.
The list goes on and on. Based on Paul’s description, we all obviously have a long way to go. Is he just trying to make us feel like failures? No. It is because God isn’t just loving. He is love (1 John 4:8). And if we say we are Christians – little Christs – than His nature should be increasingly seen in ours. If He is love than we should become more and more loving toward all who meet us and interact with us. Our words and actions should be a striking contrast to worldly people who only love those who love them and are most concerned with themselves.
The best news of all is that God is patient toward us as we slowly learn to reflect His love to the world. Psalm 103:14 says, “He knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.”
Pastor Nancy Bontempo
Friends Community Church, Sturgeon Bay
Comments
Post a Comment