Sermon for February 2, 2025 – Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany

Psalm 71:1-6 • Jeremiah 1:4-10 • 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 • Luke 4:21-30

This week’s theme is love. In our call to worship Psalm, it is the Lord who is our refuge, deliverer, and rock of refuge who can be trusted. The Old Testament portion of Jeremiah recounts the Lord’s intimate words to Jeremiah assuring him of his calling and that the Lord will go with him. Our reading from 1 Corinthians 13 reminds us that love is the greatest gift of all. The Gospel text in Luke recounts Jesus was rejected because He extended God’s love beyond His hometown.

The Most Excellent Way

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 NIV

The last two weeks we have traced Paul’s words to the Corinthian church as he addresses some of the problems they have been struggling with. This week, we will continue where we left off, however we will not rehash an old problem or address a new one. Rather, Paul will fill out what he introduces as “the most excellent way.” We will see that this is how the believers in Corinth were to work through all the problems they faced, and it is the same way for us to move forward as well.

There are a few challenges in preaching this text. First, it is so beautifully written that adding words or commentary to it risks diminishing its impact. Second, it is such a familiar passage that we may not expect to hear anything new. Third, and most challenging, the passage speaks of “love,” which is a word so overused and misused in our society that the word risks becoming meaningless. However, we will read this passage in the context of the challenges Paul has been addressing with the Corinthian church. This will hopefully lift the passage off our wedding invitations and land it directly as “the most excellent way” forward for any particular problems we may be facing in our own churches and lives today.

Let’s give it a try.

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. 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. 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. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 NIV

The necessity of love

The first three verses of this section speak to the necessity of love. Paul does not argue that we should dispense with spiritual gifts and only have love. Rather, what Paul advocates is that love should be the controlling factor of how we use those gifts. For Paul, to “have love” is to speak and act towards others in the same way God has spoken and acted toward us in Christ. So, we cannot detach love as some generic feeling or ideal that we possess apart from the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Paul takes issue with the Corinthian church for masking many sins under a label of “spirituality.” Other chapters in the letter record Paul’s correction of the Corinthian church for their tolerance and even endorsement of sexual immorality, greed, and idolatry. They did this while using certain gifts, like speaking in tongues, as a claim to spirituality. But their actions clearly indicate that they claimed a spirituality based on certain religious trappings while endorsing and even acting out a debased Christian ethic devoid of the love we see displayed in Jesus Christ. The love Paul speaks of is defined by the concrete act of Jesus coming to die for the sins of the world. That love certainly does not endorse the various sins our society would like to push.

Notice the theme of the language used in Paul’s comparisons to illustrate the necessity of love. He begins with speaking in tongues since that gifting seems to be the prevailing claim to spirituality. But he also includes things like prophecy, knowledge, faith, charitable acts, and self-sacrifice. Paul certainly does not say these things are bad or meaningless. Rather, these all reflect “religious” language and “spirituality.” The Corinthian church seemed to be more interested in their spiritual appearance than in actual love for their neighbor. Paul uses these comparisons with emphatic statements to show how they all amount to nothing without love. So, to just say or do “good” things is not enough. If those things do not build up the church, or edify the body of Christ, or bear witness to Jesus in our world, then we are no better than a “clanging cymbal.” That’s an interesting illustration Paul chooses to begin with since “clanging cymbals” were also used in many of the surrounding pagan cults. This seems to be a nod that their claim to spirituality by exhibiting certain gifts without having love was tantamount to being no better than the empty pagan culture around them.

Paul now moves on to describe the character of love. In doing so, he does not allow any room for any idealistic conceptions of love that fall outside the revelation of God’s love toward us as seen in Jesus Christ.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NIV

The character of love

Paul includes fifteen descriptors to detail the character of love. The first two are positive statements, “Love is patient” and “love is kind.” These two statements taken together show that love plays both a passive and active role toward others. These statements point to the work of Christ towards us. He took our sins upon Himself and patiently endured them all the way to the cross, while at the same time exercised great kindness toward us and gave us all things that belong to Him.

Then Paul moves to list seven characteristics of love with statements of what it does NOT do. This list seems tailor-made for the Corinthian church. Each statement adds up, and essentially Paul says that love is not what you have been doing. Ouch! This list would make a wonderful study on its own and would be worth going through one statement at a time.

The next two descriptions, “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth” probably are meant to be treated as two sides of the same coin. Here again we see a description of who Jesus is toward us and who God is in His very heart and character. God is a God of truth and because of that He cannot and will not affirm evil. If we truly live out the love of the Father poured out to us by the Spirit, we will celebrate and stand for all that is good while at the same time not entertaining or supporting that which is not aligned with the truth.

Paul then concludes his list. He adds four more characteristics that love “always” does: protects, trusts, hopes, and perseveres. Included here are both faith (trust) and hope which are the other two great Christian virtues. One thing Paul’s multiple descriptions of love provides for us is a list of checks and balances for our conceptions of love. We must hold all of them together. Otherwise, we could risk seeing love as just “kindness” towards everyone without resisting evil or holding accountable that which does not benefit everyone. In other words, love is not just a feel-good sentimentality. We should not treat others contrary to the way God has treated us in Jesus Christ. Paul’s list also gives us an opportunity to see an epiphany of who God has revealed Himself to be in Jesus Christ.

We could go back and substitute the name “Jesus” where it refers to “love” and it would read as an accurate picture of who God is in His very heart and character. That may be an exercise to do on your own. However, Paul means this list to be a point of reflection for the Corinthian church. So, we could also go back and substitute our name for “love” and see how we are doing. Where is there a call to repentance and an opportunity to receive more of the love the Spirit has for us? That too would be a good exercise to engage in personally.

The permanence of love

Paul now concludes as he proclaims the permanence of love.

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. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 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. 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. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:8-13 NIV

This section begins with “Love never fails.” That is a statement of permanence the Corinthian church needs to measure against the temporary nature of spiritual gifts, which Paul states, ultimately pass away and disappear. Paul is trying to redirect their understanding of being “spiritual” to that which is eternal. Paul does not devalue gifts, but rather highlights the importance of using those gifts to serve the purpose of love. If they do not use their gifts to build up the church, to edify and honor their brothers and sisters, and Paul himself, but use them for their own self-gain, then they essentially act like little children who have not grown up or like people who have confused a reflection in a mirror for a real person.

Paul concludes as he places love alongside faith and hope. In this way, he shows that love is in a whole different category and should not be equated with spiritual gifts. Faith, hope, and love continue in the present in all we do and say in the church. However, even here our faith will one day become sight, and our hope will be fulfilled when Jesus returns with His kingdom. And that kingdom will be one of love. In that way, Paul pushes the permanence of love to the very end.

This is a point in the passage where we can take a good look at ourselves and see if our efforts are aligned with what is eternal, or if we simply seek to achieve some temporary status in the present day. Those who belong to the church are called to be witnesses and citizens of another kingdom — God’s kingdom that will never fade. This world and all it claims to offer is nothing in comparison to where King Jesus is taking us. Jesus is real, and the love of the Father revealed in Him will never fail.

Small Group Discussion Questions