1 Corinthians 13 – “The Great Love Chapter of the Bible”
by Pastor Kevin Wattles
preached at Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church
Falls Church, Virginia
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3 Sunday after Pentecost, June 13, 2010
Today we are beginning a new message series. This message series follows in—I guess what we would call—
the “tradition” of our summer message series; that tradition being working our way through a book of the Bible
or a section of a book of the Bible. During the summers of recent years we’ve done message series on: selected
Psalms and the New Testament book of Philippians. We spent last summer in Jesus’ Beatitudes—those opening
verses of Matthew chapter 5. This summer we’re looking at what is sometimes known as “The Great Love
Chapter of the Bible,” 1 Corinthians 13.
1 Corinthians 13 is oftentimes associated with weddings. One hears 1 Corinthians 13 read at many Christian
weddings. If you’re married perhaps 1 Corinthians 13 was read at your wedding. However, if you’re concerned
that this summer message series is going to be like “the wedding sermon that never ends,” don’t be. 1
Corinthians 13 has a lot more to say about love than just how love applies to a husband and wife in marriage. In
fact, the bride of one couple that I married did not want to have 1 Corinthians 13 read at her wedding for that
very reason. She thought that the real point and special message about love in 1 Corinthians 13 was often
missed when it was used in weddings. So again, you don’t have to be concerned; this message series isn’t going
to be an entire summer of wedding sermons!
But I would like to begin this message series on “love” with a question. The question is, “When you think of the
word “love,” what do you think of?” I’m going to let you ponder that question for a moment…and you can even
write down some of your thoughts on the message notes page in the worship folder for this morning, if you’d
like.
Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary gives these many definitions for the word “love”:
1 a (1): strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties (2): attraction based on
sexual desire (3): affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests b: an
assurance of love
2: warm attachment, enthusiasm, or devotion
3 a: the object of attachment, devotion, or admiration b: a beloved person
4 a: unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another: as (1): the fatherly concern of
God for humankind (2): brotherly concern for others b: a person's adoration of God
5: a god or personification of love
6: an amorous episode
7: the sexual embrace
8: a score of zero (as in tennis)
There are a lot of different meanings and uses for the word “love” in our American English language! We might
say we love our car, job, place to live, parent, child, spouse, a favorite song, movie, or sports team…but in using
the word “love” in each of these examples we mean something a little different in each case. I hope the love that
we have for a parent, child, or spouse is different, deeper, and greater than the love we have for our favorite
song, movie, or sports team! If it’s not, watch out because that relationship is probably in trouble!
For our purposes here this morning—and for the rest of the summer—as we look at “love” in 1 Corinthians 13,
the definition of “love” from Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary that most closely identifies with what we’re
talking about is this one (this definition is also printed on the message notes page in the worship folder):
4 a: unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another: as (1): the fatherly concern of
God for humankind (2): brotherly concern for others b: a person's adoration of God
The Greek language, in which the New Testament was first written, is different than the English language when
it comes to the word “love.” Whereas in English we have one word for “love” and mean all kinds of different
things with that one word, Greek has different words for “love”—all with a specific meanings. I have these
different Greek words for “love” printed on the message notes page in the worship folder.
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Agápe: In Ancient Greek agape often refers to a general affection or deeper sense of “true love”
rather than the attraction suggested by eros. Agape is the word used for “love” in 1 Corinthians 13,
and is described there and throughout the New Testament as divine, unconditional, self-sacrificing,
active, volitional, and thoughtful love.
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Éros is passionate love, with sensual desire and longing. It can apply to marriage. The English word
“erotic” comes from this eros.
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Philia: In Ancient Greek it denotes a general type of love, used for love between family, between
friends, or a desire or enjoyment of an activity. The city north of here called “Philadelphia” (“the
city of brotherly love”) contains this Greek word in its name.
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Storge means “affection” in Ancient Greek. It is natural affection, like that felt by parents for their
children. It is rarely found in ancient writings.
So…after all these definitions of the word “love”…our own…the ones from Merriam-Webster’s Online
Dictionary…and all the Greek words for “love”…what is 1 Corinthians 13 talking about when it talks about
“love” and what are we meaning when we talk about “love” in the context of the Christian faith?
Our working definition of the word “love,” which I’m sharing with you today and which you’re going to hear
me repeat again and again through this summer is: “the perfect, unconditional love with which God loves us
and commands us to love one another.” This is “a 1 Corinthians 13 kind of love,” shall we say; God’s love;
the love that God commands us to have for him and one another.
Why spend an entire summer talking about this? About “love”? Because, frankly, we don’t “get it.” Even if we
say we “get it,” we understand it conceptually and theologically, we don’t practice it. You and I live in a world
and in a culture that teaches, practices, and from the very fibers of its essence oozes a sinful, pride-filled, selfish
version of “love” that is nothing but a quick, cheap, hollow version of the kind of love talked about in 1
Corinthians 13, God’s love.
Why talk about “love” for an entire summer? Because God, in Scripture, speaks about the great importance of
love.
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In John 3:16, a verse of Scripture which has been called “The Gospel in a Nutshell,” and in which
some say the Christian faith is summarized, the teaching of that verse hinges on God’s love. John
3:16 says, “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.”
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In Matthew 22:36-40, when Jesus is asked which is the greatest of God’s commandments, Jesus
responds by saying, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and
with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it:
'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two
commandments."
God said these same things when he gave his Law in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 6:5;
Leviticus 19:18).
On the night before Jesus was crucified, after Jesus finished washing his disciples’ feet, Jesus
commanded his disciples of all time: “Love each other as I have loved you” (John 15:12).
In the book of 1 Corinthians, after God inspires Paul to address the early Christian congregation
racked with problems such as: divisions in their congregation, lawsuits among the believers, sexual
immorality, serious questions over Christian living, doctrine, and worship…God has Paul write,
“And now I will show you the most excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of men and of
angels, but have not 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 have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and
surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). Paul
writes about the importance of love for this congregation; for Christians.
Agape love shows us the depth and detail of God’s perfect and complete love for us.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not
proud. It is not rude, 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.” These words of 1 Corinthians 13 show us the detail of God’s love for us;
God’s perfect, unconditional love for you and me.
1 John 4:7-12: “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who
loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because
God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the
world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us
and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also
ought to love one another. =o one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us
and his love is made complete in us.” There are a couple things that I invite you to notice about these
words. One is to note that God loved us first. We didn’t love God first. God’s love for us is what has
moved us to love him back. And secondly, please note what God’s love moved him to do: send
Jesus…Jesus to be, as John calls him, an “atoning sacrifice for our sins.” What does it mean that Jesus
is the atoning sacrifice for our sins? It means that through Jesus sacrifice on the cross all our sins have
been paid for! They are atoned for! God no longer holds our sins against us…because he held them
against Jesus! Jesus paid the price (his life!) for them! Because of that, God has forgiven us our sins.
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God’s love is eternal. “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these
is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13). Why does this verse say “love” is the greatest of these three? It says that
because God’s love will be with us in heaven. In heaven, we won’t need “faith” and “hope” because, in
heaven, we will be living the reality of what we believed in and hoped in. We will be living the reality of
God’s promises to us! But love…God’s love…will always be with us! It never ends! It’s with us now. It
will be with us as we pass from this life to the next (eternal life). And God’s love will surround us
forever and ever and ever in heaven!
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I close with a reading of 1 Corinthians 13:
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not 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 have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I
possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is
patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not selfseeking, 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. 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 perfection comes, the imperfect 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 childish ways behind me.
=ow we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. =ow 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.
Amen.
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