The Fifth Sunday of Easter

The Fifth Sunday of Easter
May 2, 2010

Christian Love Make Choices
1 Corinthians 13:4-7

In just over a month my family will head to Wisconsin for a wedding. When I go to weddings, I like to keep a mental checklist of things that will happen: everyone will rise when the bride walks down the aisle, the pastor will talk about love during his sermon, the best man will tell some embarrassing stories about the groom, and they will play the Chicken Dance at the reception. Today I'd like to discuss No. 2 on the checklist: love sermons.

I've been to some of our churches where the sermon about love was very good; I've also been to some of our churches where the sermon about love was very bad. The bad wedding sermons weren't bad because they contained heresy. No, they're bad because they talked about the wrong kind of love.

Those bad sermons talked about the kind of love that is sentimental and sugary. It's the love that gushes and bubbles often with very real affection. But it is love that wants be loved in return. That's why is gushes and bubbles—to get as good as it gives. It is conditional love. In an honorable relationship, this kind of love is a fine thing.

But this kind of love is not mentioned in 1 Corinthians 13. And that's what makes a bad wedding sermon—to talk about the sugary kind of love and then quote 1 Corinthians 13, which talks about a very different kind of love.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

The love that St. Paul expresses here is love that seeks the best interests of the one who is loved. It's the love that God has for sinners. It's the love that forgiven sinners have for one another. This kind of love is not headquartered in our emotions; it lives in our will. Therefore, this kind of love isn't about attraction, but action. This is love that makes choices.

God the Father has this kind of love for sinners. His love acted. He chose to love us. He chose to seek out our best interests. He sent His Son to be perfect for us. Jesus did exactly that for 40 weeks plus 33 years. And then He died for us. Jesus lived and died as our replacement. 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us that God made [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in [Jesus] we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus' self-sacrificing love reached out and yanked us out of hell.

John summed up the kind of love that Jesus has for us: 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. (1 John 4:10-11)

Jesus' love for us is also expressed in Ephesians: Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Ephesians 5:1-2)

So now I want to you to go out and love your enemies. Go out and love that jerk at work. Go out and love that bully at school. Go home and love that mean sibling. But how? How can I love someone that hates me?

Great question. I'm not asking you to like your enemy. I'm not asking you to have affection for your enemy or to create a warm fuzzy feeling for them in your heart. Nope. Jesus wants us to look out for the best interests of everyone, even people who detest you. What is in everyone's best interest? To repent of their selfish ways and be baptized into the family of Christ.

So love your enemy. And remember that this kind of love is also kind and patient. This assumes that people in our lives put our kindness and patience to the test. And they do. Maybe your husband is a hit-or-miss listener, who can't recall your conversation from just yesterday. Being kind and patient is hard when your spouse does this for 673 yesterdays.

It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. The apostle is not telling us that love is indifferent to wrong. Earlier in 1 Corinthians Paul sharply rebuked the congregation for its indifference toward a man who was living with his father's wife. Paul is speaking about love that forgets about self and seeks out the best interests of the one loved, even when that requires discipline.

A wise parent knows that love and discipline go hand in hand. But they also know that they should never discipline while they are angry. But they also know that that love without discipline isn't love. So discipline without being rude!

A friend who's been wronged by another friend often enjoys the process of yelling at his friend, especially if the offender is guilty of a repeat offense Then “discipline” becomes self-seeking and becomes unloving because the best interests of the offending friend are forgotten. Discipline without dredging up the past!

Paul continues: Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. Yes, there are many in our society who love being bad. But you can delight in evil without even doing it! Some take perverse pleasure in watching others do evil things. But there other ways to delight in evil. We delight in evil when seeing someone do something bad gives us an excuse to boast of our own innocence: “Well, at least I don't do that!” The whole truth is that we might have wanted to do that evil, but the fact that no one wanted to do that evil with us isn't mentioned. The whole truth is that we have done other evil things isn't expressed.

But the whole truth is that Christ died for all our sins. No matter how great the evil, Christ carried it on His cross. In the case of a fallen Christian caught in a sin, we rejoice with Jesus who came to live in that Christian by the message of grace and pardon.

This is love. Do newly-weds need to hear about this kind of love on their wedding day? Of course. What they don't need to hear is a counterfeit version of 1 Corinthians 13, which the pastor has sugar-coated it with sentiment.

Whether you're married or single, seeking the best interests of others is hard. Without Christ taking our place in life and in death, it would be impossible. But He live and die for us. He did rise from the dead for us. This is love.

Amen.