November 25, 2015

“If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have 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 do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.”  1 Corinthians 13:1 – 13

“Faith alone justifies. Luther found in the bible the sole answer to man’s question: “How can I justify myself in the sight of G*d?” The answer to the question of how man is justified in the sight of G*d is this: by grace alone through faith alone. Therefore we can turn around the final sentence of 1 Cor. 13 with good reason and say: And if I have all love so that I do all good works but have not faith, I am nothing. Faith alone justifies. But love perfects.” (Gesammelte Schriften, Dietrich Bonhoeffer [1906 – 1945] “For All The Saints” volume II, p. 1025 – 1026)

I have performed many, many weddings. Many of them have used the 1 Cor. 13 text as part of their wedding service. This text is nice for the wedding, but the love being spoken about is not “Eros” love, the Greek word for romantic love, it is “Agape” love, G*d’s love. G*d’s love is patient, kind, not jealous or boastful, arrogant or rude. G*d’s love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. G*d’s love never ceases.

But “Agape” love is more than that – G*’s love is the perfecter of all things. Other kinds of love will ultimately let us down or eventually leave us – human love will appear to us as the mirror that is cloudy, because there are imperfections in human love. Not Agape love – G*d’s love is perfect love – and if we base all of our love on G*d’s love, we will know a love that is for all eternity. That is a love we should share every day.

Pastor Dave