Sermon Transcript
Today’s scripture is in 1 Corinthians chapter 13.
If I speak in the tongues of men, 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 my possessions to the poor and give over my body to hardship for the then I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it’s not self-seeking, it’s not easily angered, it keeps no records of wrongs.
Love does not delight in the 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’s knowledge, it will pass away.
For we know in part, we prophesy in parts, but when completeness comes, when this 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 become 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 3 remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of this is love. This is the word of the Lord. Praise be to God. Thank you, Mark.
Good morning, everybody. We’re continuing our message series in the book of 1 Corinthians. We come to what may very well be the most familiar chapter in the entire Bible. If you’ve been to more than 3 church weddings in your life, you’ve probably heard this passage. Even people who are not familiar with the Bible, or who would say that they’re not familiar with the Bible or familiar with church, may consider themselves to be somewhat familiar, at least, with 1 Corinthians 13.
They may even be able to quote from it or parts of it without even knowing what they’re quoting from. And applying this chapter to marriage is, of course, that’s great. Do it. Apply it to marriage. But that honestly has very little to do with what the Apostle Paul had in his mind when he wrote this.
He was not trying to give people something nice to read at weddings. Instead, he was trying desperately to show a church full of self-centered Christians that there’s a better way to live, a more excellent way to live. As the Apostle Paul put it at the end of chapter 12 leading into this, there is a more excellent way, and that way is the way of love. One of the first challenges that we’re presented with as we think about this chapter is that I’m pretty sure we’re going to struggle a bit trying to come to some sort of agreement about what the word love means. What is love?
You can ask 10 different people, you get 10 different answers. We use the word so much, from I love my wife, or I love my husband, to I love my kids, to I love my parents, or I love my job, or I love my dog to I love Disneyland to I love Italian food, meaning I use the exact same word to describe something that I have a preference for and for something that I have given a lifelong commitment to. The exact same word. That’s just messed up. But it’s also just reality.
I hope you don’t love your wife or your husband or your kids in the same way that you love Italian food. You might actually love Italian food more. I don’t, I don’t know. The point is, is that maybe, maybe some of the confusion about love that exists exists because of all the many different songs that have been written about love through the years. For example, if I’m gonna pull from something that is a classic song of love that just is so profound and insightful, I’d like to go back to a song that’s before my time.
It’s a song called That’s Amore. That’s Amore from Dean Martin. Some of you have heard of it. Amore is the Italian word for love. Here are some of the profound, insightful lyrics about what love is according to the song That’s Amore.
Are you ready? When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, everybody, that’s amore. When the world seems to shine like you’ve had too much wine, That’s amore. Bells will ring, ting-a-ling-a-ling, ting-a-ling-a-ling, and you’ll sing Vita Bella. Hearts will play tippy-tippy-tay, tippy-tippy-tay, like a gay tarantella.
When the stars make you drool, just like pasta e fagioli, that’s amore. When you dance down the street with a cloud at your feet. You’re in love. Let’s put all this together and let’s see if we can make sense of what love is. First of all, the best way to tell you’re in love is when the moon hits you smack dab in the face like a pizza, and then the world shines like you’re drunk, and your heart plays tippy tippy tay, whatever that means, and then finally you drool, and then you dance down the street.
Young people, I hope you’re taking notes. That’s not what love is.
That’s troubling behavior.
Don’t do those things.
In all seriousness, one of the big reasons why this is a real problem is that when you become a follower of Jesus and when you hear about love, when it’s taught at church or talked about in the Bible or heard at a wedding, we just automatically import into that word meaning that is from whatever context we come from. We think we already know what that word means, but we have to dismantle the word. We have to reexamine it, take it apart, look at it from a fresh perspective. And so it’s just a reminder that when a Jesus follower talks about love, what a Jesus follower should mean when we talk about love or when we think about love is quite different from how people in the culture usually mean it. So one of the points of this chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, again, that’s so familiar to so many, is that it’s a really dangerous thing for people to just define love in their own terms, right?
Everybody, like, what is love? Well, love to me is this. And it’s dangerous when we take something that’s so important and we just come up with our own definitions and we don’t have agreement around it. It’s also a dangerous thing for us as people who are called to become more complete in Christ, more mature, conformed into the likeness of Jesus, to continue then to talk like a child and to think like a child and to reason like a child when it comes to love. That’s not what God wants.
He doesn’t want us to have childish understanding of love. For the well-being of ourselves, for the well-being of our marriages, our families, our our relationships. This chapter is calling us to put childish thinking behind us. And we need instead an accurate measure of what love does and does not look like, what measure of love is and love is not. That’s what chapter 13 is trying to show us.
So, we’re going to look first here at what this passage has to say about the value of love, the value of love. That’s in verses 1 through 3. These verses, as well as the chapter that came right before it, chapter 12, and then the chapter that comes after it, chapter 14— those 3 chapters, 12, 13, 14 of 1 Corinthians, give us a pretty clear picture of the Corinthian church. These were very gifted people. These were intelligent and articulate people.
They were— some of them could speak eloquently. Some of them had gifts gifts of insight. Some of them were visionaries. They had faith to move mountains. Some of them had miraculous spiritual gifts.
Some of them had revelations from God. It sounds like some of them even had the ability to have gifts of healing. But when you get to verse 4 of chapter 13, you get an entirely different picture of the Corinthians. Yes, they may have been one of the most gifted churches But they were also arguably the most dysfunctional and troubled church, meaning the place where the most miracles and the most visions were and spiritual gifts were being used is also the place where there was the most jealousy, the most division, the most pride. So, Paul says this in verses 1 through 3, look, nothing else that you or I do counts without love.
Love? Nothing. Maybe you’re a gifted communicator. Maybe you’re a gifted teacher. Maybe you’ve got great faith.
Maybe you’ve got some other type of a spiritual gift, and as a result, people look at you and think, wow, you’re really serious about your commitment to God. But Paul says none of that really matters if you don’t also have love. If you were the most articulate person in the world, but you don’t have love, you were just a continually barking dog. You know dogs like that that just bark for no apparent reason? Early on in our marriage, Shannon and I had our bedroom where our window that was right next to where I slept was next door to a dog that barked routinely all night long for no apparent reason, and it kept me up all the time.
There were a couple times I went over and knocked on the neighbor’s door at 2 or 3 in the morning, nobody would ever answer. Paul says if you don’t have love, you’re like that dog. Paul says without love, you’re just a clanging cymbal. Have you ever been to a cymbal concert? Any of you going to a Christmas cymbal concert?
Not sure many of us would ever be able to endure that. The point Paul is trying to make is that if you may be a gifted speaker, but without love, your words are just noise. Love, he says, is a much better indication of what God is doing in your heart than any giftedness that you may have. Love is more valuable than beautiful speech. And then he talks about knowledge.
I mean, there’s some really brilliant people here in the church, in this building today. People who are knowledgeable and creative about things that improve people’s lives. People who are well-read. Many of you are well-traveled, knowledgeable about the world, world. You have many degrees.
People who are knowledgeable about the Bible, people who are knowledgeable about theology. You can persuasively articulate why you believe what you believe. But once again, Paul says, as great as those things are, they’re actually worthless. Worthless without love. You understand that?
Worthless. You may be bursting with knowledge, but your knowledge means nothing before God if you don’t have love, or if you use your knowledge, as many of us do, to look down on others. Just look at the Pharisees, people in Jesus’ day who were part of the religious establishment. They were brilliant theologians. They, they knew the law.
They knew the scriptures backwards and forwards, inside and out. But where was their love for God? Where was their love for other people? Love, the kind of love being described here in this chapter, is more valuable than having the most brilliant mind. I’m not sure that we really believe that, but that’s what this chapter is trying to tell us.
And then Paul talks about sacrifice and spiritual commitment. Giving away all you possess to the poor, that sure sounds loving, and it is. And so people think, okay, well then Paul must be talking there about motives? Motives do matter, they do, but that’s not exactly what he’s talking about in verse 3. What he’s saying is that sacrificing for others still counts for nothing if you don’t have love.
If you were irritable, if you were unkind, if you’re a jerk to others, you can do all of these good deeds, make as many sacrifices as possible, and still not be a loving person. Even the greatest sacrifice, giving up your life for God, is worthless without love. Love is more valuable than bold spirituality. It’s more valuable than benevolent sacrifice. So fill in the blanks with whatever else you want to put in there that represents godliness to you.
If I do this, if I have this, if I— just fill in the blanks. None of it matters without love. You get the picture. We should remember that this chapter comes smack dab in the middle of a larger conversation Paul has been having about spiritual gifts. He talked about it in chapter 12.
He’s going to talk about it in chapter 14. In this chapter, Paul is not depreciating the value of spiritual gifts. He’s not deprecating the importance of spiritual gifts. If you were a Jesus follower, follower, friends, and if you have placed your faith and trust in Jesus for your salvation, then you have the Holy Spirit living within you, and you have one or more spiritual gifts that need to be put into practice for the building up of the body of Christ. We have to put those things into practice.
But Paul’s point here is that you can have spiritual gifts in general, and you can even have miraculous gifts in particular, and yet not look very much like Jesus at all. It’s even possible to not be a Christian at all. Jesus says as much in Matthew 7. People who do all these wonderful things, sacrifice for God, they’re articulate, they serve other people, and yet they’re lacking in love. And at the end, they say, Lord, Lord, like, we knew you.
And Jesus says, actually, I never knew you. That’s a terrifying thought. There’s a real temptation here among Christians to say, but look at all the people that I’m helping. Look at all the good things I’m doing. Look at all the people that I’ve helped and say that I’ve helped them.
And yet Paul comes and says, if you think your gifts and your outward fruitfulness as a Christian can really tell you what is happening under the hood in your heart, you’re wrong.
I mean, do you realize how easy it is for us to get our identity from the good things that we do? How easy is that instead of getting our identity from Jesus? It is very easy. When you get your identity from the things that you do, you subtly begin to believe, God must love me because I’m good. I mean, look how committed I am.
But if you think that way, that is an indication that you need a supernaturally It’s an indication that you need to be reminded of the gospel, of God’s grace, of how God’s acceptance of you is not based on your performance, but on Jesus’ sacrifice and performance on your behalf. So again, it’s good to have spiritual gifts. It’s good to be talented. It’s good to be committed. It’s good to be busy and productive serving other people.
But Paul is saying, don’t mistake your brilliance, your gifts, your busyness for righteousness. A life that is pleasing to God. Those things are only pleasing to God when they’re done in the context of love. That’s the value of love. That’s the supremacy of love over all these other things.
But Paul doesn’t just intend to refer to love in an abstract way. He’s going to get really, really concrete starting in verse 4. He’s going to show us some of the virtues of love that many of you, again, I think could probably rehearse. Again, if you’ve been to weddings and you’ve heard this chapter. We’re gonna kind of break this down.
It’s describing love not in theoretical terms, not in philosophical terms, but in practical terms. Meaning, what does the kind of love that God produces within his people look like in action? These verses are gonna tell us. The problem is, is that the people in Corinth— and the reason why Paul was writing this letter in the first place was that there was an absence of this kind of love love described in these verses. We’ve already seen in 1 Corinthians that these people were being impatient with each other, unkind towards each other.
Even at the Lord’s Supper, as chapter 11 talks about, they were filled with envy towards one another. We’ve seen language of boasting in 1 Corinthians. We’ve seen people puffed up and proud in their own positions and knowledge, or boasting in different leaders, dividing into different They were taking each other to court, insisting on their own way, even though it caused other people to stumble. They were tolerating wrongdoing, and as a result, the church of Corinth looked a lot more like the surrounding culture than it did like Jesus. And I think the same thing can happen to us.
You know, when you think about how our culture today defines and experiences love, it’s primarily, it seems, about feeling and desire and affection. Affection, right? And of course, if someone does have desire and affection for you, you’re going to benefit from that. But that can’t be all that love is. It can’t only be about what that person does to bring satisfaction and meaning into your life.
It can’t only be about you. If it is, the odds are that’s not going to be a very mutually satisfying or fulfilling love, or the relationship’s just not going last very long. That’s a relationship that is not unlike a black hole. If you think about it, we are by and large relational black holes. A black hole sucks everything into itself, destroys whatever it sucks into its orbit like a big vacuum cleaner, so strong it can suck up everything, even light.
That’s kind of what a black hole is like. You scientists are like, that’s an awful description. I’m sorry, I’m not a scientist. I’m just doing the best I can But this black hole, it’s super heavy. It’s an invisible spot in space, pulls everything near it into its mouth.
If you get too close, you can’t escape, like when you step into really sticky mud. But the way of Jesus, the way of love as described here, is different. It’s a selfless, perpetually outward love that is others-focused in a way that is entirely contrary to this norm normal cultural understanding of what love is, and that’s the vision that Paul is giving us here in this chapter. Let’s start in verse 4. Love is patient.
That means that love is something that gives time to others, while the opposite of that, impatience, is the inability or the unwillingness to give time to people. Impatience is saying, I don’t have time for you, you’re taking too long. You’re taking too much of my time. I have a timeline for how I think things should go, and what you’re taking from me right now, what you’re asking from me, is not going to work. It’s not going to work for me.
So do you see how patience is focused on the other person, a willingness to give them what they require, whereas impatience, when you’re impatient, it’s more focused on you and your needs? In your timeline. Love is kind. The word that Paul uses here for kindness is a word that means sweetness or pleasantness. Love is sweet.
Love is pleasant. Kindness is about the kind of atmosphere that surrounds you. When someone encounters you, what do they feel? What do they experience? Do they sense a welcoming spirit from you?
Do they sense hospitality? Do they sense a spirit of accommodation? Do they sense that they matter to you? Love is kind. It’s about the mindset that says, I want to make this person encountering me, whether it’s for 30 seconds or 30 minutes, a pleasant experience for them.
That’s what love does. Paul then goes into 8 statements about what love is not. What love is not. Love is not envious or jealous. When something is going well for another person, love is, for the sake of the other person, able to say, that’s awesome.
I’m really, really happy for you. Love experiences joy at the good fortune that comes to other people. Why? Because they’re a human being and they matter. But the opposite response takes us back to the picture of the black hole in which everything is sucked into its own orbit.
Because all I’m thinking about when they talk about their good fortune is the lack of those things in my own life. It’s all about, well, how does that impact me? Again, this isn’t theory. This is real, is it not? Maybe you’ve felt something like this in the past week.
Maybe you felt something like this in the past day or maybe even in the past few hours. Love does not boast. Love does not boast or brag. Love is not proud or arrogant. Love does not dishonor others.
It is not rude. These sort of all kind of go together, I think. Bragging is, of course, about our words. People are constantly talking about themselves and their accomplishments. Why does a person ever do that?
It’s rooted in a couple of mindsets. One of those is one that Paul highlights here. Pride, arrogance. The particular word that Paul uses here for pride or boasting is a word that means puffed up. You think of a balloon that if you blow up, that’s the word using here that Paul uses here.
It’s being self-inflated. For Paul, for someone— or excuse me, for someone who constantly talks about themselves, what is the mindset there? What is it that motivates that kind of behavior? It is someone who is self-inflated, someone who genuinely thinks that they are better or more important than somebody else around them. And of course, that type of mindset will not only result in words but also in behavior, which is why Paul mentions rudeness or dishonoring others.
And so I’m not just going to talk about myself, but I’m not going to pay attention to what is going on with you, and I’m going to act in ways that violate your own dignity and your own significance. Why would a person do this? Because that’s what black holes do.
They have to draw attention to themselves. They have to make everything about themselves and therefore end up behaving in ways, even if they don’t consciously mean to do so, that actually wound others and make others feel less than. People inevitably get sucked into someone else’s dark universe. Love is not self-seeking. Paul’s obviously not talking about what you need to do in a particular moment of the day, like brushing your teeth versus having a conversation with someone.
What he’s talking about is prioritizing my interests, my agenda, my time, my to-do list so consistently over that of other people that it generates all these other casualties. Do you know this person? Maybe you’re this person.
Love is not easily angered. If you think about it, anger is a derivative emotion. It’s not so much a root issue, but it’s our emotional fight-or-flight mode that we get into whenever something even deeper, something we value or find significant, gets violated or threatened. And that’s when we tend to respond with anger. You actually find out what you really value by what it is that makes you or me angry.
Those things might actually be good things. They might. But our anger often doesn’t produce much good, does it? It typically produces a selfish type of agitation, the black hole. Love keeps no record of wrongs.
Boy, we could just camp here for a while, right? Love keeps no record of wrongs. When people do violate or threaten you or the root things that are core to who you are, you tend to not forget it. You remember the people who cross you. So Paul actually uses a word here in describing keeping no record of wrongs.
He uses an accounting term. It’s the idea of keeping some kind of a ledger or running tally of what the score is and how much that person still owes you. You before you can be on a level playing field with them again. Again, that’s black hole type of living where everybody else just gets sucked into my little world. Love does not delight in evil or wrongdoing, but instead love rejoices or celebrates with the truth.
It’s fairly easy for us, I think, to go, okay, I think I’m actually doing okay with this one. When someone is impatient or unrighteously angry with someone else, I’m not okay with that. I think that that’s wrong. And when someone gossips, especially if it’s another Christian, I don’t rejoice in that. I think that that is wrong.
But here’s the problem, if we were to be completely honest with each other: you and I choose these kinds of behaviors all the time. And clearly we like doing these things because we keep on doing them. What love does though is it names the hypocrisy that we all carry around within us, and it sees no pleasure or benefit from those ways of existing as a human, but can celebrate with the truth of who we are when that gets exposed, and then we in turn repent. It’s actually worth celebrating. It is.
When the spotlight gets shone on all of our flaws and we begin then to change as a result and become more like Jesus, that’s worth celebrating. Love laments the tragedy of the human condition, but it celebrates with that process of being exposed and of the truth. Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres, meaning love is a stable support to people around us. Rather than writing people off, love believes that Jesus can actually do something in the life of that person. Love will always hope for the best of this person, even if that person hurts you.
Love tries to empathize, to feel what the other person might be feeling. Love thinks about, well, I wonder what they experienced that makes the behavior that they did to me seem a bit less by comparison. Love says from a heart of humility, a genuine heart of humility, I hope that they know how much Jesus loves I hope that they can find a better way forward. That’s not self-righteous if you come at it from a place of humility and genuinely are praying for them and desiring to see that in their lives. Love knows that in any healthy relationship, there’s going to be ups and downs, challenges, setbacks.
And so, love, when those times come, doesn’t give up on the other person. Love doesn’t walk away when those moments come. And finally, love never fails. As good and as necessary and as beneficial as spiritual gifts are, they’re only temporary, Paul says. They’re not going to be around forever.
In verse 8, Paul lists a set of 3 gifts that will not remain. Prophecies will eventually cease. The gift of tongues will eventually be silenced. The gift of knowledge will eventually cease. Eventually pass away.
The Corinthians had been priding themselves on the fact that they had these attention-getting spiritual gifts, and they felt puffed up about it. So Paul’s just reminding them, actually, those things you’re taking pride in are only temporary. What will remain instead are faith, hope, and love, the foundational gifts that are far more important than spiritual gifts. And so these were meant to be emphasized— faith, hope, and Emphasized and desired and practiced far more than spiritual gifts. And so, these are just some— it’s not an exhaustive list— some of the virtues of love.
But where did Paul actually get this idea from of what love is? Where did he get his definition of love? And who can actually live like this? I think you already know the answer. It’s Jesus.
The only one whose life is the very definition of love. I mean, we wouldn’t even be talking about these things if Jesus had only said things like love your enemy. That’s actually how he lived. He didn’t just talk about it, he lived this way. He was constantly doing the things we just read about, constantly helping and serving the people around him in very tangible, practical ways, consistently moving toward the poor and the hurting people who couldn’t benefit him in return.
He loved the forgotten and the overlooked, the people who usually fall through the cracks or past our own vision. And yes, he also loved his enemies. Jesus embodies this chapter, every single one of the virtues we see here. And to that point, did you notice in these verses that Paul, when he’s talking about love, he doesn’t say that love consists of patience or that love consists of Paul doesn’t do that. He doesn’t say, if you want to be loving, then you’ve got to do these things.
Instead, he says, love is, meaning he personifies love. How can love be patient? How can love be kind? It’s an inanimate object. The only way it can do those things is if love is a person.
Why does Paul do this? Maybe it’s because we tend to read these verses like, okay, if I’m loving, then I need to do these things, and then if I don’t do these things, do those things, then I am not loving. And that is one way for you and I to interpret this. But another way to look at it, a better way, is actually you need someone. We all need someone who will love us in the ways described in this chapter.
And where are we going to get that from? Are we going to get that from our family?
Are we going to get that from our marriage?
Can we get this kind of love from our friends? From our kids? That’s putting a lot of pressure on them. Getting this kind of love from our job? We need someone whose love will be patient, someone whose love will be kind, someone whose love is not easily angered, someone whose love will always protect.
Always hope, always persevere, someone whose love will never fail. Where in the world are we going to get that kind of love? Well, who could be more patient than the one who suffered for us so patiently? Who else could keep no record of wrongs better than the one who on the cross said, Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing.
Who else could always hope than the one who told the thief on the cross, crucified next to him, today you’ll be with me in paradise? Nobody else in the world can provide that kind of love or even say these kinds of things to you, to meet that kind of criteria. They can’t. Everyone else’s love will fail at some point, but Jesus’ love will never fail. Jesus’ love doesn’t, and that is the victory of love, the victory of love that is being pointed to in this chapter, the victory of love.
The cross, Jesus’ death, Jesus’ life, his death is the greatest act of love in the history of the world. Now, of course, the list of things here in this chapter are helpful. If you want to be a more loving person, Listen, it’s a great list to consider. By all means, aspire to it. But unless you have come to a place where you understand and accept what Jesus did for you and the depths of God’s love for you, you will inevitably struggle to do things in the world from a place of love.
You’ll instead be doing the kinds of things in this chapter in your own strength and in an to try to earn your acceptance from people and ultimately to try to earn your acceptance from God. No, the way you and I become loving is not by trying harder. It’s not by looking at a list. Nobody ever becomes more loving by looking at a list. We learn to love by encountering love, do we not?
Our capacity to love in the ways described in this chapter is directly proportional to the degree that you and I I have been loved by God, and then we’ve experienced that. We’ve received his love.
Jesus is the one you and I were made to be like and the one whom we fail to be like over and over, and that is the point. Jesus is able to be love. Jesus is love. He is able to look at the spotlight on all of my failures, all of my sins, and rather than that exposure driving me to denial or to become defensive or to despair, it actually leads to a place of gratitude. Why?
Because on the cross, Jesus allowed himself, he allowed himself to get sucked into the black hole and oblivion of my sin and your sin and our selfishness. Jesus allowed it to destroy him.
That is the victory of love. Our confession that God’s love for us in the person of Jesus is more powerful than our sin. Jesus’ love is more powerful than our selfishness. Jesus’ love is more powerful than our oblivion. And our hope and prayer is that he then turns us more and more into the likeness of the one who embodies this love, who incarnated this love.
Friends, as a means of response to this chapter, I don’t want this to remain theoretical, and so I’m gonna read back over some of the descriptions of love in this chapter.
And I’d ask that you would close your eyes and think about people in your life, your spouse, Your child, your parent, your roommates, someone you work with or by, someone you’re in school with, someone here at church, maybe the person sitting on your right or left, someone in your family, someone that you live next to. I just want you to picture that person with your eyes closed as I read through these things. I just want to let God bring one or two people to your mind, and I want I want you to picture them and for you to just hold that person, that relationship in your attention as I read through these things and in your prayers. So would you close your eyes as I read through this?
Picture this person. In the last 7 days, who did you lose your patience with?
Who were you unkind towards?
Whose good fortune were you just unable to celebrate, perhaps because you were being jealous and self-focused in that moment?
Who did you think that you’re better than?
Who did you talk about yourself with way too much last week?
Who did you treat rudely?
Whose priorities did you ignore so that then you could prioritize your own?
Who did you lose your temper with this past week?
Who are you bitter towards?
Who are you resentful towards?
Whose wrongs do you continue to hold against them?
Who have you given up believing in and hoping for?
Who were you not around for when they needed you?
Who did you fail?
Father, as we think about these Each of us can agree with Romans 3:23, we all sin and all fall short of the glory of God. We miss the mark.
But thank you for Jesus who embodied love and made it personal.
Thank you that more than us becoming the kinds of people who do these things, that you demonstrated your own love own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Jesus died for us.
Thank you that your grace is greater than our sin.
As you expose these things in our hearts, I pray that it would lead us to repentance. I pray it would lead us to confession. I pray, God, it would lead us to humility.
I pray that it would lead us to be conformed more into the likeness of Jesus.
Father, I pray that we would put aside childish thinking when it comes to love.
I pray that we would put aside black hole thinking about what— about what’s in it for me and about what I can get from other people.
And I pray instead, God, that you turn us to a place of seeing people as Jesus did, that we would take the initiative to love whether it’s deserved or not by the other person. I pray that you would transform our church, our relationships, our families.
Make us people who always hope and persevere and keep pursuing a relationship with you. Anyone here, God, today who does not know your love, I pray that today would be the day that they would receive your love. If that’s you, tell Jesus, come into my life. I want to receive your love today. Some of you struggle to understand what love is because of perhaps a lack of love growing up or in your own family of origin, and you need to know that God’s love is not like that.
Would you just tell God to come into your life, his love and his Son Jesus into your life? Father, thank you for your provision, continual patience with us. May you increase, may we decrease, and may your name be glorified. Thank you for Jesus. In his name we pray.
Amen.
