Several years ago, a pop singer named Tina Turner had a hit song titled, “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” In the refrain of this song she sings, “What’s love got to do with it? What’s love but a secondhand emotion?” Is love, true love, the love that Jesus talks about throughout the Gospels, only a second-hand emotion? Is that really what God intends it to be for us? Is it even an emotion at all?
In the Apostle Paul’s first epistle to the church at Corinth, chapter 13, verses 1 through 13, Paul gives them and us a tremendous word picture of what God means by “love” and as we study these passages, they seem to be a hard lessons indeed. Especially when we come to verses 4 through 8. In these verses Paul says, “Love is patient, love is kind.” Have you ever lost your patience with, or been unkind to your wife, your husband, your child, your father, your mother, your sister, your brother, or your friend? I know I have.
Paul also says about love that, “It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.” Have you ever been envious of someone you love. Have you ever let your pride get in the way of your relationship with that person? I know I have. Paul continues, “Love is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.” Have you ever been rude to someone you love? Or been so self-centered that you didn’t even ask what they may be feeling, or what they might want or need? Again, I know that I have.
How about this one? Have you ever gotten into an argument with a loved one and brought out your checklist of everything the other person has done in the last 2, 5, 10 years, that you feel were wrong, and then thrown these things right back in their face, just to hurt them?
Paul continues by saying that love always, not sometimes, but always protects, trusts, hopes and perseveres. Yet today, among professing Christians, the divorce rate is well over 50 percent, just about the same as that of non-Christians, if not a little bit higher! Why do we fall so short of Paul’s description of what Christian love should be like? Because we are imperfect beings. Thus we demonstrate imperfect love. But…
That “hope” is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who IS a perfect being. Through Him, we can experience and know perfect love!
First, let’s take a look at how we as human beings interpret the word “love”. We must, from the beginning, acknowledge that at best we are poor at expressing love. So much so that in February of each year we spend countless millions of dollars at greeting card stores trying to find the best way to say the three words, “I love you.” But we have a problem, because our English language uses one word, “love”, for many different situations. This by necessity gives that one word a myriad of different meanings. For example, we say, “I love my car, house, boat, job.” “I love my cat, dog, horse, goldfish.” “I love my country.” “I love my friend Tom, Bill, Ann, Sue.” “I love my Mom, Dad, Grandparents, Aunt, Uncle.” “I love my sister, brother.” “I love my wife, husband.” “I love my children.” “I love God.” In each of these situations the word “love” means something different. We have referred to love in songs ranging from “Love Is A Many Splendored Thing” to “All You Need Is Love” to “Love Hurts” and so many more songs that Paul McCartney actually wrote a song titled, “Just Another Silly Love Song”.
Human beings have done everything in the “name of love” from, sadly enough, killing someone because, “I love him/her so much that I just could not bear to see them with someone else” to, as a man said several years ago when asked why he murdered his two children, “ I love them so much that I just couldn’t stand to let them live in such a cruel world.” Yet, because of their love for others, servicemen have been killed in battle saving friends by falling on hand grenades. Firefighters and police officers have died in the line of duty helping others, like those at the World Trade Center disaster in September 2001.
What great rewards there are in heaven for people such as these, for their acts represent the greatest expression of love possible, the giving of the ultimate sacrifice, the giving of one’s life for the love of God, country, family and people in need of help. For Jesus says in John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
But what about God? What’s love got to do with Him? It is God’s love that Paul is speaking of in 1 Corinthians 13. Let’s go back and reread them. Only this time, let’s insert God where the word “love” appears.
Verse 4: God is patient. God is kind. God does not envy, God does not boast, God is not proud.
Verse 5: God is not rude, God is not self-seeking, God is not easily angered (praise the Lord for this one or our country and mankind as a whole would have already suffered a fate such as those in Noah’s time, or worse, if God was not long-suffering). God does not keep a record of wrongs. (He has promised that by accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, our slates are wiped clean.)
Verse 6: God does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.
Verse 7: God always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Verse 8: God never fails.
How great is God’s love for us? All one has to do to find out is read John 3:16, where we are told; “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes on Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
How much does Jesus love each one of us? SPREAD YOUR ARMS WIDE! This much! Friends, it just completely blows my mind every time I think about how Jesus Christ, the Son of God and God the Son, willingly left all His glory in Heaven, came to Earth as a baby, lived here as a man and suffered the shame and unfathomable pain and agony of being nailed to a cross for me, and for you, and for everyone everywhere throughout time. He did not have to do it, but when the Father said, “Son, I need you to do this or we have lost mankind forever; do you love them enough to do this?” Jesus answered, “Yes, Father, I will go and do what must be done!” That is what love has to do with it. People, this is the perfect love that Paul is speaking of.
How does God want us to act with respect to love? Let’s see what He says:
Yet God tells us that true love is not a feeling; it is a choice. Through Jesus Christ, who lives in us once we have accepted Him as our Savior and Lord, we can choose to love one another regardless of how we “feel” about the other person. Regardless of how we “feel” about their clothes, their hairstyle, their music or even the things they do, or people they hang out with. Jesus enables us to love the down and out, the homeless, the drug addict, the alcoholic, the divorcee, the convict and yes, even our enemies. This love, if we allow ourselves to choose it, can and will help us to lead a host of lost people back into the kingdom of God. And, oh what a changed world this would be if we would just grasp the understanding of this teaching of Jesus.
Do we fully understand all of this? No, for Paul says in verse 12, “Now we see but a poor 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.” We need to understand that a mirror in those days was not like ours today. Theirs were made of brass or copper or bronze, so their reflection was a blurry, fuzzy image. Paul is saying that our understanding now may be fuzzy and a little out of focus, but all things will be made crystal clear when we go to be with God the Father and Jesus.
A farmer was sitting on his front porch one summer evening when a newspaper boy came to deliver his paper. The boy saw a sign on the porch which read, “Puppies For Sale”. The boy got off his bike and asked the farmer, “How much do you want for the puppies, mister?” “$25 each, son.” The boy’s face dropped. “Well sir, can I at least see them?” The farmer whistled and in a moment the mother dog came bounding around a corner of the house with four cute puppies right behind her, wagging their tails and yipping happily. Then, at last, another puppy came straggling around the corner dragging one leg behind him.
“What’s the matter with that puppy, sir?” the boy asked. “Well son, that puppy is crippled. We took him to the vet and had X-rays taken. He doesn’t have a hip joint and that leg will never be right.” To the farmer’s amazement, the boy dropped his bike, reached into his collection bag and took out 50 cents. “Please mister, I want to buy that puppy. I’ll pay you 50 cents a week until the $25 is paid off. Honest I will, mister.” “But son, you don’t seem to understand. That leg will never get better. This puppy will never be able to run or jump. He will be crippled forever. Why would you want such a worthless puppy?” The boy reached down and pulled up his pants leg, revealing a brace holding a small, twisted, leg. “Mister,” the boy said, “that puppy is going to need someone who understands him to help him through life!”
There is no greater example of an underdog than we are as sinners who have been crippled in our souls. We were cut off from God, unable to help ourselves. Jesus came for us. He understands our condition. By Him showing us the totally undeserved, unbounded love for us that He expressed through His birth, death and resurrection, we have help in this life, and hope for the life to come.
That is the message that we Christians must impart to others. We need to ask them, “Have you experienced this, the greatest love of all?” We need to ask them, “If you have not accepted this gift from God Almighty, won’t you do it today?” We need to tell them, “Just ask Jesus to come into your life with His love and understanding. It doesn’t matter what condition you are in. You do not have to be ‘good enough’ or ‘smart enough.’ There are no conditions you must meet, except that you truly wish Him to be your Savior and Lord. He will come to you.
Well, for now, I believe we just have to listen to what Paul says in verse 13. He tells the Corinthians and we who live today, “And now these three remain, Faith, Hope, and Love. But the greatest of these is Love.” AMEN