Seeing and Savoring Love Through God’s Eyes
1 Corinthians 12.31-13.13; Psalm 33.2-5, 12, 22; Luke 7.31-35
1 Corinthians 13 is a favorite passage to be read at weddings. Christians and non-Christians alike know this as the “love” chapter. Yet at weddings we speak of romantic love; we speak of the love between a man and a woman. I don’t doubt that love is powerful (I, in fact, love my wife very much), however I’m not convinced that this is the best understanding for us to have of this chapter. Rather, I think we are better off to read 1 Corinthians 13 with an eye towards the perfect example of love we see in Scripture, namely the love the Father showed by sending his Son to be a sacrifice for our sins (see 1 John 4.10). With that in mind, reflect on 1 Corinthians 13:
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not 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 have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
It is always dangerous to have a man-centered perspective on Scripture. If we define love like television sitcoms and try to import that to the Bible, we will be left sadly disappointed in what we find. The thoughts will be idealistic and largely unattainable. However if we consume Scripture the way God would have for us to do–with our hearts set on the cross and directed towards his glory–we will see as God sees, and our dim mirror vision can become clearer. Yes, there is nothing greater than love–that love which gives freely of oneself so that others may come to a knowledge of God. Amen.