Isn't it strange that the passage of scripture most often read at weddings was originally written to bring people to an acknowledgment of sin, confession and repentance? The "love chapter" was not written for self improvement but self exposure! When we recognize how far we are from the ideal of true love we need to turn to God in confession and repentance. We can freely confess our sins because of our understanding of God's love for us as seen in the cross of Christ. We need have NO FEAR in freely and openly acknowledging our shortcomings. By doing so we die to ourselves so that through Christ's resurrection from the dead we might have his life in us. The cross is the greatest demonstration of God's love for us. As we come to understand God's love more and more we are changed to be like him. As John wrote, "We love because he first loved us."
3 comments:
This makes me think of Ecclesiastes and how the writer talks about how everything will be gone. Everything but love. Also this sermon makes me question Job and his request for wisdom. I think maybe a request for love might have been better. However, maybe a love-wisdom combination suited Job for his job here on earth. The ranking system for love, faith, hope, and etc gifts is interesting. The active vs. inactive demonstrations of love Paul writes about are good points to remember whenever having any oppurtunity to love someone else. I'm glad we have direction in order to know what to ask and strive for as well as what gifts we can see in others. I appreciated the respect demonstated in the sermon for 1 Cor., 13. The chapter really cannot be articulated better than what is written.
You set before us a good challenge. Today, I was looking at our daily scripture calender (in Italian) and these is what it said:
Se non ho amore, non sono nulla. 1 Corinzi 13:2
Interesting, huh?
I think you did a good job of helping us to seek the chapter in context. I think that because of chapter divisions we tend to think that chapter 13 is a new, different thought. But it is fluid, running in and out of the arguments that Paul has been making throughout the letter.
We actually discussed this some in class on Sunday morning. We were exploring the Love-Forgiveness correlation in Luke 7. (I am greatly enjoying teaching that class! Although sometime I get to preaching...)
Grazia e Pace!
JP
I really enjoyed this sermon for two reasons. First of all you mentioned cymbals which immediately captured my attention for the whole sermon! ;)
On a more serious note, your comments shed a new light on a passage that is so widely known that even non-Christians can quote it. Thank you for your insight.
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