A Portrait of Love
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” —1 Corinthians 13:13, NIV
Good afternoon,everyone. Happy Sabbath.
We use the word love so often that we can forget to ask what it really means.
But suppose, for one week, God removed the word love from our vocabulary.
We couldn't say, “I love you.”
We couldn't preach about love.
We couldn't sing about love.
We could only demonstrate it.
What would people see?
Patience when we're provoked?
Kindness when there's nothing to gain?
Forgiveness when we've been deeply hurt?
Grace when someone fails?
That's what makes 1 Corinthians 13 so challenging.
Paul wasn't writing to a perfect church. Corinth had spiritual gifts, strong opinions, divisions and wounded relationships. They were discovering that being spiritually gifted doesn't necessarily mean being spiritually mature.
So Paul gives them a portrait—not of spectacular Christianity, but of love in action.
Love is patient.
Love is kind.
Love doesn't boast.
Love isn't rude.
Love doesn't insist on its own way.
Love keeps no record of wrongs.
Paul doesn't tell us what love says.
He tells us what love does.
And perhaps this week, the portrait isn't simply something for us to admire.
Perhaps it is meant to look back at us.