Love is…
Through the years in our popular culture, many love songs have been written and a slice of the genre of love songs deals with the lament over the lack or absence of love in a romantic relationship. Whether as boyfriend and girlfriend or as husband and wife, the hope of a loving relationship has at one point or another faded for most people at some point in their lives because the ingredient of love proved to be missing. One of the isms common in relationships today is “Let’s keep it simple” which is really a euphemism for a relationship narrowed to matters of intimacy and fun while stripping away the commitment, sacrifice, and care that love brings into a relationship. Truth be told, for those who determine to “keep it simple,” the absence of love proves to either be a great lament in their lives or they become numb to the need for love. Either way, without love, relationships prove to be nothing more than superficial trappings of a life devoid of the richness of what life could be with genuine love in it. 1st Corinthians 13 is often referred to as “The love chapter” and “love” is clearly the focus of the text. From it, we learn a lot about what “love is” from God’s perspective but just as we often take verses and short passages out of context, 1st Corinthians 13 is an example of how we can and do take an entire chapter out of context. Remember, Paul is still addressing a concern over the Corinthians’ exercise of certain spiritual gifts and the Corinthian tendency to make anything they have – to include spiritual gifts – a matter of boasting about themselves. So, although we learn much about love from “The love chapter,” what Paul wanted the Corinthians (and us) to learn is that without love for others as the all-consuming reason for serving as God has gifted and called you, all that you do in serving amounts to nothing. Just as romance without genuine love is a hollow thing, so it is also when the exercise of God’s gifts and calling in your life is driven by self-interested pride rather than the love of Christ in you. “Love is” the essential ingredient in any faithful service to the Lord.
We invite you to come join us this Sunday morning for our in-person worship service at Leptondale Bible Church in Newburgh, starting at 10:55 AM. For those unable to attend, our service can be viewed live on the church’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/leptondalebiblechurch. This Sunday, we’ll continue a sermon series from 1st Corinthians titled “Written for Our Instruction” with a message from 1st Corinthians 12:27 – 13:13 titled “Love is...”
God bless!
Pastor Mike