Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text for today’s meditation is 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:1

1 Corinthians 12:31 And I will show you a still more excellent way.

13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² 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. ³ If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. ⁴ Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶ it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. ⁸ Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. ¹¹ 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. ¹² 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. ¹³ So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Love; we have many definitions and uses for the word love.

(Show pictures)

We love our children

We love our parents

We love our friends

We love our passions like Jacque Cousteau loved the sea, music, cities, or our job

We love our first car and our favorite car

We fall in love

We show our love especially around Valentine’s Day and anniversaries (hint hint it’s just around the corner)

We love passionately

We fall out of love

And of course what list about love would be complete without The Love Bug.

As you can see the exact meaning of love can be a little confusing. Paul takes on the challenge of explaining and defining love to the Corinthian Christians. First he explains what love is not and then what love is. Let’s jump ahead to the part about what love is starting with verse 4. Love is patient and kind. Love is kindness, the practice of useful, beneficial, friendly acts and not so much a sweet disposition. Love is humble not jealous; it doesn’t brag or put on airs. Love sees the importance of everyone and their gifts instead of an inflated idea of their own importance as the Corinthians had. Love is Good manners, the good manners that are more than just etiquette. Love’s good manners are ways of showing respect for the feelings of others and not being rude or ill-mannered. Love always seeks the welfare of others instead of being self-seeking. Love is not easily angered or touchy. It doesn’t flare up every time our pride is hurt. Love forgives the wrongs of others. It doesn’t keep score of all the bad things people say or do so they can be repaid.

Love puts the best construction on everything allowing a person a new opportunity instead of bringing up past wrongs or decisions. Love rejoices in the truth instead of being glad when evil or injustice is done. Now comes the best part but unfortunately it sounds hopelessly blind and foolish; "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." Paul’s use of "all things" does not focus on the content of what is borne, believed, hoped, and endured, but on the limitless action of each of them. A better understanding is "Love supports without limits, trusts and is faithful without limits, hopes without limits, and never gives up. Most people read this and think love is blind but I contend that love is boundless and permanent.

Pause for a minute, what relationship are you thinking about as we talk about love? I imagine most of us are thinking about our relationship with our spouse after all this is probably the most widely used passage at weddings. I ask you to stop and apply this to all your relationships and all people. To your fellow members here at Trinity, your friends, relatives, the checkout clerks at Wal-Mart, the waitress at 50 Taters, the homeless person on the corner, the hungry person that asks for money for food. As Christians we are to love our neighbor as ourselves and this is what love looks like. I can’t create this love for you. I can’t force you to show it. No, it will happen when the Holy Spirit kills the old Adam and the new Adam, daily, rises to love God and love neighbor.

Take a look at the first three verses of our text. "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² 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. ³ If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." Basically, what this means is the Corinthian Christians were just going through the motions using their gifts for personal gain or status. Even if they offered themselves to be a martyr by being burned, without love, they gain nothing. Are you just going through the motions of using your gifts without love? Jesus did much more than go through the motions for you. He loves you! He loves so much He offered himself to be hung like a criminal; he gained everything for you. Through His awful painful death and glorious resurrection He took all your sin with him to the tomb and left it there. That is love that is boundless and permanent.

If love is boundless and permanent what does that make the rest of the gifts? Well, quite honestly the rest of the gifts have bounds and are temporary. You see, the other gifts have a limited use here on earth. We are in an imperfect state. The gifts of prophesy, knowledge, and tongues do not strengthen the body as much as love because they are partial, temporary, and incomplete in this present age. We, the church, know in part and prophesy in part because we are not yet perfect. When the perfect comes, the restoration of all creation on the last day, then the limits of our knowledge and prophesy become obvious. Then, and only then, we will know as we have been known. On that day knowledge will no longer be necessary; all that will remain is love; God’s love for us, and our love for his body, the baptized. Paul is calling the body of Christ to live as if the last day has already come. Because on the last day what you have done for yourself will not matter. So, why would it matter now? The knowledge you possess, no matter how impressive, is still only a thimbleful compared with what will be made known on the last day. But love is love! It will be shown fully on the last day, and unlike knowledge, and prophesying, it can be shown fully in the church today by you, the ones who live in Christ. There is a line from a song that goes like this, "the love you give comes from the love you receive." Jesus has given you the love. You are the body of Christ which means you are fully known. Love like you have been loved. The love you show brings a small piece of the future kingdom into the present, in Christ, who embodies love. Love as you have been loved "boundless and permanent". Amen.