God’s Love: AGAPE
(Life after Pentecost XII)
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
After discussing Spiritual
gifts last week, we move on to the core chapter of I Corinthians, the chapter
about God’s Love: Agape.
Last week I stressed how
important spiritual gifts are for the church. How important is for those
gifts to be put into action and use. We stressed the role of the Holy Spirit as
giver of these gifts.
This week, as we look into
chapter 13, we find out that Paul is proceeding with a very important topic: LOVE. A word that is used so much in life. A word that is so misused in life. One can find more poetry, more songs, and more
artwork about love than any other topic.
Let us make clear what are we
talking about; we are talking about God’s love. In Greek, the word is Agape, the
highest form of love. This is the
reality: God places His love in our
hearts through the person of Jesus Christ. God, in fact, demonstrates His love for us
through Jesus Christ.
Paul makes this very clear. Agape is a not a feeling; it is personal
choice. You choose to love. It is a personal decision to allow God’s love
to work in you and through you.
Last week we spoke about gifts
that are given by the Spirit of the Lord. Having gifts is good. But having gifts without love is meaningless.
Paul starts the chapter of
love by mentioning several spiritual gifts (1-30). He starts with the gift of speaking in tongues.
Some have it and use it. It is one of
the sign gifts. One has to be
careful about it, though. Paul mentions
in chapter 14 that this gift needs interpretation. More than that, all gifts need love. Without love, this gift makes very disturbing
sounds. In the
The next gifts Paul mentions
are the “speaking gifts” like prophecy. It can be the gift of preaching.
It is the gift of declaration. An important gift that I often
use. Without love what kind of
preaching can it be? Next is the gift of
intellectual knowledge, a great gift for guidance in the church. Without love, the ones who have this gift will
become proud, arrogant Christians. How
about the gift of faith? Faith can move mountains. Faith is essential in our belief. But without love we are nothing.
Paul jumps to serving
gifts, giving to the poor, the gift of
giving. It is a great gift to have and
to use. Yet, sometimes we give and we
give moral lectures to the needy. Listen
carefully, giving without God’s love is in vain; it means nothing. Paul mentions one more gift: the gift of martyrdom, like Shadrach
Meshach and Abed-nego who were thrown in the flames
(Daniel 3). It is about a gift of faith;
it is about a faith that makes you ready to become a martyr in the Roman arenas
and the like. Yet without love, you are
nothing. I remember Stephen’s martyrdom
in Acts. When he was stoned, instead of
cursing, he prayed that God would forgive those people because they didn’t know
what they were doing.
Listen carefully. God is LOVE. “Whoever does not love does not know God,
because God is love” (1 John 4:8). Without a GENUINE RELATIONSHIP with God
all of our gifts, all of our ministries, all of our “church” existence is meaningless. Last
week I stressed not the gifts but the GIVER of the gifts. And I tried to explain that the body has all
kinds of gifts, yet they serve the same body, one body. That body, the gifted body needs lubrication
so that the different parts can function.
I call it God’s love, AGAPE.
We will continue in English.