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Epiphany 4 2025
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Hamilton, Ohio
Pastor Kevin Jud
February 2, 2025
Jer. 1:4-10, 1 Cor. 12:31b – 13:13, Luke 4:31-44
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itunes: bit.ly/pastorjud
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It feels like we just got the Christmas decorations down and packed away and wherever you go there are heart decorations. February is a month of generally dreary weather and a relatively obscure holiday right in the middle… on February 14. Valentine’s Day celebrates the sweetness of love. It is a day to give flowers and candy and sweet little notes. Kids in school exchange valentines with goofy messages. And there are those relatively tasteless little candy hearts with messages like, “be mine, hug me, you’re sweet, cutie pie,” and the like. It is a sweet little celebration of love in the middle of the dreary month of February.
Valentine’s Day is all about the sweetness of love. And today we get our epistle reading from 1 Corinthians 13; the love chapter. At first glance we can think that this chapter is another teaching about the sweetness of love. This is often chosen to be read at weddings because weddings are all about love. But what is this love that we talk about. What is love? People will say, I am, “in love.” People say, “I love cheeseburgers.” People say, “I love my mom, I love my kids, I love my spouse.” What is love? What does it mean to love someone?
There is romantic love. Google’s AI definition is not bad. "Romantic love" refers to a deep, passionate form of love characterized by intense emotions, physical attraction, a desire for intimacy, and a longing to be with a specific person, often associated with the pursuit of a long-term relationship and mate selection; it involves a combination of idealization and bonding with another individual.”
I worry that when we use the word “love” we too often are thinking only of romantic love. Romantic love is wonderful and powerful, but the love that you are called to as a follower of Jesus is so much more wonderful and powerful.
Even in marriage, romantic love is only one aspect of marital love. During the wedding ceremony the bride and groom pledge to take the other and, “to have and to hold, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish till death us do part.” There is so much more to marriage than romantic love, or the sentimental sweetness of candy hearts.
While it is often chosen for weddings, 1 Corinthians 13 is not about married love in particular. It is about the love you are to have for one another. Love in the body of believers is not about romantic love at all, but about a serving, selfless love. It is about loving others, even those you do not like.
The church in Corinth is troubled by division and sin and Paul is writing to implore them to be true followers of Jesus and to understand what is most important. What is most important for a church? Is it that the pastors are great orators; preaching prophetic sermons? Is it that the people can speak in many different languages of men and angels? Is it that the pastors and teachers are super knowledgeable and understanding? Is it that people have incredibly strong faith? Is it that the people give generously or are willing to die for the faith? All of these things are good and important, but what is the most important thing?
1 Corinthians 13:1–3 (ESV) 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.”
Love is more important to the church than all of those other things. Love comes from God. John 3:16 (ESV) 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” God loves you. You are called to love one another. The five word summary of all the Ten Commandments is, “Love God, love your neighbor.”
Love all people, and particularly love those around you. Of course that is the difficulty. C.S. Lewis once said, “It is easier to be enthusiastic about Humanity with a capital 'H' than it is to love individual men and women, especially those who are uninteresting, exasperating, depraved, or otherwise unattractive. Loving everybody in general may be an excuse for loving nobody in particular.” Wow. This is truly convicting. When you hear, “love your neighbor,” you can default to, “I love all people.” But what about that one person? The one annoying, rude, frustrating, problem person that you have to deal with? The one who is constantly pushing your buttons and making you angry? The one you think about all the time? That incredibly frustrating person for whom Jesus died? Do you love him? Do you pray for her?
What is love? St. Paul explains this in our reading today and it is an incredibly blunt, condemning teaching. Sometimes people will claim that the Bible is just an old book, 2,000 years out of date and does not have anything to say to us today. They are so wrong. Paul’s insights here into our natural inclinations are astounding.
1 Corinthians 13:4–6 (ESV) 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.”
Valentine’s Day love is all about the sweetness of love. Paul teaches us about selfless, serving love. It sounds terrible, but instead of the sweetness of love, here Paul teaches about the burden of love.
There is a great quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book, “Life Together.” “The brother is a burden to the Christian, precisely because he is a Christian. For the pagan the other person never becomes a burden at all. He simply sidesteps every burden that others may impose upon him.”
“The Christian, however, must bear the burden of a brother. He must suffer and endure the brother. It is only when he is a burden that another person is really a brother and not merely an object to be manipulated. The burden of men was so heavy for God Himself that He had to endure the Cross. God verily bore the burden of men in the body of Jesus Christ. But He bore them as a mother carries her child, as a shepherd enfolds the lost lamb that has been found. God took men upon Himself and they weighted Him to the ground, but God remained with them and they with God.”
Love is a burden, but what a wonderful burden. Jesus loves you, you love others and they love you. In marriage, both partners are called to love selflessly. In pre-marriage preparation I teach that if each person in a marriage is most concerned about the other person’s needs and desires then both will be fulfilled and find joy in the marriage. If either partner is most concerned about themselves it brings great trouble. As in marriage, this is also true for the gathering of the followers of Jesus. In the Church we are called to love others selflessly.
Love is patient. Love is patient even when the other person has once again gotten on your last nerve and does not deserve patience. Love is kind even when you want to settle the score. Love does not envy others’ abilities, or appearance, or possessions. Love does not boast about itself to others. Love does not one-up the other when they tell a story. Love is not arrogant or rude. Love humbly considers the needs of others and is not pushy or careless with others and their feelings.
Love does not insist on its own way. Ouch!! Why is St. Paul picking on me? What if my way is the best way? It doesn’t matter. In our life together as redeemed children of God we work together in love and seek to avoid stepping on people’s toes, we do not demand to do it my way. Life together in love can be messy and inefficient. Love is not irritable or resentful. It is so easy to default to living an irritated life being surrounded by others and their foolishness. It is natural to resent others’ presence. Love anyway. Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing. Love does not celebrate unrighteousness or delight in hearing about evil or perversion.
Love. You are called to love like Jesus. You are to love like Jesus not in order to earn forgiveness. You are to love like Jesus because you are already forgiven. You are loved by God through your Savior Jesus. You live in the love of Jesus and strive to love like Jesus.
You are loved by Jesus, but it is hard to feel the love of Jesus. Jesus can feel very far away. His love can seem cold and distant. You know the truth. “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so,” but you see in a mirror dimly and it is a struggle to feel Jesus’ love. It is a struggle to love like Jesus.
Your love for others flows from Jesus’ love for you even though you cannot clearly see Jesus’ love. Jesus’ love is an abundant, overflowing love that you are called to imitate. Love bears without limits, believes without limits, hopes without limits, endures without limits. This is an amazing love. This is Jesus love for you, and… 1 Corinthians 13:8 (ESV) 8 Love never ends...” Jesus’ love never ends. The things of this world will go away, but Jesus’ love is for eternity. “…As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.” Love never ends.
1 Corinthians 13:12 (ESV) 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.”
The day is coming when Jesus will return and take those living up into heaven and raise the dead and then you will live forever face to face with Jesus. Then you will know Jesus’ love fully, the love He fully has for you right now.
How frustrating that here in the love chapter you find condemning law, but you also find great hope because you learn the kind of love that Christ has for you, even while you struggle to love like him.
So, once again broken by God’s law, struggling to love like Jesus, repent of being loveless and selfish and come to the Lord ’s Table to receive His body and blood under the bread and wine, not directly seeing Jesus face-to-face, but looking into a mirror dimly. Come as sinners, unable to love like Christ loves. And in the Holy meal you are loved once again by the Lord Jesus. Leaving here go and love like Jesus. Love the one you don’t like. For…1 Corinthians 13:13 (ESV) 13 … now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” Amen.