Preached January 31, 2010
from 1 Corinthians 12:27 - 13:13
At the time Paul wrote this, the church in Corinth was a very vibrant church. It was also very blessed. They were in good financial shape. They were growing. The Holy Spirit had blessed the members with an amazing array of spiritual gifts. Although the Christian faith was out of the mainstream, the people were not being overtly persecuted, or even openly opposed. Yet, the church of Corinth was in trouble. Members were quarreling. Factions were forming. Services were sometimes disruptive with so many people wanting to share their spiritual insights and discoveries that people interrupted others.
The imagery of a body with people as individual members of it would have been something that the Corinthians were familiar with. In the Greek and Roman culture of the day, the image was often used to keep various social classes in their place. People believed that the highest social class represented the head, the ones in charge; the lower classes needed to maintain their assigned roles and positions in order for the body to function. Some members of the congregation in Corinth were applying this same kind of hierarchy to the roles in the church. They believed that the possession of certain gifts made them more important than other church members. Others then were, perhaps jealous and tried to "develop" the various gifts, or at least prayed constantly for them, not for the good of the church, but for the honor they felt others were receiving. In our reading last week, we saw how Paul took this culture based image of the social body, and turned it around, explaining how there was no hierarchy in Christ's body. He told the people that some of the "less honorable" members were actually the most vital for the life of the church. Christ's body gave equal honor to all.
In today's reading, Paul tells us that, if there is any hierarchy at all, it is not in the honor that possessors of particular gifts should receive, but in the usefulness of the gift for the health of the church. And, in fact, Paul tells them (and us) that NONE of the gifts matter without love. Paul says, "You want the better gifts?" I'll show you the most excellent way."
The term "prophet" meant someone who spoke forth the word of God. The message from God could be about the future, or it could be an interpretation of scripture. The term prophet often meant the same as "preacher." If a preacher lacks love, if a person speaking in an unknown language lacks love, the person is just making annoying noise, like a gong without the ability to hear its own sound.
Someone working miracles or someone who was given the ability to heal others, if that person does it for fame, admiration, the glory, but is not doing it in love, it is ultimately useless.
We see this same idea in Matthew 7:22-23 where Jesus says:
Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'
No amount of giving or service to others, even martyrdom is useless if these things are done in an effort to impress others, rather than out of true love.
Even faith, even true trust in God without love is useless. How can that be? Isn't faith the thing that brings salvation? Yes, but true faith has love as a result. True faith causes love. Just believing that God exists; just believing about Christ, without trusting in Christ and following the way of love, just believing in our heads is not true faith. We are not called to believe about, but to trust in Christ.
Let's read what Paul says about love again.
Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes,
always perseveres.
Love lasts forever.
Faith, hope and love are what we need most in this life. Spiritual gifts are important for building the church, for building God's kingdom, so, yes, we should rejoice in them, but when we see Christ face to face, we won't need them anymore. Now, spiritually, we are like small children, and we do things like small children. But when we have completed this life of spiritual growth, we will do things differently. Now we can only see God and the things of God as a reflection, like in a fuzzy darkened mirror. We need help understanding God's word. But when we are completely with God, and God's kingdom is finally all in all, we will understand, and our understanding will continue forever.
When God's kingdom comes, we will no longer need to hope, our hopes will be fulfilled. And we won't even need faith anymore, because we will actually see and comprehend what we have been trusting in.
But love will last throughout all eternity. AMEN
