The Greatest Of All These :: 1 Corinthians 13

Let us pray: Heavenly Father, we love because you loved us first. Grant us your faith in Christ, a cheerful hope in your mercy, and a sincere love for you and one another, in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. 

We read: But the greatest of these is love (v. 13b). This is the word for our meditation.

1.

Our text this morning is a familiar verse to many people, including many who have no real connection to Christianity. This is from the “love chapter” of the Bible. Whenever you want to understand what love looks like, this is the chapter we all default to. When I was a child, this is the first extended passage I ever memorized. But I thought like a child then, and didn't understand it. So today I will read to you from the PSV ... the Pastor Smith Version. Here, we will hear the greatest of these. 

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have ἀγάπη, I am a noisy brass or clanging cymbal. And if I have prophecy and I know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to move a mountain, but I do not have ἀγάπη, I am nothing. And if I feed all of those coming under me, and if I hand over my body in order to be burned, but I do not have ἀγάπη, I benefit nothing. 

ἀγάπη is long-suffering. ἀγάπη is kind. It’s not zealous. It doesn’t boast in itself. It’s not arrogant. It doesn’t act indecently. It doesn’t seek itself. It isn’t irritating. It isn’t regarded as evil. It doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but it rejoices with the truth. It endures all things. It has faith in all things. It hopes in all things. It perseveres in everything. 

ἀγάπη never falls. ... It is the greatest of these.

2.

You see, our text is all about ἀγάπη ... the greatest of all types of love. Many will try to translate that word simply as love. But that is too inadequate. It is the greatest of all these. 

When this passage was written, there were three Greek expressions for love. There was passionate love that desires itself ... the love called eros, named for a Greek god. Eros was a passionate or intoxicating kind of love. A second kind of love was φιλία ... you know like Philadelphia, a word that literally means, the love of brothers. 

That said, Paul doesn’t speak of either of these kinds of love in our passage today. Paul is focused on ἀγάπη ... the greatest of all these. This is perfect love. It is divine love. It is God’s love. It isn’t just any kind of love, as so many other English translations suggest. ἀγάπη isn’t just about the love you have for your brothers and sisters, mother, father, son, or daughter. It isn’t simply the love you developed over the course of life with your spouse ... (How many of you have been married for 60 years?) ... It isn’t an intoxicating love that attracted you to your spouse either. Today, Saint Paul is describing the love of God in Christ Jesus.

God is love (1 Jn 4:16). That is, God is ἀγάπη ... embodied in our Lord Jesus. Jesus is the only one who truly loves: He is the one who laid down his life for the world (Rm 8:38-39). This is the love we call ἀγάπη. 

CHRIST DELIVERS THE GREATEST OF ALL THESE

This is our theme. 

3.

The first thing our text reveals is that I am the least of all these. Without ἀγάπη ... God’s love ... divine love ... I would be nothing but a loud know-it-all who thinks he can earn his way into heaven ... that I can stop sinning. There are too many people in our world who think just like that. But you need to know, your work doesn’t count for anything. Your efforts are meaningless. It is only by the ἀγάπη of God in Christ that we are saved (Gal 5:6). I can talk about faith and hope, but without ἀγάπη, the words I am speaking today are meaningless. 

ἀγάπη is the greatest of these.

But surely God will see how much I love, we tell ourselves. Surely, there is something I can do that counts ... somehow ... some way ... for something, right? 

Wrong. 

Surely, I can soften my heart, we tell ourselves. Surely, I can prepare myself for the Lord’s supper. Surely, I will never forget what God’s means of grace do for me. Surely, I can show the world I am a Christian by the way I love you. 

All wrong.

Don’t you see how generous I am to this community called Appleton City ... this community of churchgoers. Don’t you see how hard I work every day? Don’t you see how righteous I am becoming? Don’t you see my faith and hope for better days? Don’t you see me attending 99 out of 100 services? Don’t you see how much I love the people around me? 

4.

Paul says that without ἀγάπη, none of it matters. In his first epistle to the church in Corinth,  Paul addressed a congregation with many problems ... problems with their worship life ... problems with their pride and the way they helped their community. They had problems understanding spiritual gifts. So today, Paul cut to the chase. 

We are nothing without ἀγάπη.

Sometimes people make their lives look very sacrificial, but they are more likely the products of pride in themselves rather than faith, hope, and the love of God in Christ ... the greatest of all these. People love material things because of their value. But if we are honest with ourselves, we’ll recognize that our motives are selfish. 

God’s love ... that is, ἀγάπη ... it never falls ... it never fails ... it always overcomes. Greater love has no one than this love ... ἀγάπη (Jn 15:13), This love is long-suffering ... and kind. Our love always ends us being self-serving, rather than giving. 

God’s ἀγάπη is always active and enduring. It always achieves its purposes. It is filled with grace, grace that gushes forth ... feeding, watering, nourishing, refreshing all of creation. 

Our love tends to grow cold quickly. ... God’s love doesn’t resent. It gives and gives and gives and gives and gives until the needs it has come to meet have been met. 

5.

God’s love is the greatest of these.

There was nothing for God to gain in sending his only begotten son into the flesh, to start life as a babe without a home. There was nothing for God to gain in doing what we refuse to do ... love with a love that is so deep it hurts ... to love with a love so deep that we keep our mouths shut, even when others are slandering us ... to love with a love so deep that we stop wagging our tongues about this person or that person ... to love with a love so deep that we aren’t resentful of others ... that we stop holding grudges ... that we stop cutting others down to build others up. 

We had nothing to offer God in exchange for his ἀγάπη. He gave us the greatest of these ... doing what we would never do ... could never do ... living without sin for us, being nearly whipped to death for the sins we didn’t commit ... being nailed to a cross, suffering there, and dying there, being forsaken by the father for you. While we were still sinners, Christ Jesus died for you. While we were dead in our trespasses and sins, God made us alive with Christ. This is God’s ἀγάπη. This is the greatest of all these. 

Like the blind man, you can have faith and hope in Jesus now, because of what Jesus has done, but Jesus is the embodiment of ἀγάπη. He is the love of God. That’s why he is the greatest of all these. Faith by itself won’t save you. Neither will hope. But the greatest of all these can ... and did ... Jesus lived for you, died for you, rose from the dead for you, and ascended into the heavens for you to prepare a place for you.

6.

He became the GOAT of God ... The greatest of all these.

Now you understand what the prophet Isaiah was saying. Behold, your God has come to you with vengeance, with the recompense of God (Isa 35:4) ... He loved you in this way: He gave his only son that whoever has faith in him should not perish but have eternal life (Jn 3:16). 

Faith by itself won’t save you. Neither will hope. But the greatest of these has. 

He has sealed us with his name in baptism, making you one of his beloved. He has given you a new heart that loves in baptism. He nourishes that heart with the love of God in Christ, who offers his very body and his very blood in his feast of forgiveness that has no end. We will never hunger or thirst thanks to the love of Christ. He opens our eyes to the Gospel. He enables us to hear his absolution. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, receive these gifts as often as you can, whenever you can. God manifests his love in us through these means of grace, strengthening our faith, hope, and love for Christ Jesus, our Lord, who is the Greatest Of All These. 

In his name. Amen.