30th January 2022 (Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany)
Title: Unless Motivated by Love
(Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 1:4–10 & 1 Corinthians 13:1–13)
By Heeyoung Lim
According to Jeremiah 1:5, God had been at work in the life of Jeremiah before he was born. God formed him, knew him, set him apart, and appointed him to a particular service. God is involved in the forming and shaping of the people. God created Jeremiah to be a prophet or spokesman for Him.
However, Jeremiah protested that he was not able to speak, but he also felt that he was too young. He did not volunteer for God’s calling, but God refused to accept Jeremiah’s plea of inadequacy. He was almost drafted. God repeated his commission and command. Although Jeremiah feared persecution and ridicule throughout his career, he stayed true to his message, and trusted God’s promise. When God calls people, they often respond with excuses emphasizing their weaknesses rather than relying on His strength. One of main reasons people are slow to respond to God’s call is fear, but we can make a comparison of our inadequacies with God’s adequacy.
Both prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah received God’s divine touch, but God had a different purpose for each. God touched Isaiah’s mouth for cleansing. He was a man with a consciousness of unclean lips. God touched Jeremiah’s mouth for empowering. He was a person with a consciousness of inadequate lips. When God calls people to His service, He equips them for God’s work and the kingdom of God.
God called Jeremiah first to uproot and to destroy. Then, He called him also to build and to plant. Those who serve God sometimes must tear down what needs to be removed before they can build and plant the new. All work for the Lord consists of a twofold aspect of positive and negative. Those who declare God’s Word can expect opposition as Jesus experienced rejection.
God is aware of what is going on in His world and how people are responding to His message. He wants us not to do what is in opposition to God’s ways. May we consider our lives in light of God’s knowing and having a purpose for persons. God promises to be with His servants who obediently serve Him. May we rely on the Lord’s promise that He is with us.
In today’s text, Paul strongly insisted that wonderful gifts from the Spirit of God are without value unless they are accompanied with the greatest gift of love.
Paul compared love to the spiritual gifts the Corinthians valued highly. Even if people are speaking in tongues of angels, such an extraordinary gift would profit nothing without love. Without love it would be nothing, even if someone was supposed to have the gift of prophecy or knew every divine secret. Paul spoke of a special ability to trust and believe God to do great miracles and the gift of faith as the ability to move mountains. However, even this dramatic ability would amount to nothing without love for others. Even beneficial acts like giving whole possessions to the poor would profit someone nothing if a person did not do it out of love.
In Matthew 22, Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself.” Paul followed Jesus. It is no wonder Paul argued that without love for others all spiritual gifts are worthless.
Paul focused on love between brothers and sisters in Christ. What is love? Today’s text invites us to know and practice love. “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. It bears, believes, hopes, and endures all things.” These fourteen characteristics of love also apply to many other human relations.
It signifies forbearance, slowness to repay for offenses. God is patient because he does not immediately punish those who offend him. God’s patience slows down the judgment process and opens the way for reprieve from punishment altogether. Patience bears with an offense, but indifference ignores it altogether. Patience has a more temporal focus, while kindness refers to the way a person treats others.
In general, kindness is soft and gentle, but it is not weak. it sometimes takes the form of a strong way if there is a goal for bringing a good result, defending someone, and obeying God’s will. Jesus’ own life showed such a careful and powerful kindness, and Paul who followed Jesus demonstrated this as he dealt kindly, but firmly, with the Corinthians.
Love does not envy or boast. To envy is not to display the love of Christ, who gave up all for the sake of others. Love is not rude or self-seeking. Jesus showed the greatest expression of putting others’ benefit above His own through His life-giving sacrifice and humbleness. Love is not easily angered. Those who love others are slow to anger, but there are times when anger is appropriate. Jesus became angry when he saw people’s hardness of heart and the money changers in the temple (Mark 3 & John 2). Paul himself who followed Jesus became also angry when he saw the idols of Athens. (Acts 17) We should never allow ourselves to become indifferent to the suffering of others or to the honour of God.
Love keeps no record of wrongs. It does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. Love always protects, trusts, hopes, perseveres. Wisdom is required to know when and how to protect, and love always tends to protect. The New Testament encourages Christians to persevere in their Christian walks. Here Paul had in mind particularly the need to persevere in love for others. May we look to the length and perseverance of Christ’s love.
This chapter focuses on love and emphasizes the importance of the edification of others. Spiritual gifts and services do not benefit the believers and faith communities unless motivated by love. Love of others needs to be a higher standard than effective services or spiritual gifts. When Christ returns, everyone will see face to face. Everything of which the gifts now speak in part will then be revealed in full. When Christ returns, there will be no need for prophecy, tongues, or the limited knowledge the church gains in this world. Imperfect gifts of the Spirit will disappear when perfection comes. Spiritual gifts are temporary devices for serving and benefiting the Church until Christ returns, but love is eternal.
Paul spent much of his ministry emphasizing the importance of faith and hope, but he placed even more value on love in this context. To show the importance of Christian love, Paul included it alongside faith and hope. While faith, hope, and love stand above all spiritual gifts, the greatest of these is love.
Was there ever one who loved us so deeply as Jesus in our lives? May we have eyes to see that our life of love is to be our goal. I hope we can see that of all things we have in this life, the greatest of these is love. In this life, human beings are given the opportunity to grow in love, from childhood to adulthood and from immaturity to full spiritual maturity.
All of us have room to grow. The standard is set by God and made real in Christ, but these love and growth also exist in our faith communities.
Love never ends and builds up. May the love of Christ be our priority over other aspects of life in the Holy Spirit and our love for others be demonstrated in the way we treat them. May we await the realization of the blessings of the gospel and use spiritual gifts which are based on the love of Christ. I pray all our precious spiritual gifts and services will be motivated by the love of Christ.
Thanks be to God! Amen.
(Ref. Bible, commentaries, theological books, UCA materials)
