Something hit me while I was preparing for small group a while back. It’s actually something I feel like God has been showing me for a long time, through various channels – but something about it became more clear and obvious to me just now. I had to write about it.
A while back, I remember pastor J.D. commenting on how 1 Corinthians 13 – yes, the infamous passage so often quoted at weddings – is often misunderstood. It was never meant to be a lovey-dovey greeting card stuck in the midst of other unrelated teachings. Its scope is so much bigger than just husband and wife – it’s about the entire body of Christ. It’s about the Church.
As you read through 1 Corinthians 12 (remember, context!) you see Paul explaining the idea of spiritual gifts and the Church as a body. In short, Paul says that though there are a variety of spiritual gifts, but only one source. That source is the Holy Spirit, who is in fact one with Jesus Christ and God the Father. Though some of these gifts seem more honorable or praiseworthy to us, God honors those “unpresentable parts” all the more, as they are indispensable. Why such a variety of gifts? Why some so much more desirable to us than others? Verse 24 says it was to create a unity in the body, not division. It’s not a bad thing to desire those “higher gifts” (v31), but there is something much more important… more on that in a second. But as members of one body, we rise and fall together. Together, we experience times of sorrow and times of joy.
For our small group, this is an encouragement. Even though I’m the one who leads the group, every member of our group has gifts that they can and should use in order to make our group successful in loving God, loving each other, and loving our world. Paul shows us in chapter 13 that this kind of love is so much more important that whatever gift we may have. I encourage you, if you haven’t already done so, read chapters 12 and 13 together now.
In chapter 13, Paul stresses the importance of love. He says that even if you’re the most gifted teacher, or the most faithful and self-sacrificing servant, that if you don’t have love, you have nothing at all. Remember, this is immediately following his not-so-subtle segue at the end of chapter 12. The love he describes in the following verses then should be taken as a high and lofty calling for the Church as a whole – not just husband and wife. I’m not saying that I shouldn’t strive to love my wife according to 1 Corinthians 13. On the contrary, my relationship with my wife should model this love to those around us – it should encourage our small group to love each other in this way. If our small group loves in this way, it will encourage our Church to do it.
But how is this possible? How can we love each other like this? It’s obviously not natural for me to treat everybody with this kind of love, and quite frankly I’m not convinced a lot of people have earned it. But this kind of love doesn’t come from us – it comes from God. In our deep, honest relationship with Christ, we learn that he first loved us in this way. He proved that love for us at the cross, bearing our sin and enduring our suffering. Because of that love, and because of the Spirit dwelling within us, we can in turn love in this way. And a Church that loves like this will win a city the world for God!
I think it is only now that I’ve realized the (probably intentional) sequential nature of our Church’s mission statement: Love God, Love Each Other, Love the World. First and foremost, we love God. In loving God, we are enabled to love each other. In loving each other – in acting as the body of Christ, working together – we can love the world.
Is the Bible awesome or what?
Josh,
Excellent.