The Greatest thing is love. That is the profound truth that we are thinking about this morning. To fully understand the love of God is beyond us, it is an impossible task. Yet we must try; it will do us good to stretch our minds and grasp something of that wonderful love. In Ephesians 3 Paul’s prayer for us is that we might grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and know this love that surpasses knowledge. To fully know God’s love is beyond us, it surpasses knowledge.

Yet we need to grasp what we can of the wonder of that love, to let it take possession of us, to live our lives by it. 1 Corinthians 13 is one of the best attempt there has ever been to use words to describe God’s love. But before we look more closely at this short chapter, lets look at one other statement that we find in the scripture. It is found in the first letter of John where he makes that profound statement about the very nature of God himself.

John tells us God is love.

The very nature, the very character of God is love. That gives us some idea of the scope and the magnitude of love. In God’s love he created the universe. Our world and our expanding universe reflect the creative energy of God’s love. In love God created the human race and he created human beings in his own image, creating a race whose nature would also be love.

We see something of God’s love in humanity. We see creative energy, we see the ability to give and receive love, we see something of it in all of life. But we also see something else. We see a dark side to human nature. As well as creative love, we see destructive, grasping selfishness. We know, not only because we see the reality of it, but also because the bible tells us, that the human race is fallen. Men and women have wandered away from the love of God.

The good news of the gospel however, is that in Jesus God came to restore us to what we were created to be. In Christ’s death and resurrection the stranglehold of sin and evil on the human race was broken. The Holy Spirit had been poured out on those who turn in repentance to God through Christ. The Holy Spirit had poured something of the wonderful love of God into the lives of believers.

The church was born on the day of Pentecost. It was a community of people who were living in a renewed experience of God’s love and the church was spreading across the world. Corinth, a city in ancient Greece was a fairly typical example of a city under the influence of evil, its population was made up in the main of people whose lives were influenced by darkness.

But the gospel had been preached in Corinth, a church had been established there. The new believers there had experienced something of the new life in Christ having received the Holy Spirit. But the pressure of sin and darkness were all around them. The Corinthian church had experienced the reality of the gift of the Holy Spirit, some of them spoke in tongues as the disciples had on the day of Pentecost, but like us all they needed to be growing and developing in Christian character. Paul in this section of Corinthians is giving them much needed teaching regarding the gifts of the Holy Spirit. But his main point to them comes across in this chapter. The most important thing that the Holy Spirit does in the life of the believer is to produce fruit.

The most important fruit of the Holy Spirit is love. Paul tells the Corinthians that above all else, they need to seek more of the love of God in their lives. The lovely passage he writes is quite familiar to us, and often it is used in contexts where love is being thought of in an individual context. It‘s a favourite passage for both weddings and funerals.

But it’s important that we remember that this chapter was written to a local church. Above all, the church, the community of Christians meeting and worshipping together should be the place where God’s love is present. Lets look at this chapter then, and see what it teaches us both as individuals and as a church about love.

The chapter divides into 3 parts. In the first part, from verse 1-3 Paul warns about the danger of not having the reality of God’s love. There can be such a thing as a loveless Christian. There can even be such a thing as a loveless church. The spiritual gift that seems to have prized most highly at Corinth was the gift of tongues. But Paul points out that the gift of tongues counts for absolutely nothing without love.

Then Paul moves on to talk about gift that he personally rates higher than tongues, such as the gift of prophecy. Yet even that gift without love is worthless. He even says that an act that we might think of as a genuine proof of love, of giving away all possessions to the poor can be done without love, and as a result be absolutely pointless. Even laying down your life and being burnt at the stake can count for nothing, if there is no love there.

What a tragic situation! Well, how does it occur that a church that has all the reality of spiritual gifts, even a church that exhibits such great generosity could possibly count for nothing by God’s reckoning? The answer I believe lies in the motivation. The most important question for any church, or for any Christian is not what we do, but the motive for which we do it. God wants us to act out of the motive of love.

People don’t always do that. Sometimes people perform noble actions in order to gain praise or popularity. Do you remember Jesus warning his disciples about not making a show of saying their prayers or giving to the poor in order to impress people? He said that if they did that then they had had all the reward they were ever going to get. Beware of wrong motives.

But maybe some people are thinking, ‘however could it be possible that people who have received the Holy Spirit, and even have gifts of the Spirit could displease God?’ The answer is that God in his generosity gives his gifts to people freely, but sometimes people take God’s gifts and abuse them. Remember the story Jesus told of the servant who had been forgiven a tremendous debt by his boss, but who then himself refused to forgive? He abused that gift of forgiveness. God gives believers the gift of his Holy Spirit that we might turn in repentance from the old ways of pride and jealousy and instead allow God’s love to rule. The problem at Corinth was that the old pride and jealousies were still holding sway. They needed to grow in love. They need to develop that reality of a changed heart and attitude. Beware of wrong motives. A life motivated by self interest and pride is fruitless.

Then Paul moves on to talk about the positive effect of love on the life of a community. Love is patient; love is kind. Patience and kindness are two further words that are listed elsewhere in scripture as fruits of the Spirit. Love doesn’t envy or boast; it is not proud. Paul is really describing here the virtues and attitudes that were displayed in the life of Jesus. Love is not rude or self-seeking.

As we go through this list, the reality dawns on us that we don’t mange to live up to these standards. There is a dark side to us, even though we are Christians. We need God’s love to deal with our dark side. We need the love of a God who will not be easily angered with us. We need the love of a God who keeps no record of wrongs.

We need the love of a God who protects and trusts, and hopes and perseveres with us. And the God who will give us that love will expect us also to show that same love to others. The wonderful truth that we can learn from the scripture and also find in our experience of life as God’s people is that if we seek it, God will give us of the gift of his love.

And then finally Paul moves on to talk of the durability of love. Some thing last, some things don’t. Some things have a short life, others last a lot longer, thought the general rule with all things is that they decay eventually, even if something has a ‘half-life’ as the expert calls it of 1000 years, eventually it decays.

Yet there are some things that do last forever. One is faith; another is hope. But above all else love lasts forever. In Christ, God has loved us with an everlasting love. And the wonderful thin about love is that instead of deteriorating with time, it becomes stronger and better.

Many of the things that we value and prize now will pass away. Even the spiritual gifts, although they are God’s good gifts to his church, will one day cease to exist. One day we shall leave them behind as a child leaves his toys as he grows up. God in his wisdom chooses not to give us all the answers now. Our knowledge is imperfect. Our love is imperfect. But the wonderful thing about God is that both his knowledge of us, and his love for us are perfect.

God knows us fully, and he loves us. But the day will come when we will know him fully, and his work of love in us will be complete. Faith is important; faith is the means whereby God calls us into relationship with himself. Hope is important; our hope enables us to look forward and go on in anticipation of better things to come.

But love is the reality of God’s presence within us, the greatest gift of the Holy Spirit, may we know his love in our hearts day by day and may that love be reflected in our life together as God’s people here.

Amen.

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