Matthew, Mark and Luke all tell stories of conversations Jesus had with people about the greatest commandment (Matthew 22:34-40; Mark 12:28-34; Luke 10:25-28). Jesus quoted the Old Testament when he said that the greatest command is to love the Lord God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength (Deuteronomy 6:5), and to love our neighbours as ourselves (Leviticus 19:18). In John’s gospel, Jesus didn’t quote the Old Testament but gave a new command: to love one another just as he has loved us (John 13:34; 15:12,17).
Have you ever wondered what the love Jesus talks about looks like? Love is a big word. It can mean many different things and can look very different depending on the context. For example, my love for pizza is different to my love for my motorcycle. These kinds of love are different to my love for my wife which also looks different to my love for our children. The Greek New Testament uses at least three different words for love. When Jesus teaches us to love God and others, it helps to have a picture of what the love he is talking about looks like.
Paul’s description of love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a is an amazing description of what Christ-like love looks like in our lives and in our relationships. He writes,
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, 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 never fails. (1 Cor 13:4-8a NIV)
If Paul’s description of love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a is the way Jesus teaches us to love one another, how do we go? One way we can explore how well we love the people in our lives is to replace the word ‘love’ with our names. For example, when I do this, it begins, ‘Pastor Eugene is patient, Pastor Eugene is kind…’ and so on. To be honest, I quickly become pretty uncomfortable when I do this. If you knew me when I was younger you would learn that I’m not naturally a very patient person. Most of us can feel uncomfortable when we read 1 Corinthians 13 this way, but that’s part of the point. When we realise that we don’t love others the way God wants us to, it prepares us to receive God’s love for us in Jesus.
The Apostle John tells us that God is love (1 John 4:8,16). If we repeat this exercise but swap ‘God’ in for the word ‘love’ we find an amazing description of his love for us in Jesus:
God is patient, God is kind. He does not envy, he does not boast, he is not proud. God does not dishonour others, he is not self-seeking, he is not easily angered, he keeps no record of wrongs. God does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. He always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. God never fails.
It was a significant day in my life of faith when I realised that in Jesus God loves me in ways that I wasn’t loving others. When we are impatient with others, God is always patient with us because of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection for us. When we are unkind to others, God is always kind to us. When we seek our own good, God is not self-seeking but looks for what is good for us. When we are easily angered or keep a record of other people’s wrongs, God loves us by never being easily angered with us or keeping a record of our wrongs.
When we realise that, in his grace for us, God loves us like 1 Corinthians 13 describes for Jesus’ sake even when we are failing to show that love to others, it makes a big difference in our lives. God’s love for us in Jesus changes us. God loving us in Jesus gives us the capacity to love others. As we trust that God loves us in a 1 Corinthians 13 way because of what Jesus has done for us, the Holy Spirit shapes us to become more loving people. We don’t always get it right. I don’t always love others in a 1 Corinthians 13 way. However, over the years I like to think that I have become more loving by God’s grace as I’ve lived in the love God has for me in Jesus. We can spend our whole lives on this earth exploring and drawing on this 1 Corinthians 13 kind of love which God has for us in Jesus. As we grow in his love for us, God’s Holy Spirit shapes us to become more loving to others in the way 1 Corinthians 13 describes.
Jesus focussed on the command to love because it is central to our purpose as his followers. Disciples are people who are called to follow a teacher and learn a new way of living from their teacher. Jesus calls us to follow him as his disciples and to learn from him how God loves us in him, so we can learn how to love others in the same way. There are two very important reasons why learning to love others in a 1 Corinthians 13 way is important for us.
The first is that it leads us into a better life and healthier relationships. When Jesus said that he came to give us life to the full in John 10:10, he was talking about a life that is overflowing with the kind of love Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13. Imagine what life could be like if we were both extending and receiving 1 Corinthians 13 love in our relationships, in our families, and in our faith communities. What would it like be like if we were growing in patience, kindness, in seeking each other’s good, not being easily angered, not keeping a record of wrongs, and so on. In a broken world where we tend to accept broken and dysfunctional relationships as natural and normal, God wants better for us: lives that are full to overflowing with the kind of love that Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13.
The second way that learning to love in a 1 Corinthians 13 way is important for us is our witness to the world around us. In John 13:35, Jesus said that our love for one another will prove to the world that we are his disciples. The longer I’m in ministry, the more it seems to me that growing in Christ-like love for each other is central to our mission and ministry. I wonder what our churches would be like if our highest priority was learning to love the people in our lives as Jesus commanded and as 1 Corinthians 13 describes. What might happen if we took Jesus’ message seriously and prioritised growing in 1 Corinthians 13 love over all the religious busy-ness which can easily take up our time, energy and resources, and which might in fact be distracting us from following the one command Jesus gave us?
When commenting on Galatians 5:6, Martin Luther wrote this: ‘Paul is describing the whole of the Christian life in this passage: inwardly, it is faith toward God, and outwardly it is love or works towards one’s neighbour’ (LW 27:30). What if being a Christian is that simple but also that complex: trusting God’s love for us in Jesus in everything that happens in our lives, and loving others as 1 Corinthians 13 describes? How might that faith re-shape our hearts, our relationships, and our churches…?
More to think about or discuss:
- What do you mean by the word ‘love’? Think about it in a few different situations to explore how the word ‘love’ can mean different things in different contexts…
- How do you react when you insert your name for the word ‘love’ in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a? What is your reaction when you insert the name of God or Jesus?
- Do you think it is possible to live out this 1 Corinthians 13 kind of love in your relationships with others? In your church or faith community? What gets in the way? How can we do to help each other fulfil Jesus’ command to love each other like this?
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