If you followed football yesterday, you may know that Ole Miss beat TN. Alabama beat Mississippi State. Georgia beat Kentucky. Auburn beat Arkansas. LSU beat Florida. GT beat Duke.
You know, in a football game, there often comes a certain
moment in a game where the tide turns for your team and the game is no longer
winnable. You can sometimes gauge when
this critical moment comes, because you may see fans start leaving the
stadium. They know their team is beat at
this point. So they start leaving to get
ahead of the traffic.
If you’re a true fan, you may hold on to hope. You may think, “That’s Ok. We can still get this back.” And you’re rooting for your team and you’re
hoping that they will retake the lead and win the game. Then, the opposing team get’s another
score. And you’re frustrated. But it’s still not over. You still believe—because
you’re a true believer. You believe your
team can still pull out a win. But the
time is ticking off the clock and soon your down to the final minutes. And you’re hoping beyond hope that your team
can still do it. Maybe you’re thinking, “If
they get the ball back, and this happens and this happens… They could still do
it. It’s possible!” You start running through different scenarios in your
mind. “It may take a miracle, but it’s
still possible!” But then the clock is
down to the last minute, then the last seconds, and all your timeouts are gone…
I remember watching a few football games with my dad and
older brother as a young kid, I would always be the last one to give up
hope. Dad and Nelson were older and knew
the game better. They could read the writing
on the wall when the game was lost. But
I was young and naïve and I loved our team and was full of hope. I would hold on till the last seconds. But then our team would lose. It was inevitable.
Well, that’s football.
But love, according the 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, love is another story.
Love never gives up.
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
This passage is from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church. The Corinthians lived in Corinth, an important port city in Greece. Corinth was especially important because it was located on the isthmus of Corinth—a narrow strip of land separating the Gulf of Corinth and the Saronic Gulf. Ships could be carried over land about four miles on a special paved road made just for moving ships. It saved a tremendous amount of time and money and was much safer than sailing 185 miles around the treacherous Peloponnesian peninsula. Corinth’s strategic location made it a very wealthy city, and with it’s wealth also came debauchery.
Ancient Corinth was the home of the temple of the goddess, Aphrodite—the
Greek goddess of love. It was said that
the temple employed 1,000 professional prostitutes to “help” the people “worship”
Aphrodite. (I guess that's one way to get people to
church!)
By the time Paul wrote his letter, Corinth had been taken
over by the Romans, who converted the Temple of Aphrodite to the Temple of
Venus (the Romans name for the goddess of love). Both Aphrodite and Venus “are known for their
jealousy, their beauty and for their affairs with both gods and mortals.”[i]
Study notes in the The MacArther Study Bible say, “Even
by pagan standards of its own culture, Corinth became so morally corrupt that
its very name became synonymous with debauchery and moral depravity. To
‘corinthianize’ came to represent gross immorality and drunken debauchery.”
Despite Corinth’s centuries of sin and debauchery and
corruption of the virtue of love, God did not give up on them. God sent Paul to Corinth in AD 49 or 50. According to Acts 18:11, Paul spent 18 months
discipling a group of new Christians who then formed the Corinthian
church. God is always working to save people
and bring them back from the brink of destruction. And it doesn’t matter how far gone they seem
to be, God still cares. We see this
clearly in the Corinthian church. From a
city as wicked as Corinth, God established a group of Christians to be a beacon
of God’s light.
But they still had a lot to learn. The Corinthian church had some severely warped
ideas of love—no wonder; they were a product of a city that worshipped the so-called
“goddess of love” that taught love was only a carnal, consuming thing. Paul wrote about the One True God’s love that
is demonstrated in Jesus self-sacrificing love on the cross. And Paul wrote “Love is patient and kind.” It had to teach the Corinthians that real love
is not jealous like the so-called love of Apphrodite or Venus. And love “is not boastful or proud or rude.” So they shouldn’t fight amongst themselves about
who was the most important or who was more spiritual or who was in charge. And today we’re learning that “Love never
gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful…” just as God never gave up on the
Corinthians, despite their centuries of wickedness and sexual immorality
and moral corruption. God's love neve gives up and it changes people's live and even changes the whole world.
John 3:16 is probably one of the most well-known verses in the whole Bible, and for good reason. John 3:16 could be a summary of the entire story of the Bible. “For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten son so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”
The whole story of the Bible—from beginning to end—is the
story of God’s love that “never gives up, never loses faith, and is always
hopeful” that people will turn from their evil ways and return to a love
relationship with God. Throughout the
centuries, while God is reaching out to people to beckon them to come back to
Him, God is also setting up His plan to save the whole world. The ultimate message of God’s love is given
through Jesus Christ. In Jesus, God came
in the flesh to show the world His love.
He came teaching people the truth about how to live. His presence brought healing and life—everywhere
he went, the lame were made whole, the blind could see, and the deaf could
hear. Leprosy and deformity and demonic possession
were banished. And so, hoping beyond
hope, God reached out to fallen humanity.
There is a way to heal your spirit!
There is a way to be made whole again!
There is a way to be saved!
And there was a tremendous sense of hope. The Disciples followed Jesus. And crowds of people heard his teachings and
saw his miracles and they believed. Could
this be the Messiah who was sent to save us, even when it seems all hope is
lost?
Jesus came in love, but we crucified him. Can you imagine the disappointment of Jesus’ disciples and followers? Jesus was love. He was hope. They put all their faith in Him. And then He was brutally murdered on a Roman cross.
Roman crucifixion was the most painful, humiliating, degrading way to kill someone. It was intentionally designed to make a bold statement to anyone who dared challenge Roman rule. Crucifixion’s message was: “We own you. We can do whatever we want to you—any of you. It doesn’t matter if you are a peasant, a religious leader, a king, or even supposedly a messiah or god, we can strip you naked and beat you to a pulp and nail you to a cross and hang you up to die and agonizing death that will take days while everyone watches in horror—including your mother.”
If ever there was a moment in history when the game was
lost, it was on the Friday they nailed Jesus to the cross. And I don’t care who you were or how much
faith you had, everyone who saw Jesus die new the game was over. Love had lost.
Some cried bitter tears.
Some got angry and cursed Jesus and spat on him.
Some just left, because they knew the game was over. Some ran away in horror and hid in shame.
Some just stared in disbelief.
How could this happen? How can evil
triumph over good? What do we do now?
There’s a certain point in a football game that’s the point
of now return—when the game is lost and there’s no hope to win. But football’s just a game. What do you do when it’s real life?
What do you do when the marriage really is over and ends in
divorce?
What do you do when your son’s addiction finally takes him?
What do you do when cancer wins?
What do you do when the game clock of real life finally says zero and it really
is over?
What do you do when Jesus is really dead?
Jesus was dead and buried in a tomb. A stone was rolled over the door.
Soldiers guarded the entrance. No one was going to get in.
But Jesus was going to come out! On the Third Day, Jesus rose from the grave!
With God’s love, true love, divine love, there is always
hope. 1 Corinthians 13:7 says, “Love never gives up,
never loses faith, is always hopeful…”
Love never fails.
Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t
receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” (Mark 10:15)
Children often have more faith than adults.
Adults know better. We know how the game
of life works. We know when the game is over—even
if the clock hasn’t finished running out.
We think we know when all hope is lost and how it will all end.
But children believe in magic.
They believe in hope. They still
believe in miracles.
And God can work through miracles. He saved
the world through a miracle.
Jesus was dead, but then He was alive!
Jesus can save
you with a miracle.
So, we need to be mature and use our intelligence, but we
also need to keep our childlike faith.
“Humanly speaking, it may be impossible.
But with God, everything is possible.” (Matthew 19:26)
Invitation
I want to tell you something though.
Sometimes you've got to lose before you can win.
Sometimes you've got to die before you can rise to new life.
There may be something you've got to let go of before God can give you something new.
Do you trust Him?
Open your heart.
Let go.
Let God do a new thing in you.
[i]
http://www.differencebetween.net/miscellaneous/culture-miscellaneous/difference-between-aphrodite-and-venus/
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