The Beautiful Mind

Introduction
Mother Teresa once taught, “Christ has no body now on earth, but yours; no hands, but yours; no feet, but yours. It is your eyes through which Christ’s compassion looks out to the world; your feet with which he must walk about doing good; your hands with which he blessed humanity; your voice with which his forgiveness is spoken; your heart with which he now loves.” 

Mother Teresa’s words are a poignant reminder to all who follow Christ as Lord that we the Church Christ established to serve as His physical presence on the earth.  When we are faithful, Christ’s love spreads and the world becomes a better place.  

If we are to represent Christ well, we must be faithful to His teachings and way of life.  For great harm is done whenever people misunderstand Christ’s teachings or intentionally misuse Christianity to further their own selfish agendas.  Therefore, it is imperative that we study and do our best to be faithful.

We enjoy so many blessings today because of the work of Christ’s Beautiful Church over the last 2,000 years.  Consider these blessing we enjoy and even take for granted today that came into being through the work of Christ’s Church: 

• Sacrificial Love as the highest virtue
• Charitable giving
• Humility as a virtue
• Peaceful protest
• Nonviolent resistance
• Abolishment of slavery
• Equal rights for women
• Civil rights
• Public Hospitals
• Care for orphans
• Child abandonment laws
• Court Appointed Attorneys
• Religious Freedom 

Today, I want to address one final blessing we have received from the Beautiful Church--the blessing of intellectual learning. 

1 Corinthians 2:13-16
¹³ When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths. ¹⁴ But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. ¹⁵ Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others. ¹⁶ For,

“Who can know the Lord’s thoughts?  Who knows enough to teach him?”  But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.

Christianity and Education
When the Church is faithful to Christ, we take on the mind of Christ and we help enlighten the world with God’s wisdom and knowledge.  The Church caused the advancement of medicine, science, better government, wisdom, and education. 

In our day and age, there is a misconception that science and learning stand against Christian religion.  That is an unfortunate misunderstanding that has been perpetuated by ignorant people.  Jesus himself stated in Matthew 22:37 that the greatest commandment of all was to “…love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.” 

Jesus, as a 1^st century Jew, came from a religious background that valued education and learning.  Jewish children were taught to read the Torah from an early age.  Many could recite the first 5 books of the Bible from memory and make logical arguments about their teachings.  

Jesus’ first followers were Jews that valued education. They spread their love of learning to the Christian Church--even as it spread out beyond the Jewish community to more and more gentiles.  The Christian faith always included a love for learning, because Christ’s followers believed their faith was logical and knowing God required Christians to study and learn. 

Even though the earliest Christians were mostly from the lower classes of society that tended to be uneducated, these believers were required to learn.  In order to join the early church, new converts were often required to attend 3 years of classes in the Christian faith before they were fully initiated into the Christian Church.  

One of the great attractions of the Church to common people was the opportunity to receive an education.  Education was not commonly available to the average person in ancient times.  The Christian Church valued education as a road to deeper understand of and devotion to God.  Therefore, the Church believed all people should be able to receive an education and worked diligently to provide educational opportunities for everyone—rich and poor alike. 

The earliest Christians began as a small minority in a sea of other religions that were often hostile to Christianity.  However, the early Christians refused to use violence to defend themselves or advance their cause.  Instead, Christians said, “Let’s debate the issues and let group with the most compelling arguments stand.  And over the course of 2 centuries, more and more people in the ancient Roman world—from all walks of life—found the Christian’s ideas most compelling.  And so, in the face of violent persecution, and a myriad of competing religious ideas, Christianity rose to prominence as more and more people were won over to the Christian Church by the reasoning of Christian arguments about faith in Christ.

The early Christians knew what they believed and why they believed it and they lived out their beliefs even in the face of persecution, torture, and death.  For they believed because they knew what Scripture said:

Romans 8:37 – “No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.”

1 John 4:4 – “You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.”

The early Christians could willingly embrace the loss of property, freedom, and even their life because they really did believe something greater was already won for them--the Kingdom of Heaven and eternal live.  This world had nothing for them.  Their hope was in the coming Kingdom of God.

 

Christians and Scripture
Christians as a people of the Book, highly valued reading and writing.  They set about recording the life and teachings of Christ, which was no small task in the ancient world.  Today, we take for granted our access to the Holy Bible.  Most Americans have multiple copies as well as access to the Bible through the internet and a computer or smartphone.  We forget the tremendous cost expended to preserve the Bible for us. 

The printing press, which automated the book printing process, was not invented until 1436.  So for 1,400 years, all books had to be copied by hand—word by word, letter by letter.  The cost of materials  and labor to manufacture a book in the first few centuries after Christ’s birth was incredible.  The cost to reproduce just one Bible—from Genesis to Revelation—was the equivalent of 30 years of wages for the common person.  How much money have you earned in the last 30 years?  That's how much one Bible would cost to produce in the first few centuries of the Church.  Consider that for just one moment...

The early Christians valued Scriptures so much they set their hands to copying them so that future generations would have these sacred words to guide our minds and our faith in what we need to know to be faithful to God through Jesus Christ.  They sacrificed the time, resources, and energy to preserve God's Word because they knew this Word holds the key to wisdom and life and eternal life. 

Early Christians were even willing to die in order to protect their sacred texts.  Two female deacons of the early church, Catalina and Micoclius, were arrested and interrogated by Roman authorities who demanded they give up their sacred texts to be burned.  Catalina and Micoclius refused to tell where the books were hidden and were therefore put to death (Bullies and Saints by John Dickson). 

One might think it a waste of human life that these two women would sacrifice their lives for the sake of a book.  However, you must understand these early Christian really believed with all their hearts what their book said—that Christ has already won the victory.  The main purpose of this life is to further the purpose of Christ coming Kingdom.  We who follow Christ have already died to our selfish ambitions, and to die a physical death for Jesus is only to begin our eternal life in Christ heavenly Kingdom.  These are not just words.  They are Truth.  Early believers were willing to sacrifice their life for the cause of Christ's Kingdom with the sure and certain knowledge that what was to come was far better than this life.

When you hold your Bible, I want you to remember the hundreds of thousands of Christians who dedicated their lives and livelihoods to preserving the words of these texts so you can read them today.  It was a tremendous sacrifice they willingly made. 

The early Christians efforts were not limited only to Christian texts.  They also believed other important documents of classic learning should be preserved as well.  The reason we know so much about philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, (as well as other important ancient texts) is because the early Christians preserved their ideas by copying their texts and teaching their philosophies through the centuries.

Christians love for learning flourished even more after the Roman Empire officially converted to Christianity.  With the support of the Empire, Christians were able to establish great institutes of learning that helped advance government, science, medicine, writing, wisdom, philosophy, and mathematics.  Ironically, the so called “dark ages”, which modern enlightenment thinkers like to blame on the Christian Church, was not caused by the Church.  Rather, it was caused by the collapse of civilization with the fall of the Roman Empire and its Christian institutions of learning. 

Christian Scientists
Christian education and love for learning inspired scientific discovery throughout the ages.  In fact, the most influential scientist during the enlightenment period were Christians.  Their love of God and desire to know Him and His creation inspired them to delve deeply into scientific investigation to discover the mysteries of God’s universe.  A list of Christian scientists included such lauded scientific pioneers as:

Galileo Galilei, who discovered the earth revolves around the sun.

Robert Boyle, who defined elements, compounds, and mixtures and the first gas law.  Boyle said that a deeper understanding of science was a higher glorification of God.

Isaac Newton was a passionate Christian who spent more time on Bible study than math and physics. Newton profoundly changed our understanding of nature with his law of universal gravitation and his laws of motion; invented calculus; built the first ever reflecting telescope; showed sunlight is made of all the colors of the rainbow.

Michael Faraday was a devout member and elder of the Sandemanian Church. Faraday discovered electromagnetic induction; discovered the first experimental link between light and magnetism; carried out the first room-temperature liquefaction of a gas.

Werner Heisenberg was a Lutheran with deep Christian convictions and the primary creators of quantum mechanics who formulated the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.

Louis Pasteur was a Christian, a biologist, microbiologist and chemist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation and pasteurization. 

These scientists and countless others believed deeply in Jesus Christ and were faithful members of His Church.  Their love of learning and the drive to search the mysteries of God’s creation were not deterred, but rather enhanced, by their faith in God.   

Conclusion
The Christian faith challenges us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind.  God gave us our intellect as a tool to help us know Him better and to bring His heavenly Kingdom upon the earth.

Therefore, let us not shy away from learning.  But let us join with Christians from throughout the centuries who have helped make our world a better place by promoting education and intellectual pursuits for the glory of God.  Let us rebuke the slanderous idea that the Church is only for the ignorant and unlearned.  Let us show the atheist that true knowledge comes from God through Christ. Furthermore, let us be eternally grateful to God and His Church for the incredible contributions over the centuries that have made our world a better place. 

Communion and Welch’s Grape Juice
I want to end my message with a true story about a man named Thomas Bramwell Welch.  Welch (1825-1903) was a British–American Methodist minister and dentist. He pioneered the use of pasteurization as a means of preventing the fermentation of grape juice.  This grape juice, which millions enjoy today, was not practically available before Welch use pioneered a way to pasteurize it (using an adapted method created by Louis Pasteur).  Prior to Welch and the advent of refrigeration, grape juice would turn to wine within a few days due to natural yeast found in the air.  

During the 1800s and early 1900s, churches were fighting against an epidemic of alcoholism and encouraging Christians to abstain from drinking alcohol.  However, at Sunday morning communion services, the Church had no option but to use alcoholic wine for their sacrament.  Welch wanted to provide the Church with a non-alcoholic option for the sacrament of Holy Communion.  Welch's grape juice, pasteurized to prevent fermentation, was the solution.  When sales to churches were low, the graoe juice was made available for general use to the public for secular consumption.  Sales skyrocketed and Welch's grape juice is one of the most common brands available in grocery stores today.  However, the grape juice we love so much, was originally intended for sacred use.  

In my church, we use grape juice for Holy Communion.  Whether it uses real wine or Welch’s grape juice, the red color of the beverage is a reminder of the sacrifice Jesus made for us, shedding His precious blood to atone for our sins.  The sacrament also reminds us that Jesus is here with us in spirit even now.  His presence nourishes us and strengthens us to be His Church, joining with the countless saints who have gone before us.  When we are faithful to Jesus--the Way, the Truth, and the Life--we are the Church, Jesus physical presence on earth.  

So, let's be His feet going. 
Let us be His hands serving. 
Let us speak His words of truth.
Let us offer His grace, love,  and forgiveness.

 

The Beautiful Tune

Introduction
Last week, we started a message series about the Beautiful Church, Christ's physical presence on earth. I told you Jesus shared the most beautiful truths of God's love the world has ever known. Unfortunately, His followers have not always lived up to His ideals. 

We shared a little illustration last Sunday to demonstrate how we shouldn't judge Christ's message by the poor performance of some of His followers.  Did you see it?

In our day, we take for granted how comprehensively Jesus Christian message has influenced our world.  We take so much for granted.  Just consider one aspect–how Jesus teachings are found everywhere in our conversations. We get the following expressions directly from Jesus.  How often have you used one of these saying or heard them used by someone else?

Salt of the earth

City on a hill

Love thy neighbor

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you

Good Samaritan

Prodigal son

Blind leading the blind

A cross to bear

Pearls before swine

Do not let the left hand know what the right is doing

Judge not lest you be judged

A wolf in sheep's clothing

Cast the first stone

Eat, drink, and be merry

Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s

Sign of the times

Go the extra mile

Shout it from the rooftops

Log in the eye

And many, many others

Whether or not a person is a Christian, these sayings are used so often people forget they came directly from Jesus.  And understand, these are not just used by English speakers, but also in French, Greek, Italian, German, Dutch, Romanian, Spanish, Swedish, Hungarian, and Russian.

Without Jesus, we wouldn’t have these expressions or the ideas they automatically conjure up in our thinking.

However, as colorful as these expressions of wisdom are, they are only minor notes in the main theme of Jesus’ beautiful tune.  What then is the core of Jesus’ tune?  It is love.

Matthew 22:34-40
34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they met together to question him again. 35 One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”

37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

Love is the Greatest of All
Jesus teaching about love was revolutionary.  I can’t overstress this, because after 2,000 years we take for granted that love is the highest virtue.  One is tempted to think the world has always thought of love as Christians do.  This is not so.

Prior to Christ, the great civilization of the world did not venerate love like Jesus. Jesus lifted the commandments to love from the Jewish Torah, but these statements about love were buried among 613 religious laws and Jesus emphasized that we are to love not only our friends, but also our enemies.  Jews of his day were astounded at Jesus’ teachings about love. The main virtues for ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans did not include love.  They cherished ideals like wisdom, courage, self-discipline, and justice.  But there was no place among their greatest virtues for sacrificial love.

This is not to say that other great civilizations did not love, but their concept of  love was purely transactional.  A ruler might “love” his people, but it was only because doing so was in his best interest.  A ruler who loved his people and did good for them would earn the loyalty and support of his people.  Ultimately, this kind of love was an effort to “buy” support and honor from the people he ruled.  It was a transaction.  Even the love between a husband and wife in these ancient civilizations was primarily transactional.  Marriage was a contract more about what the husband and wife got out of the deal than about mutual, unconditional, sacrificial love for one another.

There was in ancient civilizations a concept of giving charity (in other words, a rich leader might pay to have a well dug for the community or to build an expensive temple), but these were done for the sake of getting honor and fame for the donor.  It was a transaction–a gift given in return for honor and fame.

But Jesus came along and said, “Don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” He taught us to give our gifts in secret and don’t make a big deal out of it. Jesus said, “If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them! 33 And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much! 34 And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, why should you get credit? Even sinners will lend to other sinners for a full return.  35 “Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. 36 You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.”  (Luke 6:32-36)

Jesus was the first one to espouse universal, unconditional, sacrificial love.  It was revolutionary.  He said we should love this way because it is an imitation of God’s own character and we are made in God’s image and should love the way He loves.

Well, anybody can talk about love.  But these were more than just words for Christ. His mission on earth was to live out this unconditional, sacrificial love for all people. The ultimate expression of Jesus’ love was his death on the cross for the sins of the world. As Romans 5:8 says, “God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”

The love Jesus championed was ludicrous to almost everyone in the first century. Jesus’ own people, the Jews, who knew about God’s love from their own holy Scriptures, would never have thought to love their Roman overlords.  They wanted God to destroy their enemies. People in ancient times might be willing to sacrifice their lives for someone who was worthy—maybe to die for their family or for their country or a great leader–but no one would die for their enemies or for evil-doers.  And yet, Jesus chose to die for sinners.  Ultimately, the Christian message is that every person is a sinner and none of us are worthy of Christ’s sacrificial death, but He died for us anyway.  This was a whole new concept Jesus revealed to our world.  Through the centuries, it has reshaped everything about the way modern people view love and sacrifice and the sacred value of every human life.

This paradigm shift cannot be overstated. Jesus is the reason our world values love today. Whether or not you are a Christian or even believe God exists, Jesus changed humanity forever for the better.  And Jesus did not do it alone.

Jesus birthed the idea of God’s unconditional, universal, sacrificial love and died on a cross to prove it. However, it was the Church Jesus commissioned–people who believed in Him, followed Him, and dedicated their lives to His mission–who convinced the majority of the world, against all odds, that Jesus’ way of love is the best way of all.

I know the Church has played many sour notes throughout history, and people have often misunderstood or purposefully misused  Jesus’ teachings for their own selfish gain.  But contrary to the picture an unbelieving, anti-Christian world paints, the Church has gotten it right more than it has gotten it wrong. And when the Church has been true to Jesus’ Beautiful Tune, we have pushed the world to be a much better place. And many in the Church–just like our Lord–gave up their lives in the effort. History is colored with the blood of martyrs–some named, but most unknown–who gave their lives to advance the cause of Christ and teach people His love.

You can say what you want about the Church, but if you cherish the greatest virtue in the modern world, one of the things you ought to say is: “Thank you.”

Martin Luther King
Tomorrow is Martin Luther King Day, a day to remember and honor this great civil rights leader.  Everyone knows what King did, but don’t forget he was the Rev. Martin Luther King. MLK was a Christian.  He was even named after the great 16th century Church reformer, Martin Luther. King’s conviction to fight for the equal treatment of black people was firmly rooted in his Christian faith that said all people are created equally in the image of God, and we are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And we are to love our neighbor as ourself.

In one of King’s famous sermons, “Loving Your Enemies, he preached at Dexter Baptist Church:
“Yes, it is love that will save our world and our civilization, love even for enemies.  Now let me hasten to say that Jesus was very serious when he gave this command; he wasn’t playing. He realized that it’s hard to love your enemies. He realized that it’s difficult to love those persons who seek to defeat you, those persons who say evil things about you. He realized that it was painfully hard, pressingly hard. But he wasn’t playing. And we cannot dismiss this passage as just another example of Oriental hyperbole, just a sort of exaggeration to get over the point. This is a basic philosophy of all that we hear coming from the lips of our Master. Because Jesus wasn’t playing; because he was serious. We have the Christian and moral responsibility to seek to discover the meaning of these words, and to discover how we can live out this command, and why we should live by this command.”

King’s commitment to Christ’s unconditional, universal, sacrificial love was so complete, he suffered beatings, imprisonment, and ultimately lost his life in service to our Lord, Jesus Christ.

If you remove from history Christ and His Church, you do not have a Martin Luther King, Jr. You do not have a motivation for non-violent resistance that leads to dramatic social change. You do not have the civil rights movement. You do not have the abolition of slavery. You do not have equal rights for all people or equality for women. You do not even have America, a land where we believe
“that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

What other essential virtues of our world today would be missing were it not for Christ and His Church boldly proclaiming for the last 2,000 years: “Love the Lord Your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself”?

Conclusion
Now I want to close by saying there is much more work to do. We have not yet realized the fullness of Christ’s Kingdom on Earth. We who are Christians, who follow Jesus as Lord, have much work to do. And our work may include suffering. So let us pray for courage and determination. Let us pray for God’s love to fill us,
because the kind of love we need to do Christ’s work is not in us naturally. And let us pray for more laborers to join us in the vineyard, because the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

And I call out to you–you who are listening to me right now, but are still not part of Christ’s Church. Perhaps you feel, today, Christ calling to you saying: “Come, follow me!” And so I join His invitation.  Will you join with me? Will you join with all the faithful followers of Christ from every place and every generations who have fought the good fight to share Christ’s transforming love with the world. I hope you will.

Closing Prayer from Martin Luther King, Jr. “Oh God, help us in our lives and in all of our attitudes, to work out this controlling force of love, this controlling power that can solve every problem that we confront in all areas. Oh, we talk about politics; we talk about the problems facing our atomic civilization. Grant that all men will come together and discover that as we solve the crisis and solve these problems—the international problems, the problems of atomic energy, the problems of nuclear energy, and yes, even the race problem—let us join together in a great fellowship of love and bow down at the feet of Jesus. Give us this strong determination. In the name and spirit of this Christ, we pray. Amen.”

Love Endures Forever

Introduction
How do you know if someone is really a Christian?  What evidence that proves it?

If you asked 10 different people, you might get 10 different answers.

Some might say, “You know someone’s a real Christian if they pray for someone and actually heal them or prophecy about the future and have it come true.  That’s a real Christian.”

Others might say, “A real Christian reads their Bible and knows what it all means.  They can explain how Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins. They are a real Christian because they know Christian doctrine.”

Another person might argue, “No.  It all comes down to faith.  It is only by faith that a person is a real Christian.”

Yet another person might retort, “Yeah, but what about good works?  People must do good and give to the poor and help the needy.  That shows they’re a real Christian.”

Someone else would say, “Yeah but what about the martyrs?  Someone who dies for their faith, surely that’s undisputable evidence they are a real Christian—the best Christian of all.”

The members of the 1^st Church of Corinth were arguing about these things.  In fact, some were saying, “I’m a better Christian than you, because I can do this or I’ve done that…”  And in answer, Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians, and we find a good summary of Paul's response in 13:1-3.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3
¹ If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. ³ If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

So Paul says it’s not supernatural power, it’s not knowledge of the Bible, it’s not doing good or being good, it’s not even dying as a martyr for your faith that proves you’re a Christian. Paul says, it all comes down to love.  Love is what proves you are truly a Christian.  When the love of God lives in you and you love others, that’s proof you are a Christian.

But the kind of love we’re talking about is not necessarily the type of love the world talks about.  So Paul goes on to explain what God’s love is like—the kind of love we are to have and show.  And today, I want to finish our series on Paul’s words about love from 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.  Today, we learn that love endures forever.

1 Corinthians 13:1-7
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.

Endurance
One of my church members, Kate Roberts, achieved a personal record at her cross country race this weekend in South Carolina.  Cross country racing is an endurance sport.  The runners push themselves to their physical limits racing long distances, competing as a team.  They train their bodies everyday to endure the pain and strain of physical exhaustion from running 3 to 6 miles as fast as they can.  I think Kate was able to run 3.1 miles in less than 20 minutes this weekend.

Endurance is the ability to withstand hardship or adversity.  How in the world does endurance belong in a definition of love?  If you are young and "in love" you tend to focus on all the ways the person you "love" makes you feel good.  When you've been married a long time, you understand much better about the "endurance" element of love.

Of course, I hope by now in this series, you understand that real love (God’s love) is not about how someone makes us feel.  Love is not a mere emotion or a pleasure we derive because we like being around someone.  Love is a gift we give to others regardless of whether we get anything at all in return.  And sometimes love—real love—has to endure many things we don’t like about others.

As a parent, I can tell you I didn’t enjoy it at all the time I took my young kids to see a movie and one of them got sick and threw up on me.  And I had to take one kid to the bathroom and get her cleaned up.  I had a change of clothes for her in the diaper bag, but not for me!  So I had to wear that filth all the way home while trying to comfort a sick child.  Yeah, that was not fun and I didn’t like it at all.  But I loved my child and cared for her.  I “endured” the disgust and discomfort of “wearing” vomit soaked clothing until I could gather up my kids and get them home, cleaned up, and then clean myself up.

But that was just a hour or so of endurance.  I think about my own Mom’s enduring love over the years with me and my siblings.  I know we have all done many things to disappoint her and even break her heart at times.  Yet she has endured.  Now, as my mother is growing older and her health is declining, we are taking loving care of her more and more (especially my older brother and younger sister, because they live closest to her).

Redefining Romantic Love
As I have told you in previous blogs, 1 Corinthians 13 wasn’t originally written about the romantic love between a husband and wife.  Yet this passage is often read at weddings, because it is such relevant advice for newlyweds. 

Our society is infatuated with the concept of romantic love.  Unfortunately, popular culture—through movies and music—has degraded the idea of romantic love to be all about how a person makes us feel.  We have taken the greatest godly virtue of all and turned it upside down.  Love in the world is not about selfless sacrifice, but about deriving pleasure at the expense of the person we “love”.

It is no wonder that so many people experience broken relationships, broken marriages, and are extremely confused and scarred when it comes to romantic love.  Our culture has created an idealized fantasy about love that does not exist, and when people fail to achieve or maintain the “feeling” of love, they feel cheated, become disillusioned, are broken-hearted, and wonder “why can’t I just find true love like everyone else?”  

Can you imagine how it would revolutionize the world and our romantic relationships if the prevailing notion of love became the biblical view of love?  If it wasn’t about how another person made you feel, but about how we gave ourselves to one another sacrificially? 

Ironically, you are more likely to find “feelings” of love more often when you stop chasing them.  When you give yourself to your spouse sacrificially, you are more likely to have romantic feelings.   And when the husband and wife are both loving each other sacrificially, they will both likely feel more intense attraction to each other. 

God’s Enduring Love
Now I want you to consider the never-ending, enduring eternal love of God for the world.
God created the universe and everything in it—the stars in the sky, the land and the sea, the plants and animals and us.  In sacrificial love, God gave us life.

When humanity broke God’s heart by turning against Him, He didn't give up; God continues to love us because His love endures forever..  God made ways to protect us—even protecting us the best He could from our own sin, while still allowing us the freedom to choose how we live.  People often get frustrated or angry with God because bad things happen to them or God.  God didn't cause those bad things.  We cause them by our sin (or they were caused because humanity has been wrecking God's perfect creation for thousands of years).  It is a miracle of God's love that we are still here and haven't completely destroyed ourselves and that God has still preserved our freedom to choose how we live.  Unfortunately, our choices cause a lot of hurt and suffering, but God still preserves us through HIs enduring love.

4,000 years ago, God chose a man of faith named Abraham to begin the process of saving the world—even saving you.  4,000 years ago.  Think about how long ago that is.  The American Revolution was 245 years ago.  That seems like a long time to a lot of us, but it is only a blip on the timeline of God's love story told in the Bible.  4,000 years ago, God was thinking about you and working to save you when He called Abraham to begin the rescue mission for humanity.

Even when Abraham’s descendants were slaves in Egypt 600 years after Abraham, God's love endured and He kept working through the Israelites to save the world.  God used Moses to deliver the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.

3,000 years ago, God made David the king of Israel and said, “I will raise up one of your descendants… I will secure his royal throne forever.” (2 Samuel 7:12-13)  God was talking about Jesus, who is David's great great great... grandson.

Jesus was born 2,000 years ago.  He lived as the perfect lamb of God, without sin or blemish.  He gave his life sacrificially to atone for our sin (showing God’s perfect, unconditional love for you and me).

Through all of these thousands of years, God’s love endures.  We've given God a million reasons to give up on us, but He hasn't and He won't.  God is hoping beyond hope that people will finally hear Him calling and turn from their sins, receive His love, and be saved.

And God is hoping beyond hope that we will all start to love God and love our neighbor just as Jesus did and that our love will endure in every circumstance because real love endures forever.

My mission, the reason I’ve devoted my life to work as a pastor, is so that more and more people will turn to God and receive His love and in turn love others the way God loves us.

1 Corinthians 13:8 says, “Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!”
All the things in this world we think are so important now will pass away. 
It won’t matter what kind of clothes we wear, or the car we drive, or which house we lived in.
It won’t matter which flag we saluted or whether we were democrat or republican.
It won’t even matter if the Braves won the world series in 2021.

1 Corinthians 13:12-13 says, “Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that [we] know now is partial and incomplete, but then [we] will know everything completely, just as God now knows [us] completely. Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.”