First Presbyterian Church of Alabaster (Cumberland) - OCT 30 2005 "greatest of these is love"

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OCT 30 2005 "greatest of these is love"

Thursday, 17 November 2005

     We begin this final of three writings that have been centered on Paul’s proclamation that
“ faith, hope, and love exist – these three – but the greatest of these is love ” with this thought from M. Scott Peck, a 20th century American psychiatrist and writer, “ Love is an action, an activity. It is not a feeling. ” Peck is certainly on board with the Apostle Paul. Love is what we do. Who we are. How we live. Love cannot be merely an emotional attachment to someone or how we feel about life. God would not have us be so mercurial.

     Perhaps no other word gets so misused, or at least overused, in our conversation as does love. And, particularly for the Christ follower the proper scriptural understanding and use of the word love is essential. Certainly, none of us can dispute the romantic, emotional connection to the word love. After all, we love our husband or wife. We love our children. We love our pets. All of us have emotional attachments that are expressed in the word of love. There’s nothing wrong with that. But, Paul would have us look deeper. And, so, too, would God.

     That’s not always easy. We struggle sometimes with this deeper side of love asking ourselves how we can love those persons to whom we have no emotional attachment or personal investment. The recent storms that have altered the lives of people along the Gulf Coast, Florida, the Caribbean Islands, and Central American countries might give us some insight. Think for a second about all the people that your money is helping. Think for a minute about the children who are back in school and carrying a backpack you packed. Think about the pumpkins that are sitting on your porch or in your yard – that pumpkin represents material and labor that will become someone’s new home. Now, list the names of those people who are benefitting from your love. Maybe some know one. Or two. But, for most of us, we know no one we are helping.

     We help because we love. And we love because we have been loved by God. And God is love. Hear these words of the Apostle Paul from Phillipians chapter two, “ If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus ... who became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross. ” And in that action of God through Christ is love.

     With the power of God’s Spirit upon us, we are capable of that same kind of love. Selfless. Giving. Serving. Active. Never ending. May it be so.

     Grace and peace