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Love Never Fails

Writer's picture: Pastor Nathan NassPastor Nathan Nass

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor 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. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:1-13 NIV)

It kind of feels like we should have a wedding today, doesn’t it? Those words I just read are one of the most popular texts that couples pick for their wedding. It’s easy to see why: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast.” You almost expect to turn around and see a bride walking up the aisle. With “oohs” and “aahs” and heart emojis and wedding cakes…

There’s just one little problem: These verses aren’t talking about a wedding. Actually, this love section of the Bible isn’t talking about marriage at all. In fact, to hear these words and think of marriage misses the whole point. The love in this chapter is Christian love meant for everyone. This is the love that every Christian is to have for every other person. In the context, Paul has been writing about spiritual gifts. Different people have different God-given talents. There are teachers and healers and helpers and servers and preachers… God’s people have very different gifts from God, but every Christian is to have one thing that covers over everything else: Love.

In fact, if you and I don’t love other people, it really doesn’t matter what else we do. “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” Some Christians in Corinth had the gift of being able to speak in languages they had never studied. Paul himself could. Wouldn’t that be cool? To just start jabbering away in any language you wanted? That would be an awesome talent! But even if you could speak in the languages of angels, but you didn’t have love, do you know what you’d be? “A resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” Without love, speaking in other languages is just a noisy racket.

Paul gives us a bunch of similar examples: “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge…” This is an important gift. There are people in the Christian Church who are gifted at understanding God’s Word. We need that! But if they don’t have love? “I am nothing.” “If I have a faith that can move mountains…” Doesn’t that sound great? To not doubt. To not second-guess. To be confident. To be full of faith. That’s good, right? But if I “do not have love, I am nothing.” Are you starting to get the point? “If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” I can do big things. I can give all my money to the poor. But if I don’t have love, I gain nothing.

That gets you thinking, doesn’t it? At least, it’s gotten me thinking. I can preach a great sermon, but I don’t have love for you? You’ll notice! That sermon won’t matter. You can be the smartest person in the room and know the Bible really well, but if you don’t have love for the rest of us? Nobody likes a smart alect. You can be the hardest worker and put in more time volunteering than anyone else, but if you don’t have love for others? You will gain nothing. In fact, you’ll be like someone banging a gong over and over. Over every gift God gives people, we need love.

So here’s what Christian love looks like: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor 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.” Isn’t that a marvelous section of God’s Word? There’s something we miss in English. In Greek, it’s all verbs. There are fifteen verbs for love. What’s a verb? An action word. So what’s love? Not a feeling. Love is an action.

We could have a separate sermon on each action! Let’s at least touch on some of them: “Love is patient.” That needs no explanation. Love is patient with everyone. Love “does not envy.” Envy is like this green monster that’s never content with what it has. Instead, envy always wants what others have. You’ve felt it. That’s not love. You can’t love someone when you’re jealous of them. There is no comparing in love. Love “is not self-seeking.” It always seeks the good of others first. Love puts others ahead of ourselves. There’s no “what’s in it for me?” in love.

Love “is not easily angered.” You know how your temper can flare up in a moment? All it takes is one wrong word from someone else, and this fire burns inside you. Not with love. Love “is not easily angered.” Instead of being short-tempered, love is long-tempered. Does that make sense? Maybe because love “keeps no record of wrongs.” I do. I bet you do. Who’s on your list? That’s not love. No grudges. No bitterness. None. It’s forgiven. It’s gone. “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.” That is what our society needs to hear today. Love doesn’t celebrate sin. Love doesn’t take pride in sinful behaviors. That’s not love. Love rejoices in God’s truth.

Love “always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” How often? Always. Always. Always. Always. That’s Christian love! The phrase that’s stuck in my mind the most this week is “love always protects.” How often do you have the chance to hurt someone else by what you say? How tempting isn’t it to make yourself look better by tearing someone else down? By sharing what shouldn’t be shared. Not with love. Love always protects! Feelings. Hearts. Reputations. “Love never fails.” What a powerful way to finish up the list! “Love never fails.”

So what do you think? Isn’t this awful? Sure, it sounds beautiful when you read it. But when you really contemplate what real love is, doesn’t all this make you feel awful? I don’t love like that! Not even close. Not even one of those 15 verbs. Don’t tell me you do. I don’t believe it. Slow to anger? How many times did you explode just this past week? Always protects? How many people did you tear down with your words this past week? Keeps no record of wrongs? How many grudges have you thought about just this morning here at church? Always perseveres? How many people have you given up on? How many times have you just stopped caring? Love never fails? Mine does. That is, if you can even call what’s in my heart love. What about yours?

Something hit home for me this week in all the talk about abortion. Abortion isn’t loving. It’s wrong. It ends the life of a human being. But I heard someone say this: “You Christians are pro-life because it’s easy.” We say, “What? Easy?” This person said, “Yes, easy. It’s easy to care about unborn children. Know why? Because saying you love somebody else’s unborn baby requires no effort. No sacrifice. It’s easy! But why don’t you Christians love people after they’re born? That’s when it takes sacrifice and energy.” Is he right? Those words convicted me. It’s so easy for me to sit in my office and say I love unborn babies. That’s easy! It’s totally different to love the person next to me. To care for the person in front of me. That’s hard! Do you agree?

Remember where we started? This is what it means to be a Christian. We all have different gifts, but there is something that every Christian is to have: Love. Without love for each other, without love for others, whatever else we might be good at, whatever else we might accomplish, it’s nothing but an annoying gong or a clanging cymbal. My love fails. Yours does too. All the time.

But God’s love doesn’t! That phrase “love never fails,” made me think of the words “unfailing love.” So I looked up the phrase “unfailing love” in the Bible.” Do you know what I found? “The LORD’s unfailing love surrounds the one who trusts in him” (Psalm 32:10). And “the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love” (Psalm 33:18). And “satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days” (Psalm 90:14). And “with the LORD is unfailing love, and with him is full redemption” (Psalm 130:7). Aren’t those beautiful? And there are 34 other verses like them. 38 times in the Bible, we hear about God’s unfailing love. Do you know whose love never fails? God’s love!

In fact, God loves us in exactly the way that perfect love is described in this chapter. Patient? “God is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). God is so patient! Kind? “When the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy” (Titus 3:4). God is so kind! Not self-seeking? Jesus “humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:8). Jesus gave up his life on the cross to save us. That’s love!

No record of wrongs? God “does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities” (Psalm 103:10). Isn’t that amazing? God forgives and forgets our sins through Jesus. The Bible says, “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10). Jesus’ love never fails.

And when you’re filled up with Jesus’ unfailing love, he turns to you and says, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34). How can I be patient? Because Jesus has been so patient with me. How can I be kind? Because Jesus has been so kind to me. How can I not live for myself? Because Jesus has already lived for me. How can I not hold that wrong against them? Because Jesus died to take all our sins away. How can my love not fail? Because Jesus has filled me with his unfailing love. Do you see? “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

This chapter ends in a powerful way: “Now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” These are the greatest things in life. If you’re going to strive for anything, make it these three things: Faith, hope, and love. Not money. Not popularity. Not success. Faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love. Why? If faith is “assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1), what won’t you need in heaven? Faith. If “hope that is seen is no hope at all” (Romans 8:24), what won’t you need in heaven? Hope. But what endures forever? What never, ever fails, even for eternity in heaven? Love never fails.

Why? “God is love” (1 John 4:8). The Bible never says, “God is faith.” The Bible never says, “God is hope.” But the Bible does say, “God is love.” Do you know what that means? You can insert God’s name everywhere you see the word “love” in our text. Let’s try it: “God is patient, God is kind. God does not envy, God does not boast, God is not proud. God does not dishonor others, God is not self-seeking, God is not easily angered, God keeps no record of wrongs. God does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. God always protects, God always trusts, God always hopes, God always perseveres. God never fails.” When you follow a God like that, do you know what you will do, more and more and more each day? Love. Love never fails.


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