Thursday, June 15, 2006

"Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things"  (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).

IDEA: Love isn’t simply a theological abstraction. It is an abstraction in action.

PURPOSE: To help listeners appreciate what is involved in love for other people.

Have you ever taken a course in which what was described to you in class looked different when you actually saw it up close?

For instance: a class in geology gave definitions of different kinds of rocks, but I couldn’t recognize them out in the field. I got the rocks mixed up.

I. We talk about “love,” but we may not always recognize it when we see it. Why?

We have different meanings of the word in our heads. For instance–

Give me what I want when I want it -- if you love me.

Make me feel something.

“when the moon hits your eye / like a big pizza pie, / it’s love, love, love.

“Love in the raw, rated X” -- passion and lust.

II. Paul defines agape love by describing it. In 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, he shows us what love is by describing what love does:

"Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things,  believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."