Live with Love | 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13

What is your favorite love song? The biggest songs in American history are overwhelmingly about love. According to Billboard, the top five biggest love songs of all time are: 1) Endless Love by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie. 2) I will Always Love You by Whitney Houston 3) We Belong Together by Mariah Carey. 4) Let’s Get it on by Marvin Gaye. 5) My Heart will Go On by Celine Dion. The one thing I noticed when I looked these up is that ALL of them were put out in the 1900s.Some of my Gen Zer’s are like, “I’ve never heard of these songs. What about: Perfect by Ed Sheeran or Lover by Taylor Swift or All of Me by John Legend or Drivers License by Olivia Rodrigo.” The thing about these songs is that they start out with “I’d walk through fire for you… I’d die for you…I still see your face in traffic” and then a minute later it is “we broke up, I hate you. Good for you, you look happy and healthy.” It’s like most country music. Country music is, “I love you…I lost you…I miss you…I’m going to write a song about you.” We laugh but this is not just music but real life. We are all looking for love, but we don’t know exactly what we are looking for. We want something real and something that doesn’t fall apart. We don’t just need another song about love, we need to know what love is. The good news is God wants to show us.

This is exactly where the church of Corinth was. When you get to 1 Corinthians 13, it’s easy to think that this is just a nice, poetic chapter about love. Something that was meant to be read at a wedding. But that is not what is happening here.The Corinthian church was one of the most talented, expressive, impressive churches but was a dumpster fire: people got drunk at communion, people sleeping with their mother in laws, and suing each other. But above all they weren’t a very loving church. Paul is trying to teach them that the only way you can live alive in Jesus is to live with love. Love is evidence of spiritual maturity and is the expression of Christ-like character.