Jesus Fruit: It All Starts With Love - 1st Corinthians 13 (Wednesday Night Reflection)
How many of you love top
ten lists? If you do, great, we’ve got
one tonight. If you don’t, then learn to
love them because we’ve got one tonight.
In 2009 I surveyed over 400 people and asked, “What is the Number One
Love Song of all time?” 231 submissions
were made, nominating 130 different songs.
Here are the songs that made the Top 10:
Tied for 10th –
“All My Life” by KC and JoJo, “Always and Forever” by Heat Wave, “God Bless The
Broken Road” by Rascal Flatts, “Here and Now” by Luther Vandross, “I Can’t Help
Falling In Love With You” by Elvis Presley, “Moonlight Serenade” by multiple
artists, “Wonderful Tonight” by Eric Clapton, and “You’ve Got A Friend” by
James Taylor.
Tied for 8th –
“Annie’s Song” by John Denver and “Love Me Tender” by Elvis
Tied for 5th –
“Endless Love” by either Lionel Richie and Dianna Ross or Luther Vandross and
Mariah Carey, “Unforgettable” by Nat King Cole, and “When A Man Loves A Woman”
by Percy Sledge.
4th – “At Last”
performed by either Etta James or Ella Fitzgerald
3rd – “I Will
Always Love You” performed by either Whitney Houston or Dolly Parton
2nd –
“Unchained Melody” by The Righteous Brothers.
And voted the #1 Love Song
of all time by those surveyed, it has been performed by more folks than we
could ever imagine and translated into probably every language imaginable, it
is “Jesus Loves Me.”
I conducted the survey several
years ago for a Valentine’s week sermon.
I had intended it to be a sermon in which I contrasted the number one
love song of all time with the love of God.
I had gone online to look for the number one love song…but there are
almost as many different opinions about the number one song as there are people
who use the internet. Too many places listed too many different number one
songs, so I decided to conduct the survey.
I grew excited as I watched the survey results come in, truly surprised
at what was clearly becoming the number one submitted song. I realized I was not going to have to provide
any contrast because those surveyed, which ranged in age from 13 to their mid-80’s
and included church goers and non-church goers alike, chose a song of the
church as the number one song. I was
surprised, but, as one of my colleagues pointed out, what song could express a
more perfect love than one that acknowledges the source and supreme example of
all love and sings of that love for us.
Last week we began talking
about Jesus Fruit and that if we are truly attached to the True Vine, which is
Jesus, we will bear this Jesus Fruit, otherwise known as Fruit of the Spirit. We learned that to truly bear Jesus Fruit, we
don’t get to pick fruits to bear and other to not bear…there is only one Fruit
of the Spirit: “the fruit of the Spirit IS love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control”—and
that if we are truly bearing Jesus Fruit, our lives will be marked by all these
things, so we are going to examine them one by one…and as Paul began with love…so
do we.
There are so many
different understandings of love…there is the mistaken thought that the
physical attraction known as lust is love…then there is the actual love between
to individuals attracted to one another that go beyond the physical cravings,
the love between husband and wife, the love of parents for their children, the
love between siblings and other family members, the love between friends that
care for one another, and so on. All of
these, though pale in comparison, though, to the love of God.
1st John 4:8
tells us that God is love. God has been
all about love and relationships from the very beginning of Creation. Creation itself was an act of love. From the time of Creation, we find that God
is about loving, caring relationships.
Prior to the Fall, God spent time in loving conversation, His divine
presence in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. Even after the Fall, God has been about
loving Creation and His people.
Throughout Scripture, God frequently uses the imagery of husband and
wife as a comparison of the relationship between Himself and His people. Rather than abandon His people altogether
when they failed to faithfully love Him back, He sent prophet after prophet in
a loving effort to renew that loving relationship. When the people continued to go astray, God
loved the World so much that He sent His only Begotten Son, Jesus the Messiah,
so that whoever believes in Him may not perish but have everlasting life.[i] Jesus lived a life of love…bringing healing
and restoration to those who would believe and follow. He called the disciples around him to live in
a community of Love, commanding them, prior to his arrest, to love one another[ii]…a
love enacted in service…and promised that people would know that they were His
followers because of their love.[iii] Jesus told His followers that “No one has
greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for his friends.”[iv] Then Christ, in his arrest, proceeded to call
all in the world his friends, because to show His love for us, He laid down his
life for all, taking our sin upon himself, that we might be forgiven and we might
have the opportunity for eternal life with God.
Paul echoes this in by telling the Romans, “But God proves His love for
us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”[v] God is all about love.
What does this love look
like? Paul answers this question as He paints
the church in Corinth a picture of what the love of God looks like…God’s true,
agape, no-strings-attached, unconditional love.
“Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or
arrogant or rude. It does not insist on
its own way, it is not irritable or resentful; it odes not rejoice in wrongdoing
but rejoices in the truth. It bears all
things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”
This is what the love of
God looks like. This is the love that we
see depicted in the life of Christ. And,
my brothers and sisters, this is the kind of love that we are called to have in
our lives, if we are truly followers of Christ.
How important is this love? It is important enough that Paul lists love
as the first aspect of the Fruit of the Spirit.
Love is a sign that we have surrendered our lives to Christ and are
allowing Christ to live in us. Paul
notes in our reading tonight that of all the gifts that God gives, even
compared to faith and hope, love is the greatest. Paul says if we do not have love, then
anything we do is worthless: “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and angels,
but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand
all mysteries and knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove
mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I
may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” In other words, we can do whatever we want to
do, and it can be the greatest thing the world has ever seen, but if we do not
love, and we do not do it out of love, then it is completely worthless. We can have the most amazing and inspiring
worship services, but if there is no love here, then we are doing nothing but
making noise. We can accomplish tasks
that others would consider improbable or even impossible, but if there is no
love, then we have done nothing. We can
give a million dollars to charity or even allow ourselves to be arrested and/or
killed for what we believe, but if we do not love, then we don’t deserve a
single bit of recognition, even from God.
It’s all about love, my
friends…the fruit of the Spirit begins with love because all of it is rooted in
love…if there is no love, then the fruit is spoiled. If we are seeking to live after Christ, then
the Holy Spirit is going to fill us with God’s love, and we are expected to
live out that love.
How do we know if we are
living out the love of God? How about
this quiz?
Are we patient?
Are we kind?
Are we envious?
Are we boastful?
Are we arrogant?
Are we rude?
Do we insist on our own
way?
Are we irritable?
Are we resentful?
Do we rejoice in
wrongdoing?
Do we rejoice in the
truth?
Do we bear all things?
Do we believe all things?
Do we hope all things?
Do we endure all things?
If we can answer the first
two and last five with ‘yes,’ and the rest with ‘no,’ then we have begun
bearing Jesus Fruit in our lives. The
fruit is not ripe yet…it is not complete yet…but it has begun to form. If we have to answer any of those questions
in the opposite way, then we have work to do…we need to do more surrendering of
ourselves to Christ and focus less on ourselves. Christ calls us to imitate and live out the
same sacrificial love that He offered the world. Maybe we should add another verse to “Jesus
Loves Me:”
Jesus loves me! this I
know,
For the Bible tells me so;
Little ones to Him belong;
They are weak but He is
strong.
Yes, Jesus Loves me,
Yes, Jesus Loves me,
Yes, Jesus Loves, Me,
For the Bible Tells Me So.
Jesus loves me! This I
know,
as he loved so long ago,
taking children on his
knee,
saying, "Let them
come to me."
Yes, Jesus Loves me,
Yes, Jesus Loves me,
Yes, Jesus Loves, Me,
For the Bible Tells Me So.
Jesus loves me still
today,
walking with me on my way,
wanting as a friend to
give
light and love to all who
live.
Yes, Jesus Loves me,
Yes, Jesus Loves me,
Yes, Jesus Loves, Me,
For the Bible Tells Me So.
Jesus Loves Me This I
know,
On the cross His love did
show
That same love he bids us
give
Of ourselves so all may
live
Yes Jesus Loves me
Yes Jesus loves me
Yes Jesus loves me
And that love I am to
show.
In the Name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Comments
Post a Comment