Used goods are still good bro

What’s love got to do with it, got to do with it?

What’s love but a second hand emotion?

When Tina Turner sung those words she meant something entirely different than what I’m going to talk about today, but like any seeker sensitive preacher worth his salt I’m going to rip her words out of context and twist them for my own ends.  1 Corinthians 13 is the passage you have probably memorized best out of the scriptures, after John 3:16, simply because you have heard it at every wedding you have ever attended. And in the context of those matrimonial ceremonies it is almost always been used to show the wedding couple and the listening audience how we should love one another in our marriages and in our lives.  So often you will hear the word love substituted for the couple’s names.  Ie: Jake and Matilda are patient, kind, etc.  If we just look at this passage in this way it becomes damning law that condemns us all to hell; for who of us is always patient and kind and loving and does not keep a record of wrongs?  Ummm, none of us?  Do I manage to do that on any given day?  Uh, no I don’t!  When my husband is sick he does not always receive the love he should from his wife! But I digress…

Certainly Paul means chapter 13 to be applied in this way, for the entire book of 1 Corinthians is Paul strongly encouraging the church “Come on guys, you are the church so behave like Christ toward one another.  Put your own desires aside for the good of everyone and love one another above yourselves” but we cannot leave it there because Paul is not one to stop preaching until Jesus walks in.  And we get to Jesus by reading on in the chapter.  Paul suddenly switches to talking about not understanding things right now but a time is coming when we will understand fully.  That now we need faith, hope and love, but the greatest of the three Is love.  So there is a time coming when we will no longer need faith and hope for they will be fulfilled; all God’s promises we have to put our trust in now, we will see them come to pass and we will receive them.  Our hopes will be fulfilled!  And love will keep on going… into all eternity… it IS the greatest!

So this love that Paul is describing, that goes on into eternity, well, perhaps goes back into eternity past too.  Who do we know who goes back into eternity past?  Why, the creator of the universe!  And didn’t this creator visit earth at some point?   If we look into the Gospel writings we read about the creator, Jesus Christ, on earth with men.  The Gospel writers describe how he loved fallen man; going above and beyond the usual boundaries of human love to lay down his life for evil doers and sinners; those who didn’t deserve it.  In every single way he treated his fellow man, Jesus treated them with love and compassion. Could it be that Paul is describing Jesus himself in this passage?  

If we take out our names from the word love in this passage and replace them with Jesus’ name then we are looking at the very character of God!  God/Jesus is patient, Jesus is kind, Jesus does not keep a record of wrongs…  And then this passage which condemned us flips upside down and becomes the most comforting passage in the Bible (except perhaps John 3:16) because it describes how God loves us.  When we say “God loves you brother” “Jesus is love” This is what we mean!  This is it!  Jesus loves us with this kind of love and that love is so much greater than the broken, second hand version I offer my neighbour.  Tina Turner was right!  Our love IS a second hand emotion.  It comes from the Father to us and we pass it on, a bit used and broken, to our neighbour.  It’s not as good as the original, pure version but it comes from it.  Let us look to the originator of love, to the creator of love, to love himself – Jesus Christ - instead of despairing over our hand me down love.