Pastor’s Corner

On Christian Love

Based on 1st Corinthians Chapter 13

We often hear these inspiring words at weddings, and often this passage has a part in funeral services as well.

For the Apostle Paul, God’s love is the bedrock of our Christian lives.

Everything else may be impermanent, but God’s love never ends.

This love is patient and kind.

At the end of this 13th chapter, Paul insists that God wants and needs three things from us.

First, God needs us to have a strong faith.

In addition, we are to fervently hold on to an unwavering hope, as we put our trust in God and in God alone.

Finally, Paul proclaims that God wants us to love as fervently as we are loved.

After all, it is God’s perfect love for us, a love which allowed the sacrifice of God’s beloved son, that has made the Church possible.

As Paul told his extremely gifted friends in Corinth, and as he tells us today, preaching and healing ministries are completely useless to God if they do not find their source in God’s indwelling love.

In God’s eyes, love is not simply a feeling that overtakes us.

Love is a verb.

It’s a call to action that has its root in the fact of God’s unconditional and unfailing love for each of his children.

Scott Peck, a Christian author, explores the nature of God’s love by defining Christian love in this way: “Love is the will to extend oneself for the purpose of nurturing your own spiritual growth or the spiritual growth of another.” Isn’t that what Paul is asking Christians of all times and places to do? God’s bottom line is not found in the spewing of empty words, no matter how eloquently stated they may be.

God’s bottom line is found in spiritual growth.

It’s found in your own spiritual growth and in the growth of others.

It’s found within your faith community and outside it.

You are loudly proclaiming God’s love when you go out of your way to patiently and kindly build Christians, nurturing spiritual growth for the glory of God.

Pastor Bob Ingalls,

Malden Community Congregational Church