Love: The Road Through Division and Unity

Here's the gospel logic. You do not love in order to become secure. You love because in Christ you already are. You don't walk on the mountain path in order to earn God's favor. You walk on it because Jesus has already secured God's favor for you. And only then when your identity is rooted completely in Christ's love for you, demonstrated on the cross, proven in the resurrection, only then does our need to boast and to control and to envy and to keep score fade away. [00:51:15] (41 seconds)  #SecureInChrist

Because Christianity never says, climb this mountain and God will love you. Get to the top. Get at it. Work hard. Christianity always says, God has come down the mountain to you. God has already come down the mountain. Paul's description of love in first Corinthians 13 isn't a command. It's a portrait. It's a picture. It's a portrait of Jesus. [00:48:49] (27 seconds)  #LoveAsPortrait

Jesus is patient, not just with weakness, but he's patient even with betrayal. Jesus is kind. He's not not just polite to others, but he's willing to sacrifice himself for others. He doesn't insist on his own way. He keeps no record of wrong even while being nailed to a cross. He prays for the forgiveness of those who are putting him there. Jesus walks this mountain path ahead of us. He's not shouting instructions at us from the summit. [00:49:16] (30 seconds)  #JesusModelsLove

That's why Paul can say love never falls. Love never falls. Jesus falls. So love doesn't have to. And the resurrection is the confirmation of this path. The resurrection says this path of self giving love is not foolishness, but it's the deepest wisdom of God, and it's the road to real life. [00:50:48] (27 seconds)  #LoveNeverFails

And that's why Paul ends with faith, hope, and love. We have faith in what Christ has done. We have hope because the resurrection tells us that love is never wasted. And we have love because Jesus walks this path for us and with us and within us through the power of his spirit. And because of that, we find ourselves also able to slowly, imperfectly, but truly walk it too. [00:52:07] (41 seconds)  #FaithHopeLove

And he says the journey on this mountain road will be like mountain climbing. It's something that you have to condition yourself for. It's something that you have to practice for. It's something that you have to work out ahead of time. It will be strenuous. It will be exacting. Sometimes it will be dangerous. Sometimes there will be injuries that will require planning, strength, and persistence. But it's also exhilarating. It's also rewarding. He's saying if you want to navigate serious threats to unity in a community, in a culture, in a congregation, in a family, if you wanna navigate serious threats to unity, this is the journey that you'll take. [00:37:05] (43 seconds)  #JourneyToUnity

Now when he uses the word way in your English translation, the word behind that is a road. He said, let me show you the road. Let me show you the path that you have to walk. Let me show you the route that we're going to take together, and we're going to take this road on a journey. And if you follow this road, right, you follow this yellow brick road, it will take you on a journey that will carry you through the divisions. If you take this road, it will carry you through the polarized, fractured, contentious arguments that you have all the time. [00:31:56] (42 seconds)  #RoadThroughDivisions

In fact, maybe so much so that you are tempted to say to yourself, I'm overwhelmed because I can't do that. That's too tall of a border. The divisions are too great. The polarization is too strong. If love really looks like this, the road is impossibly steep. And this is exactly where the gospel enters. See, the gospel comes into it. Paul is writing not just as a moralist, but he's writing as an apologist. He's writing for us to be turned again back to Jesus, back to the foundation. [00:48:08] (42 seconds)  #GospelEnablesUs