Text: 1 Corinthians 13
Topic: A look at the first two traits of agape love

• Illustration: In 1929, Cole Porter wrote a hit song for one of his musicals in which he asks, "What is this thing called love? Ask the Lord in heaven above, what is this thing called love?" It was a run-away hit, because it asked a question that any thoughtful person in our culture would ask.
• From Hollywood to heaven, "love" stands for everything. In cultures like ours, "What is this thing called love?" is a good question.
• If you read the New Testament with any degree of care, you find that again and again we are called to be people of love. But what is it?

• I think the people in the first century may have been as confused about love as we are.
• The Greeks had a large number of words for love.
• The most common word was the word phileo—a word that described the garden-variety love you have for friends, for people in your family, for your country.
• Another common word for love was eros—a word that, when translated into English, almost always speaks of sexual passion or erotic love.
• In ancient times, however, eros was used in a much wider sense. It basically spoke to the kind of love that is won from us in a moving moment.
  • Illustration: Robinson helps his audience understand the wider meaning of eros by talking about the emotions one feels when looking at Niagara Falls or while listening to beautiful music or watching a baseball game.
• Our society puts a great deal of emphasis on an eros kind of love, but the word is never used in the New Testament.
• This is probably because of its association with pagan worship.

• When you come to 1 Corinthians 13, and you ask, "What is this thing called love?" Paul—along with other writers in Scripture—uses the word agape.
• What is strange about this word is that it's seldom used outside the Bible. Biblical writers take agape and baptize it into the Christian faith, using it as the major word to describe God's love for us, our love for him, and our love for each other.
• What characterizes this kind of love is that it's not primarily a love of the emotions. Agape love is a mindset, an orientation of the will. It determines that it will seek the highest good for other people.
• As long as we hold agape love at this level of understanding—an abstract, theological, ethical level that speaks of seeking the highest good of other people—everybody passes.
• In verses 4-7 in our text, however, Paul defines this love beyond a dictionary definition. He shows us what love is by showing us what love does.
• If you look at the list in 1 Corinthians 13, you discover that agape love is defined through fifteen phrases.
• Let's look at the first two traits of agape love.

• If you were writing this list, would you start with patience?
• Most of us are impatient with patience! But this kind of patient love is possible because it comes from God. It's God's love in us.
• As we know, God is patient with us so he can lead us to repentance. He works with us, because that's the nature of the God who gives us agape love.
• God does for us what we do for others.
• You can also be patient if you take seriously the Christian doctrine about men and women—that is, that we are all sinners.
• We all struggle with sin, so we need to be patient with each other. The work God does in us doesn't happen overnight.

• Patience and kindness go together like a couple in a good marriage.
• Patience can be passive. But to be patient with somebody and then to respond by being kind to them? That's a triumph of love!
• All of us are on an uphill climb, carrying heavy burdens. All of us need kindness.
  • Illustration: Robinson tells two stories of kindness he has seen in his life: when a group of students single-handedly shoveled out an entire parking lot of cars after a snowfall, and when several men reached out in love and service to protesters at a Promise Keepers rally.

• We appreciate it when agape love is shown to us. But God's Spirit is working in us so that we can show this love to others.
• The Christian life often boils down to just that: being patient and kind with people—even impossible people. What a different campus we could be if we would do just that.