Some say Love is love. But how does the Bible define love? It is utterly selfless.
A sermon on 1 Corinthians 13 by Pastor Emeritus Steve Froehlich.
Quotes: I take literally the statement in the Gospel of John that God loves the world. I believe that the world was created and approved by love, that it subsists, coheres, and endures by love, and that, insofar as it is redeemable, it can be redeemed only by love. I believe that divine love, incarnate and indwelling in the world. summons the world always toward wholeness, which ultimately is reconciliation… with God.
– Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace
You have not chosen one another, but I have chosen you for one another.
– CS Lewis, The Four Loves
Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person’s ultimate good as far as it can be obtained.
– CS Lewis, The Problem of Pain
Scripture Text: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
If I speak in human or angelic tongues, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give my body to be burned that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love suffers long, love is kind. Love is not jealous. Love is not boastful or arrogant or rude. Love does not seek its own; it is not irritable or resentful. Love does not rejoice in evil; it rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things endures all things. 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Liturgy bulletin link
Sermon transcript link
“The Face of Love” preached by Rev. Dr. Steven D. Froehlich, Sunday, June 29, 2025 at 10:00AM at New Life Presbyterian Church in Ithaca, NY. Come see the beautiful Finger Lakes region, and worship God with us. www.newlifeithaca.org.
Sermon music is from “We Will Feast in the House of Zion” provided by Sandra McCracken and with her permission. www.sandramccracken.com.