Genesis 2:18-24 - 18 Then
the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be
alone; I will make him a helper fit for[a] him.” 19 Now
out of the ground the Lord God had formed[b] every
beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the
man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living
creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names
to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the
field. But for Adam[c] there
was not found a helper fit for him. 21 So
the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while
he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And
the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made[d] into a
woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man
said,
“This at last is bone of my
bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man.”[e]
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man.”[e]
24 Therefore
a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they
shall become one flesh.
1 Corinthians 13:1-7 - 13 If
I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong
or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I
have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and
if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am
nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I
deliver up my body to be burned,[a] but have
not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is
patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not
arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its
own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[b] 6 it does
not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all
things.
8 Love never
ends. 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these
three; but the greatest of these is love.
Grace, mercy and peace to you from
God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text today is from the 1 Corinthians text, especially these words,
“Love never fails.” Thus far our
text.
Love is patient,
Love is kind. Love never ends, and our
text says the greatest thing in the world is love itself! As the song goes, “All you need is love”.
And yet in our
world, we see couple after couple that love each other implode. We see marriages falling apart, families
fighting and through the many years, that happy, gushy feeling that we call
love often times is dampened, crushed and slowly it falls apart. As we live our daily lives, we just seem not
to feel love anymore.
Alex and Greg,
these difficult challenges and more lie ahead.
There may be days when it is difficult to make ends meet. There may be days when you two cannot agree
on what to do, where to go, or how to live your daily lives. That’s our sinful world. And during those times, love will seem miles
away.
You will not always
be patient. You will not always be
kind. You will at times be jealous, and
you will at times be envious.
And perhaps the
“feeling” of love will be gone one day.
But love will still be yours, because Love is not just a feeling, it’s a
person – the person of Jesus Christ. He
is the very embodiment of love. He who
had such great a love as to suffer, bleed and die for you both, and for the
forgiveness of all your sins. He will be
with you in all the many days and years ahead.
He will guard you and keep you, he will be your bulwark when the feeling
of love is lost among you.
You see, all love
begins outside of yourself. Love begins
with Christ, and so love will be with you both every day of your married
life. Love will be there to forgive when
you fight. Love from Christ will sustain
you for your entire life.
And in that love
from Jesus, you will be able to be patient with each and forgive each other
when your not. You’ll be able to be
kind, not arrogant or rude, and endure all things. IN the love of Christ, you’ll have many more
happy years ahead of you.
Love is patient,
love is kind, love is caring, and love never ends. Love comes from Christ, and now, dear friends
you share that love with each other for the rest of your days.
God’s Blessings. Amen.
