For More Than a Wedding

Scripture Text: 1 Corinthians 13

This passage of Scripture seems like an easy target for a marriage blog, and in many ways it is. By the same token, there is a challenge because of its familiarity. Not to mention the tired ways this passage has been applied to marriage over the years. There is so much more to this passage than kind words at a wedding.

If you have been to a wedding in the last 20 years there is a better than average chance this passage of Scripture has been read during the ceremony. A wedding is the ideal place to have a conversation about love. At the same time, Paul was not writing these words for a wedding, he was writing them to the church in Corinth as instruction for how they could best live their lives.

All the other great things in life are meaningless if we do not have love. This does not mean if no one loves us. It means if we do not live our lives based in the love Paul describes. These words are instructions for how we show love to others, including our spouse, if we want to reflect having a relationship with God.

The points Paul highlights about what love is and is not, are essential in a marriage. Their starting point is not found in the marriage relationship but in the lives of the two individuals making up the marriage. Long before the first date, long before the first thought of asking for the first date, we must fashion our lives in such a way that people experience love from us.

Love that Paul describes does not get initiated by a wedding. It is not the result of two people who love each other enough. The love Paul describes is found when two people commit their lives to the love God has shown humanity in Jesus Christ, and then commit to each other to be bearers of that love.