Love

Love.  The common sequence of the weeks of Advent flows from hope (week 1) to love (week 2), joy (week 3), and peace (week 4). While there is nothing compulsory or even biblical about the order of our celebrating, the rhythm of Advent is satisfying, like a steady beat laid down by a skillful drummer. Hope anticipates Christ. Love receives Christ. Joy exudes Christ. Peace overflows Christ. This week is love.

Not often thought of in the context of Christmastime, 1 Corinthians 13 is very incarnational, and so very Christmassy. By making the invisible God (John 4:24) visible, Jesus makes the unfathomable God (Rom. 11:33) fathomable, which is to say: knowable, relatable, and accessible. We have never seen God’s love, and therefore never known God’s love, apart from Jesus’ incarnation. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known” (John 1:18).

Jesus puts skin on love in the church just like Jesus put skin on God in the world. In that vein, 1 Corinthians 13 is secondarily incarnational. When the church—through Christ—loves one another, we make the now-ascended Lord Jesus knowable, relatable, and accessible in our communities. Locally, we put skin on the one who, universally, put skin on God. We, like Jesus but infinitely less than Jesus, incarnate the invisible qualities of the gospel in our relationships.

Therefore, that which we sometimes refer to as the Love Chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, is an excellent Christmastime passage. Not only is it filled at the center with love (vv. 4-8), but it is also bracketed front-to-back by the love of Christ (vv. 1, 13). Listen to its pulse as an extension of the incarnation of Christ. “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends” (1 Cor. 13:4-8). Inside the sphere of interpersonal relationships, love skillfully says, “Merry Christmas!” all year long. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).