October 11, 2026
• Rev. Mindie Moore
Love One Another Week 2
1 Corinthians 13
Loving When it's Hard
October 11, 2026
It's the second week of our series, "Let's Love One Another", where we are exploring what it means to show up with love during this divisive moment in our country, specifically as we go into the Midterm election.
And today we are going to be looking at what I think is one of the most famous sections of Scripture about love: 1 Corinthians 13.
How many of you either had this at your wedding (if you're married) or have heard this read at a wedding?
I think I've given a wedding message on this verse about 15 times. I did it twice just in September alone! And this funny thing happens when couples choose this Scripture. They get ready to tell me, and I know what they are going to say by the look on their faces. They often are a little bit embarassed, like, "I bet she's heard this one before."
And I have, it's true. And what I always tell them is you have picked a powerful scripture to begin your lives together. Because all the ways that we might have written this one off as being flowery and romantic...it's so much more than that.
These verses are about love, yes. But it's NOT about romantic love. It was NOT written for weddings. This is a powerful blueprint for how we love...when it is really hard to do.
And as we read about how this ancient community that Paul is writing to is struggling to love through things like conflict and change and difference; as we read about how powerful a force love can be in a world that is a mess, I think what Paul had to say to them in this chapter, all those years ago, still rings true for us today.
We're going to look at two ways to love today. They're distinct, but they're also connected. We're going to look at how we love individual people, particularly when it's challenging. And we're going to look at how we as the Church live into Paul's call to love in our world.
And as we talk about these two ways to love, really quickly I just want to put in front of us what Paul says love IS and what Paul says love ISN'T. (SLIDE)
Love IS: patient, kind, rejoices in truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes, and endures
Love IS NOT: envious, boastful, arrogant, or rude. It's not selfish or irritable and it doesn't hold a grudge.
Keep this list in mind as we talk, and let yourself come back to it not just in here, but when you're in the rest of your real life, when this all gets really hard.
Because...it IS hard to live these things out. And I suspect that the people who received this letter, the members of the church at Corinth, thought it was pretty hard too. This was a BIG city—it was probably the 5th biggest city in the Roman Empire, and there were people from all different backgrounds, economic statuses, religions, you name it. Because of its size and location and all the different people-groups, it was a diverse, pluralistic society.
And within this context, you have this church...this church that says, "we're here to reach all of these people! No matter who they are, they belong here." Wait, where have I heard that before?!
You know I love that message and that vision. You probably do too, that's why you're at THIS church, where we are all about that too! But you also know when you get that many people and opinions and life experiences together, things can get messy really fast. You don't even have to go to church to find that—just go to your Thanksgiving table in a few weeks! Or a school board meeting. Or talk to some people at work. You'll find the difference and the messiness that comes with that pretty quickly.
I was recently listening to an episode of the Pantsuit Politics (SLIDE) podcast, titled: "Viral Stories Tell Us More Than Headlines Do (+Taylor Swift's Encore)". And this was such a fascinating hour of cultural commentary that I thought summed up the temperature in our world SO well. They basically took three stories that have gone viral in the past few weeks and broke them down—who the players have been, what seems at stake for the people involved, and why opinions have gotten so heated around those conversations. What they found, over and over again, is that all of these viral moments had significant disagreements at play, with very little understanding of how to engage in those disagreements with anything that resembled nuance or love.
And the hosts, Beth and Sarah, said repeatedly something that they both believe very strongly. They said: (SLIDE) We are not entitled to a life that is free from conflict.
And maybe you, like me, on hearing that, had the reflexive thought, "well, why not?!" I was kind of annoyed and uncomfortable hearing that.
But, the more I reflected on my own reaction to that, the more I realized—when differences are present and our beliefs are strong, conflict is going to be part of our relationships. And right now, because of the culture we've created, we don't have a lot of tools to engage in that conflict in a healthy way that lets us disagree but still be connected.
We fall into the trap of either it's all right or all wrong, and what they pointed out on the podcast is that if we're ok being a culture that is so ready to be combative over every single thing we interact with on the internet, then why would we expect our face to face, real life human relationships to be all that different? Even if we're not online a ton, we're marinating in a constant state of doing a lot of those things Paul says do NOT constitute love...we keep the records of wrongs, we get rude and irritable, we boast about what we know...it gets kind of bleak.
And then when we get face to face with people we love who hold those differences...the breakdown can be intense. The rifts start to grow. We stop hearing each other when we talk. We lose the ability to listen and be curious and just BE with each other.
When I talk about loving each other through our differences, I'm not talking about a life that is devoid of conflict OR an existence where we just lay down all of our convictions to pretend to keep the peace. I'm also not talking about making concessions for people who are harmful or abusive.
But what I am saying is that maybe it's worth our time and energy to explore what it means to love people even if it is not easy. Maybe we can be patient as we listen. We can be kind even as we disagree. We can have hope that the Holy Spirit can be at work even in our biggest pain points as we draw near in relationship with our differences on display. And when we can do those things, when we can love like that, I think it lets us show up in our relationships with two very powerful things: (SLIDE) firm convictions and soft hearts.
That might be a very different and sacred space to approach disagreement from than what we're used to. But loving like this lets us stay connected while staying true to who we are. I know that it is by no means easy or comfortable to love like that, but it's this kind of love that can create some really holy moments where God can work in ways that only God can do.
And this is work that God has been doing for generations—using love as a tool to create something better. And this is where we start to shift this conversation from what happens in our individual lives to what is going on and how we show up collectively in our world. This is where we start to explore the ways that love can reorient us to what matters most...and how love can disrupt the status quo.
I think it's fair to say that the Corinthian Church as a whole needs some help being reoriented to what's most important. And you can actually see that play out in the entirety of this letter. This group of people is looking for ALL kinds of advice from Paul on so many different things! It's like, "Paul, how do we do this? Paul, how do we do that?" And if you read through these letters, you are going to see instruction after instruction. It covers everything from divorce, to giving, to head coverings, and everything in between. And it makes sense because these all seem like SUPER important things. These are their priorities; they want to get it all right.
But then we get to Chapter 13, and Paul is like, "everything I just said? It's worth paying attention to, but I am about to tell you the MOST important thing. And if you miss out on it, if you miss out on the chance to be people and a community that loves over everything else....you will have missed the point altogether."
All the things you want to be right about? Doesn't matter as much as love.
All the things you know? Doesn't matter as much as love.
All the rules you follow? Doesn't matter as much as love.
All the talent you have? Doesn't matter as much as love.
Love is the thing that is going to both anchor this church to God and set them apart in their world. Love is the most powerful thing that they have to offer, and what a travesty if they don't.
Love is the most powerful thing WE have to offer...and what a travesty if we don't do it too. And I know, that standing up here and telling us all to collectively show up with love in a world that does not seem one bit primed for it might seem like a bit of a hard sell right now. But that's why it seems like the most urgent task we have as the church today.
Because I know you are aware of the headlines right now. I know you are well aware of all of the things that are happening in our government and in our communities that I could specifically call out for not reflecting love and that actually point us in the complete opposite direction of who Jesus is. I don't think you really need all my personal takes on these things, but what I do think that we need as a community is both the reminder and the invitation that we are not helpless victims to these things. We have been given the call to be love in this world. We have been given a whole list of what this looks like. And we've been given the opportunity to really figure out how we show up like THIS in a world that looks like THAT.
How do we let our love be a powerful force for something good? And how do we do this as the body of Christ, trying to be like Jesus in our world?
One of the most famous prophetic voices in modern history is Martin Luther King Jr. And he had a lot to say about what it looks like for The Church to let its love be this powerful force. He, like Paul, actually wrote a letter to church leaders who needed to hear that truth and pay attention to what they were about and if it reflected the love of Jesus that we are called to live from. Listen to these words from his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail":
"Whenever early Christians entered a town, the power structure got disturbed and immediately sought to convict them for being 'disturbers of the peace' and 'outside agitators.' But they went on with the conviction that they were a 'colony of heaven' and had to obey God rather than man...
Things are different now. The contemporary Church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch supporter of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the Church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the Church's silent and often vocal sanction of things as they are."
These words were written in 1963, and it feels like they could have been written yesterday. If we want to live out Paul's call to love, this is part of it. Love means showing up and working for good, even when it feels impossible. It means paying attention to what the status quo has become and being brave enough to name when it's not like Jesus. It's believing that our presence and our persistence and our love is incredibly powerful, more powerful than hateful rhetoric or even raging fury. Love anchors us to something that is lasting and true and helps us live from the core of who God is. And if we can be about that, more than anything else, we're going to create an impact. We're going to be part of healing what's broken. We're going to be about the work of justice and hope that our world so desperately needs.
Let's look at that list of what love is and isn't one more time (SLIDE)
Love IS: patient, kind, rejoices in truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes, and endures
This is what love is...and here's what love does:
It's what lets us see the human in front of us beyond our big disagreements. It's what drives us into action when we encounter injustices that seem too big to solve. It's what lets us hope that God is not done with us, even when we can't see a good way forward. It's what keeps us from giving into hate and harm, even when we're feeling reactive. It's what enables us to forgive, even when we've been harmed. It's what lets us be bold and speak up for justice, even when we're afraid.
The very last verse of this chapter is my favorite, and that's how I want to end today, by sharing these simple but powerful words with you:
And now faith, hope, and love remain, these three, and the greatest of these is love.
When we set all of the stuff down, when we really get focused on what matters most...it's love. So let's do whatever we have to do—whether it's slow down or listen closely or draw near or stand up for what's right—let's do what we have to do so that love can remain in us and do it's work...both in us and through us.
Let's pray.