What Makes a Life Complete? | 1 Corinthians 13

Welcome to Real Life. What do you long for?

“What does not satisfy when we find it,

was not the thing we were desiring.”

–C.S. Lewis

What makes a life complete? Earn a degree. Get a promotion. Raise a family. Grow a healthy financial portfolio. Travel the world. All these things are good and beneficial. But we can reach these goals, and soon feel empty afterwards. Because accomplishments pale in comparison to the one thing that completes us—love. To love and be loved fills our hearts and lives like nothing else can.

Although we know this is true, sometimes even in the church, we get it wrong. We tend to downplay the importance of love. We elevate action: powerful preachers, bold and impressive apologists, charismatic teachers, and impactful missionaries. Certainly, those who pour out their lives in service deserve our respect and honor. For this reason, God’s perspective in 1 Corinthians 13 may shock us. If I lead worship with the voice of an angel or fill stadiums with my captivating preaching, but do so without love, I am just making noise. If I can explain the deep mysteries of the faith and win every theological debate, yet do so without love, I am nothing. If I donate my entire savings to the Salvation Army and dig wells for the poor in Africa, but fail to love those I am serving, I gain nothing. Everything we strive to accomplish for God apart from love, means nothing.

How can this be? It is because God is love. When we serve without love we serve without God. When we serve people without loving them, we deprive them of their deepest need.

“The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove

than the hunger for bread.”

—Mother Teresa

After encouraging believers to embrace spiritual gifts (see last blog, "We are the Body"), Paul challenges us to examine our hearts in wielding them. Why do we do the things we do? The church needs volunteers in the nursery, so I am filling a need. When I write that donation check, I feel good about myself. I care for my aging parent because it is my duty. The only pure motive is love. If the people in our homes and churches and neighborhoods don’t feel loved, we have failed.

What is love? It is not irritable. It is always kind. It is not jealous. Love doesn’t brag. It is not arrogant. Love sees others and cares how our actions affect them. Love is not easily offended. It keeps no tally of hurts and wrongs. Love runs from evil, but runs to the truth. It protects reputations. It trusts God to make everything right. It never stops seeing good and hoping for good. Love never stops loving.

Here, in this life, we catch glimpses of perfect love and completeness. But we are still children. On the day we see our Savior’s face, we will mature into adults. In heaven, we will understand all the crazy things that never made sense. There, we will know as we are known by God. And most importantly, there, enveloped in God’s love, we will finally be completely whole.

“When completeness comes, what is in part disappears.”[1]

Completeness is coming! The deep longings of our souls will be satisfied. We will be fully known and fully loved and fully whole. For now, these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.

What makes a life complete? Love. God is love.[2]

O Lord Jesus,
You are the One my soul longs for.
Forgive me for trying to fill my emptiness,
With things that can never fully satisfy.
We turn our hearts and faces to you.
Search us, Lord. Examine our motives.
Bring us back to the purity of love.
May we love you and love others well this day,
We pray in your holy name. Amen.

Take it further…

Read 1 Corinthians 13.
Do you long for completeness? Steven McWhirter gives voice to this longing in his prayerful song, "Come Jesus Come."

Puzzle Image by Canva
[1] 1 Corinthians 13:10
[2] 1 John 4:8 and 4:16

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