Real Love

Real Love

Quinquagesima – 2/15/2026

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Rev. Dr. Christopher W. Brademeyer

That portion of God’s holy Word for consideration this morning is our Epistle lesson from the First Epistle to the Corinthians in the thirteenth chapter with special emphasis on verse eight which reads as follows:

                “Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.”[1]

Thus far the Scriptures.

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today’s readings give us a concept that our culture thinks it already understands: love. Our culture, western culture, speaks constantly about love. They say that love is affirmation. Love is acceptance. Love is desire. Love is romance. Love is emotional intensity. Love is being seen and validated. If it feels strong and sincere, it must be love.

This is all to say that general culture tends to define love in two primary ways: first, love is emotion, a powerful internal feeling. Second, love is unconditional affirmation,  supporting someone’s choices without judgment and full-throated encouragement. Love, in this view, is measured by intensity and tolerance. It is something we feel and something we give in order to validate another person’s self-expression.

But today’s readings dismantle that definition and replace it with something far deeper, far more demanding, and far more salvific.

Love Is Not What the Eye Sees

We begin learning this from our Old Testament lesson. When the Lord sent Samuel to anoint a new king, Samuel did what we all do: he looked at appearances. Eliab stood before him tall, impressive, and kingly. Samuel thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him.”

But the Lord said: “Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” Culture’s understanding of love is almost entirely outward. This sort of love is attracted to what is attractive, desirable, and impressive. It loves what appears strong, successful, and what seems capable of being emotionally satisfying.

But biblical love does not begin with appearance or emotional pull. It begins with God’s electing grace. David was the youngest, overlooked, forgotten in the field. Yet he was chosen.

Christian love begins like this. It does not have its source and foundation in what is impressive. Not in what draws admiration. Not in what flatters our preferences.

Christian love begins with God choosing the unlikely, the weak, even the sinner. This explicitly contradicts cultural love. The general view of love says: “You are lovable because of what you are.” Christian love says: “You are loved because God has chosen to love you.” That is not sentimental. That is God’s grace in action. The root of love does not lie in the loveliness of the one who is loved, rather, it lies in the disposition of the one extending that love.

Love Is Not Mere Feeling

We live in a culture that reduces love to emotion, but St. Paul strips that illusion away.

He does not describe love as a feeling at all. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not envy or boast.It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way.

Notice that these are not emotions. These are disciplined actions of the will. That is to say, these are habits and behaviors that must be cultivated. Love expresses itself in service to that which is loved. Love is defined not by what the one doing the loving gets out of the arrangement, but what the loving one puts into it. This is why love in Scripture is cruciform. It is self-giving. It is costly. It is governed not by inner intensity but by faithfulness, promise, and action.

Culture says: “Follow your heart.” Paul says: “Love does not insist on its own way.” Culture says: “Love means affirming everything about me, no matter whether it is true or not.” Paul says: “Love rejoices with the truth.” That last phrase is decisive. Love is not indifferent to truth. Love does not celebrate what destroys. Love does not call darkness light. It does not go along with lies or falsehoods in order to avoid offense. Christian love is inseparable from truth because God is truth.

This is why love is greater than faith and hope. Faith clings to Christ. Hope longs for fulfillment. But love reflects the very character of God Himself. And what does that love look like? Look at the cross. Look to Christ, our God, crucified for you and your salvation. No greater love has a man than this, to lay down his life for his friends. Even more, our Lord Jesus laid down His life for us when we were still sinners and enemies of His.

Love Walks Toward Jerusalem

In the Gospel reading, Jesus tells the Twelve that He is going to Jerusalem. He will be mocked, flogged, spit upon, and killed. And the disciples do not understand. This is not a small detail. They are walking with Love incarnate and they cannot comprehend what love is doing.

Because love, as God defines it, walks toward suffering for the sake of those in need of the benefits of love. Jesus Christ walks to Calvary to lay down His life so that you would have forgiveness, life, and salvation.

This is not romantic. This is not emotional affection. This is not validation. This is bloody and costly substitution. The Son of Man is delivered over so that the blind would see, the guilty would be justified, and the condemned would live.

Immediately after predicting His Passion, Jesus encounters a blind beggar. The crowd tries to silence the poor fellow, but he cried out: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” This is the true posture before the love of God. No, we needy beggars have no claim, no way to self-assert without hypocrisy before God. All we have is desperate faith.

The man did not demand affirmation. He did not claim worthiness. He simply asked for mercy. And Jesus stopped. This, dear Christian friends, is what true and real love looks like.

Love stops for the helpless. Love hears the cry for mercy. Love alleviates suffering. And ultimately, love gives sacrificially of itself.

Two Definitions of Love

To put it simply, love as understood by our culture is primarily emotional. It centers on self-expression. It avoids judgement at all cost. It selfishly seeks personal fulfillment. It fades when feelings change. It measures itself by what it receives.

Love, as given by God and revealed in the Scriptures, is grounded in grace, particularly God’s grace. It is a friend of and ordered by the truth. It delights in self-sacrifice and giving to others. It seeks what is objectively good for others, even at cost to the one doing the loving. It endures suffering.

One is rooted in the self. The other is rooted in Christ. One says, “Love me as I define myself.” The other says, “Christ loved me and gave Himself for me.” And here is the uncomfortable truth: left to ourselves, we prefer the cultural version. It is easier. It flatters us. It demands little, even nothing from it.

But it is empty. Feelings fade. Selfish designs all fail in the face of real life and all its hardships. But even more, it does not give us what the love of God does. Emotional affirmation does not forgive sin. Tolerance does not conquer death. Romantic intensity does not justify the ungodly.

Only crucified Love can do that.

Like the blind man, we need to have our eyes opened to see love as it truly is. If we define love wrongly, we will misunderstand the cross. If we misunderstand the cross, we will misunderstand God. God’s love is not indulgent. It is not sentimental. It is not permissive. It is holy. It is truthful. It is sacrificial. And best of all, it is for you.

You are not loved by God because of how impressive you are. You were not loved because you are emotionally attractive to the perfect Lord of all heaven and earth. You are loved, even though your sin makes you blind. You were loved even though in matters of the Spirit you are helpless. Even in our pitiful state under sin, Christ still loves you so much that He set Himself toward Jerusalem to die for you and your salvation.

Love never ends. Feelings fade. Cultures shift. Definitions change. But the love of Christ, a love that is demonstrated in blood, and sealed in resurrection forever remains. Faith will give way to sight. Hope will give way to fulfillment. But love, Christ’s self-giving love, abides forever.

Lent, which begins this Wednesday, serves to point our minds to the cross of Christ. And sacred event does not allow us to ask merely, “Do I feel love?” Ask instead: Has Christ loved me?Has He borne my sin? Has He opened my blind eyes?

The answer is a resounding and unchanging yes. And because you are loved in that way, you are now free to love, not sentimentally, not superficially, but truthfully, patiently, sacrificially. Indeed, in the very same way Christ loves you.

In the holy Name of + Jesus. Amen.

 The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

[1] 1 Corinthians 13:8 English Standard Version. All further quotations from the Holy Scriptures are from the ESV.