Just Love
1 Corinthians 13:3-7, 13, NIV
If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres… And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
This week, we’ve looked at passages in the Bible that remind us of the importance of justice. So why am I ending on 1 Corinthians 13, with its ‘love is…’ statements?
The reason is a quotation that I can’t seem to get out of my head, from Miroslav Volf - a theologian who lived through the horror of war in the Balkans. He wrote: ‘If you want justice and nothing but justice, you will inevitably get injustice. If you want justice without injustice, you must want love. A world of perfect justice is a world of love.’ His point is that throughout history, people who have fought for justice have ended up perpetuating injustice.
But Jesus, on the Cross, offers us another way – the way of self-giving love. And Jesus taught his disciples to take up their crosses and follow him. If the Cross is our model for practising justice, then we know that seeking justice will be costly.
In the language of today’s passage, we know we’ll need to be patient as we walk alongside people through the long, often slow process of change. We know we’ll need to be kind to people even when they are challenging to support. We know that we can’t be proud but commit to unseen actions if we want real change.
I think that sometimes we are hesitant to talk about justice because we worry that, by mentioning it, we’re trying to present ourselves as good people. Virtue signalling or tokenistic gestures cost us nothing. Justice with love does. Rescuing us from our self-destruction cost God everything.
As we practise justice, we can’t forget it has to be motivated by a just love. Without love, we have nothing.
Prayer - Lord, help us to love others as you have loved us. May our love go beyond feeling or concern and be expressed in effective action.