Scripture: 1 Corinthians 8:1; 1 John 4:7-10; 1 Corinthians 7; James 1:23-24 Series: 2021
Opening a Works of Love series on First Corinthians, this Easter sermon takes 1 Corinthians 8:1 (‘knowledge puffs up but love builds up’) and argues that to build people up is to build them up on love that is already present, since God first loved us (1 John 4). Building up means refusing to control or be jealous of others (Kierkegaard’s ‘devil’s martyr’), illustrated by the preacher’s experience of Australian ‘tall poppy syndrome.’ Through the risen Christ believers are freed from unloving habits and called to practice love together in the church and toward neighbors, including online, because God has already built them up in love.
Illustrations: tall-poppy-syndrome-australia, home-remodel-vs-build-up, kierkegaard-devils-martyr, mirror-forgetting-james, righteous-posters-vs-people
Love Builds Up
April 11, 2021
Now concerning meat that has been sacrificed to a false god: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes people arrogant, but love builds people up. -1 Corinthians 8:1
When I was in eighth grade, my family moved to Australia. My father was a college professor at Texas A&M University and he had earned a sabbatical leave to finish rewriting a health textbook. We found a spot in Newcastle, Australia. So my family and I moved down to Australia and lived in an apartment overlooking the beach. It was lovely. It was absolutely gorgeous to look out and see nature in that kind of way. We had a number of really beautiful experiences living there for about six months. We were able to see the Great Barrier Reef, back in the nineties when it was more great than it is now. We were able to see Uluru or Ayer’s Rock in the middle of the Outback. I was able to attend a high school at Newcastle High school, where the 90s band, Silverchair, went to school. That’s a deep cut. I did not have a great time in Australian high school there. The school year starts in January so I was in Grade 9. It was very different for me. I mean, it is not a great time to be a 14 year old boy anywhere, but some things were hard for me there. And then you have this issue with some Australians. I’m not going to throw all of them under the bus. There is an issue with some Australians that is called tall poppy syndrome. Tall poppy syndrome comes from how, in a poppy field, you want all the plants to be about the same height in order to make the harvest simpler. So if there’s a tall poppy, you cut it down so that it’s more uniform. What this means in practice for some in Australia is that they love to tear down people who are trying and doing well. I tried at school, I didn’t try too hard, but I was new and I was different. I was trying and I got cut down, over and over again. The kids at school cut me down. It is a tough age. I don’t blame the students as much as the country. But really, all I needed was to be built up. What does it mean to build someone up? It is not just kind words or compliments but something more. In the season of Easter, we are beginning a new sermon series titled Works of Love. We’re looking at a number of passages from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, including slowly going through that most famous of passages: 1 Corinthians 13. Love is patient. Love is kind. We’ll get to that soon, but before that we will start right here in 1 Corinthians 8:1. The previous chapter, 1 Corinthians 7, is one of those odd areas of the Bible where Paul says explicitly that he is responding to a practical situation. And then he responds about the challenges of human sexuality and how it’s best to be celibate and dedicate yourself to God, but for most everyone, marriage can be okay. This opens a different can of worms than we are getting to in this series, but it is important to understand that Paul is responding to the practical needs of the community. And then he gets to 1 Corinthians 8. The first part of the first verse responds to practical issues in the Corinthian church. In this case, specifically, responding to what is to be done with food that has been sacrificed to idols? Can we eat it? This has to do with how the disciples understood the sacrifice of the temple in this new period with Jesus. If we can eat whatever we want, can we eat those things? So Paul responds, in dramatic fashion, in a way that basically says that knowledge puffs up but love builds up. To build something up means to construct it from the ground up. If you are remodeling your home, you’re not going to build up. A new addition is not a build-up. As well, knowledge is not bad in itself, but it can be distorted. Humans have this amazing ability to take something good given to us by God and to twist it and distort it. The difference between what puffs up and what builds up is love. Love is the ground. Love is the building. Love builds up. To build up is to build up love. Love builds up by presuming that love is already present. When we claim that love builds up, that is to admit that we do not. Only the unloving person thinks that you can build anyone up by controlling them. To love someone is not to control them. To try and control another person is to be unloving. This includes our children. If we try to control our kids, we are not showing them love. If we will never let them stumble, we will never let them stand. We can protect them and mitigate the greatest of harms but we cannot control them. Love also means not being jealous of others. The Danish philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard, has this lovely expression: the jealous person is the devil’s martyr. They witness to the works of the devil. When you are jealous, you witness to the works of the devil. You tear down God’s kingdom through the very act of jealousy. That’s the issue with this whole Tall Poppy Syndrome, the fixation on the actions of others is unloving and stems from jealousy. But we don’t need to do that, even in Australia. This season of Easter, through the power of Christ’s resurrection, we can let go of the not-loving things in our life. We can work to let go of jealousy, and I include myself here. For I may think, “Yeah, another pastor has that. Gosh, another church, etc.” Before I can let those things go, I need to name them and admit to myself that I have been unloving. I need to offer it to Jesus. I need to receive grace and forgiveness, and then let myself be built up by love. So that’s the issue of jealousy and the devil’s martyrdom. But we are not alone. Literally, you are not alone right now. Even if you are watching online by yourself or listening to the podcast, you are not alone. We live in community with others. There are people in our lives. People, whom we claim to love. So how can we get to a point of building up, instead of puffing up. I think, first of all, we need to remember that what is truly built up in love is built up on love.
We can best understand through the person of Jesus Christ. In the first letter of John, he lays it all out:
“Dear friends, let’s love each other, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born from God and knows God. The person who doesn’t love does not know God, because God is love. This is how the love of God is revealed to us: God has sent his only Son into the world so that we can live through him. This is love: it is not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as the sacrifice that deals with our sins.
Love is what Jesus does. Love is who Jesus is. When others see a leper, Jesus sees a child of God. When others see an adulterer, Jesus sees a child of God. Love is not a choice or a feeling. Love is not a many splendid things. The love that God is has been revealed to us: God has sent his singular son into the world so that we can live through him. It is not that we love God but that God first loved us. That is how we can be built up. The foundation of love is God’s love for us. It is already there. God already loves you. We see that at Easter with Jesus.
Easter is the season of encountering the risen Lord. All those who encounter the risen Jesus are changed.
And if the change is going to last, we have to do it. James writes that if we don’t put our faith into practice it is like looking in the mirror and forgetting what we look like. If we don’t intentionally spend time loving people and building people up, we are going to forget and fall back into old habits. We are going to start tearing people down. We do it together. We need to practice this Jesus love together. This is why the church exists. This is why we worship together and serve together. This is why we give together and grow together. Maybe this Easter God is calling you to a new form of practicing love. Maybe it is in a Sunday school class or a small group or an outreach ministry.
You have been called to build people up. This starts with the people in your life but it doesn’t end there. It includes your neighbors in person and your neighbors on the internet. It includes how you write comments on people’s social media posts and how you judge people for what they say before talking to them directly. God doesn’t call us to be righteous posters but to be righteous people who build others up in love no matter what or where we find them. God gives us the freedom to build others up in love. To build others up on love. We don’t need to cut down the tall poppies. We don’t need to tear others down. We don’t need to do any of this alone. We don’t need to be the devil’s martyr. We are already children of God. Love is already there with you. You don’t need to make an addition. You don’t need to remodel yourself. God has built you up in love. Let us work to build up others.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.