Note: This is a sermon intended for a local church congregation during a Sunday morning worship service. Its intent is to stimulate a greater interest in jail and prison ministry. © Roger DePriest, 2003. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Do You Love the Unlovely?
Roger DePriest, M.A. - Regional Director for Good News Jail & Prison Ministry
1 Corinthians 13:7
Introduction:
There are certain chapters of the Bible that have become famous – even among pagan Americans. When I minister among the inmates in my jail, even the most biblically illiterate has some familiarity with some of the “famous” passages of Scripture. E.g. Matthew 5:3-10 (the Beattitudes); Psalm 23 (the Lord is my Shepherd); Matthew 6:9-13 (Lord’s Prayer). How is it that these portions of Scripture have become so famous? I suppose it is because of their intrinsic beauty and literary quality. But one thing I have discovered is that (generally speaking) because these passages are so familiar, few people have taken the time and effort to really consider what these passages actually teach. In other words, some of the most familiar passages of Scripture have the least amount of careful thinking going into them. That is true of the passage I want to consider with you today. It is both a famous passage and a passage with a lot of “fuzzy thinking” surrounding it. The passage I am referring to is 1 Corinthians 13 and is often dubbed “The Love Chapter.”
If I had to put the entire chapter (1 Cor. 13) into a proposition, I would say that this chapter tells us that God wants us to love the way He loves. It is not just a nice poetic chapter that is supposed to make us feel good. It is a chapter that issues a command. That command is this: We must love the way God loves. This chapter describes what that love consists of and suggests how we are to do so. In fact, I will take it one step further. I believe this chapter, when taken in its greater context (especially chapters 12‑14), tells me that I must love the unlovely. You can see why that would be especially applicable for a jail chaplain. Jails are filled with what society views as unlovely people. My primary purpose today is to attempt to communicate to you how a jail chaplain attempts to love his inmate population and also how you can be involved in this same effort. Of course, jails and prisons are not the only place you find “unlovely” people? Not at all. Some wives are married to some rather unlovely husbands. Some husbands are married to some rather unlovely wives. Some parents are raising some rather unlovely children. Perhaps you live next to a rather unlovely neighbor. You get the point. God not only wants a jail chaplain to love the unlovely prisoners in his jail population, but He wants you the love the unlovely people that surround you including the inmate population right here in your own community. That is why I want to explore 1 Corinthians 13 with you this morning. It is a passage that serves as a guide to me in how I should love the inmates under my ministry.
But before we can proceed, we will need to burn off some of the fuzzy edges about love. To simply say that, as a jail chaplain, I must love the unlovely, is to assume that I know how to love. We are going to limit ourselves to only one verse (13:7). But before we deal with that specifically let me make some general comments.
There are at least two reasons, I believe, why there is fuzzy thinking regarding 1 Corinthians 13. First, this chapter is usually not considered in its overall context within the book. Second, many people import a western mentality of “love” into this chapter rather than working with the biblical strictures of love. My point is that when we come to the Scriptures, we must do our utmost to work and think within the guidelines of the Scriptures themselves and the overall context of a given passage, and not import our own skewed perspectives into them. Yet this very thing is what has happened so often with 1 Corinthians 13. But what is exciting to me is that when I understand this passage in its context, I see how very applicable it is to my ministry to inmates. And without a whole lot of imagination, you will be able to see how very applicable it is to you in the ministry God has given you also. Let me show you what I mean.
Take a look with me at 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a, paying particular notice of verse 7.
4Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8Love never fails.
The first thing I notice here is that my ministry exists primarily because, as a rule, the inmates of my jail did not conduct their lives – in a least one point or more – according to the pattern of love detailed here in this chapter. In other words, some were not longsuffering and decided to retaliate on what they thought was an injustice. Some were envious to the point of breaking the law. Some sought their own wants and needs even though it was detrimental to themselves or others. Some were provoked to break the law. – And on we could go with the list. The inmate population consists (generally speaking) of men and women that have failed to love the way God wants them to love. That probably also means that they have not been loved with a Christ-like, godly love. That is why I get excited about jail ministry. These are love-starved people. Many of them will respond incredulously when a chaplain or a volunteer demonstrates genuine, selfless, Christ-like love.
That is all well and good, but we have a problem when we come to verse 7. How are we supposed to handle the “all things” repeated four times in this verse? It is a great verse, but do you really understand what it means? Love bears all things. Does that mean that if you see a neighborhood bully beating up one of your kids, that you are supposed to pass it off because love “bears all things”? Love believes all things. Does that mean that if two men in white shirt and tie knock at your door and begin explaining some strange doctrine to you that you are supposed to believe it because love “believes all things”? Love hopes all things. Does that mean that if an amputee friend of yours hears about a faith-healer in town that we should encourage him to go in the hope that he might be able to re-grow his limb, because love “hopes all things”? Love endures all things. Does that mean that if your teenager complains about a pain in her right side and displays all the classic symptoms of appendicitis that you must encourage her to endure the pain because love “endures all things”? I trust we would answer no to all of these scenarios. We would say that in some way we would have to put some qualifiers on the “all things” in verse 7.
Let’s take them one at a time and see if we can understand more practically what Paul is trying to say here.
Love bears all things.
We don’t have to go far to find out whether the apostle Paul intended for the “all things” to be restricted. One of the earliest books of the New Testament (perhaps the first book) that Paul wrote was 1 Thessalonians. Paul had planted that church in Thessalonica but was only able to spend a brief time there grounding them in their newfound faith before circumstances required that he leave. This brand new church was undergoing intense persecution for their faith. So Paul is desperate to hear from them, hoping and praying that they stand firm in their newfound faith. But not getting any news from them was torturous to him. In fact, he says in 1 Thessalonians 3 that he “could bear it no longer” (RSV -- same word as 1 Cor. 13:7) and so he sent Timothy to them to establish them further in the faith. So here is an example where Paul did not “bear all things.” What is it then that qualifies the “all things”? A closer example is 1 Corinthians 9:12. Here, the exact same expression (only a few chapters earlier) is used. Paul is speaking of the right of the minister of the gospel to receive financial support from his ministry. Nevertheless, though he himself has this right, Paul says, he decided to forfeit it. Notice what he says in 9:12:
If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more? Nevertheless we have not used this right, but endure all things lest we hinder the gospel of Christ. (NKJV)
The word for “bear” in 1 Thessalonians 3 or “endure” in the case of 1 Corinthians 9:12 is a word that carries a basic idea of shelter or protection. In its noun form (used 3 times in the gospels) it is translated as “roof.” The relationship to shelter or protection is evident. So the qualifying idea of the “all things” is Paul’s prevailing desire to protect the reputation of the gospel. In that sense, Paul’s intense love for the gospel will cause him to “bear” all things.
Let me illustrate how this works in jail ministry. I was ministering in the general population one day and a muslim inmate asked if he could speak with me. He had a New Testament in his hand. Now I had ministered to this inmate on several occasions before. On each of the previous occasions he had an attitude about him. He was always trying to prove something and was constantly complaining about something (e.g. discrimination, not having prayer rugs, etc.). Despite his condescending attitude toward me, I still treated him with respect and sought to serve him in the best way that I could. But on this occasion, his attitude was different. The edge was gone from his voice. He asked me if I would explain a verse out of the New Testament. So for the next 20 minutes we discussed the verse (from one of the gospels) that had to do with the person of Jesus Christ. It turned into a wonderful evangelistic moment. Now this inmate did not come to faith in Christ – and still has not to my knowledge. But he did write me a note about a week later. This is what the note said:
Dear Chaplain:
I was very much … honored as to [the] explanation you gave me on Friday, pertaining to Christianity, the Bible, and especially about Jesus Christ, the true Messiah!
God willing, I will do more study on His special spirit, Christ, as well as other subjects and proofs of interest.
So thank you for enlightening me as to this great religion.
Peace be unto you.
[Signed and dated]
It is obvious from his wording that he writes as an unbeliever. But the thing that encouraged me the most was that the edge on his attitude was gone. I am very hopeful that I can spend more time with this man and through continued demonstration of the love of Christ and clear articulation of the truth of the gospel may God be pleased to bring him to a saving knowledge of Himself.
So, yes, love for the reputation of the gospel bears all things. It bears wrongful attitudes; it bears persecution; it bears inconvenience; it bears danger and risk. From an inmate perspective, it bears the insults of fellow-prisoners who insult and belittle and ridicule the inmate who is trying to live out his faith in jail or prison. So let me ask you: does your love bear all things? Are you so committed to the gospel that you would put up with anything, so long as it advanced the opportunity and reputation of the gospel of Jesus Christ? If you would like to get a first-hand demonstration of the kind of love that bears all things, come with me to my jail and watch some of these inmates live out this aspect of their faith among their rugged world. It will touch your heart and if you don’t already have it, it will ignite your passion for the gospel. Jail chaplains are consistently faced with the challenge of bearing all things for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the lost souls of men.
Love believes all things.
The next phrase in 1 Corinthians 13:7 is “love believes all things.” Most of the interpretations I have heard of this biblical statement is that this verse means that love believes the best about everybody. But that gives me quite a little bit of trouble. First, it is not what the verse says. It simply does not say that love believes the best about everybody. It simply says that love believes all things. Yet we know that we cannot interpret this expression at face value because then we must conclude that love is gullible. This would fly in the face of the direct teaching of Scripture and the many times Scripture warns us of false doctrine and to “beware” and to develop and practice discernment. That requires an analytical and somewhat questioning mind.
In 1 Corinthians 11:18, when Paul is giving instructions regarding the Lord’s supper, he tells the Corinthians that he had heard that when they come together as a church to partake of the Lord’s table that there is a rather sectarian spirit being manifested in their assembly. Now, Paul does not wave that report off by saying something like, “Nah, not the Corinthian Church. They would never do that.” No, what he says instead is, “in part I believe it.” Clearly, Paul is not believing the best about the Corinthians. In John 2:23-24, we are told that Jesus would not “entrust” himself to them (from the word “to believe”; literally, “he did not believe himself to them”) because he knew what was in man. In other words, Jesus did not believe the best about people, because he knew the depravity of men’s hearts. This, of course, is not to suggest that we are to become cynical and think the worst about everybody. What it does mean is that we are to think realistically being neither gullible nor cynical.
As a jail chaplain, you simply cannot believe the best about everybody. You would become a target for manipulation very quickly. Let me show you what I mean. I was making my rounds through segregation. (Segregation is a portion of the jail where inmates are confined individually to an 8x10 foot cell 23 hours a day; 7 days a week. They have one hour a day where they are permitted 45 minutes of recreation and a 15‑minute shower.) The first cell that I came to, I knocked on the door and lifted the metal flap so I could see inside the cell. I told him I was the chaplain and asked if there was anything I could do to help him. He came to the window and after a couple of minutes of chatting I asked what his name was. He told me he was God. I spent the next 30 minutes talking to “God.” This conversation with God was not particularly edifying to me. I continued making my rounds until before too long I encountered an inmate who told me he was Jesus Christ. This conversation with Jesus was not particularly edifying either. So, by this point, I had met “God” and “Jesus Christ.” You can imagine my thoughts when I came the next cell and it looked empty. If I was not well-grounded in my faith and was inclined to believe everything, I probably would have thought that the empty cell contained the “Holy Spirit.” That would shake up anybody’s faith to realize that all three persons of the Trinity under incarceration.
So if the expression “love believes all things” does not mean that we must believe the best about everybody, then what does it mean? We do not have to go far to get the answer. For Paul, as in all the Bible, faith is always tied directly to the truth. Yes, we put our faith in a person, Jesus Christ. But He is the Truth. If you have your faith in a person (spouse, parents, pastor, etc.) it is only and primarily because you have confidence in what they say. In other words, you believe they tell the truth. They are true to their word. When the truth goes, so does the confidence in the person. In the previous verse of 1 Corinthians 13 (i.e. verse 6) Paul says, “love rejoices in the truth.” So, love believes all things that are true. That doesn’t sound very profound, but if you stop and think about it, it should resonate with you. What Paul is saying here is that love is so committed to the truth that it will relinquish long-cherished beliefs that do not hold up to the scrutiny of Scripture. Traditions, and family beliefs and superficial doctrines that we have upheld for years are suddenly confronted with a clear exposition of the Scriptures. The person who is committed to the truth will part from family traditions that do not line up with the truth – even if it also means parting from family members (and many times it means exactly that). It is a passion for the truth. Love believes everything that is true. That means that the feminist inmate who has recently made a profession of faith must relinquish her cherished notion of a 50/50 marriage relationship. As painful as it may be, she must embrace the biblical concept of submission to her husband.
That’s what I mean when I say that love believes all things. It is not gullible or naïve. Rather, it puts stock in all things that are true. It embraces those things that have validity. Even our deeply-held and cherished family notions, when shown to be contrary to the truth of the Scriptures (e.g. the most common tradition that parents teach their children about where Christmas gifts come from), will ultimately be relinquished by the one who is committed to the truth because such an one is committed to (i.e. “believes”) anything that shows itself to be true, though it may come at a great cost to himself.
Love hopes all things.
Our third phrase is that love “hopes all things.” Once again, Paul is not suggesting that our hope is to be ill-founded. Nor is he suggesting some anemic counsel that love hopes for the best. First of all, the text simply does not say that. And secondly, if such were the case, we would then have to further determine what we mean by the “best.” In other words, “best” by whose standards? “Best” according to what I think should happen? Very frequently, jail chaplains are asked by inmates to pray for them because they are going to court to receive their sentencing. Invariably they ask me to pray that the judge would be lenient. In other words, they are hoping for the best. But is leniency in a given case the best? Would you think this would be the best if the inmate were a child molester or car-jacker going to be released to the streets in your community? What I am saying is that something has to anchor our concept of what is “the best.”
Hope is one of the greatest needs that inmates have. Many have lost all hope. These are prime targets for the gospel. Many inmates are clinging to hope that is nothing more than a lie. It is a false hope. The inmate who places his hope in the doctrine of reincarnation will not find a sympathetic ear with me in terms of doctrinal agreement. Yes, I will speak compassionately with him, but if he asks me my opinion on that belief, I will not waffle on what I believe about that doctrine. I will seek to point out the hopelessness of that ill-founded teaching. You see, hope in the Scripture is always tied to the iron-clad promises of God. It is a certain trust in what God said would most definitely come to pass. If we are right with the previous phrase, that love believes everything that is true – and only those things that are true – then hope, which is tied to the truth, will only underscore that which has God’s promises behind it. I have found, as a jail chaplain and as a pastor, that people who have lost hope are people who are primed for the gospel. Undoubtedly there is such a thing as “jailhouse religion,” but I have never seen it among those who are “at the bottom” and have come to the end of themselves. Such have finally come to the place where their soul is parched for living water and they are usually ready to drink deeply from the cup of life. This is one of the greatest thrills of being a jail chaplain.
Love endures all things.
The last phrase in the verse is love “endures all things.” You may immediately ask what is the difference between love “enduring all things” and “bearing all things” like we saw in the first phrase? As you recall, we said that the first phrase is very much like referring to the kind of love that is willing to put itself at risk in order to protect the object of its love. In other words, it is a hero-like kind of love. The kind of love in this last phrase, on the other hand, is the kind of love that perseveres. It is committed to its goal. It does not give up. In the first phrase (viz. “bears all things”) the issue is the cost; what is feared; what is at risk. In this phrase, the issue is duration and stick-to-it-iveness. Once again, the “all things” must be qualified. Love does not endure (i.e. “tolerate”) known sin. Quite the contrary. Love is uncompromising. Hebrews 12:1-2 clearly states that the believer is to fix his eyes on the goal (viz. Jesus Christ, the author of our faith) and lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily besets us and to run with endurance the race set before us. So here is a NT text underscoring the fact that love for Jesus Christ will result in a putting off of sin and an enduring quality that keeps going when the finish line seems like a long way away. This is far from any notion of passivity and softness toward sin; it is, rather, a grid-iron toughness that sticks with its commitment no matter what the obstacles and no matter what the odds.
This is a timely word for many inmates that I minister to. Many of them get rather stiff sentences. In some cases, they are looking at spending the rest of their lives – or the greatest part of it – behind bars. Just the other week, I ministered and prayed with a 35-year-old man who gave a very credible testimony of his faith in Christ. Yet he is looking at the next 40 years behind bars. He admits that he is guilty. He is praying for leniency, but he is committed to serving the Lord in prison, even if for the next 40 years. I had the privilege, as a jail chaplain, to open the Scriptures with him and to strengthen his faith by exhorting him to keep his eyes on the author of his faith. We prayed together and what a joy it was to see his eyes glisten with hope. That brief visit of no more than 30-minutes was a time of encouragement for both of us. He knew he was not alone. He left assured that he had a chaplain who was of a kindred spirit with him that pointed him to the real One who could give him strength. I went away rejoicing that I loved him with a Christ-like kind of love.
Jail and prison chaplains who are committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ seek to show a Christ-like kind of love to the entire inmate population. This kind of love is not a love that is ambiguous and passive and merely optimistic. No, a worthy jail chaplain offers the life-giving gospel of Jesus Christ that carries a Christ-like kind of love into jails and prisons where sometimes it is necessary to put up with a bit of mockery and heckling; where sometimes it is necessary to correct mixed up beliefs and out-and-out contrary ideas that purport to be biblical; where many times it is necessary to encourage the hopeless by pointing them to the promises of God which are centrally anchored in the Gospel; where sometimes it is necessary to lift up weary eyes of faith and direct them back upon the Prince of Life, Jesus Christ, our Savior.
May I say to you that this opportunity is not open only to the chaplain, but to you as well. I would be delighted to gather a group from this church and give you a tour of the jail so you can get a glimpse of what I am talking about. I would be even more delighted to enlist you as a volunteer so that you could have the joy of loving those whom society calls the unlovely. It would be one of the greatest encouragements to your own walk of faith.
Finally, I would ask you to put our ministry on your prayer list. Hold us up before the throne of grace. If you would please pray specifically for two things: (1) that the Gospel would have free course in the inmate population of our jail; and (2) that God would provide the needed funds to keep this ministry going.
May the Lord bless you as you labor for Him in your mission field. And Good News stands ready to partner with you as you seek to demonstrate the love of Christ to the unlovely.