In this sermon, Jason Dohm discusses 1 Corinthians 13 as a guide for marriage. He emphasizes the importance of Christian love, which is vastly different from the world's concept of love. Using Jesus' teachings as a foundation, Dohm explains how love is at the core of the Christian life and marriage is the perfect laboratory for learning and expressing biblical love. He goes through each verse of 1 Corinthians 13, providing practical applications for married couples to improve their relationships. Topics covered include patience, kindness, humility, forgiveness, and putting the interests of one's spouse above their own. Ultimately, the goal is to become more Christ-like in our marriages and to allow love to give meaning to our other gifts and virtues.

The title of my message this afternoon is 1 Corinthians 13 as a guide for marriage. If you don't know it right off the cuff, 1 Corinthians 13 is the love chapter which describes Christian love. Could be further from the description of the world's love that you find on the Hallmark Channel. It's of a different class and variety, but it's what Christians need, and so we get a chance to look at that today. I want to begin actually with a text out of Matthew chapter 22 verses 34 through 40.

But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him and saying, Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, this is the first and great commandment and the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." So love is at the center of the Christian life.

Love for God and then love for one another is right at the core. How do we know? Because Jesus told us it's right at the core. As a reflection of the marriage between Jesus and his bride, marriage is the very front row seat for learning about biblical love and learning to express biblical love. So this is sort of the assertion that I'm starting with.

If you want to learn about biblical love, marriage is the perfect spot for that because it's designed by God to be a reflection of the perfect love between Jesus Christ and his blood-bought people, and if you want to learn to express biblical love, marriage is the perfect relationship for that for the same reason. Learning about love and marriage is so valuable because marriage doesn't come with the release valves that other relationships have, So it's the very best laboratory and it's the very hardest laboratory. What do I mean by release valves? When I come and I'm happy with you on Sunday, I can go home and it'll be days before I see you again. And even then, when I see you again, it will only be for a couple of hours.

I have release valve after release valve after release valve. Marriage comes with no such thing. You get more hours together and less time between being together. So it is a wonderful laboratory for learning about love and learning to express love because the pressures are brought to bear and you can't fake it like you can in your other relationships. So 1st Corinthians 13 isn't restricted to teaching about love and marriage, it's just about love.

It's broader than that, but it is particularly helpful and particularly relevant to thinking about love in the greatest laboratory for learning about love and learning to express love that we have. I think that is the marriage relationship. Several years ago Our church had a married marriage evening. We're normally family integrated but we weren't family integrated on that evening. No children, just husbands and wives to consider our lives together at husbands and lives.

At that marriage evening, I introduced the concept of Dome Inc. Dome Inc. What is that? My last name is Dome. I'm a dome.

And Inc. Is short for incorporated. Dome incorporated, meaning Janet and I have a marriage, and part of that marriage is an official business entity that encompasses the schedule, the budget, the laundry, the meals, the child training and the other relationships we have within the home. And you better not despise dome ink or brown ink or beaky ink. If you despise the official business entity of your marriage, then you're going to have chaos and a schedule that's out of control, a budget that's out of control, laundry that's out of control, meals that are out of control.

But life gets busy and you get careless and it can start to seem like dome ink is at the core. And when that happens, you're in trouble. Dome ink and brown ink and beaky ink can't be at the core. At the core of marriage is love and friendship and companionship and intimacy, and the incorporated part of your union actually needs to serve those things and not the other way around. 1 Corinthians 13 really helps us to get focused on the core, on love and friendship and companionship and intimacy and to recognize that the incorporated part of your union, though important and needing attention, is not at the core of your union.

So as we as we come to the text of verse 13, let's ask God to help us. God, we approach your word with reverence, knowing that you have spoken these words, down to the verb tense and the syllable. It can be trusted, and it's authoritative to us, and we're happy about that. Thank you for giving us this revelation of pure truth from heaven, and I pray that you would help us to gain from it today. In Jesus' name, amen.

So please open your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 13. It's a well-known passage, but it still deserves to have our eyes rest on the words. So 1 Corinthians 13, 1 and just into the beginning of 8. I'm not going to go all the way through verse 8. 1 Corinthians 13, Paul writes, Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself, is not puffed up, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity but rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, love never fails.

Verses 1 through 3, Paul uses to set the stage, and he teaches us that love gives other gifts and virtues meaning. In other words, if I have faith with love, that is meaningful, but if I have faith without love, I'm nothing. Or if I'm hardcore to the point of martyrdom, but I'm loveless, it profits me nothing. But if I give my life while loving, it can shake the world. In many ways, whether I am loving or loveless determines the ultimate value of my other gifts and virtues.

This, of course, is very important to remember in marriage. All of your other gifts and virtues can be meaningless to your spouse, towards your spouse, if they're without love. They actually give value, help, good to the other gifts and virtues that you have, but it can strip all that away if you are loveless in your marriage. Your spouse doesn't care very much about your other gifts or your other virtues if you're loveless, but they care a lot about them if we're loving. So this is a helpful chapter.

There are 16 things here. Scott counted 15. We can both count. The two are merged in the text, so I decoupled them, so I have one extra. But I'm going to take us one by one through these 16 quickly and try to apply each to the significance of each in the marriage relationship.

So here we go. One, love suffers long. Some of the other good translations that we appreciate renders it, love is patient. So long-suffering, suffers long, or patient. What did you say in your wedding vows?

For better or for worse? For richer or for poorer? In sickness and in health. What is that an acknowledgment of? If you have a long marriage, you'll have seasons of both.

You'll have seasons of better and seasons of worse. You'll have seasons of richer and seasons of poorer. You'll have seasons of sickness and seasons of health. You need love because it suffers long, it's patient, it can hang in there through all the seasons. What else are those things in our wedding vows?

An acknowledgement of. I think it acknowledges this. You are a sinner and you married a sinner. So a person who is too impatient marries a person who needs your patience. When you're committing to each other, you need to commit to each other through better and worse, richer, poorer, sickness and health because an impatient person is marrying a person who needs patience and vice versa.

You could just switch the names there and be true either way. You know this, but I'll say it, love is more than just an emotion. Certainly includes emotion. Do you want a definition of love that strips out emotion? I want nothing to do with that, nor do I want a definition that just limits it to feeling.

Heaven help us. Heaven save us from that. Love is more than an emotion. Love is a tender disposition which prioritizes the interests of the one loved. So I'm not sure that's a complete definition of love, but I think it would be a decent start on one.

It's a tender disposition. It is an affectionate disposition which prioritizes the interests of the one loved. So impatience Betrays a lack of love because impatience is about me and me not getting my way when I wanted to get my way. It is not the prioritization of the interests of the one loved. It is a prioritization of my own interests.

One key way to love your spouse is to forbear. Again. Now that's the trick, right? Again. But I already did forbear.

Love forbears again. Listen, The golden rule, doing to others what you would have them do to you, is a summary of what it means to express love. How do you want to be treated when you fail again? When you sin again? When you make the same old mistake in the same old way again?

How do you want to be treated? Well, that tells us how we should treat the object of our love. Love suffers long, it's patient. Two, love is kind. We can skip this one because of course you'd be kind to your spouse.

Of course you would be kind to your spouse. Actually, because marriage is absent the release valves, being able to pretend to be kind and then go away and have a good gap before you have to pretend to be kind again, it can become more difficult for me to be kind to Janet than to people who aren't close enough to encroach on my selfishness. The truth is, I'm happy to be kind to you. You don't encroach on my selfishness. We're not that close.

And I'm not close enough to encroach on yours, so we're going to have a great relationship. Listen use this valuable rule of thumb. Don't you love rules of thumb? Just like it's a quick check, a quick way to check something. Would I say this to one of my friends?

Would I say this to one of my acquaintances? Would I say this to a stranger? Would I Do this to one of my friends. Do this to an acquaintance. Do this to a stranger.

If no, why in the world would I say it or do it to my spouse? Such a helpful rule of thumb. So many things that we would never say to a friend, an acquaintance, a stranger, I'll say to Janet or do to Janet. Shame on me. Shame on you.

What is maybe the most critical category here? The words we say. The words we say. I say in marriage counseling over and over again, some people in this room have heard me say it in pre-marital counseling. Be so careful.

Your spouse can't unhear it. You can't unsay it and they can't unhear it. They may forgive you, But it's possible that those things said in haste, said in anger, will rattle around in their brains a decade after they forgave you for it. You know, that is true. I would do well to take my own advice there.

I've learned the hard way that it's hard to unsay things and that people, even after they've forgiven you, can't unhear what you said and struggle with the things that you said in haste or in anger. Love is kind. Just be kind to your spouse. Three, love does not envy. Resenting a condition enjoyed by your spouse is a sign of a lack of love.

Remember, love is a tender disposition or an affectionate disposition which prioritizes the interests of the one loved. When that is in action, there is no resentment. You're happy to see them enjoy an excellent condition. There's actually gladness that they enjoy an excellent condition. Well, spouses don't really do that do they?

Well, Let me throw these two things out there, and you tell me if spouses would really envy the excellent condition enjoyed by their spouse. A wife can very easily be feeling like she is trudging through an endless bog of the mundane. Hello? Any wife ever felt like she was trudging through an endless bog of the mundane, endless diapers, endless laundry, endless shopping, endless meal preparation, endless cleaning up from meal preparation, while her husband is getting acknowledgement and promotions and raises at work. The good news is I got an amen.

The bad news is that's my wife. Classic moments of the marriage retreat. A husband can very easily feel the weight of the world on his shoulders. The pressure of leading at work, the pressure of leading at church, the pressure of leading at home, and he's thinking, God in heaven, give me a mundane day. A note on this, and this is probably the most important point that I'm making under love does not envy.

Envy is very often a sign of having starved your soul. It's very often a sign that you've starved your soul. When your soul has had a feast, because you've been with the Lord and received from Him and your soul is fat. Envy has a hard time finding ground to occupy. So when you feel like, oh man, I wish I was in an environment where I got praise and acknowledgement, it may be a sign that it's been too long since you've enjoyed being with the Lord.

Four, love does not parade itself. Love does not parade itself. Let me start by asking some questions to humiliate myself and maybe you too. How much do you talk about you? How often are you the hero of the stories you tell?

How often are you the villain of the stories that you tell? Most of us would at least concede that there are times When I talk about me a lot, when I'm always the hero of my stories and never the villain, it means I'm parading myself. That is not consistent with love. Another question. Do you need to be stroked?

We all need encouragement. That's not what I'm talking about. Oh, do you need lots of praises? Do you need to hear a lot about how smart you are, nice you are, good you are? We're studying Romans now.

Paul spends the early chapters of Romans just stripping you bare. And then he says, there's no room for boasting, boast in the Lord. We need to learn to boast in the Lord. It really is the antidote for parading ourselves. It will help us to be more loving if we'll learn to boast in Jesus and not to parade ourselves.

Did you know it's embarrassing to a spouse when you toot your own horn all the time? Did you know that's embarrassing to a spouse? Because they know everybody else sees it but you can't see it. That one hurts. That one hurts.

Love does not parade itself. Five, love is not puffed up. The NASB and the ESV render it. Love is not arrogant. The NIV renders it.

Love is not proud. I'm coining this today. I've never heard anybody say it, so I think I can coin it. Pride is prickly. Has anybody heard?

Okay, so this is new, maybe. Pride is prickly. I think I'm parading myself, actually. Pride is prickly. I think you've experienced a person who can't be wrong, can't be contradicted about anything, can't be corrected.

Why are people like that? Because they're proud. What was Scott's message this morning? Don't be hard to live with. Guess what?

It is so hard to live with a spouse who is puffed up because they can't be wrong. They can't be contradicted about anything. They can't be corrected. Their pride makes them prickly. You can't get near them.

Let's come at it from the other direction. Love is not puffed up. Love is humble. A humble spouse is so easy to live with. It is a joy to live with someone who is humble.

And what about a home where both spouses are humble? It's a little slice of heaven. Love is not puffed up. Six, love does not behave rudely. Any of you aware that we have remaining corruptions?

You were born again and all your corruptions went away and none of them have been cited since. Really. Common courtesy is certainly not as common as it should be, not even in our marriages. Isn't that sad that common courtesy isn't common in so many marriages? You've heard this saying surely, familiarity breeds contempt.

What does that mean? You get so used to each other, so comfortable with each other that the things that used to be a thing of wonder become taken for granted. We should fight that tooth and nail. So comfortable with each other that the things that used to make us love them, that's now just the baseline. You don't get any credit for that anymore.

That's the baseline. Let's state the obvious. Rude-ness towards your spouse is unacceptable. It is unacceptable that you are rude towards your spouse. Here's a sentence I say over and over to myself, Sometimes in my marriage, often in my role as a church leader, Jason, play it straight.

What do I mean when I'm telling myself over and over again, Jason, play it straight? I mean, if there's something that needs to be addressed, Deal with the substance gently and kindly. Resist the temptation to use biting sarcasm or loaded humor. You've probably been on both ends of biting sarcasm, you probably used it, and I'm sure you've been on the receiving end of it. I'm sure you've used loaded humor, meaning things that are half funny but really meant to make someone else the butt of the joke.

You've been on both ends of that too, I'm sure. Me telling myself over and over again, Jason, play it straight. If there's something that needs to be dealt with, deal with the substance gently and kindly. It's just another way of me saying, Jason, don't be rude. Don't be rude.

Love is not rude. Love does not behave rudely. Seven, love does not seek its own. Love by definition is focused on the one loved. Seeking my own is self-love.

Listen to Philippians 2, 3 and 4. This is Philippians chapter 2 verses 3 and 4. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests but also for the interests of others." And then in the verses after that, Paul goes on to say, I'm talking about Christ-likeness. This is the mind of Christ.

Have the mind of Christ become like the Lord Jesus Christ. So I need to say this about all 16 of these. So we're looking at these through the microscope. It's a list of things that are good, but human beings don't necessarily do that great with lists of things. Even if they're good, we forget them easily and we abandon them easily.

So sometimes it helps to back up and say, what are we really looking at here? We're looking at Christ-likeness. Jesus is the ultimate in every one of these things, and what's really being called for is that we would walk closely with Jesus and become more like Him. What if you had more Christ-likeness in your marriage? Would that help your marriage?

That question is rhetorical. What if you had more of the mind of Christ where you look not only to your own interests but to the interests of other, where you had lowliness of mind and esteemed your marriage, your spouse, as better than yourself. What did Jesus himself, very God of very God, say? I did not come to be served, but to serve and to give my life. This is Matthew 20, 28.

Just think about that for a minute. Very God of very God said, I didn't come to be served but to serve and to give my life. This is the groom of Ephesians 5, so it's really easy to get from that to the marriage relationship. We're talking about the groom who didn't come to be served but to serve and to lay down his life. Love does not seek its own.

Jesus is the ultimate example of that. We should walk in his steps. Eight, love is not provoked. Our premarital counseling is couples counseling. So it's not me counseling the couple.

It's Janet and I counseling the couple. At some point in our premarital counseling, Janet always says these four words, be hard to offend. Make your spouse have to work hard to offend you. My friends, those are words to live by. Be hard to offend.

Love is not looking for trouble. Remember I said pride is prickly. Love isn't prickly. Here's a very related proverb, it's Proverbs 15 one, a gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Here's a question, How good or bad are you at that?

At what? At dealing with the incoming anger with a gentle answer that turns it away. That turns it away. Can you receive heat and cool it off? That's what I'm asking.

Can you take incoming, your spouse ever give you incoming heat and cool it off with a gentle answer. This is what is being called for here. Love is not provoked. Remember, you married a sinner and you are a sinner. You both have remaining corruptions.

Sometimes your spouse is going to be provoking. Sometimes you're going to be tempted to be too easily provoked, but love is not provoked. 9. Love thinks no evil. This one is very tightly related to the last one.

We're often provoked because we assume the worst, especially if you're easily provoked. Often the root of it is you assume the worst. The NASB renders it, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered. So in thinks no evil, some translations render it thinks, some account, but the Greek word under it in other places in the New Testament is rendered reckon or account or impute. It really has to do with imputing to their account wrongdoing.

So all these translations are fine, but I think that the NASB puts a fine point on it when it renders it does not keep an account of a wrong suffered. So let me ask you another question. I'm full of questions today. When did your spouse lose the benefit of the doubt? Before the altar they had all sorts of benefit of the doubt.

You couldn't believe they were capable of any wrongdoing. So when did they lose the benefit of the doubt? Listen to me. Christians are the people who can afford to think no evil. Christians are the people who can afford not to keep an account of a wrong suffered.

What do I mean by that? We believe in a God in heaven who has purged us from every last sin. And so all of our greatest needs and liabilities have been accounted for through eternity. So now I'm going to keep score with you? What need do I have to keep score with you when all of my sins and liabilities have been taken care of through all of eternity.

I can afford to give you the benefit of the doubt. I can afford to not keep an account of wrong suffered because Jesus Christ has made me his own. Above all else, Christian husbands and wives can afford to think no evil, can afford to not keep an account of wrong suffered, can Stop keeping score. Ten, love does not rejoice in iniquity. NIV renders it, love does not delight in evil.

I usually don't like the translation of NIV because it's thought for thought, not word for word. We should be translating the word of God word for word. But often, if you think of it as commentary, it's pretty good commentary. So I don't like the translations bad, the commentary is pretty good, often. Love does not delight in evil.

That's a decent sense of that. Husbands and wives, do not play with sin. Do not have darling sins. Do not have secret sins. Do not have allowed sins.

Sins sent the Lord Jesus Christ to the cross. If you want to know what sin is, look at the cross. Look at the cost of sin. Husbands and wives, do not desensitize your spouse to sin. The world and the evil it extends to us is always worming its way into our homes and relationships.

Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. How do you think he normally goes about that? He stands on your sidewalk with horns and a pitchfork. Oh my, there's the devil, we should avoid that. That's not how he attends to his business.

And he's pleased to use a husband to desensitize his wife to sin, or a wife to desensitize her husband to sin. Love does not rejoice in iniquity. Eleven, love rejoices in the truth. In the text this is coupled with the previous one. Love does not rejoice in iniquity but rejoices in the truth.

What can I say that is better than Philippians 4.8? In Philippians 4.8, Paul writes, Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, Whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue, if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. Soak in these things. My friends, to love a spouse is to strive to grow together in rejoicing in whatever is true, noble, just, pure, lovely of good report. You will most likely be a significant help or a significant hindrance to your spouse in growing to rejoice in these things or not.

What a joy. I think both Scott and Joel have already said this, but I'll just double down or triple down on it. What a joy to come to the end of your life and know we helped each other walk closely with the Lord. We helped each other become more like the Lord Jesus Christ. What a sorrow to come to the end of your life and know that you helped desensitize each other to sin and not to love the truth and the things that are lovely.

Now, love rejoices in the truth. Of course this includes truth-telling in marriage. And that extends to transparency. In other words, it's one thing to bold-faced lie, it's another thing to just not say about something that your spouse has the right to know. That can be deep, dark, sinister things, or that can be as simple as, wow, I know she wouldn't like this, so I'm just not going to say, even though We're in a marriage partnership.

My marriage partner has the right to know about this, but because I know it will be displeasing, I just sit on it. You don't say. Of course this includes truth telling, and that extends to transparency. Marriage partners have a right to know practically everything. I say practically because I haven't thought through everything.

Seems like everything to me. 12. Love bears all things. Galatians 6 to Paul says, Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Now let's argue from the lesser to the greater.

If we have a duty towards all of our brethren, and Paul says that we do, to bear one another's burdens, how much more in the marriage relationship? If you and I have a duty to each other just as Christians to bear one another's burdens, how much more in the relationship to bear all things? Love bears all things. With very few exceptions, the greatest burdens in life touch on marriage. You buy that?

Very few exceptions. In your married life and forward, the greatest burdens touch on marriage have some relationship to your marriage partnership, and the greatest co-burden bearer can be and should be the spouse. You're in that position to be the greatest co-burden bearer. Now let me issue a special warning. Unfortunately I know this one too well by experience, so I want to give this warning and I want you to hear it.

Some of you married a desert flower. What is a desert flower? This is a drop of water. Flower. No shade.

Flower. No protection, flower. No cultivation, flower. No pruning, flower. That doesn't mean it is okay for their spouse to create a desert.

You don't need more than a drop of water, you get a drop of water. You don't need shade, You don't get shade. You don't need care and pruning. You don't get care and pruning. Why would I give it?

You're going to flower anyway. You see how sinful of a disposition that is towards a spouse. I married a desert flower. And in some ways, I've used it as an excuse to create a desert. And shame on me.

Do not follow in my path. That's 12. Love bears all things. 13. Love believes all things.

NIV renders it always trusts. Again, I think that's not necessarily a good translation, but good commentary. Love always trusts. I think this is captured beautifully by Proverbs 31, 11 about the Proverbs 31 woman. The heart of her husband safely trusts her.

So Proverbs 31 woman, she has a husband, his heart safely his heart safely trusts her. But my spouse hasn't 100% always rewarded my trust. You might think, well I didn't marry the Proverbs 31 man or the Proverbs 31 woman who always deserves my trust. That's why 1 Corinthians 13 says, love believes all things. It's part of loving.

Love isn't measuring past performance to say, should I trust this time? I don't know. Let's check the record book. Is trust deserved? Love believes all things.

Love always trusts. Love says, forget the calculus. I love, I'm choosing to trust. Listen, we must make ourselves vulnerable to experience Christian marriage. We must make ourselves vulnerable to experience Christian marriage.

The other side of that coin is don't ever exploit that. Oh, Don't ever punish your spouse for making herself vulnerable to experience Christian marriage or to make himself vulnerable. Don't ever exploit that. There is no experiencing Christian marriage without making yourself vulnerable. It only exists in the context where we make ourselves vulnerable.

Love believes all things. Fourteen, love hopes all things. In the context of marriage this has to do with what the expectation of the future will be like. What's the future going to be like? Let's approach this from the negative side.

What happens when you say, The past hasn't been what it should be, maybe even the past was bad, so the future's bad. That's your expectation. Please recognize how toxic that is for you and how toxic that is for your spouse. How is growth and change and sanctification supposed to happen in that environment? God made marriage to be a greenhouse, a hot house for growth and change and sanctification.

Expecting the future to be bad based on disappointments from the past makes it a toxic waste dump. You'll have no change. You'll have no growth. You'll have no sanctification in your toxic waste dump. God meant for you to have a greenhouse, but you poisoned it.

Do not create a self-fulfilling prophecy. Yeah, the future's going to be bad. Yeah, you just made it bad by not expecting any more than the future will be bad based on your disappointments. But I'm just navigating by the data. How many times has she disappointed me?

How many times has he disappointed me? Why should I expect anything from the future? Well, I don't know. Do you believe in God? Do you believe in God?

Does God hold you in his hands? Does God hold your spouse in his hands? Can God take care of that? Can God make the future different than the past? If you don't believe that, what is any of this worth?

What are we doing here? Love hopes all things. 15. Love endures all things. This is 15 of 16.

We're winding down. Endure all things. Prove that you love me by enduring all things. What did I say a few minutes ago? If you're going to have a Christian marriage, you're going to have to make yourself vulnerable to sin and disappointment.

You can finish that sentence. You have to make yourself vulnerable. Vulnerable to what? To sin and disappointment? Love endures all things.

Is marriage a long-term or a short-term relationship? It's long-term. Years include sorrows. Many years include many sorrows. Love endures all things.

Is the world for you or against you? Love endures all things. Is the flesh for you or against you? Love endures all things. Is the devil for you or against you?

We run the race with endurance. Love endures all things. For a long-term relationship, for a lifetime relationship, you have to be built to last. Love is built to last. It endures all things.

16, love never fails. Let me summarize this with Proverbs 24, 16, for a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again. Love is like that. You might be able to knock it down, but you can't knock it out. On Monday I attended a funeral.

It was the funeral of my stepmom-in-law. So she died a week ago today and her funeral was on Monday. My stepbrother-in-law, so Janet's mom died 16 years ago and Her dad remarried after three or four years, and then that marriage lasted 12 years. After several years of his new wife degenerating, she died at the end of a long, slow decline. Her son braved the pulpit.

I don't know whether I'll be able to brave the pulpit at my parents' funeral, but he wanted to honor his mother, so he braved stepping into the pulpit in order to honor his mother. And part of what he said was to marvel at my father-in-law for his steadfast love. It was a painful few years, a difficult few years, and my step brother-in-law wanted to honor my father-in-law for his steadfast love, which he expressed in his never failing care and my father-in-law cared for his mother and never never failed and all that time to answer the bell. And love never failed. Friends, the tests or tests are coming.

Just watched my father-in-law, he passed the test. He's passed it twice now, actually. But, I wanted to say, pass the test. Pass the test. Love never fails.

We're going to have opportunities to prove that we really do love our spouse, that it's not just self-interest for us, but we really do love you. There will be tests or tests. Pass the tests. In conclusion, consider 1 Corinthians 13, verse 13. We never got there, but it says that there are three things that abide, faith, hope, and love.

Your marriage must have all three of them. Your marriage needs faith, which savingly connects you to God and then allows you to walk with Him and receive all the things you need most in this life. Our marriages need hope. We need this confident expectation that There is a God in heaven whose arm is never too short. He can always do what he wants to do.

He's working out all the things that please him, and we need love. We need his love, and we need love for each other. Paul says, the greatest of these is love. Now give me permission to give you a single homework assignment. I asked for permission because I cannot physically compel you.

I'm asking for permission and hopes that you'll actually do it. Take your smartphone and put in a repeating entry set to repeat 12 times on the same day every month, and put an alert on it so it'll pop up to read 1 Corinthians 13 and think about your marriage. This is your homework. Please take the homework. Just put a repeat.

I did it before I came in here, so I'm doing my own homework on the first of the month in March through next February on the first of the month. An alarm's going to go off. It just says, read 1 Corinthians 13 and think about marriage. Our marriages need what 1 Corinthians 13 is calling for. Let's just set it before our eyes repeatedly to help it be top of mind for us.

God, thank you for your kindness to us. Thank you for giving us the perfection of all these things in your Son Jesus Christ. We have the accounts in Matthew and Mark and Luke and John and we can see that no one is like him in any of these 16 things. He is the perfection of them all. Thank you for giving your people a husband like that.

And I pray that you would help us to love one another. Indeed. Indeed. In Jesus' name, Amen.