All About Love

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 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.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 4: 7-8

”Fake it till you make it”, is an old adage from business that if you pretend to be confident, or assured you eventually will feel it for real.  But that idea is challenged as you read these verses about love.  It’s nice to help others, it’s nice to serve, it’s nice to do good things, but the attitude it is done with is critical.  1 Corinthians gives a list of spiritual gifts, and say that if you are not using the gifts with love, then it is nothing.

This really challenges me.  How much do I do daily that is not driven by love?  The verse that hits home the hardest is the verse that precedes 1 Corinthians 13.  1 Corinthians 12 is all about the various gifts of the Holy Spirit that are in the body of Christ, and how they all work together as a unit to glorify God.  Then verse 30 reads: “And yet I will show you the most excellent way,” and 1 Corinthians launches into the above verses about love.  Something more excellent than all those amazing Spiritual gifts?  But scripture makes clear the power of love, is not something to take lightly.

For me the takeaway here rests in the power of love.  The conviction in scripture is that love transforms.  An act done with love is unlike the same act without it.  Just ask a husband or wife.  The husband who lovingly tries to cook dinner and struggles, or pick up her favorite latte can melt his wife’s heart if it’s done with love.  Our calling as believers is big.  We are called to share the love that God gave us first, by sending his son Jesus, to reflect it.  Love big, love knowing that you were loved first, and loved unconditionally.

Pastor Bill

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