God is Love

Self improvement in the Spirit, training in righteousness, and regeneration are all noble aims as Christians. However, it is all futile without love. The Apostle Paul said, "If you have not love, then you have not anything." (1 Corinthians 13). Teachings on dealing with temptation and trials are often popular. Learning the law and regulating ourselves with rules is the axis of religion. We want to do better and we should, but motive is important. If we seek to be righteous without love we shall fail. For thousands of years the Israelites sought to keep the Law of Moses: The Ten Commandments, the Levitical Laws. and Deuteronomy Dictates. And the result was utter failure. No one could be perfect enough, be without enough sin, cease breaking the laws.

Jesus Christ gave the key and answer to how to follow the Law. He said, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, this is the greatest commandment and the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself." (Matthew 22:36-39). At last the Lord has revealed the focus one must have, for He continues by saying, "and if you do these two, you shall have fulfilled all the Law and the prophets." (Matthew 22:40). Wow! If I love God with all my being and love my neighbor as I love myself, then I appease all the laws, regulations, and edicts of God! But notice the key and answer is love.

The Apostle John gives a strong teaching, He says, "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." (1 John 4:8). A strong statement and one that should cause any saint and servant of Christ pause. IF you do not love, you do not know God. So all the righteous fervor, all the regeneration, all the regulations and rule keeping for God will mean nothing without love.

There are thirteen verses to the Corinthian Church from the Apostle Paul. These verses reveal the vanity of seeking virtue without love, of preaching without God's passionate love: 

"If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.

If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.

Love cares more for others than for self.

Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.

Love doesn’t strut,

Doesn’t have a swelled head,

Doesn’t force itself on others,

Isn’t always “me first,”

Doesn’t fly off the handle,

Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,

Doesn’t revel when others grovel,

Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,

Puts up with anything,

Trusts God always,

Always looks for the best,

Never looks back,

But keeps going to the end.

8–10  Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

11  When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.

12  We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

13  But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love." (1 Corinthians 13:1-13)

 

The words Paul penned act like piercing blade. All our words and eloquence is useless without love. Love doesn't keep a record of wrongs, nor is boastful or ever give up. So many lines leave you with sense of loss without love. I think the lines that shake oneself the most are these, "If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love." Helping the needy or allowing yourself to be maytryed means nothing without love.

Let us not become bankrupt. Let us not let our love "wax cold," but instead let it burn. The world is growing colder with each century and each generation. Jesus said of the end days, "Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.." (Matthew 24:12). As Christ followers we are meant to carry the burning torch of God's love to each lost soul. We are meant to bring warmth in a cold world. Instead of just obeying rules, let us really love. Instead of being self righteous, lets love our neighbor. We should have good character and become more like Christ, but it cannot be done with mere law keeping, it must be done with love. To quote Jeremy Sisto, "Are you strong enough to love?"