1 Corinthians 13:1-7 says,
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not 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 have not Love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not Love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, Love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
God my Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your Name. Please bless these words and make them Your own to move me and all who read them. Thank You.
The line at the top of the post is the introduction the Bible gives to this passage titled simply as "Love." A way of Paul telling us blatantly that Love is the most excellent way. Paul starts talking about this excellent way by using examples of actions known to Christians of the time with the apostles. He uses speaking in tongues first.
Paul writes that if he were to speak in the tongues of not only men, but of angels as well, but did not have Love, he would the equivalent of a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. He would be nothing but a bunch of noise. To speak in tongues is to speak in the other languages. Paul's first example then is that if he could even speak in the language of angels, but didn't have any Love in it, he would just be making a bunch of loud somewhat irritating noise.
Next Paul gets more extreme. He writes that if he had the gift of prophecy and could fathom all mysteries and knowledge and if he had the faith that could move mountains, but had not Love, he would be nothing. So in other words, Paul is saying that if he could understand all the mysteries of existence and had all knowledge of the everything and had the faith that could move entire mountains, but did not have this Love, he wouldn't just be like a gong or cymbal, he would be nothing.
Paul then uses an example that easier to relate to for most of the Christians of the time. He writes that if he were to give up all his possessions and surrender himself completely but did not have Love, he would gain nothing. So even if he gave up everything for the sake of others, but didn't have Love, he would gain nothing from it at all.
Paul no doubt rattled the Corinthians mindsets with this part of the letter. The instant response I think to this would be, what then is the Love that makes all of this worthless? The answer is next. The entire next paragraph of the passage is the description of the Love Paul was writing about. Go back and read it again slowly thinking about each part as you read them off...
Patient, kind, not envious, not boastful, not proud, not rude, not self-seeking, not easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs, does not delight in evil, rejoices with the truth, always protecting, always trusting, always hopeful, and always persevering. The first thing to realize about this description is that there is nothing in this world that meets this full description. So what is Love? 1 John 4:8 "... God is Love."
So no wonder you can't find this in this world. Only God could be all these things at all times. It's a happy thought to think that we could put our name in place of the word "Love" in this description, but no matter how much I change in God and try my hardest, I just can't even get half way before I have to stop reading. The only One to ever be in this world that could match that description has been Jesus Christ. He met it from birth all the way to His death on that cross to pay for our sins. So going back to what Paul said before, what does it mean to not have Love?
Throughout Paul's letters and in James letter, it says that you need both faith and deeds. But Paul gave examples of both at the same time with himself as the example as a way of stating, "If I am faithful and give everything but have not Love, then I am nothing." So then there is a third element to go with the two. An element that if missing, would make the faith and deeds worthless. So we have established that the element is Love, and that this Love is God. So 1+1, we need to have God in order for anything to matter. But wouldn't having faith and works already entail that we have God? Not always. Even if I believe in God and say start writing this post to serve, if I do not have God and His Love in it, then it's merely for me to do. The difference of having God or not is ultimately what is driving the uses of what we have. I could speak the languages of angels, but if I do not do it for God, then it's worthless. I could be a prophet and have true understanding and great faith, but if I do not let God use it, then there's no point. I could become rich and give everything away, but if I'm giving it away to make sure I do not feel bad or for the act of giving instead of because it's what God wants, then there is nothing to gain from it, except some people getting some new stuff.
We need to be rooted in God and change our motives to fit His. I do believe, and I do serve in the church, but so often I find myself doing things and believing all for the wrong reasons. I do not give it up to Him. I find that things do not go well when I do this either. It ends up being all wrong. If I am not rooted in Him and planting myself in His Love, then all the fruits produced are worthless, they're sour. Whether it's talking to people, playing worship music, volunteering with children's ministries, or writing this blog, if I do not turn to God and let all of these attributes of Love come out with those things, then I'm doing something wrong here; then I AM NOTHING! But thankfully the faith I do have, is in a merciful God who's Name is Love. Without this Love and Mercy I would be dead. I am so convicted by this.
The solution to this is to check on whether we are matching our actions with the attributes of Love in the passage. But wait, hasn't Jesus Christ been the only one ever able to meet this mark? Yes. Then how could we ever do so? We can't. That's why I bring up God's Grace and Mercy, because we could never meet up with what's expected. But even though we are forgiven for the times that we can't, it doesn't mean there's no point in trying. Would a soldier meeting impossible odds give up or fight to the end for what mattered most? I want to say that I would fight to the end for God in this life. I want to war against myself and my worldly desires and reasons for my faith and deeds. I want them to be changed as much as possible in this life to be a servant for my God. Not because I could gain something from it, I have already been given everything I could ever want by God through forgiveness in Jesus Christ. I want to do it because I already have everything. I do not need more. I want to give it all up for God, and I want to do it for Him and by Him. That means doing it with His Love. To know what that looks like though, I need to know what each of those attributes actually are. So I've given myself a challenge that I am now giving you. The challenge is to take one of the attributes of Love and each day write it on my wrist or a piece of paper in my pocket and have it there for 24 hours while I read in the Bible about it, pray about it, and truly ponder it and what it would look like in my life as a servant. So this is a 15 day challenge, but it could change the way we act for the rest of our lives and help us to let God base our actions in His Love.
I really encourage you all to do this challenge. I started with patience today. This challenge must not however be for the wrong reasons either. As you do it, you realize just how easy it actually is to mess it all up. Which is another positive side to it, it brings me closer to God and helps me see just how forgiving and Patient He is. A Christian should always desire to get to know God more. He is our greatest relationship, we should work on getting to know Him more than anyone or anything else. Convicting words that even hurt me as I type them. My thankfulness for His forgiveness only seems to be growing as this goes on. One last thing to remember, is that these 15 things, are only an infinitely small fraction of what His Love is. We could all spend each day of our lives looking at attributes of His Love, but it wouldn't be enough. All the more the reason to start now. A statement to remember during this challenge and dare I say the rest of our lives, is this: "We can only grow and share Love, if we have our roots in it."
Thank You For Reading
Long Live Jesus Christ
Amen
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