Love-Part 1

God wants to work great things in our midst

The Greatest Thing God will work in us is love

1 Corinthians 13:1–3 NIV

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.

Love does NOT mean what we automatically think it means

This is message 2 - but I can’t approach this topic without addressing that first.

We’ll explain this more later, but we need to start with this - it’s not automatically what we think or understand or default to.

You can’t do ‘Spiritually Powerful’ without Love

This is a reference to tongues. (DESCRIBE ACTS 2 / OTHER OCCASSIONS)

This was a SUPERnatural thing. And Israel’s history was full of supernatural acts (Parting of the red sea - the walls of jericho - the ark of God going into battle)

Paul pulls back the curtain here, and talks about how things look in the Spiritual World

We have this example where someone LOOKS spiritually powerful. Maybe it’s tongues, maybe it’s healings, whatever. But we look at them on the outside and say, ‘OBVIOUSLY that person is powerful - just look at them!’

Paul says, God looks past all of that, and looks at your heart. And if he doesn’t see love, all He hears and sees is just mindless noise.

Love is what gives meaning to spiritual activity

And i mean this in two ways:

We can’t seek out God’s spiritual gifts for us for any reason other than loving God and other people

Sometimes, we want to look powerful. We want God to affirm that we’re doing great at this. We envy somebody else and want to do the same thing.

So many reasons for why we shouldn’t. But only two really for why we should - because we love God and want more of Him, and because we love others and want to help them more

What drives you to seek out ‘the greater gifts’? Check your heart.

We can’t properly apply God’s spiritual gifts without working through Love

Whatever we do, love needs to be the driving force. Otherwise, what we’re planting isn’t God’s truth - it’s our truths.

Humility is a necessity when it comes to operating in the spiritual gifts.

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You can’t understand ‘Spiritual Wisdom’ without Love

I don’t know about you, but the person i’m going to look up to most in the room is the wise person.

Paul says, let’s say you have this guy - he can prophesy (dispense info to other people, and be able to talk about the future), fathom all mysteries and knowledge (this guy knows EVERYTHING), and faith to move mountains (this guy really understands the spiritual world).

This is the high bar for us.

Paul says - if you are this, and you don’t have love - you’re nothing.

If something doesn’t push you towards more and more love - it’s not wise, or powerful

STORY - the table that you just put messy stuff on it, and it DISAPPEARS

The truth is - we can ‘know’ things and not really have any actual idea of what’s really going on.

God IS love. That means that we can’t understand him WITHOUT love. We can’t grow in him while losing love.

So if our prophecy or knowledge or faith pushes us somewhere that isn’t love - then what we’re paying attention to isn’t God. And we aren’t growing in God, we’re growing in something else.

So paul says - this person who ‘got it’, but missed the idea of love - they’re nothing.

That sounds harsh - but it’s because it’s so important.

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You can’t grow in ‘Spiritual Maturity’ without Love

We talk against the world and the love of money so much. As we should!

We believe, as we give up this world and take up God’s eternal life, we are gaining so much more than we ever lost.

Here you have this person who has given up everything - even their body. They don’t have anything left, they have sacrificed it all for God. BUT. They also don’t have love. Paul says - that person hasn’t gained a thing.

Everything we gain without love is worthless

Now hear me here. It’s not saying, we don’t need sacrifice, only love. That’s wrong.

What Paul is saying is - Sacrifice only has value when done out of love. Giving up our lives only has value when motivated by love.

Furthermore - we can’t expect our progress to actually benefit us as Christians if we’re not pairing that growth with love. Because if we aren’t - we aren’t gaining anything.

How can we do this? In everything you do, ask:

‘How can I love God and people more?’

If you want to practice spiritual gifts - how can you practice them loving others? (PRAYER - pray for others. SERVING - do things for the church and for people. HOSPITALITY - take care of people around you.)

This sounds like a bit of a wishy-washy thing. But Paul is saying - love is the ‘most excellent way’.

So ask yourself - how can I love God and people more? and then do it!