What Love has to do with it.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3
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.

On the day of Pentecost, when the very first gospel sermon was ever preached, God gave the apostles the special gift of being able to speak in languages that they had never learned so that the people hearing them could understand what was being said.

Paul is saying that if God gave him the gift of speaking every human language, and even the heavenly language of the angels, but he didn’t have love, then he would be nothing more than a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. In the 1st Century, there was a big gong or cymbal hanging at the entrance of most pagan temples. When people came to worship, they hit them to awaken the pagan gods so they would listen to their prayers.

Love is more important than any spiritual gift.

Paul says that even if you know it all - if you know everything there is to know about computer science; if you know everything there is to know about medicine; if you know everything there is to know about philosophy; psychology; theology and every other kind of “ology”. If you know it all, but have no love, then you are nothing at all.

It has always amazed me that when people look at society they try to analyze what is wrong with us, why we’re killing and abusing one another. These experts always seem to come back with the same answer, "We need more education. We need to get everybody educated, and then we won’t have these problems anymore."

I don’t think education is the answer.

1 Corinthians 8:1, "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." I don’t think we need more knowledge near as much as we need more love. We need a whole lot more love and the hearts of people need to change before society will ever change.

Paul says that love is more important than faith. Can you believe that? Now he doesn’t say that faith is not important. He just says that love is more important than faith. He said, "If I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing."

I have written of my time in the hospital when I suffered from refraction blindness. My roommate had lost a leg to Diabetes and every night about Midnight, he’d stumble out of bed and hop to the bathroom. At first, this irritated me because he woke me up every night.

The night before he was supposed to go home, God put his hand on my heart and said help him. Huh? How’s a blind man supposed to help a legless man??? God just said help him. So I got out of bed at midnight and waited. Sure enough, he started to stir. I stumbled to his bed and told him, “let me be your leg and you are my eyes’.

The next morning as he is packing up he asked me why I did it. I just told him because God put it on my heart. To make a long story short, after my vision returned I saw him at the hospital again, carrying a bible. There is probably more to this then I know but I didn’t pursue this with him.
My point is this, "They will not care how much you know, until they know how much you care."

So, on this Valentine’s Day 2012, Let’s try showing our love instead of buying it!