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!

Did you know?

Lately, I have been struggling with this phrase, “Jack of all trades and Master of none”. In my career, I spend a lot of time on the Internet and increasing my knowledge to better serve the customers I support.

Since the beginning of the Internet, I wouldn’t be surprised that the growth rate has grown by 1000%, with more knowledge being presented on any given subject, in a single day, than what could have been shared in a year not more than 50 years ago.

Knowledge is not a bad thing to have most of the time. In fact, I am so very thankful for the knowledge that has come forward so I can perform my job better. I thank God for the knowledge that brought forth new methods and new instruments that enable us to preach the gospel more effectively and to reach more people than ever before.

But…

For knowledge to be as good as it can be, we must be able to use that knowledge with wisdom. Knowledge comes from what we have studied. Wisdom comes from using what we know with the wrong results. My favorite saying is, “Knowledge knows it’s a one way street. Wisdom is looking both ways anyways!”

For knowledge to be useful, wisdom must be applied. The problem is that most of the world uses its knowledge based upon the wisdom of the world without God.

Knowledge, without the fear of the Lord, and the wisdom to use the knowledge we learn, is a very dangerous thing. Knowledge creates within the heart of man a desire for things that he does not understand or need. In other words, it becomes a source of temptation.

Wouldn’t we all have been much better off if Adam and Eve would have been satisfied with the knowledge that they had already? They had it all and threw it away for what: Just to know what God knew, and after they knew good from evil, they forever wished that they had never known what God knew again.

I don’t know about you but I really get that! There are some things in my life, I wish I never knew! I know that I have to study to be approved unto God, a workman that isn’t ashamed. But I don’t want to know everything for with knowledge you also receive tremendous responsibility to use that knowledge wisely.

I have also learned, when I gain knowledge there are times when I think I know more than God. Silly, right? There is no way I could no more than God, but sometimes my human side gets all prideful, then I take my eyes off God, and Bam! Where did that sin come from???

God knew this would be a problem for mankind that was now caught in the grip of sin. He knew that, never again, would man be able to use the knowledge he learned within God’s righteous parameters. He knew that man would find a way to abuse the knowledge that he had attained.

Ecclesiastes 1:18, "For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow."

If you don’t know how to repair a computer, no one will ask you, but if you let it be known that you can, then there will be no end of people seeking your help and advice. The more you know, and the more you let your knowledge be known, the more you will be in demand. You will have to trust me on this, I have definitely been there; been overwhelmed by trying to be all for all; and falling flat on my face.

Have you been there?

In addition, the more you know, the more there is to sadden and burden your heart. If you don’t know of starving kids, child abuse, rape, murder, robberies and such, you won’t be so fearful to go out at night and you will be able to sleep a little sounder. But once you learn of them, your life is forever changed by that knowledge.

So knowledge is not always a good thing. Sometimes it can even be a dangerous thing. What is it that makes knowledge worth knowing? It knows the source of knowledge in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. When we come to know the Lord, the knowledge that we attain suddenly has a deeper meaning than ever before.

Knowledge can be a wonderful thing. I want to know more about my Lord. I want to know more about His Word. I want to know more about His ways. But, I must first know Him, as my Lord and Savior, and then that knowledge will be a blessing and not a curse.

James 1:5, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him."

KnowhatImean?