1 Corinthians 13:1-8a

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.^[1]

A real gut check for the Christian is a check of the genuineness of their love. We are often so zealous about our particular concerns that we lose sight of the imperative of love we have received. Regardless of how righteous our cause or how in the right we may believe we are on a particular issue, our witness and the effectiveness of our cause is lost when we are unloving. The Apostle Paul challenged the believers in Corinth to this very point. The things they loved to boast about and glory in meant nothing if they are not accompanied by and done in love. Even our faith, upon which we stand so steadfastly, means nothing if we do not have love.

What are the things we love to boast about and glory in? Our reputation in the community? Our community programs? Our standard of holiness? According to Paul, none of that matters if we have not love. But what kind of love is this? It is the love of God, the love that was demonstrated toward is in that while we were still in our sin Jesus died for us. This kind of love stands contrary to the what is prevalent in our society at-large. This is the kind of love that we see Jesus demonstrate in His ministry and it is the kind we should demonstrate as well. On the one day of the year when the world celebrates ‘love,’ let us show the world what it means to love God and one another.

O Heavenly Father, thank You for loving us so much that You sent Your Son to be our pascal lamb. Thank You for loving us so much that You refused to allow us to labor in our sin. Now, dear Lord, show us how to love one another more completely. Forgive us for loving those who are easy to love. Forgive us for demanding our way without showing the depths of our love. Help us to love our enemies as well as our friends, sisters and brothers so that the world will know we are Christians by our love. Amen.

^[1] New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), 1 Co 13:1–8.