1 Corinthians 16
14 Let all your things be done with love.
Love is like the fuel that keeps us going. A Christian without love is like a car without petrol. It might be such a beautiful car but will go nowhere unless pushed. Such a Christian does not know overflowing life. He has no vitality and growth.
This Godly love makes the difference in our lives. We have this love firstly towards God. As Jesus said in Matt 22:37, 38, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment.”
There is no life without this Godly Love. Do you love the Lord with all your heart? The question is not whether you work for Him and even give your whole life for Him but whether you love Him. All that we do for God without love for Him just becomes a noise.
It is easy that with time serving the Lord has become a burden. That’s the great risk that we lose the first love. When we first met the Lord our love was burning – nothing was a burden or too much. It was a joy to answer God’s call. But what is it like today? Do we say, “not again” and “surely the Lord knows one has limits”.
If this Godly love grows cold you will stop serving others. Remember what a joy it was in the beginning to serve your fellow Christians. But now you’re looking at them to bring their side first. And you forget that you’re called to be servants. It is easy to serve others when there is Love but very difficult – even impossible – without Godly love.
Maybe you desire to be a missionary like C.T. Studd or Livingston but they only persevered because of Godly love. Without this Godly love you will soon get tired on the mission field.
We read in Eph 5:2, “walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.”
If we do something because we expect something in return it leaves a bad smell. But we must do everything we do in God’s Love, not expecting anything in return. That is to God a sweet-smelling aroma. How do I know whether I have this Love? Study 1Cor 13. It’s frightening to realize from this passage that even what I do for God profits nothing without love.
Love covers a multitude of sin. Can we love others if we always notice the wrong the others do. And we only notice the injustices we suffer. And we feel self-pity, “nobody loves me”. The question is not whether others love you, but do you have God’s love for others?
When we do something God says it must be born out of love; in other words born out of God. Whatever we do must be born out of God. Whatever we do that’s not born out of God is irrelevant before God. Without God we can do nothing. In the light of eternity whatever God isn’t in will count nothing.
If God is not in what we speak it becomes idle chatter and simply a noise. 1Cor 13:1, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.”
Love is patient. When things don’t go your way and people do things differently to what you think, do you have patience?
Love is kind.
Love is not jealous. It is easy to be jealous. When someone has something I don’t have, do I have the love to bless him? If God blesses him then I want to bless him too. Or maybe someone else is promoted in any way and I feel jealous. How stupid wouldn’t it be in soccer when the goal-keeper feels jealous because his striker gets a goal. We are part of the body of Christ and should rejoice when another part is uplifted.
Love does not take account of a wrong suffered. When someone does something against you do you then think “you owe me”?
Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth.
If there’s no love the smallest thing makes you fall but love bears all things.
Love seeks the best.So we can test our love. Jesus tested Peter’s love. When Peter said that He loved Jesus, Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep”. If you love the Lord you will get involved in His work and love His work. The Lord’s work will be at the top of your list of priorities. How do you get this love for God. It comes once you realise that He has come to save you from your sins. The one who has been forgiven much will also love much. But you might think that you do not have big sins. Jesus said that if you spoke an evil word about your brother you’re a murderer. Such a one realises that he is a sinner before God and saved only by the grace of God.
Like John Bunyan said that when he saw himself as God saw him “I did not say that I’m a sinner but that I am sin from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet.” Once you see yourself as God sees you and then experienced His forgiveness you’ll know what love is. Then you will tell the Lord “I owe You my life. Do with me as You please.” That love will make your being a Christian a sweet aroma to God and man. You will become a blessing to others when you do all things in love. May God grant this to us this year that we will walk in love. Then our Christian life will become glorious and it will be a fountain of love and life from within.