Believers must not only say that they love, love must be shown by their actions. The great proof of God’s love, as well as the motive for our love, is that he sent his only Son, who is life, so that we could live through him.Of all the different kinds of love, God’s love—agape love—is the truest. Greek has four words to depict four different kinds of love: (1) eros for sexual passion, (2) storge for family devotion, (3) philos for friendship, and (4) agape for unconditional love. The fourth word was used exclusively by John to characterize God’s love. It speaks of compassion, regard, kindness, and unselfishness. This kind of love motivated God to send his Son to the world to die for undeserving sinners—that kind of love is real love.
God’s supreme love is the motive of believers’ love for each other. Because believers are born of God, they should resemble their Father, who is love. As they grow in appreciation of God’s love for them, their love for him and for other Christians will grow as well. The way God loves people—sacrificially, unselfishly, completely—provides the example for how believers should love each other.
As we trust in this love and live in it day by day, we come to understand that God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. It is one thing to know and believe in God’s love; it is quite another to actually appropriate God’s love into a person’s life so that the person “lives in love.”
Because of this mutual indwelling—God abiding in believers and they abiding in him—the believers’ love grows more perfect. The word perfect does not mean “flawless,” but “mature.” This perfection happens as each believer’s relationship with God, who is love, grows. His perfect love becomes free to work completely in and through them.
This perfect, mature love produces believers who will not be afraid on the day of judgment. On that day, God will require all people to account for their lives. Those who have followed him will live with him forever. Yet God’s people don’t have to wait until that day to find out if they “made it.” They have that confidence now.
Believers’ love, whether for God or for others, is based on God’s love for them. God’s love is the source, the initiator. People cannot love this way on their own; it happens as a result of his loving people first. God’s love is far above all human love. Because believers abide in God and thus abide in love, God’s love fills them and overflows from them. Such “otherworldly” love then becomes the characteristic of God’s people. They can love as he loves. Such love overflows to others who experience God’s love as well.
SO WHAT? (what will I do with what I have read today?)
Let me ask you this morning – what do you think matters most to God? The Bible tells us in Galatians 5:6 "If you are a follower of Christ Jesus all that matters is your faith that makes you love others.” God says what matters in life is not your accomplishments or your achievements or your fame or your wealth. What matters in life is one thing.
All that matters is your faith that makes you love other people. He says if you miss that, you have missed the most important thing in life. It’s the kind of faith that makes you love other people.
Today, I want to take you to the most famous chapter in the Bible on love, 1 Corinthians 13. It is my greatest prayer and desire that we become a church that makes what matters most our highest priority. Let’s do a fly over of 1 Corinthians 13 and see what it has to say about love. The first thing we see from 1 Corinthians 13
#1. If I don’t live a life of love, nothing I SAY will matter.
Verse 1: “If I could speak in any language in heaven or on earth, but I didn’t love others I would only be making meaningless noise like a loud gong or a claiming symbol.” God says words without love are just noise. Words without love are empty.
We’re really impressed by great speakers, great communicators. We love eloquence. We love charisma. We love to hear somebody really ring our chimes and really stir us. God says, “That doesn’t impress Me at all. I don’t care how good of communicator you are. I want to know if you love. Is your life a life of love?” Living a life without love means nothing I say will matter.
#2. If I don't live a life with love, nothing I KNOW will matter.
Verse 2: “I may have the gift of prophecy. I may understand all the secret things of God. I may have all knowledge. But if I do not have love, then I am nothing.” You may be Phi Beta Kappa, a Mensa member, you may be a genius, brilliant, a walking Bible encyclopedia, have incredible knowledge of science or math or literature or history. You may be a genius. But He says if you don’t have love in your life, all that you know is worthless. It doesn’t really matter. Brilliance without love equals zero.
#3. If I don’t live a life with love, nothing I BELIEVE will matter.
There’s a myth that being a Christian, being a follower of Christ, is just a matter of believing certain truths. That is not true. Nothing can be further from the truth. Following Christ is much more than believing intellectual facts or doctrinal truths. It’s a life of love. The Bible says, “Even if I have the gift of faith so I could speak to a mountain and make it move [In other words, a miracle worker], I will still be worth nothing at all without love.” It takes more than belief to please God.
You say, “But wait a minute! I believe in Jesus!” So what? So does the devil. The devil believes that there’s a God. The devil believes that Jesus is the Son of God. But you won’t find him in heaven. Why? Because it takes more than believing in Christ to make it to heaven. The issue is not do you believe in Him. The issue is do you love Him. Have you given Him your life? Are you living life by His rules? Well, for instance. The Bibles says you can’t love God and hate people. So, if you really love God, you are instructed to go and make things right – to the best of your ability. Pretty profound huh?
#4. If I don’t live a life of love, nothing I GIVE will matter.
“If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, but I didn’t love others, I would be of no value whatsoever.” Some people give just in order to get back. That’s not love. Some people give out of guilt, to try to assuage a guilty conscious so they give and give and give trying to make up for something they did in the past. That’s not love. Some people give to control other people. (Parents do this all the time – the way they give to their kids in order to try to control them.) Not love.
Some people give for prestige, for glory, for honor. They want a little plague that says, “Look! I'm a great giver!” That’s not love. You can give for a lot of wrong motives, and the Bible says when I give, if I’m doing it of love, in love, none of my giving counts. And nothing I give will matter.
A guy told me one time, “I don't understand. I’ve bought my wife everything she could ever want, and she's leaving me.” I said, “But did you love her?” You can’t buy a wife, just like you can’t buy your kids. A lot of parents try to compensate for the lack of time they spend with their kids by buying them lots of things. They don’t need things. They need your time. They need your love.
#5. If I don't live a life of love, nothing I ACCOMPLISH will matter.
1 Corinthians 13:3 in The Message paraphrase says, “No matter what I say or what I believe or what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.” You can rack up an incredible list of personal achievements. You can get your picture on the cover of Fortune magazine or Inc. or Time. You can win the Nobel Peace Prize. You can have enormous accomplishments, be entrepreneur of the year, build a billion-dollar company, have incredibly great successes in your field of endeavor. But the Bible says it isn’t worth squat if you don’t love.
One day you’re going to stand before God when you die. And God’s going to evaluate your life. When He evaluates your life, He’s not going to look at your bank account. He’s not going to look at your list of accomplishments. He’s not going to look at your grades. He’s not going to look at all your sports trophies. He’s not going to look at your endorsements or your PR list or your resume.
God is going to evaluate your life on one basis – your relationships. God is going to ask, “How much did you love Me and other people?” That’s called the Great Commandment. Did you love God with all your heart, and did you love your neighbor as yourself? That is all that matters in God’s eyes. All the other stuff is superfluous.
Let me ask you today - based upon the 1 Corinthians 13 passage, how's your love life?
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