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What's
Love Got to Do With It
1 Corinthians 13: 1-3
In Ozarks, they put on a Passion play
about the last hours of Christ’s life. The story is told that one time
the actor who was playing the part of Christ was carrying the cross up
the hill when a tourist began making fun of him shouting insults at him.
Finally, the actor had taken all of it he could take. So he threw down
his cross, walked over to the tourist, and knocked him out cold.
After the play was over, the director told him, "I know he was a pest,
but you are playing the part of Jesus and Jesus never retaliated. So
don’t do anything like that again." Well, the man promised he wouldn’t.
But the next day the heckler was back worse than before, and just like
the first night, the actor exploded and decked him again.
The director said, "That’s it. I have to fire you. We just can’t have
you behaving this way while playing the part of Jesus." The actor
begged, "Please give me one more chance. I really need this job, and I
can handle it if it happens again." So the director decided to give him
another chance.
The next day he was carrying his cross up the street. Sure enough, the
heckler was there again. You could tell that the actor was really trying
to control himself, but it was about to get the best of him. He was
clinching his fists & grinding his teeth. Finally, he looked at the
heckler and said, "I’ll meet you after the resurrection!"
The hardest part about being a Christian is acting like one. We try to
carry on like Christ would but as soon as someone crosses us we lose our
composure & behave just like the rest of the world. But the Bible
teaches us that we are to be people who exercise love in all of our
relationships with one another.
Listen to these words, "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you,
live at peace with everyone" Romans 12:18.
And again, "Be completely humble & gentle; be patient, bearing with one
another in love" Ephesians 4:2.
And still again, "Make every effort to live in peace with all men & to
be holy..." Hebrews 12:14.
Now all of those Scriptures say the same thing. It may be difficult
sometimes, and not everybody will be easy to love, but if it is
possible, we are to live in peace and harmony with everyone.
Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 13 and let’s look at the first three
verses: If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not
love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic
powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have
all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but
have not love, I gain nothing.
THE IMPORTANCE OF LOVE IN OUR LIVES
Paul has just finished talking about Spiritual Gifts and in the very
next breath he says, "I want to show you the best way to take care of
virtually every situation, & that is the way of love." But not only does
he say its better, he shows us why it is more important that five things
that Christians consider very important.
In vs. 1, Paul says that love is more important than spiritual gifts.
"If I speak in the tongues of men & of angels, but have not love, I am
only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal."
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.
But here in 1 Corinthians, 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. Now what did he mean by that?
Back 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.
Here, Paul is saying that even if he were so blessed that he could speak
with the greatest of eloquence in every language, but didn’t have love,
and then his life was as useless as this ridiculous act of pounding on a
gong to awaken non-existent gods. You see, love is more important than
any spiritual gift.
Then in vs. 2 Paul says that love is more important than knowledge. "If
I have the gift of prophecy & I can fathom all mysteries & all
knowledge...but have not love, I am nothing."
Even if you know it all - if you know everything there is to know about
nuclear science; if you know everything there is to know about medicine;
if you know everything there is to know about philosophy & psychology &
theology & 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 and try to
analyze what is wrong with us, why we’re killing and abusing one
another, that those 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."
But I don’t think education is the answer. I’m certainly not opposed to
education. But listen to what Paul says in 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.
Thirdly, 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."
Faith is so important that it is impossible to please God without it.
Now I believe that every one of you have faith. But what is your faith?
What do you believe for sure this morning?
Do you believe that God is the creator of the world?
Do you believe that Jesus Christ is His only begotten Son, and that He
came into our world and lived a sinless life and that He died, was
buried, and on the third day rose again?
Do you believe that He is now at the right hand of the Father, and is
preparing a place for us, and that one day He will come again?
Do you believe that the Holy Spirit is our guide, counselor, and
comforter?
If you believe all those things, I want to commend you for it. But the
Bible teaches that if you believe all the right stuff, but you do not
have love, then you are nothing. Because even faith has no value unless
it is backed up by love.
The priest and the Levite in the story of the Good Samaritan had faith.
The problem was they had no love. So they walked by on the other side &
just left the man lying there to die.
In Galatians 5:6 Paul says, "The only thing that counts is faith
expressing itself through love."
Fourthly, love is more important than generosity. Paul says, "If I give
all I possess to the poor...but have not love, I gain nothing."
Now notice that he doesn’t say, "If I give 10%." He says, "If I give
everything, if I empty my checking account, if I give all my retirement
funds, if I sell my house, if I cash in my insurance policies, if I sit
on the corner with nothing left but what I’m wearing, and I’ve given it
all away to help the poor, but I don’t have love then I am nothing at
all."
You see, generosity is not enough. Are you a generous person? But why do
you give?
Do you give because you feel guilty if you don’t?
Do you give because you want to impress others sitting around you?
Do you give because you’re afraid that God will get you if you don’t?
Do you give because you think you will get more than you give?
You see, all those are wrong reasons. If the only reason that I give is
to receive or to benefit myself, then love is absent, and giving is
empty. The motive for giving should be love, love for God, and love for
God’s people.
Finally, he says that love is more important than accomplishments. He
says, "If I...surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain
nothing."
He is talking about being a martyr. He is talking about being so
faithful and so committed to God that you end up dying because of your
faith. How deep is your faith? How deep is your commitment? Are you
willing to lay down your life for God, if it came to that?
Paul is saying that even if you go to church every time the church doors
are open, if you read your Bible faithfully, if you pray, and do all the
things that a Christian person ought to do, but if there is no love
behind all that then it is nothing in God’s sight.
So he is saying that love is more important than spiritual gifts, more
important than knowledge, more important than faith, more important than
generosity, and more important than all the things that you might
accomplish for the kingdom of God.
THE PRACTICE OF LOVE IN OUR EVERYDAY LIVES
So obviously, love is very important, much more maybe, than we ever
realized before. Listen to what Jesus says in John 13:34, "A new
commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you
must love one another."
Now notice that Jesus says that this is a commandment, not a suggestion.
And God never commands us to do anything that we cannot do. We tend to
think that love is something that just happens to us because that is
what the world teaches. You fall in love like you fall into a ditch, or
you fall out of love like you fall out of a tree. You can’t help it. It
is something that just happens to you.
But the Bible teaches that love is something we can control. God
commands us to love each other. This means, I can decide to love you,
and you can decide to love me. So this is not a hopeless situation at
all. But, what kind of love is being talked about here? In Philippians
2:4 Paul says that he wants us to behave as Jesus Christ behaved. In
other words to love in the same way that Jesus loved.
And here is the way Jesus loved. He said, "Each of you should look not
only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others." In
other words, love becomes unselfish. You begin to think about other
people and their interests just like you think about yourself and your
interests. You become unselfish. Let’s see how we could apply that in
several different areas.
First of all, see how that would work in the family. Let’s suppose you
decided today, "I’m going to go home & put this into practice."
Start with your brother or sister. You ought to love your siblings. You
ought to be kinder to them even if they’re behaving like a jerk. Can you
see how that would affect the atmosphere of the home? There wouldn’t be
any arguing or bickering, no sharp words between each other because
their interests are just as important as yours. And pretty soon, it
filters down to the relationship you share with your parents, cousins,
uncles, and aunts and everybody else in the family. Just because you
love them.
It begins in the family, and it spills over into the church family. In
fact, Jesus said, "By this they shall know that you are my disciples, if
you have love for one another." That’s the way the world will find out
that the message of Jesus Christ is valid. And if we’re really going to
love each other the way Jesus loved us then we have to develop in our
own lives the same kind of compassion for people that Jesus had.
When my son Trafton was three, he was watching "Free Willy" with his
aunt Tina. He was enthralled with the movie. He sat on the couch and
didn’t move for two hours as he watched that movie. His eyes were fixed
to the screen. He was mesmerized. He watched everything. You could see
little tears in his eyes. You could see him laugh when he was supposed
to. He was totally caught up in the movie.
Can you remember getting caught up in something and identifying with
what’s going on that you actually became a part of a story? Well, that’s
compassion, and it will cause us to ask ourselves some tough questions.
"What’s it like to hurt deep inside and no one knows you’re hurting and
you don’t feel free to tell them that you’re hurting?
What’s it like being sick and knowing you’re not going to get well, and
wanting more than anything else to live?
What’s it like to be handicapped? What’s it like to be a minority?
What’s it like?”
What kind of burdens are people carrying, and do we care enough to help
them bear those burdens? That’s what it means when Jesus talks about
loving one another as He has loved us.
Finally, we are to let that love flow into our Schools as well. We do it
when we show those people who sit in class next to us that Jesus Christ
is our Lord, not just with words, but by the example, we set. You may
have a hard teacher that you don’t like very much. Or you may be in
class with someone who makes fun of the way you live. But Jesus said
that we are to love our enemies & pray for those who persecute us.
In fact, Paul writes in Romans 12:20-21, "If your enemy is hungry, feed
him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink...Do not be overcome
by evil, but overcome evil with good."
A young somewhat cocky cowboy was riding his horse one day when he spied
a hunched-over old farm hand on a mule. Deciding to have a little fun,
the young cowboy drew his six-shooter and told the old man to get down
off his mule. He then asked the old man "if he had ever danced" and
began to empty his revolver at his feet with great laughter.
The old man slowly turned back to his mule unamused and put his hand
into his pack and drew a shotgun, aimed it at the now bullet-less young
cowboy and said, "Did you ever kiss a mule?"
To which the young cowboy said with fright, "No, but I have always
wanted to!"
There is nothing like a bullet for motivation. What is it, though, that
provides you with the motivation to serve God day after day?
Perhaps you are motivated by the fear of punishment if you don't. It's a
valid motive -- that's why Jesus told us about hell.
Or perhaps you are motivated by the hope of reward. Again, it's a valid
motive -- that's why Jesus told us about heaven.
But I would suggest to you that there is an even higher motive and that
is to serve God out of a love and appreciation for all that He has done
for us.
As a parent, that's what I hope for my children. They may at times obey
me to avoid punishment or to gain some reward I've promised them, but I
hope that in time they come to listen to me simply because they love and
respect me.
So what does love have to do with it? John writes that "We love Him
because He first loved us." 1 John 4:19, so I guess Love has everything
to do with it.
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