Without love all you have is nothing

I have been impressed by those who can preach with charisma.
I have been awed by those who speak through a filter of heaven itself.
I have been excited by those who speak for God.
For those with wisdom and knowledge, those with huge faith levels I have given the deepest of respect to.
What always stirs my heart are those who give of what they have and of themselves, laying everything down before God and man. I am moved by sacrificial, self-less surrender of wants and rights for the good of others. Yet even this amazing trait needs the right motive otherwise the gain is empty.

Paul pauses his response to the spiritual gifts as badges of honour with what has become the world-wide known love passage. Spoken mostly at weddings, seen on plaques and pictures, it speaks today to us all to practice the words. Paul opens the passage up with a warning.

“If I speak in the tonguesof men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² 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 do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13 v 1-3)

Oh how we rave about the gifted, skilled and able people!

This week I heard of a Pastors daughter and her husband who have given up on church though they were gifted with tremendous worship leading ability, they’ve dropped out. Why? They saw how the large church they attended dealt with their interns. They realised they were just a number, a cog in the wheel. They burnt out not because of a lack of faith or because they were frustrated with a gift-less church. They dropped out because of a lack of love.

Some are more concerned with their love of structures and strategies than the love of the saints.

What do churches need? Great preachers? The language of men and angels? Being a mouthpiece for God? Having wisdom and knowledge? Faith to be and act and do miracles upon miracles? What about amazing philanthropists? Is that it? Is that what our churches and communities need?

I talked with a pastoral couple yesterday and they reflected how after a number of years pastoring their church that their town knows the church loves the people in the community. The town knows they are loved by the church. Isn’t that amazing!

Here it is: love. Everything else doesn’t matter if you don’t have it.

Do they love people?
Is love for others the motivation behind their gifting, their action?
Loving really matters.
How you treat people counts!
Without love all you have is nothing.