“Without love I am nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:2)
Love (Photo credit: aftab.)
On the surface this seems clear and indisputable. If that was the case why does the witness to its truth not stand out among believers?
Love, at least in North American culture, has been diluted into meaningless. I have written before about this, how we love pickles and sports teams. Yet here I must go further than that.
Here God tells Paul to write that without love we are nothing. How does God define love then?
Godly love (or “agape” in Greek) has nothing to do with emotions, nor vocabulary, nor conclusions to actions.
Godly love is first of all obedience. Jesus commanded us to love one another (John 13:34, 35; 15:12, 17). Living in obedience to Jesus by the Bible, rejection of personal importance and an attitude of service, lead to love.
The shock increases. Faith, which we make a big deal about, carries no eternal value without love. Now if you aren’t gasping for breath after hearing this let me repeat, faith healing, miracles, walking on water, mean nothing without a context of love. So not only obedience, but the very way we express living with Jesus is either saturated in love or it is a complete loss!
Love has nothing to do with achievement for God, Biblical knowledge, or any other obvious religious characteristic. Godly love refers to a life of conscious and unconscious respect for other believers, to the point of dying for them when necessary (John 15:13).
Get this, love is not shown in criticism, one-upmanship or indoctrination to uniformity. It finds itself expressed in sacrifice of all for another believer. Contempt, unjust judgment, decisions made for personal convenience rather than careful process prove our hearts empty of love, our thoughts devoid of love and our world view vacant of love.
And love is neither shown nor proved by socially or religiously correct vocabulary. “We’re doing this for your own good” is accepted as a legitimate Christian perspective when really it screams anything but Godly love. Pulpits and religious meetings start with expressions in words of God’s authority and love, and quickly degenerate into trivializing the beliefs of other Christians, demands for loyalty to institutions, and the denial of this.
But what we can’t deny is that without love I am nothing; with love God is everything. Ya gotta love this way.
May 21, 2014
nopew
viewoutsidethepew 
10 responses to “Without Love”
nopew
May 22nd, 2014 at 21:43
Yes, Jesus stays so close when we give up to and for the One Who Saves. Since God gives the increase of the harvest we know something will grow out of it if only we never give up.
Peace
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lessonsbyheart
May 22nd, 2014 at 18:14
Well said! Oh, and this kind of love costs. We must be willing to become a true living sacrifice – accent on the last word. It’s worth it, though, for the LORD is near throughout the process. 😉 My only hope is that there will be fruit at the end of this season!
\o/
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nopew
May 21st, 2014 at 23:27
Yes, it’s the people who are light and salt that bring spiritual health to us. Our piece of the body meets Wed. nights. They’re a lot fun, but I remain tentative at this time. One of them is the sister of one who betrayed us and so I don’t really know where she stands when she is with her.
Peace
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greenlightlady
May 21st, 2014 at 22:39
Excellent post on love. It was love that attracted me to Christ, and it’s the lack of love in the institutionalized church that makes it so hard to get up on Sunday morning. Thankfully there are pockets of spirit-filled people here and there to encourage and be encouraged by.
Blessings ~ Wendy ❀
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nopew
May 21st, 2014 at 20:35
Your point is well-taken and it is this awareness that drives me to pray for the religious zealots who do such damage, not just to me but to so many others. I pray that they could see this with spiritual eyes all the way to their soul.
Peace
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nopew
May 21st, 2014 at 20:32
Alas, that truth haunts me as I have been the target of religious actions that were void of Godly love. Still, with Jesus there is always hope. Thank you for taking time to read and comment.
Peace
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nopew
May 21st, 2014 at 20:30
Thanks for the affirmation.
Peace
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Joe Mwita
May 21st, 2014 at 10:56
Amen
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Nate
May 21st, 2014 at 08:10
I really liked this, ‘Get this, love is not shown in criticism, one-upmanship or indoctrination to uniformity. It finds itself expressed in sacrifice of all for another believer’. There is not enough of this kind of love today in our ‘Christian’ families and churches.
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mwitasblog
May 21st, 2014 at 06:58
I really love the way you put it: “the very way we express living with Jesus is either saturated in love or it is a complete loss!”
A complete loss! It makes me understand why Jesus will tell many miracle workers, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
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