LOVE
Love, of course, is the subject of the month of February.
Love is what gives energy to the gifts.
That is why I Corinthians 13 is such a masterpiece. After telling us about our many gifts, Paul tells us that they are nothing without love. In one verse it says that "Even if I speak with the tongues of angels and have no love, I am just making noise." In other words, language without love is noise without melody. I cannot imagine what it would be llike to hear an angel speak, but many believe that Paul had heard one. But even that is nothing without love. What he is saying is that love gives power, depth, and reality to speaking eloquently.
Think about that for a moment if you will. I guess that means that when we speak to others it is a matter of our heart. What comes out of our mouth, is a direct result of the heart and it absolutely affects our words. What we
say and how we say it is either qualified or disqualified by the way we say things including our tone of voice. But we often forget this as J.Vernon McGee use to say, "I'm afraid that the vice of the virtueous is speaking with angry words."The problem we have is that we get to thinking that we are better than we are, and when we do, we think that we have a right to speak down on others who are not quite measuring up to our great
standards, our little rules. O, how self-righteous we can become. And that leads me to the next passage. Listen to this passage from the amplified translation of the Bible. "And if I have prophetic powers -- that is, the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose: and understand all the secret truths and mysteries and possess all knowledge, and if I have (sufficient) faith so that I can remove mountains, but have not love (God's love in me) I am nothing -- a useless nobody." I can tell you that the last thing I want to be is a nobody. I want to be somebody for Jesus, and what Paul is saying is that love is a matter of the heart and a matter of the mind, and lastly a matter of the will. It's not how you feel, but essentially what you do.
I would suggest that all of us should once again discover I Corinthians 13. No other passage in scripture demands such self examination as this from those who consider themselves to be good.
- Ken
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LOVE ISLove is the filling from one's own,
Another's cup,
Love is the daily laying down
And taking up;
A choosing of the stony path
Through each new day,
That other feet may tread with ease
A smoother way.
Love is not blind, but looks abroad
Though other's eyes;
And asks not, "Must I give?"
But "May I sacrifice?"
Love hides its grief, that other hearts
And lips may sing;
And burdened walks, that other lives
May buoyant wing.
Hast thou a love like this?
Within thy soul?
'Twill crown thy life with bliss
When thou dost reach the goal.
- Author Unknown