"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" (1 Cor. 13:1-3).
The love of Jesus must be the prevailing virtue in the life of a Christian and the church if we are to impact the world for Christ. Paul describes the kind of love we must possess: "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth." Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."
This passage of scripture is one of the most well known in all the bible. It's been said that familiarity breeds contempt. I’m afraid that some people have allowed their familiarity with this passage of the bible to minimize the impact it ought to have on them. We need to meditate on this passage of scripture and allow what Paul is saying to sink in. Paul said that it doesn’t matter how eloquent you are, it doesn’t matter if you have the power to predict future events, it doesn’t matter if you have the book of Revelations all figured out, it doesn’t matter if you have the faith to believe that God can do the impossible, and it doesn’t matter if you are willing to strap a bomb to your body and blow yourself up, if you don’t possess the kind of Love that Paul describes here you are bankrupt spiritually—you have gained absolutely nada, zero, nothing. This selfless, sacrificial and supernatural love is why our Savior endured the cross for you and for me. This is the love that we must pursue and possess if we are to be used of God to draw men to Jesus. Jesus said, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:35). There is a major “if” in Jesus words. If you have the love that Paul describes then others will know that you are the real deal. If not we are no different than an unbeliever. Jesus said, “For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?” (Matthew 5:46).
This love is not a love that we can work up on our own. This love is produced by the Spirit and flows out of an intimate love relationship with Jesus Christ (John 15:1-8). The world will not be changed by flowery speech or great knowledge, but by the love that flows out of a close walk with Jesus.
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