Something perhaps more Christians would do well to remember...
Without love, we have nothing.
Without love, nothing we do will really matter.
This was a lesson well imprinted upon me by the study of Scripture, the lessons of a godly pastor, and the writings of theologians and men and women of God throughout the history of the Church. It is a fundamental teaching, but one we too often lose sight of. We think we can do all manner of good deeds and actions, but so often we do them without love in our hearts for those we are reaching out towards.....only later to find out our actions have born no fruit...because there was no love in the seed.
You can stand on the street corner, or in a pulpit, preaching and thundering....but without love, your words are hollow.
You can exhort and rebuke, casting words far and wide as a net, in person or on facebook, but if not done with love, your return shall be empty.
You can be pious and devout in all your dealings, but unless your dealings are done with love, they lack meaning.
You can prophesy, teach, proclaim and more, but without love...they are just gestures. You can give everything you have, even unto the giving of yourself, but if not done with love, it is for naught.
Love is what makes every action, every word, every gesture, every deed have meaning in the sight of God. Our love for God, and our love for our fellow man, to whom we reach out towards with Christ's love in our hearts. If love is not present, then no matter what we do, it will be meaningless in the sight of God. Love is what binds the whole of Scripture together, from beginning to end, and is expressed best in the unspeakable gift of Christ Jesus, given unto us for our salvation. When we see the depths of God's love for people such as you and I, we should be filled with a desire to show that love unto others, so that they too might rest in the radiant light of Christ.
Is love the driving force in how you reach out to others? In what you say, what you type, how you pray?
Because if it is not, then you have nothing. But in God's love, we have everything.
-Beth Haynes Butler
1 Corinthians 13
13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 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. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[b] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Without love, we have nothing.
Without love, nothing we do will really matter.
This was a lesson well imprinted upon me by the study of Scripture, the lessons of a godly pastor, and the writings of theologians and men and women of God throughout the history of the Church. It is a fundamental teaching, but one we too often lose sight of. We think we can do all manner of good deeds and actions, but so often we do them without love in our hearts for those we are reaching out towards.....only later to find out our actions have born no fruit...because there was no love in the seed.
You can stand on the street corner, or in a pulpit, preaching and thundering....but without love, your words are hollow.
You can exhort and rebuke, casting words far and wide as a net, in person or on facebook, but if not done with love, your return shall be empty.
You can be pious and devout in all your dealings, but unless your dealings are done with love, they lack meaning.
You can prophesy, teach, proclaim and more, but without love...they are just gestures. You can give everything you have, even unto the giving of yourself, but if not done with love, it is for naught.
Love is what makes every action, every word, every gesture, every deed have meaning in the sight of God. Our love for God, and our love for our fellow man, to whom we reach out towards with Christ's love in our hearts. If love is not present, then no matter what we do, it will be meaningless in the sight of God. Love is what binds the whole of Scripture together, from beginning to end, and is expressed best in the unspeakable gift of Christ Jesus, given unto us for our salvation. When we see the depths of God's love for people such as you and I, we should be filled with a desire to show that love unto others, so that they too might rest in the radiant light of Christ.
Is love the driving force in how you reach out to others? In what you say, what you type, how you pray?
Because if it is not, then you have nothing. But in God's love, we have everything.
-Beth Haynes Butler
1 Corinthians 13
13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 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. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[b] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
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