Someone said it plainly last night, when we were reading Paul’s “Love Chapter,” and thinking about why love is better than all the good things we do. She said “If we aren’t doing these things for love, then why would we do them?” Indeed. If Christ’s love is not the energy flowing through my heart and mind, then all that is left is me in there, doing the right things but for the wrong reasons….a counterfeit of love.
Easy to slide into maybe, because the needs inside are so natural and we hardly have to think about hunger to grab for more to fill it. It just happens. Being nice to others makes you feel better about yourself. Using your abilities in the church builds relationships. Helping others gives meaning to your life. How easily I could slip into the habit of doing these right things all by myself, to gain the reward….I’d be running on empty, filling my tank with the little I earn and spending it right away again, two steps forward and three steps back. No wonder Paul says you end up with nothing.
See, the love Paul is writing about is real and eternal; someone said that last night too: “God is love.” (1 John 4:8) Not just that He is a loving person but that His very nature is love, in perfect completeness, in infinite measure. He defines what love is. He is the only way we know love at all. Because He loved us first, we can love…not just to the limit of our own abilities but with His own limitless supply. His love should be the motivator and guide for all the “good things” we do.
Real love is a thankful response to His love on the cross. Real love uses the gifts He has given to grow up others in the faith, wants to please Him, and depends on Him for the ability to do it. And because His love is real and eternal, the good things we do under its guidance will last for eternity and work for our own eternal good as well. If I am depending on Him I can run on a full tank and still always have room for more, because He never stops giving and the more I have of Him, the more I want.
Our challenge for the coming week is to read 1 Corinthians 13 once a day. Lord, as these familiar words settle into our minds this week, help us to seek out “the most excellent way” wholeheartedly, and not be satisfied with any counterfeits. As we dwell on the love You show us, may love be our thankful response to You and others.
“…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 Corinthians 13:2b-3)