November 21st
Today's Bible Reading
But Have Not
1 Corinthians 13:3
If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
The ruling factor of all things is love. Without it my attitudes and actions are ineffective. Love is the missing element that should rule everything that we do or say. It is what the world needs now.
Paul in this thirteen chapter of his letter to the Corinthians sets forth a high bar for everyone of faith. We, who believe in a higher love, must present a higher love. God’s love for us in Christ should be the motivational factor in our love for others.
John writes that we cannot say we love God and hate our brother whom God loves (1 John 2:9). Divine love should rule and regulate our life. It should be the standard that we seek to achieve.
Our text tells us that true Godly love is more than selflessness or sacrifice. It is more than our acts of love. It is our attitude in love. Love is not comprised of what I do, but who I am. If I give away everything I have or martyr myself for a cause, but my life is not centered in love, I am nothing and I gain nothing. All that I have done in the name of love is to no avail.
But if love is what motivates our movements we will find the deeper love that we have longed for. We must live for and look for a love that is patient and kind, a love that does not envy or boast, that is not arrogant or rude. We must long for a love that does not insist on its own way; that it is not irritable or resentful and does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. We need to live out a love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things. We need an endless love (1 Cor 13:2-8). This is what love is. This is the love we must live out.
Jesus loved us with this kind of love. Our relationship with Him should lead us to love like Him. As John says, “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). If we have not this kind of love we have gained nothing from our relationship with Jesus. Let us live like Him. Let us love like Him.
Today let love rule all your relationships. Let it dominate your decisions and determine your direction. Let love be evident in all you do our say. Ask the Lord to help you love like you have been loved by Him. Ask Him to never let it be said of you that you have not love.
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