What Love Is

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)

The Bible teaches us that we are to be people who exercise love in all of our relationships with one another.

Listen to these words, "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone" [Romans 12:18]. And again, "Be completely humble & gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love" [Ephesians 4:2]. And still again, "Make every effort to live in peace with all men & to be holy..." [Hebrews 12:14].

Now all of those Scriptures say the same thing. It may be difficult sometimes, & not everybody will be easy to love, but if it is possible, we are to live in peace & harmony with everyone.

So I’m beginning a series of sermons that will deal with the subject of love and to start this evening we will focus on 1 Corinthians 13, the "love chapter" of the Bible. Tonight we are going to look at the first 3 verses which Paul begins by saying, "Now I will show you the most excellent way."

He is saying, "I want to show you the best way to take care of virtually every situation, & that is the way of love." Then he points out that love is more important than five other things that Christians consider very important.

In vs. 1, Paul says that love is more important than spiritual gifts. "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal."

On the day of Pentecost, when the very first gospel sermon was ever preached, God gave the apostles the special gift of being able to speak in languages that they had never learned so that the people hearing them could understand what was being said.

But here in 1 Corinthians, Paul is saying that if God gave him the gift of speaking every human language, and even the heavenly language of the angels, but he didn’t have love, then he would be nothing more than a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. Now what did he mean by that?

Back in the 1st Century, there was a big gong or cymbal hanging at the entrance of most pagan temples. When people came to worship, they hit them to awaken the pagan gods so they would listen to their prayers.

Here, Paul is saying that even if he were so blessed that he could speak with the greatest of eloquence in every language, but didn’t have love, then his life was as useless as this ridiculous act of pounding on a gong to awaken non existent gods.

Then in vs. 2 Paul says that love is more important than knowledge. "If I have the gift of prophecy and I can fathom all mysteries & all knowledge, ...but have not love, I am nothing."

Paul says that even if you know it all - if you know everything there is to know about nuclear science; if you know everything there is to know about medicine; if you know everything there is to know about philosophy and psychology and theology and every other kind of “ology” - if you know it all, but have no love, then you are nothing at all.

It has always amazed me that when people look at society and try to analyze what is wrong with us, why we’re killing and abusing one another, that those experts always seem to come back with the same answer, "We need more education. We need to get everybody educated, and then we won’t have these problems anymore."

But I don’t think education is the answer. I’m certainly not opposed to education. But listen to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 8:1, "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." I don’t think we need more knowledge near as much as we need more love. We need a whole lot more love and the hearts of people need to change before society will ever change.

Thirdly, Paul says that love is more important than faith. Can you believe that? Now he doesn’t say that faith is not important. He just says that love is more important than faith. He said, "If I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing."

Faith, we are told in the Scripture, is so important that it is impossible to please God without faith. And I trust that all of you here this morning have faith. But what is your faith? What do you believe for sure today?

Do you believe that God is the creator of the world? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is His only begotten Son, and that He came into our world and lived a sinless life, and that He died & was buried and on the third day rose again? Do you believe that He is now at the right hand of the Father, and is preparing a place for us, and that one day He will come again? Do you believe that the Holy Spirit is our guide and counselor & comforter?

If you believe all those things, then that is well and good and I commend you for it. But the Bible teaches that if you believe all the right stuff, but you do not have love, then you are nothing. Because even faith is of no value unless it is backed up by love.

In Galatians 5:6 Paul says, "The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love."

Fourthly, love is more important than generosity. Paul says, "If I give all I possess to the poor...but have not love, I gain nothing."

Now notice that he doesn’t say, "If I give 10%." He says, "If I give everything, if I empty my checking account, if I give all my retirement funds, if I sell my house, if I cash in my insurance policies, if I sit on the corner with nothing left but what I’m wearing, and I’ve given it all away to help the poor, but I don’t have love then I am nothing at all."

Then he says that love is more important than accomplishments. He says, "If I...surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing."

He is talking about martyrdom. He is talking about being so faithful & so committed to God that you end up dying because of your faith. How deep is your faith? How deep is your commitment? Are you willing to lay down your life for God, if it came to that?

But Paul is saying that even if you go to church every time the church doors are open, if you read your Bible faithfully, if you pray, & do all the things that a Christian person ought to do, but if there is no love behind all that then it is nothing in God’s sight.

So he is saying that love is more important than spiritual gifts, more important than knowledge, more important than faith, more important than generosity, & more important than all the things that you might accomplish for the kingdom of God.

So obviously, love is very important, much more maybe, than we ever realized before. Listen to what Jesus says in John 13:34, "A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."

Now notice that Jesus says that this is a commandment, not a suggestion. And God never commands us to do anything that we cannot do.

We tend to think that love is something that just happens to us because that is what the world teaches. You fall in love like you fall into a ditch, or you fall out of love like you fall out of a tree. You can’t help it. It is something that just happens to you.

But the Bible teaches that love is something we can control. God commands us to love each other. Which means, I can will to love you, & you in turn can will to love me.

Now I want to apply that in several different areas. First of all, see how that would work in the family. Let’s suppose that someone in every family represented here today would say, "I’m going to go home & put this into practice."

Start with your spouse. You ought to love your husband or your wife first and most. You ought to be kinder, more tender, more gentle to them even if they’re behaving like a jerk. Begin first in your marriage relationship.

Can you see how that would affect the atmosphere of the home? There wouldn’t be any arguing or bickering, no sharp words between each other because their interests are just as important as yours. And pretty soon it filters down to the relationship you share with your children, maybe even your in-laws and your out-laws and everybody else in the family. Just because you love them.

It begins in the family, and it spills over into the church family. In fact Jesus said, "By this they shall know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

That’s the way the world will find out that the message of Jesus Christ is valid. And if we’re really going to love each other the way Jesus loved us then we have to develop in our own lives the same kind of compassion for people that Jesus had.

"What is it like to hurt deep inside and no one knows you’re hurting & you don’t feel free to tell them that you’re hurting? What’s it like being sick & knowing you’re not going to get well, and wanting more than anything else to live? What’s it like to be handicapped? What’s it like to be a minority? What’s it like to be dealing with marital problems or domestic problems? What’s it like?”

What kind of burdens are people carrying, and do we care enough to help them bear those burdens? That’s what it means when Jesus talks about loving one another as He has loved us.

Finally, we are to let that love flow into the workplace, too. We do it when we show those people who work next to us that Jesus Christ is our Lord, not just with words, but by the example we set.

You may have a hard boss that you don’t like very much. Or you may work with someone who makes fun of the way you live. But Jesus said that we are to love our enemies & pray for those who persecute us.

In fact, Paul writes in Romans 12:20-21, "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink...Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

Someone once said, "They will not care how much you know, until they know how much you care."

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)

There is a more excellent way, and that is the way of Jesus Christ.