Unprecedented Love
“Life’s Driving Priority”
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For centuries, if not millennia, people have been looking for love. If I could borrow the lyrics and title from an old country-western song, they’ve been looking for Love in All the Wrong Places. How else can we explain the record-setting number of divorces, the rise in pornography, and a society that has replaced the traditional definition of marriage with alternative lifestyles?
So where can we go? Where can we find a love that truly works in a world determined to redefine the word itself? We can’t go to society, because it hasn’t got a clue. We can’t go to religion, because it abuses and misinterprets love with rules and regulations. We can’t go to Hollywood, because they’ve misrepresented it. We can’t go to authors, because they have as much trouble as everyone else defining love (it’s one of the longest entries in Webster’s Dictionary, and the Greek language has 5 separate words for love).
But people need something they can hang their hats on, something that everyone can understand and put into practice in their everyday lives.
So where do we go? Maybe it’s time to go to the source of all love, the Lord God. Maybe it’s time to go back to the One who created us and built the need for love into our DNA. Therefore, it’s time to go back to the Bible, God’s word for His creation, and to get back to its basics, where life finds and receives its meaning.
And what we’ll see is that love is life’s driving priority, or you might say love is our job description.
I say it this way because Jesus gave it as a commandment, which we will look at more fully in a moment. But as a job description, Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” (John 13:34 NKJV)
But I also said that love is life’s driving priority. So where did I get this idea? I believe the Lord Jesus gives it not only as a command but also as life’s defining principle. And He does so in several ways.
“‘And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31 NKJV)
Some have shortened this to “Love God and love people.” But I think this is too simplistic and doesn’t accurately convey what Jesus means by placing them first and second.
By saying that the second is like the first, Jesus was saying that if you want to love God with the whole of who you are – heart, soul, mind, and strength – you show Him this love by loving others as yourself. Or, as I like to think of it, we are to love others the same way the Lord loved us, by Jesus dying on the cross for us.
And as awesome as that revelation is, it doesn’t do justice to what Jesus said to conclude it. This is found in Matthew’s gospel. Jesus said, “On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:40).
Imagine that! Think about what Jesus is saying here! The whole of the law and all the writings of the prophets – all 39 books of the Old Testament – literally hundreds of thousands of words that were inspired by God and written down about how to live life, about God and His relationship with humanity, and about family and human relationships. Also, within these two commandments, we find God’s instructions for a joy-filled and prosperous life.
This is just the start of what Jesus has to tell us about why love matters and what inspired Paul to write, at such great length, the greatest definition or description of love ever recorded. And this is what we find in the 13th chapter of his first letter to the Corinthian church. But Jesus continues by saying that our love of God defines who we are, as seen in the second principle.
Love authenticates God’s call upon our lives. In other words, love demonstrates to the world our faith in Jesus Christ and shows that it is real.
Jesus said, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35 NKJV)
In today’s marketplace, there are many knockoffs, that is, cut-rate manufacturers who make a living by replicating original product lines and even duplicating their logos in an attempt to make them look just like the original. You see this especially in clothing lines and ladies’ purses. You see ladies carrying Gucci knockoffs on their arms. They look like Gucci purses, but minute design differences allow them to keep the deception going.
I remember a trip I took to South Korea with some pastors to share the gospel. While we were there, we took a day off, and as part of our travels around Seoul, we stopped at an outdoor market. Several shops would sell you a piece of clothing with the original manufacturer’s tag, which you could iron on yourself. So you could have the look without paying the price.
The same is true when it comes to faith in Jesus. Many look like Christians but haven’t paid the price. They belong to this or that religion, this or that denomination, this or that church, yet they haven’t got a smidgen of the love God desires His people to have. In other words, they haven’t accepted Jesus as their Savior and Lord, and they don’t have that love for God through their love for one another. They look good on the outside, but are still filled with dead men’s bones and all sorts of corruption on the inside, as Jesus points out in Matthew 23:27.
What separates the knockoffs from the real thing? When God looks for the true mark of a Christian, and when the world looks for the mark of a true Christian, that mark is love.
Whenever we hear the word “apology,” we think of its more common usage, “an admission of error, the acknowledging of a fault.” But the term “apologetics” comes from the Greek language and literally means “to speak in defense of something.” Early writers who defended the faith were called “apologists.”
This means love is the greatest defense for the gospel message.
“And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides (in) God, and God in him.” (1 John 4:16 NKJV)
God is love, and God is truth. “He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice, a God of truth and without injustice; righteous and upright is He” (Deuteronomy 32:4 NKJV)
Jesus, in His prayer to the Father for His disciples, prayed: “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth … that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.” (John 17:17, 21 NKJV)
Sanctify means to set apart and to make us holy. And so Jesus is asking the Father to set us apart by the truth of His word, and thus by His love. Therefore, by this love we have for one another, the world will know that Jesus is truly sent by the Father, that He is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one can come to the Father except through Him (John 14:6).
And so, love is the greatest defense we have that our faith is real, and that we are His people.
What is an essential? In life, it is water, food, and air. In school, it is reading, writing, and arithmetic. In baseball, it is hitting, pitching, and fielding. In basketball, it is offense, defense, and will you please make a foul shot?
Webster’s defines essentials as relating to or constituting the essence of something. It is something of the utmost importance, basic and indispensable, an absolute necessity. It is one of the “I got to have it or die” requirements.
When it comes to living and being a disciple of Jesus, the big three are faith, hope, and love, with love being the greatest of them.
Paul said, “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13 NKJV)
Love, therefore, is the great essential of life, or, to say it another way, it’s the stuff that life is made of. If we lack this quality of love, nothing we do will impress God. Not even faith is greater than love.
Paul makes it clear, with no hesitation, in 1 Corinthians 13, he said, that without love we are nothing. He also makes sure there is no confusion about this truth. He says that we can have all the faith in the world, or even sacrifice our lives, but without love, God considers them without value; that is, without meaning.
And Paul does this through the literary device of hyperbole. Hyperbole is an extreme exaggeration used to make a point. It’s not meant to distort the truth, but to deliver the truth with a bang.
Let’s take a look at these from 1 Corinthians 13:1-3.
a. Without Love Our Words Have No Value
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.” (1 Corinthians 13:1 NKJV)
Even if we could speak every language on earth, and even if we could speak in angelic ease, if what we say lacks love, we might as well save our breath. We are told that even when we speak the truth, we are to do so in love (Ephesians 4:15).
When we confront others, if there is no love in what we say, then all we end up doing is criticizing, condemning, and complaining. It is where our words become hurtful. And so even if we could speak every language on the earth and could gab with an angel, without love it’s useless and worth nothing.
b. Without Love Our Knowledge Is Lacking
“And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge … but have not love, I am nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:2 NKJV)
Even possessing the supernatural knowledge of God, or having the gift of foreknowledge, without love, it is nothing and lacks credibility.
While learning is essential for success, as Paul tells Timothy to study to show himself approved as a workman who needs not be ashamed (2 Timothy 2:15); he also says that, basically, without love, all the studying and degrees in the world will not help.
c. Without Love Our Faith Is Useless
“And though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:2b NKJV)
If we think that faith in God, our belonging to a particular religion, or our membership in a church or denomination will help us in this life or the life to come, then we are sadly mistaken.
In fact, Paul goes so far as to say that even if we had miracle-working faith and could move Aspen Ski Resort or Malibu Beach to Mesquite, Nevada, it would be of no value in the eyes of God.
In fact, Jesus said that in the last days there will be those who will say, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?”
And Jesus will say to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness” (Matthew 7:22-23).
And so, without love, the Apostle Paul said that all the miracles in the world are useless.
d. Without Love Our Sacrifices Have No Benefit
“And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:3 NKJV)
This is where many fail to understand God. They think that if they do good works, such as feeding the poor and needy, then they’re okay.
But what Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians 13:3 is that without love, this sort of giving has no value. Even if we make the ultimate sacrifice, such as dying for what we say we believe in, Paul says that is not enough without love.
King David reveals this in Psalm 51 when he asks God for forgiveness for his sin with Bathsheba. He says, “For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart– These, O God, You will not despise” (Psalm 51:16-17).
Now, while this speaks to our need to be truly repentant for our sins, the point is that sacrifices do not make things right between ourselves and God.
Jesus said it this way to the Pharisees, “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’” (Matthew 9:13).
Now, Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice, and He did so out of pure love for you and for me. In doing so, He gave us an example of sacrificial love and of how we are to live our lives.
Conclusion
Hopefully, we can now see why love is life’s driving priority and how essential it is, and how it surpasses everything else we can do as believers.
And so, are we willing to love in this way, that is, to love God with the whole of who we are – body, soul, mind, and strength – and are we then willing to love others in the same way?
This is love, and what the Lord looks for from all who are His. Love then truly is life’s driving priority, and our job description.
What the world needs to see in the lives of God’s people, if we ever want to make a difference in this world and to bring people’s lives back from the brink of despair, is love- our love for God and for one another.
