"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, but have not love, I gain nothing."-1 Corinthians 13:1-3 What a powerful message Paul gives us. If we consider ourselves good people, do great things, have all knowledge, and even give our lives to be burned, but have no love, we have, gain and are, in effect, nothing. John further tells us that God is love, and so we can further assess that, even if we're good people, but don't have love, we don't have God, so, in effect, we are, have and gain nothing. This is something that many even in the church miss. Jesus said of people who prophesied, cast out demons and performed miracles in His name "I never knew you, away from me doers of lawlessness. To God, it doesn't matter our qualifications, our generosity, our sacrifice, or even our willingness to die. If we get everything else right and miss out on love, we lose. Church, it's all about love. The Greatest commandment is in two parts: Love the Lord your God with everything, and love your neighbor as yourself. If you love your God, you WILL, by default love your neighbor. If you say you hate your neighbor and yet claim to love God, you're missing out on everything He loves. You can't have the first part of the greatest commandment without having the second part. You must love God, and if you do, then you MUST love your neighbor. There's no negotiating. 1 John 4:7-12 English Standard Version (ESV)
God Is Love
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
