The Importance of Love | 1 Corinthians 13

Introduction

Do we Really Know The Importance Of Love?

Too often we only associate with people who are like us. The importance are given to someone accordingly. We get along with people who dress like us, who have the same interest and same personality types like us. What about the people who are different from us? What about people from a different society, different background, with different interests? It is easy to black them out and say they are not like me.

God put people in our lives for a reason. His love is inclusive of all people around us. All may not come from the same faith or background but that does not give us the right to condemn them or to put importance accordingly, rather we can also be friends with tough and unreachable people. We may not agree everything about them but we can love them and be kind to them.

Today we are going to see the Importance of Love and how we can get along with people.

Romans 12:18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

Ephesians 4:2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

Ephesians 5:15-16 ¹⁵Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. ¹⁶From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Hebrews 12:14 Make every effort to live in peace with all men & to be holy…

Now all of these Scripture say the same thing, we are to love everyone and live in peace and harmony with everyone and it is definitely possible.

You know, sometimes it is hard to be good to people. We try to be good but if someone crosses us or irritates us, we tend to lose our composure and behave in much the same way the rest of the world behaves. The Bible teaches us that we are to be people who exercise love in all of our relationships.

1 Corinthians 13 is Called the “love chapter” of the Bible.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 ¹If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ²If 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.  ³If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

The Bible says we are nothing without love. Do you know that love is more important than many other things we consider are important in life?

The Importance Of Love

1. Importance Of Love Than Spiritual Gifts

 1 Corinthians 13:1 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, God gave the NT Church the power of God and the special gift of being able to speak in languages that they had never learned.

1 Corinthians 14:2 For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit.

Paul says when you speak in tongue you are speaking to God, you are speaking mysteries in the spirit. When we speak in tongues, we speak the unknown languages spoken by other people and angles. Therefore to be able to speak in tongues, to be able to exercise spiritual gifts are definitely some of the qualities of a mature Christian but if it is not backed by love, it is all a waste.

1 Corinthians 14:1 Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophesy.

Paul says love is the foundation of any spiritual activity we do. First, we need to learn to walk in love and then desire for the spiritual gifts. Our spirituality without love would be nothing more than a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

Back in the 1st Century, there were big gongs or cymbals 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. We know through the scripture that the idols are manmade and cannot listen to our prayers even if we try to awaken them by cymbals. Likewise, Paul is telling spiritual work without love is not accepted or recognized by God Almighty. He does not know us or hear our spiritual prayers if we do not have love. So, love is more important than any spiritual gift.

2. Importance Of Love Than Knowledge

1 Corinthians 13:2 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.

Paul says that even if you have great knowledge…. If you know everything like philosophy, psychology, medicine, technology, software, you are a PhD or theology – if you know it all, but have no love, then you are nothing at all.

Illustration

I am at shock with the amount of evil happening in our city. The latest was the double murder of an elderly couple and the rape and murder of a minor on August 15. When people look at society and see the evil, abuse, murders they come up with the answer, “We need more education, more knowledge, then we won’t have these problems anymore.”

1 Corinthians 8:1 Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

I don’t think education is the answer. I’m certainly not against education. We need people with love before the society will ever change. Love is more important than knowledge.

3. Importance Of Love Than Faith

1 Corinthians 13:2 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.

Paul said, “If I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” Now he doesn’t say that faith is not important. Faith according to the Bible is very important.

Hebrews 11:6 Without faith it is impossible to please God. The Bible says that love is more important than faith.

We all are here because we have faith. Believing that God is the creator of the world. We believe that Jesus Christ is His only begotten Son and He came into our world, lived a sinless life, died and on the third day rose again. We 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.

If we believe all those things, then that is good and God loves you for your faith. But the Bible teaches that if you believe all the right stuff, but you do not have love, then you are nothing. Faith is of no value unless it is backed up by love.

Illustration

Do you remember the story of the Good Samaritan? A man was walking from Jerusalem to Jericho where he was attacked by robbers who left him wounded and looted. A priest and a Levite came to the place, saw him and passed by on the other side. In this story the priest and Levite are men of great knowledge and faith. They knew God, they knew the OT scriptures. They were coming from the temple after worship.

The problem was they had no love. So they walked by on the other side and just left the man lying there to die. Then came a Samaritan who took pity on him, bandaged his wounds, put oil and wine, took him to an inn and took care of him. The Samaritans were the hated and despised people, they were never allowed into the temple. The Samaritans did not have great faith but had love.

Galatians 5:6 The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. From God’s perspective, all Christian values should be expressed in love.

4. Importance Of Love Than Good Works

1 Corinthians 13:3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Now notice Paul does not say, “If I give 10%.” He says, “If I give everything, if I empty my bank account and I have nothing left, I’ve given it all away to help the poor, but I don’t have love then I am nothing at all.”

Why do we give? Do you give because the preacher just preached a sermon on tithing? Do you give because you feel guilty if you don’t? Or do you give because you want to impress others? or say do you give because you’re afraid that God will punish you if you don’t? Do you give because you think you will get more than you give? You see, all those are wrong reasons to give. If the only reason that I give is to receive or to benefit myself, then love is absent, and my giving is a waste. The motive for giving should be love. We give because we love God, we love God’s church and God’s people.

So, love is not just giving or good works. Generosity is not love. Our generosity must be backed up by love. So, love is more important than giving.

5. Importance Of Love Than Accomplishments

1 Corinthians 13:3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Paul is talking about being so faithful and so committed to God that you end up dying because of your faith. Bible is saying that even if you go to church every Sunday, read your Bible faithfully, pray, and do all the things that a Christian person ought to do, and even if you die for Christ, but if there is no love behind all that then it is nothing in God’s sight. In other words, if you have achieved great higher in your life or if you have done great things for the Lord but have no love it amounts to nothing.

In summary, the Bible says love is more important than spiritual gifts, more important than knowledge, more important than faith, more important than generosity, and more important than all my accomplishments for the kingdom of God. Since love is so vital in the sight of God, we must give love priority in our life; practice the walk of love.

The Importance of Putting it into Practice

In the worldly view love is something that happens to us. The world says I met him or her and we fell in love, it just happened. Someone said “You fall in love like you fall into a ditch and you fall out of love like you fall out of a tree. I just happened.”

The Bible teaches us that love is something we can control.

John 13:34  A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

God commands us to love each other. This means I can control my feelings of love towards you and you can control your feelings of love to me. So we choose to love one another.

So how do we love one another? Follow the example of Christ. Have the attitude of Christ in us. Love one another like Christ loved us.

Philippians 2:5  Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.

What is the attitude of Christ?

Philippians 2:4 Each of you should not look only to your own interests, but also to the interest of others.

In other worlds Christ’s love is unselfish love. We should begin to think about other people and their interests just like we think about our self and our interests.

Note: Since we start to look at issues and things at other people’s interests, it does not mean that we compromise on wrongs, it does not mean that people can do anything, and we can take it. When it comes to issues, we need to speak the truth in love.

The Importance of Application

Now that we know the importance of love, it is important to put it in action, in other words it is important to know how to put it in application. we need to grow more than just knowing, but rather doing it in action.

Develop unselfish love in the family. Start with your spouse. You ought to love your husband or your wife first and most. Be kinder, tender, and gentle to them even if they’re behaving like mad. Don’t put each other down. Love should rule every conversation of our homes.

If Love Rules

Let love rule every conversation in our homes. Can you see how that would affect the atmosphere of the home? There wouldn’t be any arguing no sharp words between each other because their interests are just as important as yours. And pretty soon it affects the relationship we share with our children and everybody in the family.

Once we have unselfish love at home, Once we let love rule over, it will find its way into our workplace. People around us will begin to see the love of God in us. This love will find its way into the church because we are practicing love at home. Then we will not be looking at our interests our likes but the interests of others, interest of the church, and interest of God will be priority for us. Jesus said in

John 13:35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

Church is a place of love. The world must become jealous of the way we love one another. This love will attract people to come to church. We know many of you are hurt by the world outside, but we are here to care for you. I am looking at a church where people come in with burden of life and go out with peace and love in them. Operate in love.

The best way to virtually take control of every situation we face is the way of love. We show love even when it is tough to love.

Romans 12:20-21 ²⁰If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this you will heap burning coals on his head. ²¹Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Take control over your situation with love. Maybe your family is very against you, maybe your colleagues or boss is against you. Maybe people you love have betrayed you, but we believe in love, because love is the most excellent way.

Illustration

I heard the story of a stubborn, rude, and arrogant army Captain who had become a Christian. When asked about why he became a Christian, he talked about a solider in his group who was a Christian. This soldier was harassed by others but was faithful to Christ. One rainy night the drunk captain came into the soldier’s tent and found him to be praying before bed. The captain threw his boots on the solider hitting his head and splashing the mud over him. The soldier said nothing. He wiped the mud from his face and crawled into bed after prayer. The next morning, however, when the Captain woke up, he found his muddy boots cleaned and polished by his tent side. He said: “It broke my heart to see such love and now I follow the same Christ.”

Conclusion

There is a best way to deal every problem and conflict of ours and that is the way of love. Knowing the importance of Love, So let’s understand that Love is the most important and God is calling us to understand the importance of love and practice the way of love. We can win over any situation with love.

The Bible says God is love and it is only through God you can practice love. If you have never known the Lord Jesus Christ and want to know him and receive him as Lord, we extend His invitation to you. To know him and the importance he has put in and through love.