Love Different
“What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive and that love without power is sympathetic and anemic. Power at its best, power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice and justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.” – MLK, Jr.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0uEVTh0ios[/embedyt]
If anyone can teach us how to Love Different, it’s Martin Luther King, Jr.
Perhaps the most famous text of all time about love is found in your scriptures in a letter that a man by the name of Paul once wrote to a church in the city of Corinth. If you’ve ever been to a wedding, you’ve heard this read.
Dearly beloved…
We are gathered here today to witness this man and this woman united in marriage. Before they exchange their vows, let us hear these powerful words together about love…
“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have 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 do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, 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.
Love never fails.”
The Problem…
The problem is that the apostle Paul didn’t write this so that we would have something to read at weddings. In fact, it was never intended to be a marriage ceremony text.
I’m glad we read it at weddings and there’s certainly a lot to be learned from these words by Paul to the struggling church in Corinth about the power of love, but I think something has happened to this text because we’ve relegated it to weddings.
What’s happened is that we’ve robbed it of it’s power.
In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., “…love without power is sympathetic and anemic.”
And I think, as a result, we’ve completely lost sight of what love looks like in our culture and in the church.
Love as defined by our culture is a self-centered love. It is constantly asking, What’s in it for me?
So we “love” the things or the people who make us happy, that make us feel good, that cater to us.
But Jesus even said, “If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them!” – Luke 6.32-34
Love, as defined by our culture, is sympathetic and anemic.
And what’s worse, that definition of love, that way of love, has made its way into the church. More often than not our churches fill up with people asking, “What’s in it for me?”
So our churches fill up with people who “love” the church, which means they love what the church provides for them, they love what the church can do for them.
If the church does what I like I’ll stay and #ilovemychurch.
If not, I’ll leave.
But is that really love?
A Different Kind of Love
The Apostle Paul wanted the church to love God well and to love each other well, but the kind of love Paul was talking about is a different kind of love.
If “power without love is reckless and abusive” and if “love without power is sympathetic and anemic” then I agree that it’s time for us to learn a different way of love.
[Tweet “Jesus calls us to a different way of love.”]It’s my belief that Jesus calls us to a different way of love.
So Paul says this,
1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels,
Which he could! Paul had this spiritual gift. He had the ability to speak in tongues. To speak in a language only understood by God. (1 Corinthians 14:14-19).
This is one of the gifts that the people in the church at Corinth had elevated to the top of the list as one of the most special, the most important, gifts.
But Paul says… “If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”
Without love, even the spiritual gift that they held in the highest regard is meaningless. Pointless. Useless.
2 If I had the gift of prophecy,
Prophecy is the spiritual gift of being able to speak in an inspired way in order to point people to God. They all knew that Paul had this gift, too! The reason that there was a church in Corinth was precisely because Paul was able to preach in such a way that they believed in, put their faith in, Jesus! (Acts 18.11)
So Paul says, “If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing.”
Without love even the spiritual gifts of prophecy, knowledge and faith amount to nothing!
[Tweet “The absence of love renders the gifts we’ve been given as useless.”]The absence of love renders the best preachers as useless. The absence of love renders those among us who are the most knowledgeable as pointless. The absence of love renders those among us who have the most faith as nothing.
What is Paul saying?
I think we all know this is true. More often than not, our willingness to put our life up under the authority of another and our ability to hear a word from them depends on one thing… if we feel LOVED on some level by that person.
If we feel unloved or rejected in any way, we will not be willing to hear anything that person has to say.
I can remember moments in my own life when I’ve experienced this. The critics I listen to are those who I know have my back, care about me deeply & want me to grow. The critics that I don’t listen to are those with whom I have no relationship.
My guess is that the same is true for you. It’s the presence of love in a relationship that makes the gifts we have beneficial to each other.
Without love, those gifts are just power exerted OVER others, not FOR others!
[Tweet “Without love your gifts are just power exerted OVER others, not FOR others!”]Paul goes on…
3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body,
Again, Paul did this too, repeatedly. Paul was stoned, shipwrecked, beaten and more for the sake of the gospel. (2 Corinthians 11.25)
Paul says…
“I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.”
It’s hard to imagine that this is possible, that someone would sacrifice everything, even their own life, for their own glory, their own name, their own renown.
But people do this every day. They sacrifice their family, they sacrifice their morals, they sacrifice their marriage, they sacrifice their lives for their own gain and their own glory but they gain absolutely nothing. It looks like they’ve gained everything because they’ve accumulated a lot of stuff, they gained a lot of fame. But in reality, they have nothing because they didn’t have love.
They sacrificed every relationship along the way to get to where they wanted to be and now, even though it appears that they have everything they have absolutely nothing. And the only question left in their mind is this, “Is it too late to give it all up so I can win back the people I’ve lost along the way that I love the most?”
Without Love…
All of this.. without love, is nothing. It’s meaningless. It doesn’t last. It has no eternal impact.
But, and I think this is Paul’s point… With LOVE, it has meaning, it will last, it has an ETERNAL impact. And it’s the way of life, the way of love that Jesus taught us.
Paul is saying, you’ve gotten this all mixed up. You want the power, you want the attention, you want to make your name great, you want the fame. But THE WAY OF LOVE IS THE WAY OF SELF-SACRIFICE.
[Tweet “The way of love is the way of self-sacrifice.”]The way of love is using the power you’ve been given, whatever it is, to put it up under the life of another.
Without Love + Power = NOTHING
You’re like an annoying gong. These aren’t my words, these are Paul’s words.
With Love + Power = WORLD CHANGERS
Paul had great love + Great power = he was a world changer.
Jesus was great love & had all power = He changed the world no matter who you ask!
Love + Power Makes an Eternal Difference
You will make an eternal impact when you leverage your love for others with the spiritual gifts you’ve been given to make a difference in the life of another person!
If you’re seeking to make your name great, if you’re seeking your fame, your glory, you may achieve success but without love it’s nothing.
BUT…
If you’re seeking to make HIS NAME great, if you’re seeking His fame, His glory, His renown then you will find that no matter your personal fame you will make an eternal difference in the Kingdom!
Because love + power makes an eternal difference.
Just take one look at the cross.
[Tweet “Love + power makes an eternal difference.”]
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