“If I give away all that I have, and I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."
Have you ever wondered what matters to God? The Bible tells us in Galatians 5:6: “If you are a follower of Christ Jesus . . . all that matters is your faith that makes you love others” (CEV). God says what matters in life is not your accomplishments or your achievements or your fame or your wealth. The only thing that matters is having a faith that causes you to love other people. If you miss that, you have missed the most important thing in life. We’re going to look at the most famous chapter in the Bible on love, 1 Corinthians 13. When speakers want to get your attention and want you to remember something, they use repetition. They say something over and over. In the first few verses of this passage, Paul says the same thing five different ways: The most important thing in life is love. Here are some reasons why. 1. If you don’t live a life of love, then nothing you say will matter. “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” (1 Corinthians 13:1 NLT). We’re really impressed by great speakers. We love eloquence and charisma. But God says, “I don’t care how good of a communicator you are. Are you living a life of love?” If you’re not, then nothing you say will matter. Words without love are just noise. 2. If you don’t live a life of love, nothing you know will matter. “I may have the gift of prophecy. I may understand all the secret things of God and have all knowledge . . . But even with all these things, if I do not have love, then I am nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:2 NCV). We live in a world where knowledge is exploding. We are smarter than we’ve ever been. But we still have the same problems: crime, abuse, prejudice, violence. Why? Because the world doesn’t need more knowledge. It needs more love. You may be a genius. But God says if you don’t have love in your life, all that you know is worthless. 3. If you don’t live a life of love, nothing you believe will matter. The Bible says, “Even if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move, I would still be worth nothing at all without love” (1 Corinthians 13:2 TLB). There’s a myth that being a follower of Christ is just a matter of believing certain truths. Nothing can be further from the truth! Following Christ is about living a life of love. It takes more than belief to please God. 4. If you don’t live a life of love, nothing you give will matter. The next verse says, “If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3 NLT). Love isn’t always the motivation for giving. Some people give just to get back or out of guilt or for control or prestige. You can give for a lot of wrong motives, but the Bible says if you’re not doing it out of love, none of your giving counts. 5. Finally, if you don’t live a life of love, nothing you accomplish will matter. You can rack up an incredible list of personal achievements. You can get your picture on the cover of Fortune magazine. You can win the Nobel Peace Prize. You can have enormous accomplishments, be entrepreneur of the year, build a billion-dollar company, have incredibly great successes in your field of endeavor. But the Bible says it isn’t worth much if you don’t love. The Bible says--God says—relationships are more important than accomplishments. Life is about relationships, not accomplishments. It’s as simple as this: You can have the eloquence of an orator, the knowledge of a genius, the faith of a miracle worker, the generosity of a philanthropist, or the achievements of a superstar, but if you don’t have love in your heart, it is worth zero. It doesn’t count. The only thing that matters to God is this: Do you love him, and do you love other people? One day you’re going to die, and you’re going to stand before God. When he evaluates your life, he’s not going to look at your bank account or your list of accomplishments or your grades. He won’t care about all your sports trophies. He’s not going to look at your endorsements or your resume. God is going to evaluate your life on one basis: your relationships. He’s going to ask, “How much did you love me and other people?” That’s called the Great Commandment. Did you love God with all your heart, and did you love your neighbor as yourself? That’s why Paul teaches us that what matters most is our faith being expressed through love
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