LOVE

Love is worship. You cannot truly worship without love. Paul notes, “Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13 NLT). If we sum up the three into one, what will that merger be called? They all focus on helping us worship God. You cannot worship God without faith, hope and love.

Adam and Eve had a wonderful relationship with God before the fall. They were punished and driven from the garden for not loving God. They loved themselves more than Him by disobeying His instruction. They lost the love that motivates obedience.

When an expert of the law asked Jesus about the greatest commandment in the law, “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matthew 22:37-39 KJV). The practical demonstration of living for God’s glory is to first love Him with all our hearts, souls and minds. The second greatest commandment is like the first, you must love your neighbour as yourself.

Paul writes, “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. 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. 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 13:1-3 NLT). Since we are nothing without love it therefore means we are something with love. Love is a serious business in living meaningfully. Without it you are nothing no matter how gifted you are.

LOVING GOD: Love ignites and motivates many things. It is hard to give cheerfully to someone you don’t love. You must first love God before you can truly worship Him. Such love is not only with your heart, but also your soul and mind. Our hearts, souls and mind renew our inner self of sound motive and compassion. This, therefore, means that there is no area of our living that does not require us using what we have for the glory of God.

Loving your Neighbour as Yourself: I don’t want some people to love me the way they think they love themselves. A drug addict does that as a way of loving himself. I will be in trouble if such a person extends his kind of love to me. The love the text is talking about is real love, focusing on pleasing God.

God wants us to also worship Him by helping others to do the same. Without love for your neighbour you cannot have compassion for him or her. Many people that died in the cause of preaching the gospel were motivated by love for those perishing in sin.

(Excerpts from the book, titled, THE MEANINGFUL LIFE, by Pusonnam Yiri).