LOVE: INDESPENSABLEINDESPENSABLE: ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY OR ESSENTIAL

LOVE IS INDESPENSABLE

Love Is IndispensableAnd yet I will show you the most excellent way. 13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 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 do not have love, I am nothing.

3 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. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.

11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.

But the greatest of these is love.

Galatians 5:6, The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

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

another.

My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you

won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a

free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness.

These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to

how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions

of a law-dominated existence?

It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and

emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods;

magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants;

a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided

lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of

depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable

addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.

This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom

this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.

But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much

the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others,

exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with

things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic

holiness permeates things and people.

We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct

our energies wisely. Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is

killed off for good—crucified.

Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make

sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in

every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and

another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives.

LOVE IS REVEALED IN JESUS

12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater

things than these, because I am going to the Father.

6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the

Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as

well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be

enough for us.”

9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among

you such a long time?

John 13:34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you,

so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

John 8:4 “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the

Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in

order to have a basis for accusing him.