“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.” -1 Chorinthians 13:1-3
This concept has really been hitting home so much
lately. For my actions are not always those of a loving heart but of a boastful
one. I can say it a thousand times that I am serving to honor Jesus that I want
Jesus to be glorified but secretly inside many times my actions and thoughts
are not linked together. Many times I find that I am doing things out of
selfish ambitions and ways to boast about God or Jesus or my faith. The truth
is deep down I think the real motive is so I can boast about what is going on and
what is being done through me and then it truly can take away from the heart of
Jesus shining through. It then becomes what I did instead of what Jesus really
did.
The concept can seem twisted, can come across to
many as an act of goodness, selflessness or (as I love the term) sweetness. Who doesn't like being seen as a sweet caring person? Who wouldn't want to be known
as the nice person? Who doesn't want to be the person everyone can say has a
good heart? But if my heart is not in line with God’s heart and filled with
Jesus love then all my actions all the things I do are a pointless waste of
time. If I am doing all these nice things to serve others only to boast in my
actions and myself worth then my actions are not out of love but out of selfish
ambition. We are reminded by Paul in Phillipians 2: 3-4 to not do anything out of
selfish ambition.
So how do I know if I am doing things out of
love? Well first I know that in the story of Samuel finding King David (1
Samuel 15: 4-7) God tells Samuel that David’s brother who looks like he would
fit the human bill for king is not the anointed one for God looks at the heart.
This is true of all men. God looks at our hearts. He will hear a cry of
willingness to do things in a God honoring manor. He also sees the selfish heart that craves to hear praise and good things from others. He knows the selfish desires of the heart and if my heart is not in line with what is right than nothing I do is correct and there is no real praise.
I know that in 1John 4:7-8 we are told to love
one another. That love comes from God alone and anyone who knows God knows what
love is anyone who does not know God does not know what love is.
I believe there are two things for me to learn
from all this. The first is that the only reason I become convicted about the
lack of real Christ-like love I show to others around me is because I know exactly what Love of
God really is, what it really looks like. And the second thing for me to learn
is how to allow God to really work in me and my heart and mind to teach me that
I can have and serve with agape love. The type of love Jesus gave. He gave
everything for the chance to be my Lord, my King and my friend expecting
nothing in return! He cared enough to save me and love me and die for me and still though He can see my wicked heart still find a way to love me unconditionally. Because I know what this love is and I have it I can learn
to do all the things which I love to do, which I use to do out of selfish
ambition and vein conceit, and change those reasons into the right loving
reasons to reach the lost and be a healthy and happy sister in Christ to those
around me.
“This
is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning
sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God
lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”
-1 John 4: 10-12
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