What's Love Got to do With it?

The government agency exists to provide care to the most vulnerable people, children. It exists to protect and help those who are abused or neglected. While interacting with several of their employees and agents doing their work yesterday I realized the missing component – love!  In  a conversation with a confused, lost, out of control teenager, one of the people remarked not unkindly, “Matt, you are going to have to help yourself. When we go home tonight, none of us is going to lose any sleep over you.”  I know what she was telling him, that no one can do for him what he has to do for himself;  but I also saw the implication of her statement - he is a client and she is just ‘providing services.’  She is doing her job.

“None of us is going to lose any sleep over you,” echoed repeatedly in my mind and I prayerfully asked the Lord to reveal any times or places where I attempt to carry out my work without real love. Do I just provide a ‘service,’ without really seeing the people or their needs?  Am I competent and even efficient, yet lacking love?  If so, then even my best efforts will yield no lasting results.

The Scripture says, "If I could speak in any language in heaven or on earth but didn’t love others, I would only be making meaningless noise like a loud gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I knew all the mysteries of the future and knew everything about everything, but didn’t love others, what good would I be? And if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move, without love I would be no good to anybody. 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 be of no value whatsoever." (1 Corinthians 13:1-3, NLT)  Eloquence, insight, profound faith, even great sacrifice done for any reason other than love – for God and for others – is wasted effort.  Think about that.

When ministry turns into duty, when spiritual service becomes about reporting statistics, when we confuse hours of ‘community service’  with faithful exercise of spiritual gifts, the work of Christ in this world will never be done as God intends  or with the same power or passion.  A religious scholar once asked Jesus which commandment was most important.  Jesus answered that there were two commandments necessary:  “Love God wholly and love others as you love yourself!”  The man seemed to understand loving God, but he wanted to know, “who is my neighbor?”  As He often did, Jesus answered by telling a story. 
“There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest (a man most respected by society) was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man (a man who understood ethics and obligations under law) showed up; he also avoided the injured man.  

“A Samaritan (a person from a group considered morally inferior) traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I’ll pay you on my way back.’

“What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?” The Message Luke 10:30-36

Christian, let’s take every opportunity today to serve others in love. Love makes all the difference.  Perhaps you are just not ‘feeling the love!’  We all get exhausted. We all are prone to lose sight of the why behind the what occasionally.  Remember what the Word teaches us:  Love comes from being loved.  None of us can ‘force it or fake it’ for long. Authentic love flows from receiving love.  John says, "God is love, and anyone who doesn’t love others has never known him. …  Real love isn’t our love for God, but his love for us. God sent his Son to be the sacrifice by which our sins are forgiven. …  No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is truly in our hearts. …  We love because God loved us first." (1 John 4:8, 10, 12, 19, CEV)

What’s love got to do with it?  Everything!
"Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, 

Doesn’t revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, 
Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, 
But keeps going to the end. Love never dies." (1 Corinthians 13:4-8, The Message)  "But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love." (1 Corinthians 13:13, The Message)

__________

The Love Of God

The love of God is greater far,

Than tongue or pen can ever tell.

It goes beyond the highest star

And reaches to the lowest hell.

The guilty pair, bowed down with care,

God gave His Son to win.

His erring child, He reconciled,

And pardoned from His sin.

O love of God, how rich and pure!

How measureless and strong!

It shall forevermore endure,

The saints and angels song.

Could we with ink the ocean fill

And were the skies of parchment made.

Were every stalk on earth a quill

And every man a scribe by trade;

To write the love of God above

Would drain the ocean dry!

Nor could the scroll contain the whole

Though stretched from sky to sky.

Frederick Martin Lehman | Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai

© Words: Public Domain