Galatians 5:6 says "If you are a follower of Christ Jesus… all that matters is your faith that makes you love others" (CEV). What matters most in life is not our accomplishments, achievements, popularity, or wealth. Life is all about love and developing relationships. Obviously, we can't learn to love other people in isolation. We have to be connected to each other in order to love one another – we have to be in "community." Being in community forces us to drop our "relationship fantasies" – where everyone we know is "normal" (like us) and easy to get along with. God shaped each of us differently, and he knows we all bring different perspectives and needs into any community. Our small group is one such "community" that Rick Warren (in his 40 Days of Community guide) says we should turn into a "laboratory of love" – going beyond simply socializing or studying together and into deeper levels of serving together and, at times, even suffering together. The hurts, habits, and hang-ups present in any group create potential for conflict, but God's design is to use that conflict to help us grow in Christ. Jesus requires us to view other people as highly valued children of God, well worth our time, attention, and energy. As members of God's family, we must choose to love, not who to love.
This week we looked in detail at 1 Corinthians 13. This passage makes five radical statements about love:
1) "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" (NLT). In other words – if we don't live a life of love, nothing we say will matter. Words without love are just a bunch of noise. If we don't focus on first building a relationship with someone, they're probably not going to care very much about what we have to say. People are less impressed with our words than our actions of love for one another.
2) "I may have the gift of prophecy. I may understand all the secret things of God and have all knowledge… But if I do not have love, then I am nothing" (NCV). If we don't live a life of love, nothing we know will matter. We can have an incredible knowledge of the Bible – but if we don't have love in our life then it's worthless - all the knowledge in the world can't compensate for a lack of love.
3) "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" (LB). If we don't live a life of love, nothing we believe will matter. Religion without love doesn't matter. Following Christ is far more than believing intellectual facts or following certain doctrinal truths. Our 40 Days of Community study guide poses the question: "Isn't it alarming… to think that we're often known for what we are against, rather than by what we're for – the Good News of a love so 'wide and long and high and deep' that it encompasses more than any of us could ever imagine (Ephesians 3:18, NIV)." We prove our faith in Christ not by the rules we keep but by the love we give. As Christians our influence is not about attendance, buildings, programs, or a list of "do's" and "don'ts." Our influence within our community should be based and measured upon the love we have for God – displayed in the love we show for one another and for those in the community around us.
In speaking about belief – it's important to remember that our love for others is the result of our relationship with God – it does not establish our salvation. Ephesians 2:8-9 explains: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast" (NIV). Loving others is not something we do in order to earn God's love. Rather, it happens as God transforms our hearts through His love. We can be free to truly love others because of our acceptance of His great love for us. Therefore, the starting point for loving others and building community is each of us realizing how much God loves us.
4) "If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body… but if I didn't love others, I would be of no value whatsoever" (NLT). If we don't live a life of love, nothing we give will matter. Giving is not necessarily always out of love. It's easy to give out of selfish motives, guilt, a desire to control others, or a desire for prestige – but none of that involves love.
5) "No matter what I say, what I believe, or what I do, I'm bankrupt without love" (Msg). If we don't live a life of love, nothing we accomplish will matter. This is a pretty big statement in our success-driven culture. Living a life of love means that relationships are more important than accomplishments.
Basically, if we don't love – nothing we say, know, believe, give, or accomplish will matter. If we don't demonstrate authentic love in our interaction with people, rather than being drawn to God, they will be repulsed - and probably see us as being proud, judgmental, snobbish, mean, or complete freaks.
In one chapter of his book Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller relates his personal struggle with the question of how to really love other people. He writes:
"The problem with Christian culture is that we think of love as a commodity. We use it like money… This was the thing that had smelled so rotten all these years. I used love like money. The church used love like money. With love, we withheld affirmation from the people who did not agree with us, but we lavishly financed the ones who did… but love doesn't work like money. It is not a commodity. When we barter with it, we all lose. When the church does not love its enemies, it fuels their rage. It makes them hate us more… The Bible says that if you talk to somebody with your mouth, and your heart does not love them, that you are like a person standing there smashing two cymbals together. You are only annoying everyone around you. I think that is very beautiful and true."
"The power of Christian spirituality has always rested in repentance, so that's what I did. I repented. I told God I was sorry. I replaced economic metaphor, in my mind, with something different, a free gift metaphor or a magnet metaphor. That is, instead of withholding love to change somebody, I poured it on, lavishly. I hoped that love would work like a magnet pulling people from the mire and toward healing. I knew this was the way God loved me. God had never withheld love to teach me a lesson… After I repented, things were different, but the difference was with me… I was set free. I was free to love… I didn't have to judge anybody… I could feel God's love for [them]. I loved the fact that it wasn't my responsibility to change somebody, that it was God's, that my part was just to communicate love…"
In the next six weeks we're going to focus on living a life of love of love in three primary areas: the community of our church, the community of our small group, and the community of the world around us. Our two main challenges as we grow together in this study are to:
1) Deepen the community of love within our small group and church family
2) Reach out in love to the community outside our church – not to make them "religious" or to add them to our attendance roster – but to share the message that God loves them.