Without Love / What is Love?

Without Love  

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 ESV  

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 

You can have the most wonderful talents in the world, but if you don't have love those talents are nothing. That brings us to the question, "what is love?" 

What is Love?  

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 ESV  

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 

From this description, we can tell that love puts others first. This description says nothing about an intense affection for another. It also says nothing about longing after another. It speaks more about actions you choose to do. Don't get me wrong, within our English language we use "love" to describe a wide range of feelings, emotions and actions, but for this devotional we need to look at the 1 Corinthians 13 "love." We are not going to do a Greek word study, we are however going to look at "love" within it's context here. I've already pointed out that the love spoken of is about actions we choose to do. Get this firmly planted in yourself - verses 4-7 ARE NOT THE RESULTS of having a strong enough love, rather these are the actions that define love. Don't get confused or down on yourself because you don't see all of these in your life; it's not something that just happens when you love God and others enough. When you choose to do what is in verses 4-7 then you choose to love. Now, take "love" in this context and apply it to verses 1-3. You can now ask yourself why love is important in everything you do. Romans 15:1; Galatians 5:13; Ephesians 4:11-12. How can you love God and your neighbor?