Life without love = nothing

by David Sellnow

In the previous post on this blog, I mentioned Scripture’s instruction that if we do not have love, our witness will ring hollow.  I’d like to expand on that thought, making further application of what the apostle Paul affirmed (1 Corinthians 13:1-3):

• If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 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 do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Notice that the various things Paul mentioned are all good things: speaking in heavenly ways, having deep spiritual knowledge, possessing great faith, being willing to undergo poverty and suffering. Yet such things by themselves do not exhibit the heart and soul of someone who lives in Christ. If our beliefs or knowledge or speaking or acting aren’t “rooted and grounded in love” (Ephesians 3:17), then others are right to question whether Christ fully dwells in our hearts, whether we are indeed strengthened in our inner being with power through his Spirit (cf. Ephesians 3:16,17).

Allow me to expand on Paul’s list of examples, thinking of our lives individually and congregationally, continuing in the style of Paul’s refrain.

• If we are well-dressed, well-groomed, well-behaved — but do not have love — our lives are only a show of appearances, not an embodiment of God’s grace. 
• If we are nice to our neighbors and active in community projects, but do not have love, we are fostering our own reputation more than serving others’ souls.
• If we are good employees, good citizens, good friends, but do not have love, our goodness is an outward affair only, not an inward renewal of our hearts.
• If we dig deeply into doctrine and explore every intricacy of spiritual teaching, but do not have love, we don’t draw closer to God, but fail to see his true path.
• If we sing glorious songs with many voices in our choirs, but do not have love, we are making music but nothing more.
• If we develop programs for youth, for seniors, for singles, for whatever group or audience, but do not have love, we are providing activities without a foundation, things to do without values that will endure.
• If we create engaging church websites and social media campaigns, but do not have love, we have only a virtual presence, without really being there for others.
• If we build chapels and cathedrals and schools and other edifices, but do not have love, we have nothing but shingles and stones, roofs and walls.
• If we have overflowing crowds when we gather for worship, but do not have love, we gather for nothing.

I don’t mean to demean any of the items listed in those examples. Being helpful to neighbors, dedicated on the job, dutiful in spiritual study — these are good things. Organizing church programs and activities, singing in the choir, building spaces that can be used for ministry purposes — these are worthwhile pursuits. However, for any of our endeavors to be genuine and truly alive, love must be the source that gives rise to them. Roots deep in the soil supply life to plants and the fruit the plants produce. So too with our lives as Christians. Christ is the source of our life; his love is the root of any actual good we do. If we do things that purport to be good, but the love of Christ is not in us, then it rings hollow. That expression stems from the Middle Ages, when coins filled with less-than-precious metals could be exposed as counterfeit by the dull sound they made when dropped on a stone slab. A real coin would ring true. We aspire to be real in our Christianity, followers of Christ who are filled with his love through and through.

A Christian’s life without love in it is, ultimately, nothing. “I am the vine, you are the branches,” Jesus said. “Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).  The disciple who perhaps knew Jesus’ love best — his dear friend John — emphasized his Lord’s point when he wrote: “Love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God” (1 John 4:7,8).  

May the Lord make us “increase and abound in love for one another and for all” (1 Thessalonians 3:12). For if “we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us” (1 John 4:12).  

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• Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.