Love: The Beginning 2

Vol 2 No 24 THEO'S DEVOS 061908

1 Corinthians 12:2.3 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. 3If 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.

Before we can uncover the definition of love here in 1 Corinthians 13 we have to understand just a bit more about its potency. The two verses today say some things about love that seem to put it out of reach.

Verse two wonders about the gift of prophecy. We have heard a lot about prophecy through the years and it has been the subject of debate among good Christians for a long time. The aspect of prophecy here is quite clear. To utter a prophetic statement according to this verse it to be in touch with the inscrutable. To be have knowledge about everything. To know all mysteries. What an awesome ability. If I knew everything about everything, you would think that that would include love. I would know all about love. But it doesn't appear as though love is that easily attained or even understood. No wonder we all struggle with it. I mean just what is love? I remember a youth leader who put out a video entitled: “How To Know If You Are In Love.” I bought the video with the intention of showing it at our youth ministry, His House. Of course I previewed the video first and after about 3 minutes, I discovered that it was a rip off and I wasn't going to use it at all. The speaker's first words were: “Well I am cannot actually tell you when you are in love....” OK, so then why go on for another 45 minutes then. In fact the producers cut the video at the end of 45 minutes and the guy had just started his conclusion. Yeah, that's right it just stopped. I think I paid $45.00 for the thing. Just another Christian rip off. I didn't think we were supposed to do that. It wasn't very loving, that's for sure.

Anyway Paul tells us that to know everything, even to know all about love and not have love is worthless. You can be a genius and not be worth much in the eyes of God.

And what about faith. We have seen in Devos past that faith is crucial to the Christian walk. “Without faith, it is impossible to please God,” we are told. Imagine having enough faith to move mountains. To have so much faith that I could give everything away. Now that would be a loving thing to do wouldn't it. Apparently you can do loving things without loving. Interesting to think about. You know that all around the world tonight people will fake love. They will do loving things for ulterior purposes and the motivation is not true love at all. Many a woman will be faked into thinking that some man loves her only to discover that he was using her all along.

Love is a dangerous thing. It can twist our emotions. It can move us to do things that we would never do otherwise. That is why it is so important to know the elements of true love. Someone said that love is a feeling and if the feeling goes away, so does love. I don't believe that. These verses explain love in a far different light. By the time we are done you will know if the object of your affections is one born of love or some other source. I hope and pray that it is a pleasure for you to contemplate the elements of love found here in 1Corinthians 13.

May God bless you as you walk with Him today. You are a blessing to me. Thank you for reading Theo's Devos. I am here for you.

Theo