There is no more powerful force for change in our world than love. Love is doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. Love is putting others first—your country or your neighbor. President Kennedy’s famous quote, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask instead what you can do for your country" is a statement about love. Love powerfully transcends self-centeredness, politics, race, religion, and creed. Love is audacious.Love your enemies and pray for those persecute you.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (NIV) says, "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."
There isn’t anything more important than love. There is no greater legacy you can leave others than to love. There is no more noble pursuit. In 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (NIV) Paul says, "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing."
Love is the only thing that really matters.
Think of the energy we waste trying to be relevant in waysthat nobody cares about. Nobody cares how spiritual you sound. Nobody cares how educated or intelligent you are. Nobody cares about your mountaintop experiences in the Lord. Nobody cares what percentage of your income you give away, or what personal sacrifices you have paid for your religious convictions.
And nobody cares about all that "other stuff". They don’t care about the trophies gathering dust on your shelf,how big your house is,what subdivision you live in, what brand clothing you wear, what music you listen to, what car you drive, orwhat promotion or title you have. They don’t care how clever or cute or quick-tongued you are.
What matters is whether you love. You want to matter? You want to be relevant? Love. The only people who have any relevance in your life are those who love you. You vividly remember the face of every person who loves you. But you forget the faceless masses of people who are so caught up in the world that they’ve forgotten that the very essence of life is love. You forget the busy, the greedy, the self-centered, and the self-absorbed.
To be full of love is to be fully human. Nothing makes God more famous than when we love one another. Love is the chief end for which God created us! Love is the essence of spirituality. It’s the goal of preaching and evangelism. The essence of becoming an adult is becoming a personof love.
1 Corinthians 13:8-13 (NIV) tells us,"Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.For we know in part and we prophesy in part,but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
There is nothing greater than love. Not faith. Not hope. The two most important questions in life are, "Do I love God?” and "Do I love others?"
Do you love God and do you love others?
Why love God? Because God is love. He is the perfect example of love, our ideal and our pattern. His Son Jesus Christ is the perfect expression of what love looks like in human relationships. His Holy Spirit is the perfector of love, stirring deep within us a desire to be loving. And Christ’s bride, the Church, is the most compelling illustration of how God’s love can transform imperfect, self-centered people into people of love. Worship, communion, our baptism, and our songs are all an effort to absorb God’s love into our spirit and into our collective consciousness.
Once we get Christ’s love resonating deep within the core of our being, love becomes second nature. If we get the first question right, we’ll get the second question right! In John 13:34 (NIV) Jesus says, "As I have loved you, so you must love one another." And 1 John 4:19 (NIV) tells us, "We love because he first loved us." Think what is now possible because Christ first loved us, because he took the initiative, and because he set the bar for the rest of us.
A practical application of love.
Something that is on everyone’s minds this weekend is the election which will be occurringTuesday. It is interesting how both candidates invoke their Christian faith as the foundation for their candidacy. McCain says "Country first." Obama says,"Love your neighbor."Before anything else, the election Tuesday is about love and it is about who can best advance the cause of love in our nation.
I have many Christian friends who are deeply troubled and divided about this election. Our brothers and sisters in Christ with Democratic leanings are concerned about social justice. They feel everyone should have equal access to quality education, quality employment, quality housing, and quality health care. For some, there is no greater expression of love than creating equality. They see wealth as the great equalizer. Wealth creates equal opportunity and equal accessforall. The most loving thing we can do is to make sure that people are not being robbed of opportunities because of their geography, nationality, color of skin, or economic circumstance. The most loving thing is to make sure the powerful, wealthy, and influential aren’t advancing by exploiting the labor and contributions of their lesser brother or sister.
Our brothers and sisters in Christ with Republican leanings are concerned about issues related to righteousness.They see the nation’s problems as fundamentally moral. Marriage is under assault by the homosexual lobby. Families are being shattered and children left disadvantaged by the exploitive nature of premarital sex, living-together relationships, marital unfaithfulness, and sexual immorality. Human life is being devalued as millions of babies are being killed before birth. And mothers who have these abortions pay an enormous personal toll, psychologically and spiritually. And there is concern that government not foster dependence and laziness, or rob people of the dignity that only work can provide.
If you love people, you will be concerned about issues related to social justice. We should be advancing together, and not one at the expense of the other. And if you love people, you will be concerned about issues related to righteousness. Immorality is our business. What kind of person stands idly by as people plummet into self-ruin?
I like what a professor at Lincoln Christian College told the student body this week. Her name is Dr. Njeri Mbugua. She said, "Righteousness creates within a country an environment in which immoral behaviors such as sexual immorality, abortion, and laziness are strongly condemned. Justice creates within a country an environment in which the powerless (poor, sick, elderly, and orphans) are given equal access to good-quality education, employment, housing, and healthcare."
God's plan for the world.
Here is the thing to consider. Human government isn’t God’s plan for advancing the cause of righteousness and justice (the cause of love) in our world. In this election, neither man and neither party fully embody the ideal of righteousness and justice. On Tuesday we may very well be advancing righteousness at expense of justice, or justice at the expense of righteousness.
No, God’s plan for the world is the Church. It'sthe kingdom of God. It's the love of Christ emanating from our lives as we surrender to his governing rule in our hearts. There is no greater force for change in our world than God’s love unleashed in the life of a Christian.
In 1 Corinthians 12:2-3 (NIV) notice Paul's concern for righteousness. "You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, 'Jesus be cursed,' and no one can say, 'Jesus is Lord,' except by the Holy Spirit."
A pagan is someone plummeting into self-ruin because ofhis blatant disregard for righteousness. A pagan is someone who has misplacedhis confidence. Instead of trusting God,he trusts in idols or he trusts in men. A pagan is someone who denies the rule, lordship, of Jesus Christover his life.
What we know from history is that a nation which rebels against God's rule quickly invites destruction upon herself.I am more than nervous seeing leaders advocate homosexuality, abortion, and now even prostitution. I am more than nervous seeing corrupt leaders lie, cheat, steal, and mislead—all in the interest of self-advancement. If the Church, compelled by Christ’s love, doesn’t advocate righteousness, then who will?
The Church should be concerned about social justice.
In 1 Corinthians 12 notice the concern for social justice, for fairness and equality, for the common good, and even for the lesser brother. In interest of time, allow me to read few excerpts.
1 Corinthians 12:4-7 (NIV) says, "There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good."
1 Corinthians 12:14-26 (NIV) tells us, "Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,' it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, 'Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,' it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.If they were all one part, where would the body be?As it is, there are many parts, but one body."
"The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I don’t need you!' And the head cannot say to the feet, 'I don’t need you!' On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty,while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it,so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it."
We know from history that God defends the cause of the orphan, the widow, the alien, and the least among us. When Christ came, he came first to the poor and disenfranchised. When he talked about true religion, he spoke of concern forthose whowere hungry and thirsty, lacking clothing, and who were sick or in prison. This concern isn’t just limited to our nation’s border. It should extend to the ends of the earth.
If the Church, compelled by Christ’s love, doesn’t advocate justice, then who will? If we don’t care for the least among us—the orphan, the widow, the alien, the sick, the incarcerated, the hungry, the thirsty, the uneducated, and the homeless--- then who will? If we don’t defend the cause of those oppressed by the powerful, influential, and wealthy, then who will?
In the Church, righteousness and justice must be brought together into creative tension. Righteousness is loving God. Justice is loving people. One without the other falls short of God’s ideal.
These next few days, your job is to be praying about the direction of our nation. Every nation on earth will be watching our election. You cannot just sit on the sidelines. Choose leaders on Tuesday who will embody the love of God. And don’t forget that God is sovereign. He is in control. He rules from on high. Our faith is in him, not in a man or government.