ALL WE NEED IS TRUE LOVE (Article)

ALL WE NEED IS TRUE LOVE (article), Pastor Shah (Clearview Church, Henderson) 

“I love my wife.” “I love chili-fries.” “I love that new app.” “I love football.” No wonder we’re having trouble with love! We desperately search for true love in romance novels, movies, and songs…and we come up empty. That shouldn’t be a surprise since the world’s idea of love is selfish and conditional. It says – “I love you because of how you make me feel.” Jerry Shedd, my father-in-law, was right when he would say, “Most people have never been loved properly.”

What our marriages, families, churches, community, and nation need is the True Love found in I Corinthians 13. First, let’s see what it says about a loveless person.

–       A loveless person may say all the right things but he/she is annoying to the listeners. Vs. 1 – Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

–       A loveless person may have knowledge but he/she is worthless to God. Vs. 2 – And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

–       A loveless person may do good things but he/she has no crown in heaven. Vs. 3 – And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

Now, let’s see what a loving person looks like.

–       A loving person is not blind to the faults of others but is willing to bear with them. Vs. 4 – Love suffers long and is kind.

–       A loving person is happy when others are successful. Vs. 4 – Love does not envy.

–       A loving person is not arrogant. Vs. 4 – Love does not parade itself, is not puffed up. As Adrian Rogers would say – “There is no problem too big to solve. There are only people too small to solve them.”

–       A loving person has manners. Vs. 5 – (Love) does not behave rudely. Someone said, “Nowadays when you see a man opening a car door for his wife, it’s either a new car or a new wife!”

–       A loving person does not get his way every time. Vs. 5 – (Love) does not seek its own.

–       A loving person is not easily irritated. Vs. 5 – (Love) is not provoked, thinks no evil. In college I used to admire a person until I heard how he would throw temper tantrums.

–       A loving person does not gossip. Vs. 6 – (Love) does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. Is someone gossiping to you? They are not being loving. They are actually using your ears for a trashcan. And, remember – If they gossip to you, they will gossip about you!

–       A loving person goes the extra mile. Vs. 7 – (Love) bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Have you given up?!! Don’t. This kind of love will flow through you when the Holy Spirit fills your life. The first fruit of the Spirit is love (Galatians 5:22). People mistakenly think that the mark of a spirit-filled person is spiritual gifts; but no amount of spiritual gifts can compensate for lack of love. In other words, the more spiritual you are, the more loving you’ll be. After all, all the spiritual gifts will one day be gone. Vs. 8 – Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away…13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. In heaven, faith will become sight; hope will become a reality; but love will continue forever.

True love requires a source that is deeper and higher than anything we can produce. The Holy Spirit fills us with true love when we receive the love of God through Jesus Christ.