Without Love, I Am Nothing

I was going to write a little something on Friday about love and V-day. I chose to hold off on a love blog until after V-day. You know, after the candy has been eaten, the flowers are a little less perky, and those diamonds aren't shining like they were yesterday. I didn't even tweet too much about it, which lead to one of my followers surprise. Glad I waited.

Yesterday at church, I heard a great lesson about love. It made me think about how many people say "I love you" without a clue of what love really is. If you read I John 4:16, you will find that God is love. A few verses up tells you that you cannot say you love God(whom you haven't seen) if you don't love your neighbor (whom you have seen). Most people have no idea of what love is because they don't have God. Without God, you cannot love because He is love.

In I Corinthians 13, Paul talks about love. More modernly, Lauryn Hill's "Tell Him" gives a quick summation of this chapter. I digress. Paul speaks of how we can do all these great works but if we don't have love (God), then it is nothing. Isn't that something? I can donate $1 million dollars to charity, but if I do it for accolades and attention without love....it's like I never gave a thing. Paul goes on to tell us first what love is, then goes on to tell us what love is not. It's easier to spot out what love is by seeing what it isn't.

People always talk about how they have "unconditional love". We are incapable of unconditional love because even though we were made in His likeness, we are not Him. We should follow I Corinthians 13 but we have to realize that we cannot save people like God can. What I'm saying is okay, he/she dogged you out, cheated on you, etc....you don't stay in that relationship yelling unconditional love. You can leave that situation and still follow I Corinthians 13 just from a distance. Know that you cannot save that person and change them. Only God can do that.

If we study the Word and really know what is says about love, we can become better mates. If we know what love isn't, we can discern what love is. If we don't have love, then we don't have God. If we don't have God, we don't have anything, we are not anything. You don't want to spend your whole life being nothing do you? Peace.