Jesse Hines in concert, 2/3/2011

What is love?

When I was a kid I used to try to butter my mother up sometimes, hoping to get her to do something I wanted her to do, by telling her I loved her. Her response would usually be, “Son, love is action! Go clean your room.” It wasn’t that she didn’t love me. She just knew that lip service isn’t really love. It’s just self service.

Right in the middle of Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth there is the greatest section of scripture regarding love found perhaps in the Bible. Oddly enough, it’s sandwiched right between two chapters that are talking about spiritual gifts. But it’s placement is crucial for a proper understanding of spiritual gifts. Because Paul knew that love has to be the motivation behind any manifestation of the spirit through gifts or it is just a bunch of noise designed to attract attention to oneself.

In fact, Paul says that even “though I were to speak with language of men and angels, if I don’t have love I have become a noisy gong or a clanging symbol.” 1 Cor. 13:1. That was referencing someone that banged a gong in a busy street to attract attention to himself. And he goes on to say, “if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” He uses hyperbole to show extremes of spiritual gifts, exaggerations, in order to make a point. And the point is all of that is just self serving showiness, resulting in a big zero in God’s eyes, unless love is the motivation.

So the logical question then is, what exactly is love? The Greek uses the word agape for love in this passage. Agape is the highest expression of love. It is loving through self sacrifice, giving, serving others, not oneself. You see, God gave the gifts for the building up of the body (1 Cor. 12:7). Love isn’t an emotion, or affection. In fact, Jesus said if we have the kind of love that He has for us, we will even love our enemies. That doesn’t mean that I have to like my enemy, or like what he may be doing, but I can love him, or serve him, by showing him mercy and kindness as God showed me by sending Christ to the world as my sacrifice.

Finally, Paul gives 15 characteristics of love. And like my Momma said, they are all actions. All of them are verbs. Check it out: love is patient, love is kind, isn’t jealous, doesn’t brag and isn’t arrogant. Love doesn’t act unbecomingly, doesn’t seek it’s own, isn’t provoked, doesn’t take into account a wrong, doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. That kind of love is a tall order. It’s impossible in the flesh. And that is why we must walk in the Spirit, using the gifts of the Spirit, which are meant to produce the fruits of the Spirit. And the first of the fruits is love.

By the way, The Beach Fellowship is hosting a mid winter concert with pro surfer/singer/songwriter Jesse Hines and another great musical act Esther Faith, who will be performing on Thursday, February 3 at 6:30pm in Bethany Beach, DE. Show will be at the Christian Conference Center on Pennsylvania Ave. in the octagonal building. Jesse will also show a short video highlighting his pro surfing career and give his testimony. Admission is free. Hope you will make plans to come and bring some friends.