… if I have faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing … and now these three remain, faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13)
Yes faith makes a difference, Yes hope makes a difference but without love the bible says many of our efforts may turn out to be hollow – without love we are nothing.
Sebastian Coe in the opening ceremony of the London Olympics, said that the most important aspect to human life was the pursuit of the highest human achievement – whilst this is obviously a very commendable objective and to be encouraged, the bible shows us that this can be far from God’s main desire from us and humanity – he wants us to looks at our character and in-particular at our heart – his first priority is to see a foundation of love in our lives – this is even more important than human achievement, even more important than having faith to move a mountain.
When we look at all that Jesus went through, especially the cross, what do we think enabled him to endure such things and not fall – here again I believe the bible points to his relationship with his father God, a relationship built on love.
As Christian men we need to be clear about what is the foundation and motivation behind what we do in life and in particular what we do as expressions of our faith to others – it is not about charging into spiritual warfare guns blazing, not about winning at all costs, not about doing as the world does – No, it is about being men who unlike so many, do things differently and stand firm on God’s foundation of love, a love that is able to motivative us to do great things for our father, endure any weather and be there for and with our neighbours in any part of the world.
Do things differently … but the greatest of these is love.
