A Love Not Known By The World - Pt. 2 Contrast

The Contrast

In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul contrasts love with other things that people in those days valued. This has not changed two millennium later. We don't need to go over these things in detail. Their emptiness is obvious.

Paul says, “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.” This should seem obvious. We have all felt the harshness of words without emotion, the emptiness, the unaccountable persuasion, or the lack of love behind persuasive words.

He contrasts it with prophecy. He contrasts it with mysteries. He contrasts with faith. He contrasts it with charity. Why is love greater than faith? Because the end is greater than the means. And why is it greater than charity? Because the whole is greater than the part.

Love is greater than faith, because the end is greater than the means. What is the use of having faith? It is to connect the soul with God. And what is the object of connecting man with God? That he may become like God. Since God is love, faith, the means, is to love, the end. Love, therefore, obviously is greater than faith. “If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”

It is greater than charity. Remember the whole is greater than a part. Charity is only a part of love, one of the many avenues of love. There is a great deal of charity in our world without love. It is easy to roll down our car window and give a couple of bucks to a beggar on the street; it is generally an easier thing than not to do it. Yet this is done without love but more out of pity or even worse self satisfaction. We purchase relief from the sympathetic feelings roused by the spectacle of misery, for the price of a couple of dollars. It is cheap for us, and often too dear for the beggar. If we really loved them we would either do more for them, or less. Therefore, “If I give all I have to feed the poor, but have not love it profits me nothing.” Then Paul contrasts it with sacrifice and martyrdom : “If I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.”

Missionaries can take nothing greater to the lost of this world than the impression and reflection of the love of God in the person of Jesus in their own character. This is the purest language. It will take them years to speak in Chinese, or in the dialects of India or what unfamiliar language they run into. From the day they arrive, the language of love, as Jesus showed us, will be pouring out in unconscious beauty.

The person who is the missionary, it is not only words but actions also. Their character manifests the message of the gospel of the kingdom of God. At one time in the heart of Africa, among the great Lakes, the people of that land only saw one white man —David Livingstone; and as you cross his footsteps in that dark continent, men’s faces light up as they speak of the kind doctor who passed there years ago. They could not understand him; but they felt the love that beat in his heart. They knew that it was love, although he couldn't speak their language. This love open them up to the good news which they eventually received.

Take into your sphere of work, school or social circles, where you can lay down your life, that simple attraction, and your life will be a success. You can take nothing greater, you need take nothing less. Your every accomplishment; your every sacrifice; but if you give your body to be burned, and have not love, it will profit you and the cause of Christ nothing .