Faith Reflected in Love

As I preparing for Sunday, I was studying in 1 Corinthians. The Corinthians were an immature lot, but genuinely saved. They were focusing on minor subjects and missing the major issues. Several times in the first letter to the Corinthians the Apostle Paul tries to motivate them by reminding them that they would stand before Christ one day. As I was reading through the letter I came to this most marvelous chapter on love. Agape love. The word for love is the Bible is the foundation of maturity. The Apostle Paul told the Galatians the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. You probably know 1 Corinthians 13 fairly well. It says, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast . . .” In verse 3 the Apostle Paul wrote, “If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.” There is no value to doing these things without love; without the right motives there is no reward. Love is risky. A lover is a risk taker. Loving children is risky, marriage is risky, loving people of other nations is risky, and loving people in church is the most risky of all. The more we love the more likely we are to get hurt. Jesus took the risk of loving and was crucified. But what is not acceptable for us is to bury our “talent” of love in the ground and refuse to take the risk of loving. When I use that word “talent,” I am referring to the parable of talents, when one person was given five talents, another two talents and then another person only had one talent and buried it. Love is the bottom line of a faith lived out. When we stand before Jesus one day, I believe he will be evaluating how we loved. You know what the Bible says, “Love never fails.” Won’t you risk loving? . . .