When the Apostle Paul wrote to a defiled, divided, and proud-of-it church in Corinth, he first rebuked their sins, and then he encouraged them to become a mature, loving, working church. Right in the middle of this encouragement, he told them, “Make love your highest priority!” Most churches need this same rebuke and encouragement today.
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just like I have loved you; that you also love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35 WEB)
Make love your highest priority
Paul explained why love should be your highest priority. Consider how this is written in The Message Bible…
If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. (1 Corinthians 13:1 MSG)
If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:2 MSG)
If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love. (1 Corinthians 13:3 MSG)
But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13 MSG)
Don’t make love your only priority
The Apostle Paul had to deliver 11 chapters of brutal rebuke to these arrogantly ungodly Christians before he got to some of the most beloved teaching in the Bible. Don’t make the same mistake by prioritizing love of evil over the Agape love of God.
For this is the message which you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; unlike Cain, who was of the evil one, and killed his brother. Why did he kill him? Because his works were evil, and his brother’s righteous. (1 John 3:11-12 WEB)
Let love be your highest goal! But you should also desire the special abilities the Spirit gives—especially the ability to prophesy. (1 Corinthians 14:1 NLT)
Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children. Walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling fragrance. … Therefore watch carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise; redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore don’t be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Don’t be drunken with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; singing, and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always concerning all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God, even the Father; subjecting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ. (Ephesians 5:1-21 WEB)
So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12-13 WEB)
- I commend you to God and to the word of his grace (Acts 20:32)
- Failure to read and apply the Bible causes spiritual wasting disease
What is your highest priority?
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God, and knows God. He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love. By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we remain in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world. (1 John 4:7-14 WEB)
Everything in the world is about to be wrapped up, so take nothing for granted. Stay wide-awake in prayer. Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything. Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless—cheerfully. Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: if words, let it be God’s words; if help, let it be God’s hearty help. That way, God’s bright presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, and he’ll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything—encores to the end of time. Oh, yes! (1 Peter 4:7-11 MSG)
We need to read the Bible for understanding and then put those things into action in our lives.
- How can you put this into practice in your daily life?
- Do you need to stop doing something unloving?
- Do you need to stop something hurtfully wrong?