Well Done, Good and Faithful_________
In his first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 13, Paul defines love.“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.” And then a few verses down from this, he says, “so now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love,” (1 Cor. 13:1–8, 13 ESV).
I’ve read a lot of poems about it, read books expounding on it, and heard many sermons preached about it, but the place I’ve heard Paul’s words on love the most has been at weddings. As a pastor, I’ve attended and presided over many weddings. I read 1 Corinthians 13 whenever I marry a couple. Because this type of love is needed if any relationship is going to thrive. But because of the modern concept of love that has been propagated by people selling products, reducing it to nothing more than physical attraction, or a rush of romantic hormones, a warm and fuzzy feeling from a dewey-eyed bride and groom—or nothing more than finding the right algorithm. And look, those things may play a small part, but real love is so much more than that.
Because of the way we’ve been conditioned to read the Bible, we often stop after verse 13 because it ends the chapter, but Paul doesn’t stop there. He continues in the very next verse, “Pursue love” (1 Cor. 14:1 ESV). The Greek word translated pursue means “to carry out, to do with effort, to strive toward” The secular world says love comes naturally. But that’s just not true. Selfishness and self-gratification come naturally, not love. In fact, real love often means not doing what comes naturally in order to do what is right. Love is not primarily a feeling but a decision. It is a decision to lay our life down for someone else. It is a decision to serve others instead of self. Real love is sacrificial. If it does not cost us time, money, or energy than it isn’t love.
Don’t believe me; ask Jesus. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13 ESV). Laying down our life for someone doesn’t necessarily mean taking a bullet for someone (although it might), But rather it means sacrificing your time, money, and energy to serve someone. Taking time to listen to someone, giving them your undivided attention without talking, now that’s love. Sacrificing a large portion of your church budget to serve the community, that’s love. Sacrificing your preferences and opinions about worship and church in order to reach more people, that’s love. Allowing our agenda and schedule to get nailed to a cross so that we can volunteer and give back to the community, that’s love. If you want to know what love is, look at Jesus. He sacrificed everything. He lived his whole life serving others. The night before sacrificed his life for the world, he rolled up his sleeves, got on his knees, and started washing his disciple’s feet. Afterward, he looks at his disciples and says, “if I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.” (John 13:14–15 ESV). And this isn’t talking about a religious ceremony called the ordinance of humility where every three months, church people wash other church people’s feet. That practice is fine and good as long as it reflects the sacrificial service happening beyond the walls of our institution.
In Matthew 25, Jesus talks about his return to the earth at the end of this age. There is a separation between the saved and the lost. The main thing that differentiates the saved from the lost is service. The saved sacrificially served others. They see how much God sacrificed for them, producing radical generosity in them. But the lost, who may have lived very religious lives, didn’t sacrifice anything, serving mostly themselves. In Matthew 25:23, Jesus doesn’t say “Well done, good and faithful Adventist” (or Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian—He says “well done, good and faithful SERVANT” We can religiously keep every doctrine of a denomination perfectly and still not be a “Christian.” In John 8:31, Jesus says, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,” so doctrine is important. But Jesus also says in John 13:35, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Doctrine is important but without loving service, it is dead!
How are you serving your community, the marginalized, and the hurting? How are you loving those who are the hardest to love? Are you sharing a holistic gospel that not only saves souls from a future hell, but the hell they are currently living in? Are you sharing the gospel in a relevant way that helps in the present, heals the past, and gives hope for the future? How are you serving people today?