Love Comes First
Paul adds a challenge from a different angle. In the most beautiful terms, he says that gaining knowledge and power—even sacrificing our own bodies—is completely worthless apart from 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. And 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. (1 Cor. 13:1-3)
The result of loveless ministry is serious: “I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal…I am nothing…I gain nothing.” In other words, even the most impressive and sacrificial actions are worthless if they are not empowered by love.
Are you the type of person that would teach someone without loving them? Donʼt be quick to answer. Good pastors have confessed that they got so caught up in the busyness of ministry that they went through the motions without loving their people. Most of us have to work
hard at loving and keeping love at the forefront.
What do you think and feel when you are in a group of people? Are you overly aware of the ones who are wealthy, attractive, or have something they can offer you? Do you worry about what people think of you? Or do you look for ways to love and opportunities to give? A sure sign of a loveless heart is seeing people as a means to your own ends—they listen to you, give you
affirmation, leave you alone, etc. Teaching other people with this type of mentality is bound to be sterile and unfruitful. According to Paul, every time we try to teach someone with this mentality we can be sure that we have become nothing more than a clanging gong or resounding cymbal.
Fulfilling Jesusʼ command to make disciples is about more than having the right theology or well-developed teaching points. Remember that if you “understand all mysteries and all knowledge,” yet donʼt have love, you are nothing. Earlier in the same letter, Paul says, “If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God” (1 Cor. 8:2-3). Itʼs not about what you know—or what you think you know—itʼs about love.
If youʼre not willing to make loving God and loving people your highest priority, then stop. Seriously, walk away until youʼve settled this one essential point. Lack of love is the unmistakable mark of death: “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death” (1 John 3:14).
Making disciples isnʼt about gathering pupils to listen to your teaching. The focus is not on teaching people at all—the focus should be on loving them. Jesusʼ call to make disciples includes teaching them to be obedient followers of Jesus, but the teaching isnʼt the end goal. Ultimately, itʼs all about being faithful to Godʼs call to love the people around you. Itʼs about loving those
people enough to help them see their need to love and obey God. Itʼs about bringing them to the Savior and allowing Him to set them free from the power of sin and death and transform them into loving followers of Jesus Christ. Itʼs about glorifying God by obediently making disciples who will teach others to love and obey God.
So the question is, how much do you care about the people around you? When you stand in a crowd, interact with your family, or talk to people in your church, do you love them and long to see them glorify God in every aspect of their lives? Honestly assessing your heart and asking God to purify your motives needs to become a habit in your life.
3. Up to this point, would you say that your desire to make disciples has been motivated by love? Why or why not?
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