If I Have Not Love {Devotional}

I've been reading Francis Chan's Crazy Love with my high school small group for the past few months. This is probably the third or fourth time I'm going through this book and the truth in it still blows me away. As we are reading Chan's wisdom about surrendering fully to Jesus and avoiding being a lukewarm Christian, he sneaks in a wonderfully timely tidbit about what it means to love God and love others in chapter 5.

As I read this, I'm reminded of Matthew 22:37-40 where Jesus boldly states that "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." He wasn't mincing words here. There was no hesitation in his answer to the Pharisees' question of the greatest commandment. Love is the answer.

This truth doesn't shock us anymore like it must have when Jesus first said it. I find myself asking, "Is love really more important than obeying the rules and keeping a good reputation?" The answer is 100% YES! Jesus said so. He knows, y'all. Jesus knows that love proceeds right action. When we have love for God, we obey him because it honors Him. When we have love for others, we treat them as we would want to be treated and as God has asked us to treat them. When love is our motivation, our right actions have meaning and substance. When we grow in love, our wrong actions and our wrong intentions come to light. We begin to see things through a new lens - a Jesus lens, if you will.

I want to keep developing my Jesus lens. I hope looking at love in a new way can help you with yours. I leave you with 1 Corinthians 13:1-3. I hope this transforms the way you love today!

"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."