Day 11 of Illumination: The deeper you go, the more love you’ll show.

“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 Corinthians‬ ‭13:1-3‬ ESV

I have a confession to make. I really don’t care for the way most people minister on the topic of love. Here’s why:

First of all it can be kind of a “default” message to go to when you feel no inspiration from the Lord. As such, it is by rote and devoid of any power.

Additionally, for those who have put thought to their sermon on love, often the topic of love is used as a way to advance an agenda of “cheap” grace and a very erroneous definition of what love truly is.

Allow me to offer an example of what I’m talking about in terms of my latter reason for disliking most sermons on love:

Here is an often (out of context) quoted scripture concerning love:

“Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭4:15‬ ‭ESV

First, if it says “rather,” there must’ve been another case to which this case is being offered as an alternative. That point is rarely offered.

Secondly, when this scripture is presented, “truth” is often lost entirely. So, what we end up with is a an interpretation saying that challenging anybody with the word of God, or telling the truth about what God says about sin, is not “loving.” Sadly, that is exactly the opposite of the point of this scripture; and it’s clear to see if you look at it in context.

In the part of the letter before this Paul is talking about gifts given to the Church: the apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher. He then explains that these gifts are given to mature the Church into the image of Christ. Then, we see the following verse coming immediately before the one beginning with “Rather.”

“so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭4:14‬ ‭ESV‬‬

So, the instruction to speak the truth in love, actually is encouraging people to always tell the truth about what God has said BECAUSE they love!

Now, we know that it is also God’s desire that we speak nothing out of any other motive except that of love. In other words, if there was someone I didn’t like and they were doing something that goes against some biblical principle, it might be easy for me to challenge them—not because I love them—but because I want to bring them down a peg or two. But, for the “hyper-grace” crew, any speaking of hard truths is seen as being unloving. And, given the context of the scripture, we can clearly see that that is the farthest thing from the intended meaning!

Having said all of that, let us now examine why I would present being loving as an important aspect of your spiritual development, your process of enlightenment.

First of all, our Lord said that the demonstration of love is what actually marks us as being His followers.

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

‭‭John‬ ‭13:34-35‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Sadly, I have known people who professed having great depth of understanding in the things of God; but they did not show true love. And yet, the clearest indicator of our spiritual maturity is that we walk in love.

In our opening scripture today we see that the Apostle Paul is making the point that no matter how many wonderful spiritual gifts we have, or how much depth of understanding and knowledge in the Lord we may obtain, not walking in love negates the possibility of truly being spiritually mature and walking in the deep things of God.

Now, if you need a measure against which to compare your life to know if you are truly walking in love, here is part of the rest of that passage:

“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.”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭13:4-8‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Now, if you don’t feel you measure up to that, and you wonder if Paul was really talking about spiritual maturity when he was talking about love, he goes on (in the same conversation) to say this:

“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭13:11‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Clearly, Paul is saying that love (by God’s definition of what love is) is the clearest indicator of spiritual maturity. Additionally, reading on we find that love tops the list of the greatest spiritual attributes.

“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭13:13‬ ‭ESV‬‬

So, in terms of spiritual illumination and enlightenment, we must understand that if we are not loving (as defined by the Lord), we are not growing spiritually. If that is the case, we must repent of being unloving and seek the Lord to help us to walk in love.

We light an eleventh candle of illumination today by knowing this:

The deeper you go, the more love you’ll show.

#25daysofillumination