Ravi Zacharias Question and Answers
Tuesday, October 9, 2018
The Most Important Thing – Love!
By Dennis Edwards
So far we’ve talked about having quiet meditation to learn to hear the “still, small voice” of the Lord.
We’ve also talked about the importance of having a thankful spirit, of walking in thanksgiving.
Today we are going to look at the greatest Christian virtue, which also is one of the definitions of God, that is LOVE.
In the New Testament we find out that “God is a Spirit.”[1] We also read that “God is love.”[2] Therefore, we can conclude that God is the spirit of love. The Apostle John tells us that if we are not walking in love, then we are not walking with God.
“He that loves not, knows not God, for God is love.”[3]
If a man says he loves God and hates his brother, then he is a liar.[4] We cannot love God who we cannot see, if we love not our brother who we can see. Jesus tells us that that we need to love our neighbor as ourselves. With the story of the “Good Samarathen” we learn that our neighbor is anyone who needs our help.
But how do we define love? What does love really mean? The Apostle Paul gives one of the most heartfelt definitions ever penned. He writes,
“Love suffers long and is kind. Love envies not. Love vaunts not itself, it is not puffed up. It does not behave itself unseemly. Seeks not its own. Is not easily provoked, thinks no evil. Rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.”[5]
He finishes his description with the words,
“And now abides faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”[6]
Let’s write those qualities in a list:
1. Long-suffering
2. Kind
3. Doesn’t envy or is not jealous
4. Not proud
5. Not foolsih
6. Unselfish
7. Hates wrong
8. Loves truth
9. Bears all things
10. Never loses hope
11. Endures all things
12. Never fails
When comparing the differences between Moses’ words and Jesus’ words, the Apostle John wrote,
“The law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”[7]
What is this word “grace” imply? What does it mean? Grace means “undeserved mercy.” John the Apostle was actually saying that “love” and “truth” came by Jesus Christ. Love and truth are the two grand pillars of Christianity. They are the main supporting beams of all Christian doctrine, love and truth.
The Apostle Paul explains a bit more, clarifying that in whatever we do in service for God and others, if we don’t have love, our actions are worthless. Let’s go back and read the beginning part of Apostle Pauls description of love. He writes,
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow my goods to feed the poor, and give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profits me nothing.”[8]
~That’s why Christ was so infuriated with the Scribes and Pharisees. They thought that with their religiosity they had a strangle hold on the truth and on God. But the truth was that they had lost God and His truth. They had made a new God of their legalism and formalities, therefore, making the word of God of none affect because of their traditions.
Mother Teresa said that if whatever we do, we do in love, then God is going to bless it and multiply it, because God is love. If love is involved, then God is involved and His power and might are infinite and as a result are going to cause our efforts, however small, to grow and prosper.
Like the poet wrote,
“At last I have found the mystery to it all. Tis love, and love alone that bids me heed thy call.”
When talking about love, we need to distinguish romantic feelings from God’s love. Love is not necessarily a feeling, but it is an action. Jesus said,
“Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”[9]
In other words, love is dying that others may live. It’s the kind of love we find in the songs like “Bridge Over Troubled Waters,” or “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother.”
When asked by his enemies what the greatset commandment was, Jesus said,
“Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. And to love thy neighbor as thyself.”[10]
Let us remember that in order for us to have God, we need to walk in love. But Apostle Paul’s definition of love, and Apostle John’s destinction between Jesus and Moses, show us that love and truth are intertwined. In the Beatitudes we read,
“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”[11]
Righteousness is goodness, or truthfulness, or what is right and loving and true. In other words, those who seek to live their lives trying to do right, follow truth and love, will be filled.
Are you walking in love and truth? Or have you grabbed on to love, given it your own or the world’s definition and thrown the truth out the window? Have you decided that truth doesn’t matter because it’s all relative anyway and there’s really no way to know the truth?
If that’s your position, maybe you’re not really walking in love. You are just walking in the new tolerance that removes truth fom the equation and says acceptance of all positions and opinions is what is important. It doesn’t matter if the opinions or positions measure up to truth’s standard. As long as they are believed sincerely, that’s all that counts, say today's relativists.
Jesus Christ did not get himself pinned to the cross for his tolerance of falsehood. It was his willingness to expose falsehood for what it really was that led his enemies to use all their power and influence to shut him up. Yet, all Christ did with his actions was to go around doing good and helping others.
Mother Teresa has said,
The fruit of quietness is prayer.
The fruit of prayer is love.
The fruit of love is service.
The fruit of service is peace.
The Apostle Paul wrote,
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”[12]
He also said,
“Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.”[13]
Footnotes:
[1] John 4:24
[2] 1 John 4:8
[3] 1 John 4:16
[4] 1 John 4:20
[5] 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
[6] 1 Corinthians 13:13
[7] John 1:17
[8] 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
[9] John 15:13
[10] Matthew
[11] Matthew 5:6
[12] Galatians 5:23-24
[13] Ephesians 4:31-32
