In 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, the Apostle Paul says, “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”

• Nothing we do, however many church buildings we construct, goat projects we begin, preachers we train, or Bibles we give – NONE of it matters if we do not LOVE!
• No miracles! No healings! No prophecies! No great sermons! 
• Nothing matters, if we do not love!

Last month, at the Leaders’ Conference, we focused on GROWING IN LOVE FOR GOD AND FOR OTHERS as a central element to growing up in spiritual maturity and leading others to grow up in maturity. In order for God’s Kingdom to grow deeper and wider, our LOVE FOR GOD and LOVE FOR OTHERS has to grow deeper and wider!
We can’t grow in spiritual maturity without growing in LOVE.
We can’t help others grow in spiritual maturity without growing in LOVE.

Paul wrote in Philippians 1:9-11, “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.” Paul is saying that his prayer for those in the church in Philippi is that they can grow in love, more and more. That they will be known as a people of LOVE. Why does he want them to grow in love? 

• So that they may be able to discern what is best – what God wants them to do
• So that they may be pure and blameless before God
• So that they will be filled with the fruit of righteousness through Jesus

He says that when they grow more and more in LOVE, then they will be more spiritually mature! 

He says it again in Ephesians 5:1-2, “Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” If we learn to love the way that Christ loves us, then we will be following God’s example and becoming more like Jesus…that’s the definition of spiritual maturity!

In Matthew 22:35-40, Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment. His answer should stop us in our tracks!

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Jesus is quoting from Deuteronomy 6 and Leviticus 19, but He is doing more than simply quoting from the Old Testament. Jesus is directing His followers to focus on these two CENTRAL commandments, above all other things. He is connecting these two things together, as one command! He is telling those who follow Him that everything comes back to these two commandments: Loving God with all of yourself, and Loving others as yourself. 

The teachers of the law, the Pharisees, and all the religious leaders of Jesus’ time were focused on many laws and rules, and they argued – even fought – over which Law of Moses was the MOST important. Some focused on making sure people followed the Sabbath laws, the purity laws, or the sacrifice laws…but Jesus taught them that ALL these other laws come under these two: Love God! Love Others!

Love for God and love for others. 

Even still today, there are some of the churches and leaders we work with who are following the patterns of the Pharisees and focus on all the small things. Some of them are teaching and rebuking people in churches for the purity laws and cleanliness, such as:

• A woman who gives birth is unclean for 30 or 60 days, and cannot come to church during that time
• A woman on her time of the month cannot take the Lord’s Supper
• A man who has sex with his wife cannot preach the Word of God the next day
• Anyone who eats pork or other “unclean” things is committing a sin

Some people are becoming so legalistic on these “lesser laws and rules” while not being serious about the TWO COMMANDMENTS that Jesus tells us to focus on!

For us, as a mission, we are followers of Jesus. And we want the church leaders and churches we work with to follow Jesus!
Jesus was asked for ONE commandment. He said: Love God and Love Others. To Jesus, we can NOT love God if we do not love our neighbors. That’s the revolutionary thing Jesus said…that loving our neighbor is the same as loving our God. We cannot say we love God if we do not love our neighbors!

1 John 4:7-8 says, “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

If we claim to be the church of Christ – 
If we claim to be disciples of Jesus – 
If we claim to be born-again in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – 
If we claim to love Jesus – 
We MUST grow in our love for God!
We MUST grow in our love for others!

We must look at our own lives, as if in the mirror. (Cue the Michael Jackson song: “Man in the Mirror” or James 1:22-25, whichever you prefer.)

We must examine our own relationships with God and see if we are truly LOVING GOD FIRST, even when the WORLD AROUND US DOESN’T LOVE GOD. Do we prioritize God above all other relationships and activities? Do we seek God’s will before we seek our own will? In a time when we often talk about “following your truth” and “doing what makes you happy” and “alternative facts,” are we serious about loving God with all of our heart, all of our mind, all of our soul, and all of our strength? And will we obey God and His Spirit, even when others around us are living according to the patterns of this world? Jesus says in John 14:15, “If you love me, keep my commands.“ Do we? How would our lives, families, relationships, and communities be transformed if we love Jesus enough to follow His ways above our own ways or the ways of the culture around us?

We must examine how we treat others and see if OUR LOVE FOR OTHERS SHOWS OUR LOVE FOR GOD or if we only love in word but NOT in deeds. As Jesus says (and then the Apostle John echoes), we cannot claim to love God if we do not love our neighbor. He says in John 13:34, Jesus says, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” I must ask myself the very difficult question: Do I love my neighbor as I love myself? What would be different if we loved others the way that Jesus loves? We’re not talking about loving the easy-to-love people (though we need to love them, too). Jesus calls us to love the hard to love: the lepers and demon-possessed; our family and our enemies; Republicans and Democrats; Americans and non-Americans. He doesn’t just love us after He saves us. He loves us enough to save us, even when we are His enemies; even when we have nothing to offer Him (Romans 5:6-11 and Luke 6:27-36).

We must examine ourselves and see if we truly fulfill what Jesus says is the MOST important of all His commandments: Love God and Love Others. Jesus says, “and the second is like it.” Loving others as ourselves is equal to and an expression of our love for the Almighty God.

So let us GROW UP in our love for God…let us GROW UP in our love for others!

And when we are mature in our LOVE, then we can show others how they can too!

• You can NOT teach what you do not know.
• You can NOT lead where you do not go.
• You can NOT give what you do not show.

I pray that each of us will examine ourselves honestly and transparently in loving God and loving others. I pray that each of us is encouraged and strengthened in our commitment – and our actions – to love God and love others.  And that by our example of loving God and loving one another, then we can lead churches, members, and the lost to also Love God and Love Others. 

But it has to first change in our own lives. It must start with each of us!