Elevate To The Next Level - "Living In Love”

Elevate to the Next Level

“Living in Love”

1 Corinthians 13:1-8a, 13

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We’re continuing in our series surrounding this fourth word, “Elevate,” where we’re looking at elevating our transformation (“Exchange”), and our energy to engage, or discipleship, to the next level. Today I’d like to finish our mini-series within this overall series by looking at the last of the three attributes of the Christian faith as outlined by Paul, and that is the attribute of love.

And according to Paul in this verse, love is the greatest of all the qualities we as Christians are to possess.

“And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13 NKJV)

Love is not just a word we use in a sentence; rather it is a lifestyle choice, or better yet, a way of life that all believers in Jesus Christ must adhere to.

Let’s begin by looking at Paul’s description of love in what is often referred to as the Bible’s love chapter, or 1 Corinthians 13.

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-8a NKJV)

Basically, the Lord is saying that without love nothing else matters. He says that it is through our love for others that we show the world just how much we know and love God. Loving God and loving others should then be our number one priority, as proclaimed by Jesus in the Great Commandment.

But what is love? This is the question that seems to dominate the airways, and that’s because the word “love” has been misunderstood and way over used. We use the word love for just about everything and anything.

We talk about our love for food. “I love BBQ, or Bacon, Bacon, and more Bacon.” But that isn’t the type of love God is talking about.

We talk about loving our favorite sport or sports team. “Love them Yankees,” or “Love them Lakers.” “I love watching football or I love playing golf.” Or we talk about loving an activity like hiking, hunting, camping, or fishing. But I doubt that this is what God had in mind.

Or we talk about loving our possessions, like our cars, home, that new dress, or that old pair of jeans. But once again, this is not the type of love that God had in mind.

Basically, we use this term “love” in referring to how we feel about a lot of things.

But besides being misunderstood, the word love has also been misinterpreted. Many today are using the word love in place of the word lust. Men and women say to one another, “I love you,” when they may be saying, “I lust after you.” And in our society of promiscuity and sexual immorality this is more the norm than the exception.

But besides the word being misunderstood and misinterpreted, there’s also a serious misconception about what it means as well.

People today equate love to a feeling. This is seen in a very popular song by the Righteous Brothers, “You’ve Lost ThatLoving Feeling.”

Other people talk about falling in love, where it’s kind-of-like somebody tripped them, or like falling into a ditch, but unfortunately, people also say, just as easily, how they have fallen out of love. Talk about being fickle.

Love for many in our society is an ocean of emotion. (Now, that’s something that should go on a Hallmark card.) And yet, while love does create feelings, love itself is not a feeling. Instead, love is a choice. We choose to love, otherwise we’ll be known as hypocrites. Now, if love is strictly an emotion, then today we can be in love, and tomorrow out of it.

However, love being a choice is how the Apostle Paul sees it.

“But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.” (Colossians 3:14 NKJV)

What does it mean to “put on?”

In his letters to both the church in Rome and in Galatia, the Apostle Paul also used this same terminology saying that we are to “put on Christ” (Romans 13:14, Galatians 3:27).