Love's Significance Series

A little girl stayed for dinner at the home of her first-grade friend. Her friend’s mother brought a bowl of buttered broccoli to the table and asked the little girl if she liked it.

The little girl replied very politely, “Oh yes, I love it!” But when her friend’s family passed the bowl around the table, the little girl let it pass.

Her friend’s mother said, “I thought you said you loved broccoli.”

The little girl replied sweetly, “Oh yes, ma’am, I do, but not enough to eat it!” (James Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited, p.434)

That word “love” gets used, abused, and misused a lot. People say they “love” certain kinds of foods, or they “love” certain activities, or they “love” certain people. So much so that the word has lost its meaning.

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index currently lists the 78-year-old Larry Ellison as the tenth-wealthiest person in the world, with an estimated fortune of $84.2 billion (“Bloomberg Billionaires Index: Larry Ellison,” Bloomberg, October 5, 2022). Ellison was the founder and CEO of Oracle Corporation until 2014.

When he was 30, his sister asked him, “Which is more important, to be loved or to be respected?”

Ellison responded, “To be respected.”

His sister replied, “Wrong” and left the room.

At age 50, Ellison said, “With wealth and fame, you get respect. But 20 years later, I figured out she was right. Ambition is a false god” (Business Week, May 15, 1995, pp.95-96).

The most important thing is love, without which life loses all meaning and significance. If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to 1 Corinthians 13, 1 Corinthians 13, the great “love chapter” in the Bible, where we learn the significance of love.

1 Corinthians 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal (ESV).

No matter how eloquent my speech, without love, I am just making a lot of noise.

1 Corinthians 13:2 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 (ESV).

No matter how excellent my skills, without love, I am nothing.

1 Corinthians13:3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing (ESV).

No matter how extraordinary my sacrifice, without love, there is no benefit. Love gives my speech, my skills, and my sacrifice real significance. Otherwise, I accomplish nothing. I realize no lasting value, only useless activity and irritating noise. So, above anything you say or do…

LOVE PEOPLE AND BE EFFECTIVE.

Care for others and be productive. Cherish individuals and affect real change for the better.

The Springtide Research Institute recently (2020) surveyed more than 10,000 Americans ages 13 to 25, otherwise known as “Generation Z.” The researchers wanted to know what motivates this generation, which doesn’t trust organized religion.

Rather, according to the study, they respond to “relational authority.” That's authority not based on hierarchy or titles, but which comes from a genuine interest in them as individuals. 4 in 5 Gen Z members surveyed said they were likely to take guidance from adults who care about them.

The report pinpoints five values that characterize this relational authority: listening, transparency, integrity, care, and expertise. Expertise comes last on the list intentionally, because 65% of young people say an adult’s expertise doesn’t matter unless the adult cares for them (Jana Riess, “Gen Z is lukewarm about religion, but open to relationships,” Religious News Service, 12-21-20; www.PreachingToday.com).

That’s not only true for Generation Z. It’s true for all generations. People don’t care what you know until they know that you care. So if you want to make a real difference in people’s lives, spend time with them, listen to them, and by that let them know you care.

The skin horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swager, and by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he know that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced, like the skin horse, understand all about it.

“What is real?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”