Love Is Greater Than Faith

Love Is Greater Than Faith

Scripture: Matthew 24:12; First Corinthians 13; Hebrews 11:6

I had a conversation with someone several weeks ago about the things happening in the world. We discussed the attitudes that are prevalent in the United States; attitudes of hate by those who truly believe they are Christians. You see, there are people who believe that because they are Christians they can berate, hate and mistreat others who are not Christians or profess a different religious world view and they even treat other Christians who do not hold their beliefs this way. Then there are those who believe that because the United States is supposed to be a Christian nation, Christians should rule the government and everyone should be forced to a Christian way of life. Although the founding fathers identified themselves as predominately Christian, the U.S. was established with the idea of religious freedom – worshiping God or not worshiping God was an individual choice. A person was not vilified if they chose to believe something different from Christianity. Sadly, that is not the case today in the United States. We are quickly becoming the reason why people choose not to serve Christ as their personal Savior and, that my friend, is a problem. When some Christians demonstrate more hate than love because of a skewed understanding of “faith” in Christ and belief that it empowers them to act this way, it undermines the message of the gospel, which is what truly separates Christianity from other religions and empowers us to bring people to Christ. The title of my message this morning is “Love is Greater Than Faith.”

If you do an internet search of the history of the “Faith” movement in the United States, you will find articles discussing the faith movement and those who started it. The articles predominately talk about the “Faith” movement as being separate from the traditional Church establishment. However, if you do an internet search on the “love” movement in the United States, the first article that pops up is about the Free Love movement which is a social movement that accepts all forms of love. It seeks complete freedom from state and church interference in personal relationships. Every article on the first page of my search dealt with the free love movement. The only mention of the Church was the negative view that the Church has on the practice of free love. Why am I telling you this? The Bible makes it clear that love is more important than faith in our relationship with Christ and today it seems to be the one virtue that is not on display in the lives of many Christians. New Light, do you remember the very first thing Jesus said about His Father? Let me refresh your memory. In the first part of John 3:16 Jesus says of His Father, “For God so loved …” Loving people the way our Father loves people should be the one thing that distinguishes us from those who don’t know God. However, today hate seems to be the rule of the day, especially from Christians who are in disagreement with the beliefs of someone else, including other Christians. This further proves what Jesus said in Matthew 24:12. He said, “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall grow cold.” (Matthew 24:12) We know from Matthew 4:17 that Jesus preached the kingdom of God and, when He did, He spoke prophetically about the Church – about us. We are living in the days when we believe our faith in God is more important than our love for Him (as demonstrated in how we treat others.) This morning I want you to know with certainty that our love is greater than our faith and it is love that empowers our faith. If we do not have love as the foundation for which we are in Christ, then we really do not have a foundation at all.

Turn with me to First Corinthians chapter thirteen. First Corinthians chapter thirteen is known as the love chapter in the Bible. In this chapter Paul stresses that nothing is more important than love. We will not read the whole chapter, but I want to pull out a few verses that contrast faith with love. The latter part of First Corinthians 13:2 says, “…..and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.” We know that it requires faith for us to please God. Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” Faith is important to pleasing God because in order for us to even believe that He exists requires faith. But once we know He exists, and once we know that He is love, and once we accept His Son as our personal Savior by faith because He died for us, because He loved us, then we shift. You see, our faith was the initiator of our love. Our faith opened the door to for us to be able to love like God loves. And once we accepted that love by faith, then love begins to empower our faith. However, for some Christians, they do not move beyond their initial faith to receive Christ to faith empowered by love. For them faith becomes the end all. So they walk in faith, perform miracles in faith, and do wonderful things, all in faith but it means nothing because they never shifted to a life of love. Paul said, “…..and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.” But he did not stop there.