Fueled by Love

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 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. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

Devotion

Have you ever asked a child to tell you what they love? When I was a little girl, I LOVED Barbie dolls, Kraft macaroni and cheese (my mom never bought Velveeta!), pogo sticks, and summers at my grandparents’ house. In my teenage years, that love grew to include Duran Duran, corn tortillas with butter, my cassette player, and lazy summer days at the pool.

No one has to teach us to love. Why is that? The short answer is found in Genesis 1:27 and 1 John 4:8. God created people in his own image, and he IS love. So as image-bearers, we are created out of love, made in the image of love, and created to love.

When I came to faith in Christ as a young adult, I quickly began to understand that the love woven into my image-bearing design is for the purpose of loving God and loving people. Recently as I was reading 1 Corinthians 13, I felt a gentle nudge from the Holy Spirit to ask myself: Is that me? Am I a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal? Have I been so busy learning and serving and working and doing for the Kingdom of God, that I’ve forgotten why I’m doing it?

Most of my life, I’ve been a rule-follower and wanted to do what’s right. So following Jesus just made sense to me. It was right. Can I be really honest with you today? As I examined my own heart, the answer to the Holy Spirit’s question was this: As I have followed Jesus for almost thirty years now, there have been a lot of times that I’ve followed him in a way that reflects the heart of a woman who wants to do right and do good. I believe that honors Christ and his church, so it’s not a bad thing. It’s just not the best thing.

Being obligated to love and being freed to love are very different. Scripture speaks often of a believer's responsibility to love—to love God, love our neighbor, love our enemies. It’s easy to begin thinking of love as an obligation … as something that proves our faith.

But Scripture tells a deeper story. God doesn’t call us to love out of obligation. He invites us to love because we’ve been loved first and that love frees us to love. All we have to do is receive it. In Christ, love is not a requirement to earn God’s favor or to prove anything—it is a response to freedom.

The cross is the ultimate demonstration of this truth. Jesus didn’t go to the cross out of duty; he did it for the joy set before him (Hebrews 12:2). That joy was us—so that we would be redeemed, restored, and free.

When our roots grow down deep in God’s love for us, love becomes something that overflows naturally. Love becomes a response, not a requirement. Love stops being something we do and becomes who we are. Love is the “why.”

Are you loving today out of obligation or out of overflow? Ask the Holy Spirit to remind you of the love God has for you—unearned, unwavering, and unending. Have you received it? There is freedom in sitting open-handed before the Lord and allowing him to love others through you.

PRAYER

Father, thank you for the love you have so freely given—love that sought me before I ever turned toward you, love that was never earned but always poured out in grace. Lord, set my heart free today—free me from the weight of performance, from the chains of fear, from the thought that love is something I owe to gain your favor or the approval of others. Remind me that in Christ, I am already fully loved, already fully accepted. Let that truth sink deep into my bones until love flows not from duty, but from delight. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.

Kim GIlliam
Mayfair Location Associate Pastor

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