Love Beyond the Gifts

 The gifts of the Spirit are a very good thing. The functions and assignments behind them are also profound and fascinating. While I’ve witnessed powerful manifestations of healing, deliverances, signs and wonders of many kinds, I’ve come to realize one thing. All of those manifestations are worth nothing if you have not love. Take a moment and think about that. Even though God may be in them and they are indeed very good, if love is not upheld, it all is worth nothing— zero value. Believe it or not, This is exactly what the bible says.

“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing” - 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

I used to ponder what my specific office within the gifts is; what assignments God has me here for. These are good questions to ask, but while I prayed about them I noticed something unsettling. As if I wasn’t at rest until I knew how God want’s to move in me or what He placed me on this earth to do. While this could have easily gone unchecked, remembering this passage exposed my heart amidst the pondering. I quickly had to repent as I realized my unrest around these questions was a result of my prioritizing the gifts above what truly matters. 

It’s this passage that instilled a God-fear in me for this topic. Imagine if God gave me full clarity and I moved powerfully within all the gifts— healing, prophecy, knowledge, faith. Or I knew my assignment and I gave my life to it for the glory of God and did a lot of great works of service. But the day comes when I come face to face with God and I find out I missed it. All those works I powerfully did amounted to nothing because I never had love. Jesus speaks about this in Matthew 7 when He says, “on that day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophecy in Your name and cast out demons in Your name and do many mighty works in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:21-23)

I don’t know about you, but that is a terrifying place to be that should make us all step back and reevaluate our heart’s priorities. By no means should we disregard the gifts or stop asking the questions around them out of fear of mishandling them. That would be missing the point entirely. But far be it from us to forsake love to pursuing the gifts or assignments God has for us. The point of all the gifts is love and according to Jesus, if we miss that, it’s the same as working in lawlessness and not knowing Him. 

But what if we were truly the body of Christ who fought for love? Fought for it so hard that our hearts were willing to lay it all down for the sake of love. This is where I see God moving more powerfully than we ever imagined. After all, Jesus says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another’ (John 13:34-35). 

When God commands something, it is no light thing and I hope that through these passages you pay heed to it with the same God-fearing ear as I did. "Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love" (1John 4:8). It all started with Him before the gifting, functions and assignments. Intimacy with our first love is the one and only thing. No matter what you pursue, may we always remain there.