I want you to look first at First Corinthians 14. I want you to look at the first verse. It starts this way: �Follow after charity.� The word �charity� means love; follow after love. The amplified version or the Berkley says this, �Make love your aim.� Make love your goal and aim. That is what he is saying in First Corinthians 14:1, �Make love your aim and goal.� The title of this message will be: �MAKE LOVE YOUR AIM.�
A preacher friend of mine wrote an article and sent it to me recently. He asked this very thought-provoking question. I want you to listen very carefully to it. He said, �What is the area of my life to which I should give the most attention, if I would serve and walk with Christ in the way that He would have me walk?� Do you understand the question? �What is the area of my life to which I ought to give the most attention if I am going to serve Christ and walk with Christ and glorify Christ in the way that He would have me serve Him?�
The preacher continued, thinking out loud. He said, �Well, many thoughts ran through my mind and then I discovered the answer, the area of my life to which I should give the most attention if I am to glorify Christ.� Peter expressed it this way, he said, �Above all things have sincere love among yourselves.�
Our Lord declared this, He said, �By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you love one another.� That is the way that folks are going to know that you belong to Me and that you are My disciples, if you love one another.
In the last verse of First Corinthians Chapter 13 (which is before the apostle Paul said, �Make love your aim, or follow after charity�), he said, �And now abideth faith, hope and love.�
Somebody might say, �Preacher, you�re coming at this thing backwards.�
Are you familiar with it? �And now abideth faith,� by which we look to Christ. It is faith, by which we find in Christ all we need. It is a faith that looks to Jesus. That is the faith He is talking about. Also, �Now abideth hope� that blessed hope, that good hope and that �good hope through grace.� It is a sure hope. It is a hope in which we wait for the fulfillment of what He promised. �Now abideth faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love.� Isn�t that what He says there? �The greatest of these is love.�
Why is love the greatest of these? Is love greater than faith? Is love greater than hope? Love is the greatest. Oh yes, that is what He said! I tell you this; it is the moving cause of God�s grace to you and me. Love is the moving cause; �For God so loved the World that He gave his only begotten Son. Herein is love, not that we love God, He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sin.�
So, love is the greatest because love goes clear back to eternity past. Love is what motivated God to give us grace in Christ and to choose us in Christ. �He chose us in love, having predestinated us to the adoption of children.� We didn�t love Him; He loved us. He said, �I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn you.� That is why it is the greatest.
Love preceded faith. Love preceded hope. Love was before faith. Love is the greatest evidence that we have faith. By this, shall everybody know that you have true faith, if you love Me; you�re My disciples if you love.
Love is what motivates all true obedience. �It is the love of Christ that constraineth me.� If we don�t do what we do out of the love for Christ, if that is not the motive, forget it! God will not accept anything that is not motivated out of love for Him. He will not recognize it.
Love is the only one that will endure of the three, (faith, hope and love). Faith, one day, will not be needed. When I see Him face to face, what will I need with faith? When I see Christ, faith will be a thing of the past.
Hope is going to vanish some day. Hope is going to give way to reality. That which we see, we don�t hope for. I hope to be like Christ and one day I�m going to be like Christ. There will be no more hope because I�m going to be just like Him.
Love is the same. It�s the character of the kingdom of God. It is the character of those who live in the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is love. �He that loveth not, knoweth not God.�
Paul writes in First Corinthians 14, �Follow after love.� Make love your aim. If you don�t you are going to miss faith and you will certainly miss hope. The reason is, �The greatest of these is love.�
Excerpt from a sermon by Henry Mahan. You can listen to the full sermon here:
I'm surprised more people haven't responded. Such an great an important message. So vital to the walk of a Christian. No matter what doctrine, no matter what faith, if it's not rooted in love, what do you have?
One of the most beautiful scriptures in the word:
Mat 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
Mat 7:8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
Mat 7:9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
Mat 7:10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
Mat 7:11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
What love in those verses. Love: if we don't have love - pure, heartfelt, unadulterated love - for those who are saved and unsaved, what do we have?
Luk 10:30 And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
Luk 10:31 And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
Luk 10:32 And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.
Luk 10:33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,
Luk 10:34 And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
Luk 10:35 And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.
Luk 10:36 Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?
There is no mention of whether the man was a believer or not. He could have been perfectly wicked. But somehow, defying all explanation, when we show love to any man, we show it to Christ. God be praised.
