LOVE is the Greatest Gift

SPEAKER 1 : 0:04

Put Jesus first in your life.

SPEAKER 03 : 0:12

Welcome to Classic Christianity Radio with Bob George. Bob’s clear, timeless teachings on the complete forgiveness and unconditional love of Jesus Christ will transform your life as you learn about God’s amazing grace. Let’s join Bob as he teaches us from God’s Word.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:30

But you see, we’ve called that the church. And what we are is like a chicken with their head cut off. We’re out flapping around making a lot of noise. But we don’t have a head. And Jesus said that you’ve lost contact with who? The head. With the head. So the body is no longer listening to the head. We don’t need to. Look how organized we are. And look how wealthy we are. You can read about those churches in Revelation. There’s seven of them. Just the same thing that’s going on today. Nothing new under the sun. But as far as Jesus was concerned, this is his body. His body is made up of born-again believers. As far as Christ’s church is concerned, he’s not confined to a building. His church is born-again believers all over the world at the same time. There are some of his body that is sleeping today, you know, in other parts of the world. Some of us are up. and some of us that are up and sleeping. And so you’ve just got all kinds of things going on. Now, he says that now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. And in the church, God has appointed, first of all, apostles, prophets, teachers, workers of miracles, those having the gifts of healing, those able to Help others, the gift of helps. Those with the gift of administration. Those speaking in different kinds of languages. Are all apostles? No. Are all prophets? No. Are all teachers? No. Do all work miracles? No. Do all have the gift of healing? No. Do all speak in other languages? No. Do all interpret? No. But eagerly desire the greater gifts. Why is he going into all this? Because there are people saying, as normal… My gift is better than your gift. We are not satisfied with just being God’s kid. I want to be his special kid. I want to be the one he really likes. I know he likes Bud, but he likes me better. I know Bud’s got a little gift over there, but it’s just a gift of teaching. But mine, ooh, I got the gift of prophecy. And so we get egotistical over our gifts that has been given to us. And then in some cases, we’re so proud of our gift that I’m going to go teach you how to do it. So I’ll jiggle your lip a little bit and get you going. Why doesn’t anyone jiggle your lip and get you to become a teacher or a better gift? Giving. Giving. Don’t you wish more people had the gift of giving? No, I’d rather talk. So, in other words, that attitude of egotism, pride in what God gives you, is ridiculous. If God gave you something, guys, is there anything to be proud over? You ought to be humbled by it. If God, and all of us have been given gifts of the Spirit. All of you have one, whether you know it or not. Somebody said, well, how do you discover it? I said, well, it’s kind of like a mother at the breakfast table and sitting around the breakfast table and one of the kids spills the milk. Well, one of the gift of helps is up cleaning up the milk. And then the teacher’s up there telling them why they spilled the dumb thing. Had you been more careful with this, that wouldn’t have happened to you. And then you got the gift of encouragement. That’s okay, sweetie. It could happen to anybody. And you got all these different responses to the kid knocking over milk. And you pretty well determined what your gift is by how would you respond. And so some of us would go into a course on how to drink milk without spilling it. Kind of teachers. But you’d have all kinds of things. Encouragement, all the gifts that he mentions here would really be exemplified by how did you respond to that. So it’s kind of a good way. Now what he’s saying to us, therefore, is not everyone I have given, not everyone I have given the same gift to. And all of these gifts work together to build the house, so to speak. One person has the gift of hammering, another has the gift of using screwdrivers, one has the gift of this, but the purpose is to build the house. And so don’t be sitting around complaining about your gift compared to somebody else or thinking that your gift is better than somebody else. It’s my gift that I’ve given to you for the edification of the body of Christ. But let me show you a more excellent way. And now, guys, God is going to get to the root of what he is looking for. He’s not looking for activity centers. He’s not looking for big buildings and big memberships. He’s looking for people who have learned to love one another. Did not it say in Scripture and Paul say that the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love? He didn’t say one of the main things that counts, guys. I mean, a priority list, put this up the top, the priority is faith expressed itself through love. He said, the only thing, the only thing I, God, am looking for from you is your faith that manifests itself through loving one another. And the evidence of your faith is evidenced in your love. And you say, well, that’s real nice, Lord. But how am I going to pull that off? It’s basically when I read the definition of love. But he’s saying, I want to show you a more excellent way, a better way. Not just better, excellent, a more excellent way. You’re all hung up on these gifts. I want to show you what I’m looking for. I’m not looking for your gifts. I gave them to you. I’m looking for to see how you’re doing in the love department. So he addresses initially the big hang-up in the Corinth church of the abuse of speaking in languages that they hadn’t learned. That’s a neat deal. I mean, there’s no question about that. If I could just all of a sudden start speaking a whole bunch of languages that I’d never learned, I’d think I was pretty intelligent. But God knows better. So you don’t have to camp on that for very long. But if I spoke in the tongues of men and angels, folks, that doesn’t mean there’s an angel language. That’s better than ours. that’s what’s called a hyperbole it’s an exaggeration in order to make a point if I could speak all of the languages of the world first nobody could do that so it’s an exaggeration in order to make a point if I could speak in the tongues of all the world including angels but I don’t have love he says I’m only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal Have you ever heard of a spirit-filled, resounding gong and clamming cymbal? Now, some people think that that’s the sign of being again. Look what they’ve done. This is the sign that you’re saved, is you can speak in tongues. That’s a sign you’re saved. Or, okay, I’ll grant you, maybe you can be saved without that. But that’s the only way you can be spirit-filled. So you’re a spiller-filled, clanging gong and noisy cymbal. Doesn’t that make a lot of sense? You see, guys, what Jesus said to us is the evidence that you’re saved is your faith in Jesus resulting in love toward your fellow man. That’s what he says. We say, uh-uh, no, it’s speaking in tongues. Oh, no, it’s getting baptized. You’ve got to be baptized in order to be saved. You’ve got a group there. And then you’ve got to tithe. And then you’ve got to have church membership. And then you’ve got this. The bar just keeps going up and up and up. Where Jesus said, forget the bar. What I’m saying to you is the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. And that’s exactly what I mean. That all I’m looking for are people who have placed their faith in me who came to save you nitwits because you couldn’t save yourselves. And I came to save you and you put your faith in that. I saved you by taking away the cause of spiritual death eternally. And I saved you from being raised from the dead so that that life that raised me from the dead can raise you from the dead. That’s what I did for you. No other man could do that. And so what pleases me is you’re putting your faith in that. The only thing that pleases God is what? Faith. And without faith, it’s impossible to what? Please God. Faith in who? It’s not faith in faith. Faith has to have an object. And the object of our faith is who? jesus back to jesus again and his totality of his work so it isn’t faith that saves you it’s the object of your faith that saves you faith is like swallowing you can say you got to swallow to live but you can say well think about that for a minute so well not necessarily i could also swallow and die i could smile swallow food and live and swallow poison and die using the same mechanism that has swallowed food to live So swallowing does not enable me to live. Swallowing food enables me to live. Swallowed poison will cause me to die. So it’s the object of our faith. So faith doesn’t save you. Faith in Jesus saves you. It’s all pointing back to Jesus. Now he says that so it doesn’t make any difference how many languages you speak in. If you don’t have love, it doesn’t mean anything. Now, he said, if I have the gift of prophecy, and I have the ability to fathom all mysteries and knowledge, and I have faith that can move mountains, that’s pretty good faith. That’d make television today. If you could do that, wouldn’t it? Now, it’s also an interesting thing, though, in regard to the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love, where we come down and say, well, my faith is bigger than your faith. And so we’ve got the faith movement that’s out there trying to tell everybody you’ve got to get more faith, right? Your problem is you have more faith. You need more faith. Did not Jesus say that if any of us had faith the size of a what? A mustard seed, we could do what? Move mountains. Have any of you moved an anthill recently? No. Now that shows us all somewhat the size of our faith, does it not? Somewhat smaller than that of a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed available. I don’t have big faith. I have a huge God. And I don’t need big faith in a big God. I just need to have sense enough to realize how wonderful He is and put my faith in what He accomplished for me. And so this idea of, oh, you need more faith, is nonsense. Because you don’t need more faith. He’s already given, it says in the scripture, we just read it, he’s given us all the measure of faith that we all need for the task ahead. Whatever the task is, I’ve given you enough faith for.

SPEAKER 03 : 12:49

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SPEAKER 02 : 13:33

And so he’s saying, if you have faith, if you can speak in all the languages of heaven and earth, don’t have love you’re a resounding gong and a clanging cymbal if they have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have a faith that can move mountains but don’t have love I am what nothing that’s a big zero in the eyes of God now are you something in the eyes of us that ooh ooh wow that guy must be close to God he moved a mountain but not God They may impress you, but he ain’t impressing me. I’ve given you everything you need, including love. I’ve given you everything you need for life and godliness. That means that this love, he’s given it to us. The issue is, are we going to access it? The whole issue is, I’ve got it. Am I going to use it? Because the conflict, there’s the flesh, isn’t it? So he says, if I give, now you’re talking about these givers. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames. In other words, become a martyr like Joan of Arc. Don’t have love, I gain nothing. If she didn’t have love, she may as well have saved herself some pain. If you don’t have love. That’s how God judges things. Not in what you’re doing, but what’s in your heart. What’s in your heart. Now he goes ahead to explain what love is. Love is not a feeling. Love is an action taken on behalf of another. Love is a forward action. It’s an action of God towards you that was not I love you if or I love you because. It’s just I plain love you. There’s no reason for it. I just love you. It’s called agape love, God’s unconditional love. It’s a word that was not really used in the Greek language. Phileo was used in a Greek language where we got our word Philadelphia, philanthropic. It means brotherly type of love. And then the word eros, of course, is a Greek word that you know what that all means, but that’s not used in the New Testament. But agape had to be developed. It had to be brought into the language. And it’s that unconditional love of God for you and me. And so he’s saying here that love is this action. Love is always patient. Now, guys, when you’re dealing with this passage, if you’re talking about love, then who is love? God. So you can very easily read this, that God is always patient with you. Now, is that good news? Are we always patient with one another? God is always patient with you. God is always kind to you. God is never envious. God’s never boastful. God is never proud in his dealings with you. God is never rude. God is never rude. God is never self-seeking. He’s always looking out after your interest over and above even his own. God is never easily angered. God keeps no records of your wrongs. Is that good news? No records of your wrongs. Now, how does that tie in with this thing where, you know, God’s got his list up there? And one of these days when you lucky people die, you’re going to get to go to heaven. And the big old camera is going to show on that screen up there. And it’s going to show the whole world and all the angels, everything you’ve ever done or thought. Isn’t that good news? And no wonder no one wants to go. It’s wrong. He doesn’t keep any records of your wrongs. What did God do with all your sins, guys? All of them. What did he do with them? Put them behind his back and never see them again. So there’s no records of your wrongs as far as God’s concerned. To me that’s wonderful news. Now it says that he keeps no records of your wrongs. He never delights in evil but he always rejoices in the truth. He always protects us. He always trusts us. He always hopes the best for us. And God always perseveres with us. We saw the history of his perseverance, didn’t we, with Israel? Thousands of years that he persevered with Israel. He’s still doing that today. Love never fails. Now, so when we’re looking at analyzing, in essence, how are we doing in our Christian life? How are we progressing in our Christian life? If what he says, it started with love, isn’t it? Isn’t that what you and I responded to initially? Somebody told you God loves you. Great news. God loves you, has a plan for your life. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life. We responded to the love of God. So we started with love and we’re to end with love. But what happens in between? There’s a gap. So I look at that and I say, well, if this is God’s definition of love and this is how he loves me, but it seems to me that what he’s saying here is this is how I’m to love others. so when we’re sitting around thinking about how we’re doing instead of thinking about how many buildings we’ve built and how many this we’ve done and and how many programs we have and how we entertain people and what a great orchestra we have and all this this and this and this and this and this let’s get back to what god said is important and that is how are we doing in this so-called love department and so we start unfortunately I am always patient with everybody, especially Amy and the ones we know and love the best. I’m just really patient with them. Do we need to go on or can we stop here? Have we squelched eternally our spiritual growth? Or should we go on? I am patient with everyone. Guys, let us face reality. That flesh of ours is not patient with anyone. And I’ve said before, if you look at what is the opposite of agape love, it’s not hate. It’s pride. Pride. The opposite of agape love is pride. I am always impatient. Pride is always impatient because pride says, I am always right. And if I am always right, that means you are always wrong. And that is nothing but pride out of control. Because God says that we’re not in a position of determining right from wrong, good from evil, that that’ll be his job. But we gather a lot of facts and say, these are the facts that I’m right. And then some people say, don’t confuse me with facts. My mind’s already might up. It’s just something I feel. This is the way it is because I feel that way. A lot of marriages came from that. And a whole bunch of divorces came from it as well. Because you think you feel something. Patience. I am always patient. I am always kind to everyone. This is killing me on the radio. Did I tell you about the guy? I don’t think I did. Last week a guy called in. Mr. George said, I don’t want to be rude or anything, but… He said, you know, I’ve been wanting to get to your conferences out here for a number of years now. He said, I listen all the time and I really want to get to those conferences and really like to get to one. But every time I get ready to get to one or to sign up, something happens that keeps me from it. And he said, what I’m afraid of, he said, as old as you are, I’m afraid you’re going to die before I get to a conference. I said, well, thank you, brother. I appreciate that. You just have kicked off a new marketing strategy for our ministry. Get to the conference before he croaks. Oh, my. Love is always kind. Love is never envious, especially if someone gets a promotion. I don’t. I just love that. I never boast, never sit around talking about things I’m proud of and my accomplishments and those things. I never do that. I’m never proud. Never. And I’m never rude. I’m never proud. I’m never self-seeking. I’m always looking out after your interest over and above mine. I’m never easily angered. Especially when someone calls in with a dumb question. Just love them to death. Love keeps no records of wrongs. I don’t keep any records of any of your wrongs, especially Amy’s. Guys, do you realize that we have filing cabinets full of those things? And we use them when we need them? I mean, it’s our most logical offense. that if you go too far, I’m going into the filing cabinet. We have them filed by category, alphabetized, instant withdrawal. Don’t keep any records of wrongs. Oh man, this is painful. Love does not delight in evil. Always rejoices in truth. Hate anything that’s evil. It’s basically a common off-color joke. I hate them. Always rejoice in the truth even when Amy tells me something about myself that I need to know. I say thank you sweetie for that. Especially when she tells me how to drive. Thank you for doing that. Just a joy to be around. I always protect others, always trust others. I mean, it wouldn’t enter my mind not to trust somebody. And think about that, guys, about how many people we don’t trust. Always hope the best in others and always persevere with others. Well, how do we do? That’s God’s test for us. How do we do? Anybody want to stand up before God and say, here I am, you lucky thing?

SPEAKER 03 : 26:12

Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another, and praise the Lord. Amen.

SPEAKER 01 : 26:42

Put Jesus first in your life and turn your life around.