Title to Message: Because We Love
(1 Corinthians 13:13) “In this life we have three lasting qualities -- faith, hope and love. But the greatest of them is love.”
(1 Corinthians 14:1) (NLT) “Let love be your highest goal…
(1 Corinthians 14:1) (MSG) “Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it—because it does.”
(1 John 2:9-11) “Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.”
(John 13:34-35) Jesus said, “A new commandment I give you: Love one another! As I have loved you, so you must love one another. All men will know you are my disciples if you love one another.”
Love means: Living for the other person’s good.
(Matthew 5:44) (NLT) But I say, love your enemies!Pray for those who persecute you!
1. Without love, all that I say is ineffective.
(1 Corinthians 13:1) (NIV) “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”
(Ephesians 4:15) (NLT) …We will speak the truth in love . . .
2. Without love, all that I know is incomplete.
(1 Corinthians 13:2) (NIV) “If I have the gift of prophecy, and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge... but do not have love, I am nothing.”
(1 Corinthians 8:1) (NIV) “…Knowledge puffs up while love builds up.”
3. Without love, all that I believe is insufficient.
(1 Corinthians 13:2) (NIV) “... and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.”
(Galatians 5:6) (NIV) “... The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
4. Without love, all that I give is insignificant.
(1 Corinthians 13:3) (NIV) “If I give all I possess to the poor... but do not have love, I gain nothing.”
5. Without love, all that I accomplish is inadequate.
(1 Corinthians 13:3) (NIV) “… (if I) give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”
Why do we love?
(1 John 4:19) (NLT) We love each otherbecause he loved us first.
(1 Corinthians 13:7-8) (PHILLIPS) “Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. It is, in fact, the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen.”
(Colossians 3:14) (LB) “Most of all, let love guide your life…”
