Did I Forget to Tell You that LOVE is the first, foremost and ultimately only important thing?

I look around and hear the voices of denunciation and condemnation and criticism over EVERYTHING (every.single.thing) and wonder,

“Did I forget to say that there is nothing more important than love?”  If people understood that love is most important, I do not know how to explain the constant, soul-depleting barrage of put-downs and insults and criticism of our culture.mmDid I forget to say that nothing is more important than love?  

The atmosphere of our families and churches and communities and nation tells me that I – and we—have failed in this most important message.

As I observe it, people look at us and see that getting our own way is what is most important to us.  That is, quite explicitly, not the way of love.  And to make matters worse, people can see on every hand that whatever Christians are practicing is exactly the opposite of what Scripture teaches.   What people see right now is boastful (“I’m going to say this and I don’t care who is offended”),  What people see today is rude (cheering at insults and derogatory language to others).  What people see today is “Christians” pressing toward their own opinion with laser insistence with an unmistakable absence of patience or kindness.  What people see today is “Christians” practicing the diametric opposite of the love the Bible teaches.  It is the opposite of the life Jesus lived and the teachings He gave.  Although it is quite popular to claim a “Christian” label, what is practiced for the world to see is sheer selfishness.

In the face of all this dramatically disheartening reality, there is good news.  

1. There is the good news that the primacy of love runs throughout Scripture – not an isolated admonition. The primacy of love is a consistent, repeated foundation of Christian faith. Though people may not practice it, the witness of Scripture is absolutely clear: everything of value to God is rooted in love.

   When asked what was most important, Jesus said to love God and love others. (Matthew 22;  Mark 12)  He said everything else in the law and the prophets was accomplished with love. (Which is a truly astounding statement).

2. There is good news in that love is not some kind of general, nebulous, abstract concept.
   While we say, “I love chocolate.” Or “I love Duke--- or fill-in-the-blank sports team”.
   Or “I love spring –or fill-in-the-blank season”, the love that has primacy in the Bible has descriptors. Very plain, clearly stated descriptors. The love that is of God has characteristics that give a very specific checklist:
   “Love is patient and kind
   Love is not jealous or boastful or arrogant or rude.
   Love does not insist on its own way
   Love is not irritable or resentful.
   Love does not rejoice at wrong.
   Love does rejoice in what is right.

   In listing both what love IS and what love is NOT, the characteristics of the love to which we are called are clear.  Absolutely clear.  

   When we are listening to voices that are critical instead of patient;  voices that are cruel/demeaning instead of kind;  voices that put others down (“jealous or boastful or arrogant or rude”) and insist on their own way, we are out of the lane of love.  When we listen to voices that are easily irritated and nourish resentments and celebrate when bad things happen to some people, we are out of the lane of love.  Clarity is a constant gift.

3. There is good news in remembering that the clearest description of love was written to a church in great turmoil, divisions and conflict. This love that is primary-- this love that is most clearly described-- was written for people who were drowning in conflict. I Corinthians tells us about a church in multiple layers of turmoil and hurt feelings and divisions. There was jealousy and put-downs of others; there was gross sexual immorality, boasting, trivial fighting, marital discord, arguments over circumcision, eating food sacrificed to idols, divisions and factions, getting drunk at communion, setting bad examples for others….the list goes on and on. The Corinthian Church did not just have one problem. It had one conflict after another. Arguments and divisions over virtually every subject. Sound familiar?

   So the good news for our struggling, self-absorbed, highly conflicted world is that the primacy of love is written clearly specifically for a situation of immense conflict.  Love IS the answer for multi-layer, constant turmoil.

Undoubtedly I have missed things along the way.  But to the extent that I (or the church)missed the primacy and clarity of love, we have missed what is of supreme importance.  Supreme eloquence, all the prophecies in the world, all the faith, all the possessions, all the sacrificing in the world will not cover the gap if we do not have love.  (I Corinthians 13: 1-3).

Love – I Corinthians 13 love—is the one thing we dare not miss.  There is one thing that is primary and that is love.  If we miss that, nothing else matters.