If I have not love (v.3)

“If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:3

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Sacrifice isn’t a word we talk about very much these days. There have been Christians who have made great sacrifices for Christ – losing their lives for him or giving away fame and fortune in order to follow his call. And still in some countries that costly challenge is very real. But in the comfortable West, the tendency today is to think more of the satisfaction we can get from our faith rather than the sacrifice it requires.

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The apostle Paul personally “suffered the loss of all things” (Phil.3:8). Yet he also recognised that if sacrifice is made without real love for Jesus and others, it has no lasting value.

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It isn’t sacrifice which impresses God, but the love which motivates the sacrifice. Without that, it is empty and achieves nothing. Jesus gave everything for us – he emptied himself of glory to become a man among us because of love. “If we are going to live lovingly as well as sacrificially, we must look at the One who did both” (Sinclair Ferguson).