John 4:16 states: “God is love.” John doesn’t say that God just speaks love. John states that God is love. In other words, every thought God has, every act in which He participates, every thing He sees automatically occurs through the lens of love. Love is who He is. It is not limited only to what He does or says.
The disciples and Paul continued this ministry strategy of love. We read in the Book of Acts how the early Church members loved each other through practical examples of sharing meals together and caring for the poor and the widows. What were the results of this love in action? The Church grew rapidly and in quick succession. Many people were impacted, not only because of the apostles’ preaching, but also because their preaching was accompanied by actions of love. Just like Jesus—loving words and loving actions.
In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul stresses the pre-eminence of love in all we do. It is important for us to understand the context in which he wrote these words. This passage of Scripture is part of a letter Paul wrote to the church in Corinth that he had founded on his second missionary journey. Shortly after he left them, they slowly fell apart in schisms fueled by pride, immorality and lawsuits. In other words, this was a church that clearly lacked love. In response to the factions and anger within this church, Paul pens the inspired and famous love chapter. He hits the nail on the head when he writes:
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.... And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7,13, NIV)
This isn’t just flowery, poetic literature to be read at weddings. This is dynamite we are dealing with here. Explosive material that can impact people’s lives, communities, cities and countries! These simple verses on love, which so many of us have heard many times before, are powerful truths that we need to live out in our lives, communities, work places, schools, ministries and churches. They must be a priority. Do you see how practical love is? According to Paul, love is not a feeling but action. Love without action is nothing. But love with action is the greatest of all things.
I believe there is a love famine happening in our society. Too many of our schools, businesses, gathering places, churches and ministries lack this priority of love. The goal for too many of our organizations and businesses has been based on business strategies that lack the need for an ethos and culture where love flourishes. Our CEOs may have great organizational charts, goals and profit strategies, but what they lack is the substance of love. This is seen so often when companies reward their CEOs with obscene bonuses in the millions of dollars for running huge profits and making their stockholders happy at the cost of laying off thousands of workers. Something is wrong when this is seen as success, where the few get rich while many lose their jobs. In their eyes it is clear that the bottom-line definition of success is not how people are treated, but how much stocks go up. Where is the love? I sincerely wonder what would happen to a company that emphasized love as “the greatest of these” over and above greed. I think the company would not only succeed financially but soulfully as well.
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” (1 Corinthians 13:1 NIV)
If we lack love, we are like a resounding gong. Have you ever heard a gong clanging? Now imagine this happening non-stop. It would be like having to sit in a classroom while someone scraped nails down the blackboard for hours on end. It would drive you insane and cause you to cover your ears, wrinkle your nose and run away, as fast as possible, from this awful resounding racket. Yet this is exactly how Paul describes what unloving people and unloving companies or organizations are like in the eyes and ears of God. If we do not care for people it is a horrible clanging gong in the ears of God.
Unfortunately, sound also reverberates in places that should be havens of love, and the repercussions are devastating. This dearth of love is not only a problem in the dog-eat-dog business world, but it far too often is present within our places of worship.
I have the privilege of speaking in many churches and have to admit that, as a speaker, I often repeat the same message in different locales. The reason for this is quite simple. Travelling allows me to speak to different audiences, thus allowing me to repeat certain messages simply because the listeners are different. To the new audience, an old sermon is new.
When you preach as often as I do, most places seem the same and their congregations tend to fade away in your memory. However, I do admit that there are some places I will never forget. Some of these churches are congregations in which you can feel God’s presence abiding among His people. They are places that energize you as a speaker, and there just seems to be that extra pizzazz of spiritual dynamism that enters every word you speak. These are wonderful places to visit, and when they ask me to return, I accept their invitation right away. However, there are a few places where I don’t like to speak. These are the churches that leave you drained and tired. Speaking at these churches is like a long and tiring wrestling match in which I must tussle with the audience to make the spoken words apply to their hearts.
What is the difference between the two? Why do some energize me while others drain me of every last ounce of energy? The energizing churches are those where love and grace abound through the presence of the Holy Spirit, while the draining churches lack grace and love. The churches that are full of love have no distractions present, and because of this, they can hear God’s Word clearly. Churches that lack love have a resounding gong clanging in their midst, distracting them from clearly hearing God’s Word.
When I think of this truth, there is one church that stands well above all others. To me, it is the perfect example of the resounding gong syndrome. I’ll never forget that day when, with one of my best sermons in tow, I arrived at this church prepared to knock them off their feet. Spiritually speaking, I felt great. I was going through one of those stretches of life where I felt animated daily with God’s presence inside me. I was in the midst of a spiritual high and on top of this, I brought a sermon that was one of my top ten hits. I was going to preach one of my time-tested, stellar messages. Everywhere I had previously given this sermon, God seemed to move mightily. I couldn’t wait to meet and speak to the people at this church. However, my hopes and dreams for that Sunday were quickly shattered. The message that was so powerful in the past was a dud with this crowd.
I should have known that I was in trouble. The negative signs were clearly evident the very second I entered the church. As I walked through the front doors, I was greeted with a strange feeling of lifelessness. It was obvious to me that something wasn’t right.
At first I thought that I was the problem. I did a quick self-examination to find out what condition my soul was in. Perhaps I wasn’t doing as well spiritually as I thought. Perhaps there were some unknown spiritual issues I had not dealt with. I quickly walked through the past few days and confessed to the Lord every possible shortcoming that came to mind. I knew that personally I was clean, yet that strange, cold feeling remained. I thought that perhaps what I was feeling was just fatigue or there was some other fairly innocent reason. However, deep in my soul I knew this was not the case. The negative feeling remained. Then it occurred to me. Perhaps the problem wasn’t me. Maybe I was unaware of issues present in this church that were so grave, even as an outsider I could feel it. As soon as the worship service began, the feeling of darkness in that place not only remained, but got stronger. It was as if the church was just going through the motions. No one smiled, no one clapped, not one sign of emotion or sign of true worship in that building. The looks on the faces of everyone were cold and robotic. I was staring at lifeless figures sitting together under one roof. A few hymns, a couple of announcements, a solo and then it was my turn to speak. I preached my heart out, but still—no response. The sermon did not seem to be clicking with the audience.
It was as if words left my mouth only to flutter
