All You Need Is Love

Pastor Cornelius T. Winchester
Believe Church
Corpus Christi, Texas

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body [a]to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.  For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. -1 Corinthians 13

I believe it was The Beatles that said “All you need is love”. But they weren’t the first to say it. The author of love who is love told us through the Apostle Paul that the greatest interaction given to us to be operated through us is love.

There are those however, who may not agree; those who possibly married “in love” but then fell “out of love”. Love was present at first, but it wasn’t enough to sustain or keep the relationship going.

Then there are those who believe love is not only the greatest thing but the only thing. When it comes to today’s controversial topics, nothing matters except the “love” we are supposed to have for everyone, regardless of everything.

But I believe both of these extremes on the spectrum of love is a false definition and application of what true Biblical love really is.

First, love is not a feeling or emotion that is turned on and off like a light switch, or that we fall into or out of involuntarily. Love is a choice. A conscience decision to put the needs of another before your own or even at the expense of your own. Feelings come and go. Emotions are up and down. But a decision to love can be made regardless of feelings and emotions or the lack there of. Conditional love is based on the condition of one’s state of being or the situation at hand. Unconditional love however, is given in spite of it. 

We know this is love because this is How God loved us. John 3: 16 says “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever would believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life.” And Romans 5: 8 tells us that “God demonstrated His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
 
From these two scriptures, we see that love is a choice, because God had to choose to do what He did. Love is an action because God actually did something to demonstrate His love. Love is for the good of another because when we could do nothing for God, He did for us. Love is sacrificial because God’s love for us came at a cost or price to Him. And love is not because of us but even in spite of us since God died for us even while we were still sinners in order to make us saints.

But even though love accepts everybody, it does not mean it excepts everything. The idea that if I love you, I also have to love what you do goes against what true love is. Part of the definition of love given in 1 Corinthians 13 says that love “thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth…”

So it is because I love you that I must speak truth to you about the evil or iniquity you do. After all, what is a truer example of love; seeing someone heading over a cliff and allowing them to continue till they do, encouraging them all the way? Or is true love warning those we love of the cliff so that they might avoid it?

I believe love IS all we need. We just need to make sure that it’s God’s love that we’re talking about.


Scripture Readings
Monday- 1 Corinthians 13
Tuesday - 1 John 4
Wednesday - John 15
Thursday - John 13: 31-35
Friday - Romans 13: 8- 14
Saturday - John 3:16-17; John 21: 15-19