Only Love Survives

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13 NIV)

Pastor Chad's sermon on the resurrection and heaven yesterday gave lots of food for thought. It is easy to go through this life thinking that what we do on earth does't matter, since our eternal home is in heaven. What difference can 80 years, more or less, make?

I think that's why the concept of hell is so popular with many denominations. There has to be a reason to "be good" on earth, right? But really, one of the reasons Jesus came is to tell us that we have it all wrong and we have our priorities in life messed up. And he could still come back and tell us the same thing today.

We place our priorities on a good education, finding a good job so we can give our families a good life and buying nice things and taking nice vacations, etc. These are not bad things in and of themselves, but we have a tendency to make them what life is all about. Life is not about these things but about the relationships we make along the way.

Life is not about our job, but how we treat our co-workers, clients or customers. Life is not about our education, but how we use our knowledge to better the lives of others. Life is not about the money we earn, but how we use it to further God's kingdom.

We know we are saved by faith, not works... but it is the love that comes through our good works that survives this life. Everytime we treat another person with God's love, we are building up our heavenly treasure. It can't be forced. You can do good works all of your life because you think you "have to" to get to heaven, but if they aren't done with God's love, they are as if you haven't done them at all.

Sometimes, though, we have to start out with the "have to" before we can put the love behind it. When we see how doing good things affects others, it ties us closer to all humanity and we begin to love and then we begin to do our works with love.

Love is what survives this world and enters eternity with us... not our knowledge (Paul says it will pass away). Not our jobs (we know we could lose them tomorrow). Not our "stuff" (Jesus says it will rot). On our death bed we never ask to see our diplomas or our work schedule or our stuff. We only want to see those we love. Love is what we leave behind and love is also what we take with us. And love is what eternity is built with.

Lord Jesus,
We know love is really what it is all about, but still we are so easily distracted by the "shiny things" of this life. Help us to realign our priorities each day and always put "love" at the top. Amen.

Joys: wonderful worship with wonderful people yesterday; starting my day with a chat with Richard; Love