Nothing

"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.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing."   I Corinthians 13:1-3

After reading these verses as a family, one family member said, "It's kind of like the number 0.  No matter what you multiply it with, it's still zero."  Hmm...  What a wonderful insight.  A life, no matter how impressive, that is void of love is a nothing life, a big zero.

I don't know if Paul was a math guy, but he certainly presented this truth about love in a way that resembles the zero times anything is zero math axiom.  He chose some impressive multipliers to be sure -- special tongues, prophetic wisdom, mountain moving faith, and even giving up one's very own life.  Wow!  Certainly this level of activity warrants a gold star ... right?  Sorry.  Without love, we are nothing and we gain nothing ... period.

Instead of trying to dream up something even bigger and better than Paul to multiply times zero, let's ask God to help us move off the zero point when it comes to love.  This move from a love zero, of course, was Paul's whole point.  I don't know about you, but being a nothing and gaining nothing is way beyond being terribly sad.  Think about this for a second ... if I have a huge amount of love and multiply it by a little whatever, I am something tremendously significant and I gain the incomprehensibly huge.

Grace and Peace,

Tom

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