When I was a kid, I was totally into basketball. But I grew slower than the other kids. I wanted to be able to shake and bake people on the basketball court and not be muscled around. So I started a habit of standing against the wall and having my brother or sister draw a little mark above me to measure my height. My mother loved that. “Oh, great, pencil marks all over my wall.”

There’s only one measuring stick for growth as a believer: love. In fact, think of the “best” Christian you know—what makes him or her that way? The best Christian in your church or mine is the one who has the most love—who has the attributes of God’s love working in his or her life.

The apostle Paul wrote, “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have 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 do not have love, I am nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1–2, NIV).

In this context, Paul was talking about the gifts of the Spirit, but then he said, “Remember what it’s really all about: if you can speak in unknown tongues, or everybody is entranced by your speech, or you can tell a mountain, ‘Yo, out,’ and it just obeys but you don’t have love, you’re a zero.”

I wonder how many of us really believe that. We Christians can get caught up in the next sensational thing, or even our pet doctrines. “My Calvinism,” “My Arminianism,” “My charismatic gifts,” “My evangelical teachings.” But Paul said, “No matter what you think you know, if you don’t have love, you’re a zero.”

The head of a missions department of a large denomination once sat in my office and told me, “Jim, did you know what the number one problem is of all the missionaries we have sent out? Getting along with other missionaries. They get into it with each other, and then they want to get up and tell people, ‘For God so loved the world . . .’”

But as the old quote says, “I can’t hear what you’re saying because your actions speak so loud.” When Christians are rude or proud, it’s hard to hear the Scripture verses they’re spouting.

What does love look like? The word “love” in 1 Corinthians 13 comes from the Greek word agape. This is the kind of love that God had in sending His Son and that Jesus had when He died on the cross for us—agape love. It’s not about people being worthy of love. No, this love resides in us. It makes us love people and cherish them and want their welfare, even if they don’t like us or they fight against us. It’s supernatural God-love.

Love has many characteristics, but let me give you two that have always challenged me.

First of all, “Love is kind” (1 Corinthians 13:4). God’s love can make us kind. Many people have been won to Christ just by kindness. People should walk into our churches and feel the kindness. The most spiritual Christian is the kindest Christian.

Second, love “keeps no record of wrongs” (1 Corinthians 13:5). We should ask God to fill us with His love so we can let things go. I know people are mean; I know they do nasty things. But some of us have a little black book, and once someone does us bad—oh, that’s it, for life they’re in there. But God’s love can help us let it go, because love keeps no record of wrongs.

Isn’t this a wakeup call for all of us? Love is not what we do or what we know—it’s what we are.

If there was ever a better time than now to shine as stars for Jesus Christ, I don’t know of one. Right now in America there is more hate and animosity and viciousness—person to person, media, social media, you name it—than ever before.

So let’s do great things for God. And let’s want His power operating in our lives. But most of all, let’s live lives of love.

Prayer

Lord God, help us to live our lives full of Your love. Make us kind and forgiving like You, Jesus, so that when we tell others about You, they can hear us.

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