People today are searching for answers. Stress is a big time problem, because they are trying the most popular solutions, but are coming up empty. Life is full of emptiness. The long road of promise that we travel leads to a dead end street. And we are left to wonder whether hope exists in this life at all.

There must be something that will make our lives special and extraordinary. There must be something supernatural that will fill the deepest core of our being with meaning and purpose.

Money seems like an easy solution and many seek it. The lifestyle of the rich and famous make popularity, fame and position the pursuit of many individuals. But when tested over time, it doesn’t hold up. Simply read the memoirs of Solomon and you will see the emptiness and futility of money.

We spend and spend some more. We travel and travel some more. We live, even live successfully. We do so much, but life still doesn’t work. Jesus gave us a vital principle for living life when He said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind…, And love your neighbor as yourself" Matthew 22: 37,39.

Do you mean to tell me that the complexity of life can be reduced to that simple principle? That’s right. Love God and love people. In fact, Jesus went on to say in verse 40 that the whole law and prophets rest on those two commandments. In other words, if we can do those two, we can do everything else that the law of God requires. And if we can’t, no other pursuit in life will successfully fill the gap. Thirty-nine books of the law, hundreds of pages, thousands of lines and words, multiple instructions from the mouth of God captured two commands in one word; "Love".

Jesus said that people would know that we are His disciples if we love one another. We think that the power of our testimony is in how well we preach or teach. We think that the popularity of the church we attend is verification of how important we are, but no matter how important that is to you, God is not impressed. He is looking for love.

I spent many years in a church that had a reputation for being "holier than thou". We were (supposedly) stronger and more anointed than any of our sister churches. We could out shout and out tarry anybody in the Olympics. But we didn’t have love. We faked it, and the best we did as a ministry was confuse and anger everybody.

God is looking for love because love is the highest priority. Every generation has preachers claiming to love the truth. Just like Jesus, they say, "follow me". Love is the stamp of approval and only guarantee of genuine faith. Jesus says, "I’ve got to have love in and among my followers." The love of Jesus is unlike any other.

The Apostle Paul wrote a letter to the Corinthians, and in it he leaves no doubt of the importance of the love of God in our lives. Walking in love is not one of many options; it is the highest priority. Nothing can replace it or substitute for it. Love is the force that sets the direction of our lives. It determines the strength of our foundation and whether or not we will be secure in our faith.

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and it I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love 1 Corinthians 13: 1-3 Message.

It is easy to see by these verses that nothing is as powerful as love. If we learn to love, we learn to truly live. Love will help us to grow in faith, increase our anointing and will make us more like Jesus. Love is greater than preaching or any gifts of miracles. Nothing in our Christian life is impressive to God without love. How serious we are about loving is a witness to how serious we are about living for God.

Paul says in verse one that if we could speak every language on earth and in heaven, but the words we spoke lacked love, we may as well be quiet. We can be the ultimate communicator. A poetic ambassador; linguistic and euphoric, a specialist at pushing people up, yet without love we have nothing worth listening to. It’s all just empty noise and a pitiful waste of time and energy. No matter how much fun we have doing it, or how much we may earn, it’s ultimately in vain without love.

I can only speak one language, and sometimes I get that one wrong. But love is so important that Paul goes to the extreme and says if we could speak every language of every person on earth, and then speak the language of angels in addition to that. Without love, it’s nothing. You see, church people talk love all the time. But they fail to consistently walk it.

In many churches, the operation of spiritual gifts is very important. I believe that spiritual gifts should be manifested in churches as the Holy Ghost directs. But Paul uses the gifts of the prophecy to demonstrate the absolute necessity of love. Paul is not saying that a person who has the gift of prophecy possesses all knowledge and could unlock all mysteries. For we know that in this life we can only "know in part" and "prophecy in part". But Paul is saying that even if we possess supernatural gifts so extreme that we could see all and know all, without love we would be severely handicapped for real life. Paul’s desire was "to know the love of Christ which passes all knowledge" see Ephesians 3:19.

According to these verses, without love all our spiritual work means nothing. And no matter how you add it or multiply it, nothing is just nothing. So if we think that becoming some spiritual giant will put us on the road to a fulfilled life, we need to think again. It won’t. If we had so much faith that we could relocate the Rocky Mountains or turn the deserts of Nevada into a paradise of Eden, it would be meaningless without love.

Most people feel that the ultimate expression of their faith is sacrifice. I heard a popular preacher encouraging followers to sacrifice one month of their wages toward his Easter crusade to raise money for ministry expenses (I assume). He wanted them to express their faith by making the sacrifice. We fast to sacrifice something and give that time to God to let Him know that we are serious about receiving what we are believing Him for.

But just giving up a meal or some money does not make spiritual. Paul says that even if we were to offer our very life as a sacrifice in the most horrific way (burned), it wouldn’t mean anything. It doesn’t matter if we give 10%, 50%, 90% or every dime we make for the rest of our lives to God’s work, if we are not giving love, we are not giving our best.

If we have love, we may not be able to do all of the other great things, but we can do what really matters to God. We may not give everything, but we can give what counts. We may not have the ability to speak every mystery or know it all, but what we know and speak will count. I want my works to really count.

We can live the way that God intended for us to live if we keep the first thing by making love our highest priority. People saw love in Jesus. When He gave they saw how He gave. They saw His unselfishness and compassion. They saw the price He paid. And what they saw got their attention.

I see so may Christians (and so do you) who focus on themselves. Walking in love is so different. It gets the attention of people and never lets go. And that’s what I want more than anything else.

By: Edmund Brown