1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I GAIN nothing.
I’ve been hearing this scripture declared in the Spirit over the earth a lot lately. All these wonderful gifts of the Holy Spirit (1Cor. 12), are great, but if you have not love, you have nothing to profit from. Is love an intense feeling of deep affection? Is love great interest or pleasure in something? This is the carnal or worldly definition of it. That would mean you would have affection and deep pleasure in something. Is this what God’s getting at? As far as we’re concerned everyone in this world then has ‘love.’ They have feelings of affection towards others and deep pleasure in things.
THIS IS NOT LOVE!!!
In the Bible it states that living THROUGH CHRIST is love (1John 4:9). First, you have to live through Christ to have love. Then, we have to love others THROUGH CHRIST (1John 4:11). That means you have to have Christ and live THROUGH HIM, not ourselves, in order to truly love another. To live THROUGH HIM, is to operate by His leading, His Spirit. Basically, you are living His Life, the Life giving Spirit’s (1Cor. 15:45) ways of operating, not how ‘you would do it.’ In order to live through someone else’s life, you would have to drop your own life because you can’t live two lives. (Matt. 6:24; Gal. 1:10; James 4:4)
It also says anyone that CONFESSES that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in Him, and he with God (1John 4:15). This is not just with mouth because even in the end, it says ALL TONGUES WILL CONFESS JESUS CHRIST IS LORD (Rom. 14:11; Philip. 2:11). That means, even the wicked at heart will have to confess with their lips. So, is it someone ‘professing with their lips’ truly abiding in God? Be careful. To confess in Hebrew means: to revere (or fear), to bemoan (or weep as in James 4:8-10), to praise, or to be thankful. That means that one that TRULY CONFESSES that Jesus is the Son of God actually fears Him, weeps over their state before Him-knowing how they compare to a holy God, truly praises Him IN ALL HE DOES NO MATTER HOW IT MAY LOOK, and is thankful to Him alone, not man for all they have. This is true confession that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
It also says there’s NO FEAR in love, meaning fearful of things of this world (John 16:33).
18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, BECAUSE FEAR HAS TO DO WITH PUNISHMENT. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
There is a great fear that has swept over this world BECAUSE PEOPLE DO NOT TRULY WALK IN LOVE OR THE SPIRIT OF GOD. They fear the things of this world: punishment from others (man), they fear a physical death, they fear what others may think of them. They are experiencing punishment as a result of lacking God abiding in them, or it has not been perfected in them. They do not fear God, therefore they have no wisdom (Prov. 9:10). This is why they run to and fro not understanding what to do and how to handle things rightly. There is no leading of the Holy Spirit, Wisdom (Isa. 11:2), so therefore they make no sense.
There is so much here, but the Lord’s only having me touch on these few things. Don’t be deceived by the love of the world. God is love, but you need to understand how He loves, by His Spirit’s leading not what you may think He loves. ‘Confessing the faith’ is not what God sees as confession. Fear of the world and what ‘it can do to you’ is not the love of God. Be careful, you may be judging your brother because of fear of the world OVER THE FEAR OF GOD, and that can put you in a dangerous place (Matt. 7:1-2). And that does not show love for your brother.
If you do not truly walk in the ways of the Spirit of the Lord there will be no gain or profit and this isn’t a literal worldly concept but the profit of God Himself, Himself as your inheritance…ALL THAT YOU NEED, your Provider.