"And though I bestow all my goods to
feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it
profits me nothing." (1 Corinthians 13:3)
Part three on the subject of love. In the previous two times, we talked about people
endowed with certain spiritual gifts from the Holy Spirit. How if they didn't administer their spiritual
gifts with a heart of true agape love, those gifts were meaningless and
vain. The person with the gift of
tongues who didn't have love was just noise.
The person with the gifts of prophecy, wisdom or faith who did not have
love was nothing. Today we're going to
look at the person who is engaged in philanthropy and the person who sacrifices
him or herself (bodily) for others.
And though I bestow
all my goods to feed the poor...but have not love, it profits me nothing. Americans are a generous people when the time
calls for it. It may not seem like it at
times, but look at the overwhelming response of all Americans in the wake of
the September 11 attacks. People gave of
their money, time, effort and even their blood; it made me proud to be an
American. Look at all the charitable
organizations that are set up to receive contributions and distribute them when
necessary. Look at all the people who
donate their time and effort at home and overseas in humanitarian causes and
missionary work. There is still a lot of
philanthropic work going on even in a time when it seems like more and more
people are concerned about their own personal rights. Sometimes it takes a 9/11 to wake people up
from their selfish pursuits.
But....
The apostle Paul teaches that it doesn't
matter how much you give or how often you give.
If you don't give out of a compassionate heart and a desire to glorify
God, then your giving profits you nothing.
Notice the Bible doesn't say it profits the recipient nothing, but the
giver. How does the giver profit from
giving? To answer that question we need
to look at what motivates a person to give.
One reason would be that giving money now means a return of that money
later; such as in a tax write-off.
Another reason would be for a boost in personal reputation. This is what the Pharisees did in Jesus'
time; they would give their offerings with great fanfare so that other people
would take notice of their "generosity." You know what Jesus said of such people? They have their reward already. A third reason would be to absolve oneself of
personal guilt. There are many people
who were raised in wealth and feel guilty because they didn't do anything to
earn such wealth, so to relieve their own guilt they give their money away.
I'm sure there are other reasons, but
the point is none of these reasons are motivated out of a true love of the
recipient and none of them are done to give glory to God. Because of that, God doesn't recognize any of
those offerings; it profits the giver nothing.
Though I give my
body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Paul here is talking about the ultimate
sacrifice, the giving of oneself to be killed.
History is littered with people who gave their lives for others or for a
cause they believed in, but guess what?
The sacrificing of oneself, if not motivated by love, is...nothing. The best example of this I can think of are
the terrorists who died in the 9/11 attacks.
They were willing to die for their cause, but were they motivated by
love? Hardly! If anything, they were motivated by hate,
jealousy, and lust (the Koran promises that martyrs of Allah will each be
granted 72 black haired beauties when they get to heaven). How about the other end of the spectrum? Take the death of Jesus. Jesus willingly gave His life for people who
deserved it least. Jesus died for us
while we were still vile, nasty sinners (Romans 5:8). Why?
Well, one reason was that is was decreed by God Himself, but the most
important reason (and the motivating reason) was love. God desperately wants us to be with Him, but
because of His holiness and our sin, that cannot happen. The death of Jesus solves this conundrum; it
satisfies God's justice by paying our sin debt once and for all and by
transferring Jesus' righteousness to our account, so that when God looks at us
He sees not our sin, but Christ's righteousness.
We've looked at a bunch of actions that
if not done in love are vain and meaningless, but we haven't yet defined what agape
love is. That's for next time!