After a long illness or a time when our world fell apart, there is someone whom we feel we would like to repay for their many visits, the flowers, the casseroles and so on. But somehow as we think of all the things we might do for them in return, everything seems an inadequate repayment. We suddenly realize there is just no way we can ever repay that person. A wise aunt gave us advice about how to repay them, "Don't worry about it, just do the same for someone else--that is what makes the world go 'round."
As we ponder God's love to us, the same principle is true. God gave up His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on a cross in order that our sin might be cancelled. How can we ever repay Him?
We could never repay our kind friend and we can never repay Jesus. But there is something we can do. We can give His love to someone else. Jesus loves us, we love Jesus, and in turn we love others. The overflow of love seeps into the world around us and others learn to love too.
In listing the spiritual gifts, the Apostle Paul points out they are all useless without love. "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" (I Cor.13:1). He is saying that even if we have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit but don't have love, the spiritual language of prayer won't be adequate in itself.
Even if we give ourselves up in martyrdom for Jesus, if not done in love it is worthless. Faith, hope, and love are all important to God, "but the greatest of these is love" (I Cor.13:13).
God's love is different from human love with its selfish motives, and is essential to accompany all the other gifts of the Spirit.
"Let us love one another, for love comes from God" (I John 4:7). That's what makes the world go 'round!
© 1999, Doreen Palmer