Absence Of Love — A LifeWords Devotion

It was Mother Teresa who said that we were not to aim at doing great things with love, but aim at doing all things with great love. The apostle Paul was contrasting love with certain forms of natural and supernatural speech. Boasting about spiritual gifts was nothing more than ugly noise if love was not involved.

Same applies to many aspects of our lives. We can lavish money and gifts on people without having any loving regard for them. There are families whose members truly dislike and disrespect one another yet think nothing of spending lots of money on gifts for them or covering their expenses in other areas. Perhaps we figure that sparing no expense means we don’t have to worry about love.

It is love that endures, and it is love that changes lives. Such love is not to be confused with personal compatibility, or physical attraction, or even close friendship. Love is that which seeks the welfare of the other person, yet not with a coldly formal heart, but with warm regard and goodwill towards that person. Love may involve critical words and uncomfortable actions. But all done from the motive of love.

We probably don’t need much supernatural help to spend money on people, but we may need lots of that type of help to change our hearts so that we focus less on doing lots of things with people and more on doing those things with great love.

Blessings,

David