Spiritual gifts without love are meaningless because love is the heart of all spiritual gifts. In our body, the heart makes everything work properly, like a motor in a machine. If our heart stops, the rest of the body will also cease to function.
In 1 Corinthians 12:8-11 we learn spiritual gifts are the ability to give wise advice, special knowledge, great faith, gift of healing, the ability to perform miracles, prophesy, discernment, and to speak in unknown languages. I love chocolate cake, but the cake will be ruined if there is excessive salt in it. Like the cake with excessive salt, using our gifts without love will do more harm than good. As wonderful as all these gifts are, if they are not done lovingly, people can be deeply wounded instead of being helped.
Love Can’t be Absent When Using Our Gifts
1 Corinthians 13:1If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. [1]
Love is a Super Ingredient
When we use our spiritual gifts and add love to them, it is the super ingredient. It magnifies what we have received and gives glory to God. If someone gives you wise advice lovingly, you feel that the Lord has worked through this person to help you and build you up at the same time. In this way, when love is added, it amplifies what the person received, and sometimes feeling loved can be more important than the advice.
When we love and minister to others, it builds them up, helping them move forward in faith. I remember being prayed over for healing. What I remember most was the compassion and love I felt as they prayed over me.
There is something about love that changes how we use our spiritual gifts and how a person receives them. 1 John 4:7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.[2] Spiritual gifts without love are meaningless. Love plus spiritual gifts make an impact. To learn more, listen here: https://podpoint.com/light-of-christ-church-podcast/worship-in-love
[1,2] Tyndale House Publishers. (2015). Holy Bible: New Living Translation . Tyndale House Publishers.