The Necessity of Love

Within the organisation I work for there have been several cuts to funding over recent years. This has meant that a lot of services we used to provide for the community can no longer be guaranteed due to fewer resources. These were activities that were considered 'nice' to do but which didn't have to be done. Put another way, they were the 'luxury' or 'icing on the cake' services that could be discarded without compromising the basic requirements of our role.
A basic requirement of a Christian is to demonstrate the love of God. There are various spiritual pursuits the follower of Christ can be engaged in which are 'helpful' to themselves and others, such as sharing their personal story, encouraging others in faith, and serving on teams within their local church. However, the Bible makes clear that one thing is vital in the life of the believer: to love others, and this is non negotiable:
In his first letter to the Corinthian church, the apostle Paul underlines the necessity of love in a number of ways and sets out his stall at the outset of chapter 13. He remarks that it's no good speaking in the tongues of men and angels but not having love. Without showing love, the Christian is just like a noisy gong or clanging cymbal (v1). Paul goes on that it's no good having prophetic powers and understanding all mysteries and knowledge and having 'mountain moving' faith if love is not evident. Without love we are nothing! (v2) Strong stuff! These striking thoughts are rounded off with the assertion that even if we give everything away to those in need and make outlandish sacrificial gestures in our Christian service but again don't have love, then we gain nothing! Did we catch that: we gain nothing. (v3). From these powerful, far reaching words we learn what it amounts to when there is no love flowing from Christ's followers.

No love =  Plenty of noise but nothing of substance to back it up.

No love = Impressive outward displays of strength, gifting, knowledge and faith but without any real or lasting power. 

Without love flowing from my relationship with God outward towards others I may create a lot of noise, saying and doing a lot of the right things, but my life and witness for the love of God will not have lasting, life transforming impact. People will close their heart and mind to me and the door of their soul. They will want to move away from me and seek escape.
My teenage son plays computer games whenever he is awake and to say that he becomes very noisy when doing this is an understatement. He shouts at the screen and forgets to consider others in the house, especially in the room next door. It is natural to look for space away from this. We have seriously considered sound proofing his room to lessen the impact of the noise on the rest of the household.
When we don't have love for others we may generate noise about Jesus but it only causes people to retreat from us and to soundproof themselves from the message we represent.
Elsewhere in the Bible we are advised that it is no good seeing another believer in need when we are in a position to help and offering no assistance. Indeed, this begs the question - how can God's love be in that person? (1 John 3v17b NLT). The point is reinforced further with a plea for the children of God to stop just saying they love each other but really show it by their actions (1 Jn 3v18). The bottom line is that noise without love is useless and unfruitful.
It is supposed to be the case that God's love has been poured out lavishly in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (see Romans 5v5). Is there evidence of this in our dealings with others, who are drawn to the loving Christian but repelled by the purely noisy one? We should be dripping wet with God's love and others in our vicinity should be getting wet.
Paul prayed that those in the church would overflow more and more with love towards one another as they grow in knowledge and depth of insight (Philip. 1v9). This 'growing' in love occurs as we grow in our walk with God. We need to keep reading the Bible, praying, meeting with other believers and so on, but we must also keep listening to the Holy Spirit within us revealing more and more of God's love and it's implications for each of us. More revelation about what God's love has accomplished in Christ motivates us to action; it compels us, we cannot stand still and do nothing. For example, before I received the Holy Spirit, the Bible seemed little more than words on pages but now the Holy Spirit makes the truths and promises and challenges within it come alive to me and it is not enough to just know what is being said; I am motivated to apply it with strength and passion.
We are strong in God when we are strong in love. Let us go deeper with God and in turn go deeper in His love. The famous pop music group 'The Bee Gees'  had a song called 'How Deep is Your Love?' The challenge for us here is to discover afresh 'How Deep is God's love?' Paul's prayer for the Ephesians (see Eph. 3v14-21) is not a bad place to start. He longs that they grasp how wide and how long, how high and how deep is the love of Christ, and that they know this love that can never be fully understood, so that they will be filled with all the fullness of God (vv18-19). Without love there is no fullness, there is only emptiness! For the Christian, showing the love of God is not a luxury, it is a necessity!