- I am the vine; you are the branches.
- If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit;
- apart from me you can do nothing.
- ......
The Body Of Christ - The Church - Part 4
1. Regardless of which gift the Spirit gave you or what part you serve in the Body of Christ, if God’s love is not in you, “you are only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal,” or “you are nothing,” or “you gain nothing.”
1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
2. Here is a beautiful description of Love that needs no explanation:
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails ….
3. In this world, your gifts will cease, be stilled, or pass away, but love will never fail. God is Love (1 John 4:16), and having the love of God inside you is having God Himself living in you. We will never know everything there is to know in this world, but when Jesus takes us home, we will fully understand everything! Right now, we need to know that we are in the Body of Christ and have these three wonderful, supernatural, and comforting words with us today. What are these three words, you ask? They are Faith, Hope, and Love! And the greatest of these is LOVE!
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.