Let all that you do be done in love. I Corinthians 16:14. Would everyone agree with you if you actually fulfilled this Scripture? Christ did many things that caused people to wonder if love was really motivating Him; yet it was. You, too, will be called upon to walk in many things, and all that you do must be done in love. In the Kingdom, the all-prevailing motivation for everything that we do is going to be love. Love is coming to take over.
On the human level, love can make people act very strangely. It bears little similarity to divine love. Once the love of God comes over you, it becomes the compelling, motivating force of your life. II Corinthians 5:14 says, “For the love of Christ controls us.” It simply takes over. It is possible for you to love God and still maintain your own life up to a point, but when His love takes over completely, it becomes like an automatic pilot. From that time on, you are directed almost completely by the will of the Lord. His love controls you.
I Corinthians 12 deals with the gifts of the Spirit and the various members of the Body of Christ. In the thirteenth chapter Paul describes love as a more excellent way. In I Corinthians 14:1 he says, Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts… These two objectives are held before us, too. In this present age they become all-compelling. Seek for the endowments of grace, such as the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge, which will enable you to think God’s thoughts on a matter. To know what God thinks, you must tune in to the mind of God Himself. As you tune in to the omnipotence and the unlimited power of God to change things, the working of miracles, the gift of faith, and the gifts of healing will come forth. Pursue after these gifts, but first pursue love because love is the motivation for them all. It is possible for the gifts to be selfishly motivated. A man with the gifts of healing can turn that to his own profit, building a name and an image for himself, and taking the money to build a private enterprise. But this will not happen if he is overwhelmed with love. When love takes over, it becomes a compelling, governing factor in everything. All that we do should be done in love.
As we move in God, we will come to the place where love takes over absolutely. Then we will not be asking anything for ourselves. Whatever He gives us will be fine; but we will be more concerned about moving into that greater love. When the love controls us, then we will come into what God really wants for our lives. The human attributes will drop away and the divine will take over. We still will retain enough human characteristics that it will be very difficult to tell when that point is attained where the human is completely subordinated to the spiritual love of God within our hearts. This may sound like a riddle now, but we all must face it sooner or later. Even the impartation of gifts of the Spirit to us will be limited until we come into that love.
A common idea is that the gifts of the Spirit can make a New Testament church, that working a few miracles and producing a few mighty healings will fill the church. In reality, a man and his ministry will be destroyed, instead of being built up, if God increases the ministry of revelation or discernment in his life without increasing the love. It is disastrous when a man moves into gifts of the Spirit without an overwhelming love from God filling his heart. His motivation will revert to a human level, and inevitably he will follow the course of ambition and self-destruction. God does not intend for His end-time remnant to be self-destructive as other movements have been; He intends that each person come up to the full maturity of Christ. Therefore, He has not given the gifts in an unlimited measure.
If discernment within the Body of Christ were developed to an unlimited state, and we could discern one another’s hearts and thoughts to the depth, bringing the difficult problems to the surface, we would suddenly find ourselves overwhelmed if we did not also experience an increase in love. With the increase of discernment, knowledge, and wisdom, we see a man with all of his problems; but without that love we will not be believing for him. Instead, we will condemn him and withdraw from him. We will not be using that gift as God intended.
Let everything that you do be done in love. This is the day. The love of Christ must control us. Practically every problem that exists within God’s people is related to a lack of love. In every case, the root of the difficulty is a lack of love. When there is bitterness or criticism in a person’s heart, it is usually because he is looking at the problem without the love of God in his heart. We need to believe for more love so that God can show us any need or problem He desires to, and we will respond to it just as He responds; we will love as He loves.
A young man who had been delivered from a life of sin and is now serving the Lord made a comment that may be the sentiment of many a believer. He said, “God has been good to me, but if I were God and I knew as much about somebody as God knows about me, I would not have anything to do with him.” He sensed how much God loved him, but he was confessing something else too. He did not have enough love in his heart to forgive anyone else for as much as God had forgiven him. Yet he was delighted that God had forgiven him. You want God to forgive you—but wouldn’t you like to have that much love so that you could be as forgiving as God Himself is?
There will be no greater works until there is greater love. God does not want to destroy us; He wants to change the world through us. Ask the Lord to deal with the depths of bitterness and the problems that are within your own reactions. Ask Him to forgive you of your unforgiveness in the areas where you tend to evaluate a situation and react to it humanly, instead of looking at what has God said and what He wants.
When we see the problems and needs of some of the brothers who are walking with us, we know that we would have to forsake them if we were only looking at them in the natural. But when we look at them in the love of God, we say, “God has spoken a word and we believe.” At this particular time, most of the miracles are found in the lives of the men whom God has chosen and through whom He will work His future miracles. Greater works are coming because greater love will be pursued.