DAY FIFTEEN
THINKING ABOUT MY PURPOSE
Point to Ponder: I was formed for God’s family.
Verse to Remember: “His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.” Ephesians 1:5a (NLT)
Question to Consider: How can I start treating other believers like members of my own family?
16
What Matters Most
No matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.
1 Corinthians 13:3b (Msg)
Love means living the way God commanded us to live. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is this: Live a life of love.
2 John 1:6 (NCV)
Life is all about love.
Because God is love, the most important lesson he wants you to learn on earth is how to love. It is in loving that we are most like him, so love is the foundation of every command he has given us: “The whole Law can be summed up in this one command: ‘Love others as you love yourself.’”1
Learning to love unselfishly is not an easy task. It runs counter to our self-centered nature. That’s why we’re given a lifetime to learn it. Of course, God wants us to love everyone, but he is particularly concerned that we learn to love others in his family. As we’ve already seen, this is the second purpose for your life. Peter tells us, “Show special love for God’s people.”2 Paul echoes this sentiment: “When we have the opportunity to help anyone, we should do it. But we should give special attention to those who are in the family of believers.”3
DAY SIXTEEN: WHAT MATTERS MOST
Why does God insist that we give special love and attention to other believers? Why do they get priority in loving? Because God wants his family to be known for its love more than anything else. Jesus said our love for each other—not our doctrinal beliefs—is our greatest witness to the world. He said, “Your strong love for each other will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”4
In heaven we will enjoy God’s family forever, but first we have some tough work to do here on earth to prepare ourselves for an eternity of loving. God trains us by giving us “family responsibilities,” and the foremost of these is to practice loving each other.
God wants you to be in regular, close fellowship with other believers so you can develop the skill of loving. Love cannot be learned in isolation. You have to be around people—irritating, imperfect, frustrating people. Through fellowship we learn three important truths.
THE BEST USE OF LIFE IS LOVE
Love should be your top priority, primary objective, and greatest ambition. Love is not a good part of your life; it’s the most important part. The Bible says, “Let love be your greatest aim.”5
It’s not enough to say, “One of the things I want in life is to be loving,” as if it’s in your top ten list. Relationships must have priority in your life above everything else. Why?
Life without love is really worthless. Paul makes this point: “No matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.”6
Often we act as if relationships are something to be squeezed into our schedule. We talk about finding time for our children or making time for people in our lives. That gives the impression that relationships are just a part of our lives along with many other tasks. But God says relationships are what life is all about.
Four of the Ten Commandments deal with our relationship to God while the other six deal with our relationships with people. But all ten are about relationships! Later, Jesus summarized what matters most to God in two statements: love God and love people. He said, ‘“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart…’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”7 After learning to love God (worship), learning to love others is the second purpose of your life.
Relationships, not achievements or the acquisition of things, are what matters most in life. So why do we allow our relationships to get the short end of the stick? When our schedules become overloaded, we start skimming relationally, cutting back on giving the time, energy, and attention that loving relationships require. What’s most important to God is displaced by what’s urgent.
Busyness is a great enemy of relationships. We become preoccupied with making a living, doing our work, paying bills, and accomplishing goals as if these tasks are the point of life. They are not. The point of life is learning to love—God and people. Life minus love equals zero.