Week 3: Are you a Scrooge McDuck?
Verse we are studying:
1 Corinthians 13:2 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.
I hope this week finds you excited about learning more about 'What is Love?" I know I am :) I wanted to start off by saying that I hope this Bible Study/Series is helping you in your life. I hope you are doing your verses either with the SOAP method or writing them in your own words, and I pray that you are getting something new out of them. I know that 12 weeks is a big commitment-- but you can do it :) We will do it together. It will be an adventure (Huzzah! :) )
Ok, lets get excited and dive right in.
Last week, we learned that if we don't love others... and don't have passion in what we are talking about-- we end up sounding like clashing cymbals to everyone around us-- or Charlie Brown's teacher. Basically we would be just blowing non-sense hot air. And lets face it, people will see right thought it.
So the reverse of that is to be passionate about talking about God. Let everyone know that talking about Him isn't a chore-- it's an honor.
This week goes along with that theme.
Notebook Question: If you haven't written this week's verse in your own words, go ahead and do that now. I think it is easier to understand things if you re-word them in your 'language'.
Here is what it means to me: "If I were the smartest person in the world, knew God's plans, had more faith that anyone, and could predict the future, but I didn't love anyone else-- it wouldn't mean a hill of beans."
Basically, even if you had 'it all', and didn't love people... it wouldn't matter.
It would be nothing.
Lets look a bit to see what that phrase means : "It would be nothing."
I think that it means 2 things: 1. I could be the richest, most gifted, highest quality speaker in the world. Could spout facts without hindrance and knew everything about everything-- but if I didn't have love in my heart, then I'm the lowest of the low. All of my rewards would be here on Earth and nothing would be saved for me in Heaven. Riches, power, and "smarts" only gives you things on Earth, but love gives you everything in Heaven-- forever.
God doesn't care if you are smart, not smart, or lacking basic common sense-- all He cares about is that you love Him, follow Him, and love others. He will USE your talents to do His will, but not everyone has the same ones. Not everyone will be the 'brains of the bunch'-- but God will use what you DO have.
2. If you had a room full of money in your home (think Scrooge McDuck)-- if the bills in the room were no less than hundreds and they were filling the room to the ceiling. Every day you went into the room to admire the stacks of money, and every night you locked the door so no one could steal it--- BUT you had no friends, no love, no life beyond work and bringing money home to your secret room, it wouldn't mean anything.
Face it, money is just paper (as much as it pains me to say lol). It's just paper.. the same as notebook paper. If you have a room of it, then you have a room full of paper. God blesses us with money to bless others-- not so we can hoard it. And like they say, "you can't take it with you."
Now, we need to go back to the beginning of the verse:
*If I had the gift of prophecy... but didn't love others, I would be nothing.
What exactly is the 'gift of prophecy'? Prophesying is more than predicting the future (which is part of it really, but not all of it). It doesn't mean that you look through a magic eight ball and see the future-- it means that the person who has that gift uses it to tell other believers a message from God.
Notebook Question: Why would it be 'nothing' if you didn't have love with the gift of prophecy?
*And if I had understanding of all of God's secret plans and possessed all knowledge... but didn't love others, it would be nothing.
Basically, "Knowledge maybe power" but love gives everything. This means that wisdom is great, but if we only think of ourselves, it kinda gets wasted.
*If I had such faith that I could move mountains... but didn't love others, I would be nothing.
We read in Thursday's verse where Jesus said if we had just a tiny bit of faith-- we could move mountains. If that's what a tiny bit of faith can do, can you imagine what a lot of it?? There would be displaced mountain ranges all over the world!
But still--- if you could do all of that-- but didn't do it out of love, who would it help? Would it just be a way to show your power?
There are 3 questions I want us to think about, and write down.
1. What good are gifts, if you don't love others OR do them for others?
2. Think about this-- if you don't love others (if you were mean to other-- a know it all, a person without compassion in the heart), would you even have anyone around to use your gifts on? Would they do anyone any good?
3. If you didn't love others, would you even want to use your spiritual gifts? Would there be a point?
God gave/gives everyone gifts to use for a reason, and He gives love in our hearts for a reason. That reason is so love and wisdom and faith can go hand in hand to help the world. People can tell when you are sincere about something and when you are just doing it because you have too. Love can't be faked-- it has to come straight from your heart.
Lets nurture our hearts. Lets not let our hearts harden. Lets use the wisdom, faith, and compassion of our heart to use our gifts to help others. We all have something-- some kind of gift from God. Lets use them to help people--- not just to show our 'power.'
Next week, we will be learning about 1 Corinthians 13:13. Below are the verses for your homework this week... (BTW, if you are blogging this you can link your blog in the comments of this post that way people can read and get ideas from you :) )
Verses for next week's lesson:
Tuesday~ Matthrew 6:12
Wednesday~ Matthew 23:5
Thursday~ Matthew 23:6
Friday~ Colossians 1:9-10
Saturday~ 1 Corinthians 13:3
Remember, there are daily discussions on these verses over at my facebook page (I'd love for you to join in :) ). If you have any comments, please post them below. I'd love to get your feedback. What are you getting out of these verses?
Much love, Kelly