if i have not love, i am nothing

This phrase from 1 corinthians 13:2 resounded in my heart since for a month now.

(NKJV): (if I) have not love, i am nothing

(AMP): i am a useless nobody.

Strong language...

According to Romans 5:5, the love of God has been shed abroad in my heart, so i do have love.

Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Since i do have love, i am able to love with God's kind of love - unconditionally, sacrificially.

Because i have love, i am not nothing. I am something. I am not a useless nobody. I am a useful somebody. :D

The same argument goes for a similar phrase in 1 Corinthians 13:3

(NKJV) (if i) have not love, it profits me nothing.

The AMPLIFIED version says: i gain nothing.

So it's not about doing spiritual things which are impressive, like speaking in tongues of men and of angels, and having spiritual gifts and great understanding, or even about doing physical and practical things like giving all that i have to the poor or being being martyred.

It is about having the LOVE of God (which we are already given), but this love has to be expressed in our behaviour.

In 1 Corinthians 13:1, the Amplified version explains love: that reasoning, intentional, spiritual devotion such as is inspired by God's love for and in us.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 continues:
⁴Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealous. It is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. ⁵It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God's love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong]. ⁶It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. ⁷Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]. ⁸Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end].

A tall order, but it's possible if i set my heart on it. It's possible just because the Word of God says so. Moreover, i want to be be something - a useful somebody.

So i love...

:D