Christianity without Love? | Calvary Catonsville

Jesus Fulfills the Law Calvary Chapel Catonsville


A Church without a Heart

Christianity without love is pointless.  It is worse than that as it negatively affects the world around us.  It is not Christianity because God is love.  So no love = no God.


How does that make you feel? It is really hard to have any interest in the subject that person is talking at you about.  You want to pull the ripcord and get out of there as quickly as you can.  Loved is just about the last feeling that comes to mind, isn’t it?

Have you ever heard a really unpleasant noise?  Like someone scratches their nails on a chalkboard or the sound of a dentist’s drill as she drills a tooth?  It is terrible, annoying and effects you down to your very bones.  The louder it gets the worse it is.

This is the picture of religion without love from the Bible.  Religion without love is an expression of selfishness that comes off as really unpleasant to those around.

Christianity without Love is Painful

This is the idea that Paul is getting at in his first letter to the church at Corinth.  Take a look at how Paul begins 1 Corinthians 13, the great love chapter:


Religiosity without love is nothing and a really annoying nothing, at that!  C’mon, say what you really mean Paul!


He compares loveless Christianity in all its forms to two really annoying discordant sounds of his day.    We don’t hear noisy gongs or clanging cymbals much today so it may hard to relate.  The idea is something that makes a ton of noise and is jarring and irritating.  Think of perhaps a fire engine’s siren, though less rhythmic.  If the Apostle was writing today, he might have written: “if you don’t have love it is like nails on the chalkboard”.  It is a sound that is clear and not easily misunderstood.  One that is so wrong that no matter how loud you make it doesn’t get any better.  It is just a louder bad noise.

Paul was writing to Christians who had lost sight of love in the following of Jesus.  they had made everything about them and their expressions of self.  They were supposed to be following Jesus but in fact, their church was about their pride.  Their faith was self-centered and self-serving. The church became a contest to see who could speak the loudest or in the best tongue.


Because the Corinthians were so prideful and self-focused in their walks with Jesus, their use of the gifts of the Holy Spirit was worthless.  Paul says it is nothing to prophesy or speak in tongues if we don’t have love.  Even worse, their actions were like a noisy gong or clanging cymbal.  They were creating an unmistakeable, discordant, and annoying impression for everyone around them.  Paul goes so far as to say that it would have been better if they did not meet as a church for all the damage they were doing.


We are not meant to be Selfish Christians





No matter what it looks like to our eyes, if we don’t have love we are nothing.  We all want to be something in the Body of Christ, right?  So Love and Love greatly!