I have seen lots of things in my years ministry and in the church. There have been moments that I felt if we could just ______ then God would ______. And in full transparency, when we first started Selah Memphis, this was my perspective. But this is a cause-and-effect version of Christianity. Of course we see many places where God demands obedient, humble hearts before He acts and, in fact, that is my point. Man-made church growth methods, man-made plans and processes for success, and man-made strategies and techniques can all keep us distracted from obeying what Jesus has commanded us more than any other command. About 9 months ago I got to a point where my spirit was spinning with all these things. How should we . . .? Or another idea could be . . . I found myself on an airplane traveling back to Memphis with my head and heart fluttering with all sorts of man-made concepts on how to do church. This was God. He was getting me to a breaking point where I didn’t want any of those methods or strategies. So there, sitting in that aisle aisle seat way above the earth, I said out loud, “Lord, simplify it.” As I was thinking how grateful I was that my middle seat neighbor had his headphones on, God spoke this deep into my heart: “Love well; when that is accomplished, I will tell you to move to step 2.”

Jesus spent so much of His ministry teaching us the foundation of love and how it plays out in all avenues of life. Yet, we operate our everyday lives making love the unsaid, assumed motive behind all sorts of man-made self-focused methods when love itself should be our focus.

If you have ever been to a wedding (or even seen one on TV), you have most likely heard 1 Corinthians 13 read. Think about this for a second: what other passage of the Bible brings polar opposites from impasse to agreement? Christian and agnostic can come into agreement with 1 Corinthians 13. It is as if all humanity can agree with these definitions of love. Have you ever wondered why? Because love is the greatest! These 13 verses all wrapped up in the Spirit of God tell us what love is. But beyond those 13 verses, love is simply commanded by Jesus.

Love itself is the method of the church. The Old Testament is there to teach us who God is and what He does in order that we learn to love nothing else. In the New Testament, Jesus shows up and puts a period in that statement with His blood, ultimately saying “Love. Nothing else.” We are called to love. We have been given our command and now the Lord is just waiting for His people to obey His words. Just love. Add nothing else to it. Because the greatest of these is love!

Over the next few weeks our church family is going to be writing several blogs breaking down and sharing these 13 verses through our our various hearts and experiences. We invite you to read along and be encouraged.

Love. Nothing else.