Have you ever wondered what matters to God?

The Bible says in Galatians 5:6, “If you are a follower of Christ Jesus . . . [all] that matters is your faith that makes you love others” (CEV). God says what matters in life is not your accomplishments or your achievements. The only thing that matters is having a faith that causes you to love other people. If you miss that, then you have missed the most important thing in life.

When speakers want to get your attention and want you to remember something, they use repetition. In the first few verses of 1 Corinthians 13, Paul says the same thing five different ways: The most important thing in life is love.

Here are the first three reasons why love is so important (we’ll look at the other two tomorrow).

1. If you don’t live a life of love, then nothing you say will matter.

“If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1 NLT).

We’re really impressed by great speakers. We love eloquence and charisma. But God says, “I don’t care how good of a communicator you are. Are you living a life of love?” If you’re not, then nothing you say will matter. Words without love are just noise.

2. If you don’t live a life of love, then nothing you know will matter.

“I may understand all the secret things of God and have all knowledge . . . But even with all these things, if I do not have love, then I am nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:2 NCV).

We live in a world where knowledge is exploding. We are smarter than we’ve ever been, but we still have the same problems. Why? Because the world doesn’t need more knowledge. It needs more love. You may be a genius. But if you don’t love, then all that you know is worthless.

3. If you don’t live a life of love, then nothing you believe will matter.

“Even if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move, I would still be worth nothing at all without love” (1 Corinthians 13:2 TLB).

There’s a myth that being a follower of Christ is just a matter of believing certain truths. Nothing could be further from the truth! Following Christ is about living a life of love. It takes more than belief to please God.

You don’t have to wonder anymore about what matters most to God. In 1 Corinthians 13, he makes it very clear. What matters most is love!