What are you called to do? Teach, heal, protect, preach? Whatever it is, Paul says it is nothing without love. You may be the best algebra teacher in your state, but if your students don’t know that you love them, their ability to solve linear equations means little when they face the pressures of adolescence. You may be a gifted doctor, revered in your field across the world; but if you don’t have love, your patients will not be completely healed. Doctors who show love to their patients provide healing even when medicine fails.

No matter what else God calls us to do or say, God calls us to love. Paul makes it pretty clear that nothing matters without love. But the love described in First Corinthians is not an easy kind of love; it is a radical love that puts others first, rejoices in the truth, always hopes, and always trusts. Sometimes love requires us to tell the truth when the truth is hard to hear. Jeremiah’s message to Israel isn’t popular, but his love for Israel and God lead him to share God’s message no matter how unpopular it may be. He becomes known as the weeping prophet because of his sorrow over Israel’s disobedience and the consequences that follow. It reminds me of the saying, “No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” But radical love is patient and kind even in the face of resistance. Radical God-like love never fails. When we live out God’s call, we will face obstacles and resistance; but if we live in love, we cannot fail.