Richland Baptist Temple Blog
I Corinthians 13:3. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
We think we do a great thing if we give an extra offering for a missionary who comes to share or maybe giving to PGM or some other legitimate charity, but what is our motive? Without love it means nothing to us.
I struggled with the phrase though I give my body to be burned. After reading several commentaries all the scholars didn’t agree either. But the two that stood out in them most was martyrdom or the story of the three Hebrew children in the fiery furnace.
The idea is to die or be willing to die but without love as the motivation, it means nothing.
The apostle Paul is trying to get us to see that everything God has done for us is out of love and we should be following His examlpe. I John 4:11 says: Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. It’s talking about Jesus laying His life down for us. Do we have that kind of love? Everything we do to further God’s kingdom on earth should be motivated by love.