Belton, Texas 鈥� Daniel McAfee, Director of Baptist Student Ministries at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, led chapel services on Wednesday, February 19. Less then a week removed from Valentine's Day, McAfee focused his lesson on the concept of love in all its forms.
鈥淭he idea of love dominated our culture for a few days,鈥� McAfee said. 鈥淚 was struck, as I was thinking through love and messages we get around love in our culture, how rare it is that we can really truly define or describe it in helpful ways.鈥�
McAfee lead his audience through the 1 Corinthians 13. In it, Paul the Apostle is counseling the church in Corinth.
鈥淭hey were divided. They were struggling with their relationships with one another.鈥� McAfee said, 鈥渟o this is context that prompts Paul to say, 鈥楾hese people need to be reminded what love is.鈥欌��
The passage reads, 鈥淚f I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.鈥�
鈥淚f you are operating apart from love,鈥� McAfee said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not going to benefit you.鈥�
McAfee tied this idea of love to the grace and mercy that Christians receive from God. Paul himself was a perfect example of this, having received God鈥檚 forgiveness for the acts of violence he perpetrated against the early church before his salvation and transformation.
