The You Tube version I listed is the one with a monologue. Here is that monologue;
If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all His mysteries
and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.
It is a great song with a great message and I thought you might enjoy the way they put it to music. They have done it so well.
I imagine it is taken from 1 Corinthians 13: 1-13 which is as follows (NAS);
1If I speak in the tonguesa of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.2If 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 have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,b but have not love, I gain nothing. 4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
As I sit here and look at all the above, I am wordless. What more can be said that is not said in the verses above?
I can be all things to all people, but if I don't have love, what are those things worth? I can be the greatest person in my own evaluation but without love, I am not all that great. If I do more things for more people than anyone I have ever met but don't love them, what good have I really done? If love doesn't motivate and direct my life, what does? If I think I am a good person but am not patient or kind, what is missing? In light of these verses, if I am rude, proud and boastful and fly off the handle what is it I am lacking?
I can be many good things, I can exhibit many great attributes, I can seek after becoming a person of quality, and that is all good. But should I desire to seek to be my best, should I desire to grow in an area of life, should I want my life to exhibit something of value, love is the greatest thing I could choose. If I can truly learn to love, all these things will happen because a life rooted in love exhibits such things.
If I look at myself in a mirror this morning with these verses in mind, how do I measure up? Following that self evaluation, how do I respond? Do we shrug it off and continue being what we have been or do we make an effort to be more than we have ever been? Do we work toward loving? Does our heart encourage us to grow in love? Are we willing to make an effort?
Are you a little challenged? I am. Is there room for love to grow in your life? There is in mine. Are we willing? Are we ready to start? Are we excited to love as never before? Are we brave enough to turn love loose in our lives? Can we stop thinking about ourselves and give love the freedom to mold us into a new more loving person? The more we love, the better life will be. The more we love, the more wonderful our world will become.
SHALL WE ACCEPT THE CHALLENGE TO LET LOVE BE THE VERY BEST EXPRESSION OF WHO WE ARE?
LOVE SOMEBODY, LOVE EVERYBODY?