If I were to speak with eloquence in earth’s many languages, and in the heavenly tongues of angels, yet I didn’t express myself with love, my words would be reduced to the hollow sound of nothing more than a clanging cymbal.  And if I were to have the gift of prophecy with a profound understanding of God’s hidden secrets, and if I possessed unending supernatural knowledge, and if I had the greatest gift of faith that could move mountains, but have never learned to love, then I am nothing. And if I were to be so generous as to give away everything I owned to feed the poor, and to offer my body to be burned as a martyr, without the pure motive of love, I would gain nothing of value.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (TPT)

The gospel is neither a management programme to modify sinful behaviour nor a fire insurance policy to escape hell. The gospel is the whole story of God's perfect love for us, and nothing can ever separate us from that love because of Jesus' complete and finished work on the cross.

God's love is the basis of the gospel.

If we grasp the gospel in the same light as God revealed it, we will discover that God's greatest desire is not for us to help the underprivileged or feed the hungry. Instead, God wants us to love the underprivileged and hungry because if we do, we will undoubtedly do something to help them. According to the Apostle Paul, if all we do is preach the gospel of God's love to others while not living it, we are nothing more than a clanging cymbal.

We sometimes do ministry with the wrong motivation. Like the Corinthians, we can serve in ways that feed our egos or try to impress others. Without love, our ministry and sacrifices are nothing more than meaningless showpieces. If so, we have not embraced the whole gospel but rather a different gospel with a gaping hole in it.

Love is the most valuable gift we can give to the very people we claim to care about and serve. When we lack love, we would never be able to fulfil God's calling on our lives with compassion and enthusiasm. We are to follow Jesus by carrying out the one mandate He gave us: to love others as He loves us.

It can be difficult to love someone when we can see their flaws and criticise them for them. If Jesus can love us despite everything and never reject us, then we must humble ourselves and depend on His grace in order to love others as He commands.