What comes first, Love or Serving in the Church?
Loving God must come before Working and serving in Church
God would love to have a faithful who would love him with all his heart first than a faithful who just serve for the sake of serving. Service should and must be offered out of Love for God and our follow-men. Service from hearts that are not really consecrated to God is not pleasing to him. It is easier to offer God a few activities than to give him a heart. The tendency of the religious life should include working (like fasting, keeping the commandment) and serving, and above all loving the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. So we need to remind ourselves continually that loving must come before doing and serving. The largest and most conspicuous work will find no acceptance with God if our hearts are not his.
"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not 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 have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love 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. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11 When 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. 12 Now 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. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love"
Psalms 51:16-17: For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. (KJV)
Proverbs 4:23: Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. (KJV)
Proverbs 23:26: My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways. (KJV)