Some scholars believe that Paul's words here may have been influenced by the actions of a monk named Zarmanochegas who burned himself alive in Athens to demonstrate his faith. His tomb bears the inscription "Zarmanochegas, an Indian from Bargosa, according to the traditional customs of the Indians, made himself immortal and lies here."
A more modern visualization appears thanks to Thich Quang Duc, who in 1963 burned himself in protest of the persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government. At the surface, these actions of self-sacrifice seem to be on par with the actions of Jesus. Now I will say that these were bold statements, but God tells me that I should honor Him with my body (1 Corinthians 6:20). As a comparison, I don't think my dad would be happy if he bought me a brand new car and I stuck a stick of dynamite in the gas tank. That would be quite a spectacle but mainly a terrible waste of a brand new car. I see the core of this verse to be your motive for giving. Are you giving out of love? Or are you giving to show others how generous you are? Even if you give everything you have to the point of death, as it says in Matthew 6:2, you have already received your reward from everyone else's reactions. Don't expect any extra Jesus Points.
So lets recap Paul's assault on the world's ideals of the ultimate humanitarian:
VERSE 1: I KNOW EVERYTHING - LOVE = I SAY NOTHING
VERSE 2: I DO EVERYTHING - LOVE = I AM NOTHING
VERSE 3: I GIVE EVERYTHING - LOVE = I GAIN NOTHING
So where does this leave us? Here's the progression of our love in action that God has shown me.
Level 1: You try to love someone else on your own without God. It's great that you're starting in love. Matthew 7:22 even implies that we can do amazing things without God, but what happens when that person disappoints you multiple times in one week? What happens when that person ignores you for a year? What happens when that person insults you every day for the rest of their life? Can you still love them then? It's only a matter of time before you burn out working alone.
Level 2: You've realized you need God's help to truly love others because God is love (1 John 4:8). Now we are set up to see big miracles for people because the Big Guy is in on it too. When you start praying for someone I can just about guarantee that God will start working in their life, but God doesn't call us to just sit back and watch Him work. He asks us to work along side Him. My pastor normally puts it this way: "Without God, we can't. Without us, He won't." When we get stuck at this level, we are waiting for God to give us some kind of cosmic signal to jump into action, but nothing ever seems to happen.
Level 3: We pray on behalf of others while at the same time we actively approach others at every opportunity, not just when we think God told us to. Our love for those people, demonstrated through our words and actions, is filtered by God's perfect love to make a real lasting change in their life.
If you wear a colander as a helmet just for the fun of it:
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