Love is the Greatest

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1 Corinthians 13:13 (NIV)

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Devotion:

            Today we conclude our meditations on Paul’s great chapter on love here in 1st Corinthians. We have seen many facets of love as it is proclaimed in the Bible. We have hopefully grasped some of the wonder and majesty of God’s redeeming love for humankind. Paul, in this brief verse, draws a fitting conclusion to this wonderous proclamation of the greatness of love as he sees it.

            This verse draws our attention to three great virtues of the Christian’s life here on earth. Paul declares that love is the greatest of these virtues. Why, we ask, does Paul proclaim love as superior to faith and hope? It could be that Paul sees love as superior to these other virtues because it is more permanent. We see in the scriptures that faith becomes sight (2 Cor. 5:7) and no one hopes for what they can see (Romans 8:24). Love remains forever.

            Now faith is vitally important to the believer. As the scripture teaches, “the just shall live by faith.” As our current age is finding out the hard way faith in God is essential to living a fulfilled and happy life. To be faithless is to be lost and unable to cope with life. Faithless people turn to all sorts of self-defeating habits and addictions to ease their pain. True faith leads to life, a life lacking in faith in Jesus is bound for hell both on earth and in the life to come.

            Hope is likewise an essential ingredient in the Christian’s life. Without hope life becomes unbearable and depression and anxiety soon rear their ugly heads. Much of our late modern culture lives without hope. Suicide rates are high, and the number of people on anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications has soared. When you take hope out of life you soon find that hopelessness will overwhelm you.

            Attempting to live a life without love is foolish and self-defeating. Human beings are wired for love. No matter how hard you try you cannot escape loving something. You may rid yourself of love for God or another person, but you will soon find yourself loving something else. God has made us to be creatures who love. It is the thing that most clearly identifies us with God as creatures made in His image.

            So, as we can plainly see, these virtues are necessary to live a fulfilling and meaningful life. No matter how hard we try we can never live without them. Therefore, we must cultivate and nurture these three virtues. Let us go before the throne of God to ask Him to fill us with them.

Prayer:

            God, creator, redeemer, and sustainer of everything and everyone that was, is and is to come, fill us with faith, hope, and love. May we always seek to grow in these virtues for our own sake as well as the sake of those around us. Help us to be salt and light in a tasteless and dark world. Make us into people who are available for you to use to advance your kingdom on earth. Amen.

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