Christian Living

The Greatest of These is Love

by Thomas Kirkpatrick
11/02/20
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“But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13)

When I was younger than I am now, certainly before today, I had and a definition of love as we all define things in our life. I have come to realize that there are three things that we must have in life to have a life that is filled with meaning, purpose, and satisfaction in who we are in relationship to the world around us.

We must have faith. Not a faith in our fellow beings, as faith in fellow beings, will always disappoint at some time in our journey here. Our faith can only rest on something bigger than we are; we must have faith in that which has created us, God.

God is the only place that we can find hope. As we travel through this world, everything that we have placed our hope in has brought us disappointment along the way at some point in time. The only hope that we can have that will not disappoint has to be beyond the world that we live in. Hope can be found only in the eternal truths that have existed before the world we live in and will exist beyond this world. It is then that you will find love.

God gives man faith, “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.” (Romans 12:3) It is of God that man finds hope. “My soul, wait in silence for God only, For my hope is from Him.” (Psalm 62:5) The Apostle John tells us that God is love. I do not believe that man can love without the love that God gives a man. “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (1 John 4:8) It is from God that man receives faith, hope, and love.

 What we are talking about is not the kind of love that man is naturally capable of. That first love I had as a teenager. That physical attraction to a special girl that awakened my sexual desires and kept me awake at night. That constant drive to become romantically involved in a physical relationship to satisfy the pleasures of physical fantasies. That kind of love wears old and sometimes falls into disappointment for lack of a foundation in personality. This love called Eros is often more about what you can receive and not what you can give. Often it is a mistake as it is not love but merely lust.

Another love that people have is the love of friendship. This is known as brotherly love or companionship between two or more people. It is more rewarding as there is a genuine concern for the welfare of the companion. Many of these friendships known as Philos can last many years and sometimes a lifetime. Or they can pass as quickly as a night.

There is a higher love beyond man’s ability to achieve without the divine gift of God’s love. It is the love that comes from God and is the love that God shows towards men. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) This is the love that God has that He would come down from His throne in Heaven and become a man here on earth. He would allow Himself to be placed upon a Roman Cross to die for the sins of men. This is His love that we should also have towards one another, as He died for all of us. Jesus demonstrated this love towards us as an example of the love we are to have towards God and our neighbor. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ “This is the great and foremost commandment.” The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39) This is the love that Paul is talking about here to the Corinthians, Agape love.

Agape love is not a passive love and requires physical action. It is the need for one to be concerned about the spiritual welfare of one’s spiritual condition. Our compulsion is to help when faced with a person who needs nourishment physically and spiritually. To stop what is being done and aid a thirsty person with a drink. To welcome a stranger who is alone. To clothe a person who has not enough to wear. And to render aid to one who is sick or in need of housing. To care for the poor and give them what is needed. This is the love that God has for man and the love that we should have for humanity. “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. ‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.” (Matthew 25:34-36)

This love of God, which uses the word charity in the King James Version, is translated from the Greek word “Agape.” The Apostle Paul explains Agape Love in verses 4-8. “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

First, we see that God’s Love is patient. Patient love is longsuffering and is the kind of love that God has towards men. God is longsuffering with a man and is slow to anger or lash out at a man when irritated with his sins. “Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth.” (Exodus 34:6) God is merciful and compassionate and abounds in loving kindness with His grace. God does punish us for our sinful behavior, as a loving father disciplines his child. “For whom the LORD loves He reproves, Even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.” (Proverbs 3:12) God calls us to have the same longsuffering love towards one another. It is hard not to be caught up in the moment’s events, but we must remember that we have an eternal perspective as God’s children.

God’s love is kind. In a sense, the word is used here; it is a meaning that requires action. In that, we are to be kind to one another in being helpful to those in need. It is from where good works come. That good work that the Lord has prepared for us to do for His glory. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10) We are to step out of our lives’ hustle and bustle and step into others’ problems with a helping hand. To share the burden of our neighbor and to aid in meeting their need.

God’s love does not envy. In the context of this verse, there is an intensity to the word. We are not to intensely desire that which belongs to another. Much of the world is caught up with “keeping up with the Jones.” We spend much of our time trying to achieve the same measure that others have. Envy is the root of why we steal, murder, and covet. The Scripture teaches that we are not to be covetous people. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:17) Love and envy cannot abide together in the same heart. If we are to love God and our neighbor, then we cannot envy their possessions.

God’s love does not brag. It is not a puffed up or haughty love; love cannot be self-centered or egotistical and be a love that concerns another’s welfare. Caring love cannot be boastful and be considered real love. A person who is filled with God’s love is one who is focused on lifting another up rather than boasting on their own accomplishments. There is a deeper mistake when we do good works for the glory of men. It may give us bragging rights to the good things that we do, but it robs us of the heavenly reward that the Lord has stored up for us from the riches of His glory. “So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.” (Matthew 6:2)

Love is not proud or filled with arrogance. The arrogant person does not see their need for the Lord’s guidance. They believe themselves to be self-contained and capable of managing on their own. This may be an effect from the fall in the Garden of Eden when the man was tempted to be as God. But God knows, and all men will learn that His greatest need is the Love and grace of God. To the proud one, God is opposed, and to the humble of heart, God gives His grace. “But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6)

Love does not act in an unseemly manner. Love does not humiliate the needy by flaunting their abundance of possession. How could a person with God’s love feast at the table with a hungry beggar? We are the servants of the Lord and are to live the gospel message to the world. It is to the followers of Jesus that the broken look to search for the mysteries of the Kingdom of God. If we do not live as His own, then how will they see the light of the Kingdom? “Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.” (1 Corinthians 4:1)

Love does not seek its own way and is not demanding its purgatives and leaves no room for selfish behavior. Both are the selfless person not easily provoked to anger, and this is related to patients. A loving person is not irritated and quickly provoked to anger. If one does not harbor irritations, then is forgiving and shines an attribute of God. “This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger.” (James 1:19)

We have a natural behavior to enjoy seeing one fall into disparaging circumstances. A successful business person falls into hard times, or a proud person is brought low. Many of us fall into gossip without considering the damage we can do to one’s reputation. We often fail to realize the power of the tongue. “And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.” (James 3:6) By the love of God, we rejoice with those who have good fortune and grieve with those who grieve.

As God is love and His Son came to testify of the truth, Love rejoices in the truth. In the context of this verse, it also means that we rejoice in behaviors that are true to the standards of godly behavior. We will not sit back and say the one has received what they deserve but pray for them and rejoice when they repent of their sinful ways, as the saints of heaven when one returns to the Father. “In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:10)

We have been learning what God’s love, agape love does not do, and now Paul shifts to teach us what agape love does. Love bears all things. Bearing all this may have two meanings in this verse. Love may cover or conceal, and it may mean that love endures all things. “But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13)

The use of the word believe means to have faith in something or someone that is to trust. The one who believes all things is the opposite of the skeptic who is filled with doubt and disbelief. The loving person is more willing to believe the good in someone rather than the worst. “Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God.” (1 Corinthians 4:5)

Love hopes in all things. Some see the problem but lack the faith that God can work the solution for their good. The person of love finds hope in believing that the problem will be resolved. Most pessimism comes from having a negative attitude, but if one places their hope in the Lord, they will have a positive attitude. It is in the attitude of our hearts that we will become. “For as he thinks within himself, so he is.” (Proverbs 23:7)

Love endures all things and means to persevere in the face of hardships. This is the love that God has and give us, this is the love we are to have for God in return, and this is the love that we are to have for our neighbor. As we go through our life, we will come into the path of those who need that which we have been blessed to give, our enduring love that never fails. We do not know the circumstances of those in need, and it is not for us to judge them of their worthiness for our aid. They are by God’s creation His people and Jesus died that they may be free from the bondage of sin. It is for us to share the love that God has given us that they may see His light through us. They are His as we are His, and we are commanded in obedience to love our neighbor as our self. It will greatly matter when we meet our Savior on that glorious day, not long from now. “Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? ‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? ‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.” (Matthew 25:37-40)

Thomas N Kirkpatrick

First Baptist Church of Durant, January 24, 2018