The greatest of these is love

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. – 1 Corinthians 13.13

Now faith and hope and charity still abide. What marvelous gifts God gives us. He provides the faith for us exercise and accept His free gift of salvation. He gives hope that does not fail, now or for eternity, and He provides love.

And the greatest to these three is love.

To my eyes, looking through a glass darkly I don’t see how you can list one of those as being the greatest.

There it is though – God says the greatest of these is love.

It makes sense though, at least a little bit, when we read how Jesus summarised the whole Law – simply put we keep the law when we love God and love us. We can only love because God first loved us. It was God’s love that led Him to send His son to put our faith in and to give us eternal life. In love He predestined those who put their faith in Him to be conformed to the image of His son. It is Christ’s love that compels and motivate and drives us to share the message of faith and hope to others. We have faith in those we love so we trust them and that is what gives us hope no matter what the circumstances that we face or how uncertain tomorrow might be.

So yeah, maybe ‘the greatest of these is love’ does make a bit of sense.

Here is love, vast as the ocean
Loving kindness as the flood
When the Prince of Life, our Ransom
Shed for us His precious blood.

Who His love will not remember?
Who can cease to sing His praise?
He can never be forgotten
Througout Heaven’s eternal days.