And The Greatest Of These Is

There’s a bible passage that many people know. It’s known by Christians and non-Christians alike. It’s from one of Paul’s letters, 1 Corinthians. This is probably one of those sections that is repeated over and over again and completely pulled out of context.

1 Corinthians 13 is known as the love chapter. In this chapter, we learn what it means to love, not love our spouse or love pizza but love completely and fully. We read that love is patient and kind, not rude or selfish. These ideas really aren’t all that foreign to us. As a matter of fact many of us would say that this is kind of basic information. But it’s what follows that sounds a little different.

So now faith, hope and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13

I’ve heard more times than I can count the question why is love the greatest? The reason for the question is simply a recognition that faith and hope are important so why aren’t they equal to love?

To better address this, let’s travel back to Genesis 2. When God created Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden they were in perfect union with God. They had God walking with them on a daily basis. They had no need for hope nor faith because everything was perfect. Every need was met by God. They walked with him. They talked with him. Adam and Eve had no needs that went unmet.

All they had was love. Not that whole sissified kind of love that we have today. Not a love that is bound by roses and candy. Not a love that is driven by emotion but a love that is defined in 1 Corinthians 13. It’s a love that is perfect, holy, blameless and unending. It was a love that saw through the moment to the bigger picture. It’s a love we know little about today.

So when Adam and Eve took that fruit and ate it against God’s command, love was lost. It started to wane away. The less love exists, the more room there is for hatred. And that’s exactly what we see when we read through the bible. Perfection slowly unraveled. Love began to fade away and what came in its place was a knowledge of right and wrong. But not just a knowledge of right and wrong. It got worse because mankind began to choose wrong over right. Wrong started to look right and things were confusing.

Now look around today. We’re in a pretty similar situation in or culture right now. We’ve put so many gray areas in our lives that we really don’t understand the difference between right and wrong anymore. Some things that we know are wrong, we end up doing because we try to make them feel right. We make excuses for our wrongs and blame them on others. Love is all but gone.

But the bible promises there is coming a time when creation will be renewed. Evil will go away. Wrongs will be seen for what they are – wrong! Right will be highlighted and we’ll be able to do the right that we know is right. Unfortunately until then we strive in a state of faith and hope. We have faith that God is in control. We have hope that our faith is not in vain. But love still is faded and fuzzy at best.

But the time is coming when faith and hope will become reality. The things for which we hope will be visible. That’s when love will be seen as the greatest again. When God flushes the evil out of the world we’ll be able to see this true expression of love once more. Jesus says No greater love has anyone than this, that he lay his life down for his friends. The time is coming when we’ll see that statement on more than a page in the bible but we’ll see it physically in front of us.

Love is the greatest because when faith and hope are long gone, love will remain. When all is made new and creation is restored, love will be magnified. Three things are now but only one will go on into eternity and that one is love. May you love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And may that love for the Lord allow you to love your neighbor as yourself.