LOVE

1 CORINTHIANS 13:13 “AND NOW ABIDE FAITH, HOPE, LOVE, THESE THREE; BUT THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE.” (NKJV)
     “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” (KJV)
     “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (NIV, NET, NASB)

     Colossians 3:14 “But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.”


     The greatest of these is love. “All you need is love.” “Love makes the world go around.” “What the world needs now, is love sweet love.”

     I think I already shared in previous chapters that the Matthews boys were typically known as lovers, not fighters. I know I did get into a few fights in my younger days, but that was “boy stuff” I left a long time ago.

     All five of us boys grew up loving our dogs, loving girls and loving Jesus. I probably should have put “loving Jesus” first. We were boys.

     As I reflect back on life, I think it is fair to say I have spent a whole lifetime considering this part of life…love. I could quote the verse that says, “Greater love has no man than this, that he might lay down his life for his friend.” But, if I was going to be honest, the emotion more often centered around love for dogs, girls, parents, even love for country than it did our love for others.

     I certainly remember really falling in love with Jesus during youth camps in the summer of my teen years. I know I could be touched deeply by the realization that Jesus did so much for me and it made me want so much more of Him that it was not unusual to cry at the altar, pleading for His Spirit to fill me with all of His presence.

     I don’t think it was until my college years, however, that I remember really meditating on the meaning of 1 Corinthians 13. To me, this entire chapter came across as a huge, spiritual mirror that forced me to look at my life, my motivations and how much I really loved Him, and sometimes failed to really love others.

     It was during these times of self-examination that I had to be honest with myself and try to understand that all the love for Jesus I could ever have would be meaningless if I didn’t love those around me. I found it easy to love Jesus. I always loved my mom and dad. I learned what love for my girlfriend and eventually my wonderful wife meant. I found it a lot harder to love my classmates, my competing fellow men and soldiers and especially, my enemies.

     I remember great, spiritually high experiences where the Holy Spirit filled me with His presence so much that I spoke in tongues and felt an inner holy cleanness that didn’t come from me. But, when I got back home and let my short temper return to demonstrate its occasional control over my life, my high spiritual experiences seemed like little more than a clanging cymbal…just noise. (See 1 Cor 13:1)

     I gained a lot of knowledge (and some wisdom) during four years of intense studies at the Air Force Academy. We all graduated with over-inflated opinions of how much we knew after that experience. But verse 2 reminded me that with what little love I demonstrated in my continued life of competition, all that knowledge really was nothing…it didn’t mean a thing.

     As I have grown older, I have learned great pleasure in giving generously and even learned self-sacrifice in performing my duty to my country. Unfortunately, the mirror in 1 Cor 13 tells me that, as great as that may be, if I don’t have love, those sacrifices are meaningless…there’s no profit in it. (See verse 3)

     Well goodness! Look at that list of qualities and characteristics I’m examining my life next to! (verse 4) Long suffering, kindness, humility, not self-seeking. This doesn’t sound like the world of competition I’m supposed to be excelling at to get ahead. Not rude, not provoked, not thinking of evil. As a professional officer in the U.S. Air Force and a fighter pilot, these were not the qualities I was told I was supposed to develop.

     “Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (verse 7) I thought this chapter was supposed to be about love? Paul is kind of getting off track here. Sometimes, I think he just likes to meddle in how short I come of God’s standards for me. How can these qualities be witnesses of any kind of love?

     “Love never fails.” (verse 8) Well, that is back on track. I have certainly found that if I love my brother we tend to get along a lot better. That is true. And if he loves me back, well, there sure is a lot less fighting.

     I kind of thought prophecies, tongues and knowledge were the pinnacle of spiritual achievement. But here, Paul is saying they will one day pass away. But love will not.

     How dare Paul insinuate that I still think like a child (verse 11)…even if I do still hold onto some childish fantasies, goals and dreams. He equates me putting away some of those “childish things” with seeing in a mirror dimly/unclearly. I knew that mirror metaphor was in there.

     I know it to be true…but I am still learning how meaningless everything else is if I don’t have love for you. This kind of learning has been going on for 72 years now and looks like it will keep on going until the end of my life. Some things, you just have to keep on learning.

     I certainly have learned how great faith must be as I walk in the light of Jesus. Hope has gotten me through some of the darkest times of my life and out of some of the greatest dangers. I know love is very, very important. But in the end…the greatest of these…even greater than my faith and hope…is love.

     Every time I look at what the Word tells me about love and how central it must be to everything else I think and do, I shrink in recognition of how short I come up in that measurement. About the time I think I’m really doing so much better, I look in the mirror again and match what I think has been so great in my life against whether it was bathed in love or not. And I still fall short.

     Lord help me to see your kind of love in me. Help me to see how totally insignificant my life’s accomplishments are if I don’t have love for those around me. Remind me again that, compared to all the other things that I think are so much more important, the greatest of these is love.

     Questions to consider:/ How is it that the world can talk and sing so much about love and yet show so little of it to those around them? Do you have difficulty considering others before yourself? How is it possible to have great faith, spiritual gifts and demonstrate Godly sacrifice and still not have love? From verse 7, what are those “all things” we are supposed to bear, believe, hope and endure as a demonstration of love? What are some of those “childish things” Paul says we will put away in verse 11? When you examine yourself in the mirror in light of this “love chapter,” how do you find yourself lacking?

     Scriptures to study: John 13:35 “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love one for another.” 1 John 3:18 “…let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” 1 John 4:12 “If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected.” John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” John 3:16 “God so loved the world that He gave…”