And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13
When we survey the world in which we live, it is a shock to no one that humanity desperately needs guidance for how to live. Moral and ethical decay is on the rise in our culture and has been for some time. As Solomon said, “There is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9) as moral and ethical confusion have wreaked havoc since the day humanity rebelled in the garden. We must hope that enough people see the folly of it all and swing the pendulum back the other way. One of the major hindrances to a better moral order in society is that people often look in the wrong location for the moral compass. As the Psalmist put it, “Your word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalms 119:105). Jesus was clear that God gives us freedom from sin and sanctification for service in His word (John 8:31-32; 17:17).
Of those who locate the compass, many find it extremely difficult to use because of the size, scope, and makeup of the Bible. This truth is borne out in the religious division among those professing to hold the Bible in high esteem. We must approach it as we would any new discipline we desire to learn, only with far greater zeal knowing our eternal souls depend on our handling of this great book. How would we go about the process of learning such a great subject? The way we approach most areas of study is to begin with the broader principles and work our way down to the minute details of which the broader principles are composed. This helps us to avoid missing the forest for the trees. The list of broader subjects addressed in the Bible is lengthy: creation, sin and death, God’s covenants, justice, judgment, redemption, justification, etc. Over the next several weeks, Lord willing, we will consider one of the weightiest of biblical principles, the principle of love. More specifically, we will ponder what love is and what love does.
Sadly, as with so many other biblical principles, our culture has watered love down until it is far less than what God intends it to be. For this, we will be taking a closer look at the description of love in 1 Corinthians 13, known as “the love chapter.” Paul was addressing a host of malpractices the church at Corinth had fallen into, beginning with divisions among them (1:10). In chapters 12-14 Paul addressed specifically their misuse of spiritual gifts. These gifts, Paul argued, were to be used for the building up of the whole body, but it appears they had begun using them for their own selfish reasons (12:7; 14:4-5, 12, 26). In the opening of 1 Corinthians 13, Paul made it clear that all the spiritual gifts in the world were useless if deployed without love (13:1-3).
After laying bare the beautiful qualities of true love (13:4-7), Paul detailed the superiority of love over all the gifts. Love would never fail, but all the miraculous gifts would (13:8). When the revelation of Christ’s will reached completion, the miraculous gifts given to humanity ceased (13:8-12). What would remain when this time came? Paul stated that faith, hope, and love were the things that remained, but one of these was given precedence. The greatest of these, he said, is love (13:13). It is the aim of these studies of what love is and what love does to better understand this chief objective of Christian living in hopes that we may embrace it and live it out better. If God is love (1 John 4:9), and if we are to imitate Him (Ephesians 5:1), it is imperative that we be characterized by godly love. After all, Jesus was clear that the world would know those who belong to Him when we have love for one another (John 13:35). Furthermore, it is love that best motivates faithful service to our King (Matthew 22:34-40; John 14:15, 23). May we strive daily to make it clear to Whom we belong.