“…but the greatest of these is love.”
The Apostle Paul said the greatest thing is love. True love never fails. All the other things that people focus lots of energy on will fail, but love, will never fail. If we really believed that we would spend a lot less time on other things and focus our attention on the greatest thing, Love.
The very first thing we must grasp is the kind of love that Paul is speaking about. The Apostle John says, “ …God is love.” It seems to me that if we are to know love we must know God. Or you could say to know God is to know love.
God does not simply have love He is love. He always has been and always will be love. He is he same yesterday, today and forever. He never changes. He will always love.
Worldly love is stimulated by the senses of the flesh. Worldly love is dependent upon the sensations of the flesh. It is subject to change all the time. If someone or something stimulates us in the right way then we think that is love. But that is not the God-Kind of love that Paul and John are speaking about.
The God-kind of love is not created or released because of the beauty of a person, but rather the nature of God, love, is freely given to every person, therefore the person is beautiful. It is God’s love for us that make us beautiful and glorious.
God loves us, you and me. He has never not loved us. That is why Paul said, “…the greatest of these is love.”
His love, once conceived and received will begin a transformation that will ultimately re-create us, restore us back into the original intent that God had for us in the beginning.
I have had the pleasure in my life to watch love absolutely transform a person. Once an individual begins to realize the fullness of God’s commitment to them their lives go through a metamorphosis that is awesome. Rules and regulations will never change a person, but the understanding of God’s Love will slowly but surely change a person.
Over the last thirty plus years I have watched as the American church has focused primarily on three things. First of all many within the body of Christ are centered on their doctrine and their by-laws. In other words they are consumed with making sure that everyone adheres to the standard that they have determined qualifies a person as a Christian. This part of the church spends and inordinate amount of time evaluating one another.
Secondly, there is that segment of the church that has become infatuated with the gifts of God. Their unspoken suggestion is that if you are truly a Christian you will operate in these gifts. Though they completely reject any sense of order in the church as too controlling. They have certainly developed a peaking order around who has the most gifts.
Thirdly, the culture of church growth is focused on what is effective in attracting people. Everything is subject to what is effective or efficient in the gathering of a crowd. Transformation is certainly hoped for but not primary.
Please don’t misunderstand me. I believe that we need to understand what we believe. And I believe that there are certain things that are absolutely essential to the Christian faith. And over the course of my life I have enjoyed the Lord’s presence working through me in many wonderful ways. I have been overwhelmed as He operated His gifts in my life.
I am very aware that the church must be aware of the culture in which she is functioning. We however are called to invite people out of culture into the Kingdom.
In the New Testament we are given over sixty directives about how we are to relate to “one another.” Love, forgive, comfort, exhort, consider, forgive, pray, speak, sing, submit, forgive, be hospitable, have compassion, forgive, affection, admonish, wait on, care for, forgive, serve, bear, be kind to, be tender hearted, be gentle, have fellowship with, be at peace with, greet with a kiss and oh yea, forgive.
You see the reality is that what distinguishes Christians from every other person on the planet is the way they relate to “one another.” We are to be people who have received the Unconditional Love of God and now love others, especially our own, with that same God kind of Love.
This Love is free; it believes the best, looks for the good….
It is absolutely impossible to love others if you yourself do not know that you are freely loved. So many Christians are still trying to earn God’s approval and many have simply given up and have turned away from God. They have gotten so beaten down by not being able to live up to the religious standards that they have walked away.
The church is to be the witness, (martyr) of the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ. We are to be living examples of a love that gives itself away! An authentic expression of the Kingdom of God revealed through the local church must reject the temptation to be culturally accommodating, denominationally divisive, or politically polarizing.
Our primary calling is to love God, love one another, love our neighbor, and love our enemies. We are called to be people who are being transformed by this mercy and living lives that will bring transformation to the community in which we live.
Love will never fail to bring change into the community in which it is lived.
The greatest of these is love….. !!!!
