At His Feet

Love is the Greatest

1 Corinthians 13:13 
There are Three things that will endure - faith, hope, and love - and the greatest of these is love.

This must be one of the most well-known scriptures of all times, something that seems to be repeated over and over again so I must sound like a recorder playing something you all must have heard since forever but maybe that is a good thing. This lesson is important and important things must be repeated...sort of like when I tell my siblings to behave twice. 

They tell me "You said that twice."

"Because you'll forget if I say it once." I'll reply.

The same thing here; the lesson on love, God told us for years and He continues to tell us to love because if He stops, we'll forget so easily and go on living the way we shouldn't. So today, we gonna have a fun little discussion about this topic on L-O-V-E.

Don't worry, it's not the romantic type love - that would be for marriage and singleness.

So. . .Let's get started!

Have you ever wondered WHY love is the greatest? That is a hard question, don't you think? Well...let us look into chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians in the NLT (Or you can go to biblegateway.) 

If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn't love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God's secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn't love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;[] but if I didn't love others, I would have gained nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages[] and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.

11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.[] All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

Verses 1 to 3 says that I can make a mountain move, speak all languages, prophecise, and understand everything about God's plans. I can be knowledgable and give everything, including myself to the poor and needy but if I don't have love then everything I do and say and am is nothing. It's of no value if it does not have love. 

That's a very powerful thing...mind boggling. Putting that into my life, it's like this: I can be very gifted and use the gifts God gives me to help others. I can be generous and religious - going to church constantly, never missing a day; if people were to see me they would call me perfect because of my actions but that would mean nothing if I do not love.

It's like this: When I was little and my parents were still together, we were the "perfect" family in the church. We always dressed nice and went to church every Friday and Sunday. My parents broke themselves helping, serving, pleasing everyone around us. They respected the elders and the pastures especially and everyone complimented us because of the outside. However, inside of our family was different.

Even though people complimented us, I didn't feel love. I can't speak for my parents or my siblings because they loved others but for me, I wasn't full of love. I was angry and felt forced to play a role that suited everyone else: my family was disfunctional on the inside; always angry and fighting and wanting to make a good impression on everyone. My dad use to yell at me if I didn't smile in front of people and to me that hurt; it made me feel like I wasn't allowed to be myself or act like myself because then...no one would want me around. I had to be perfect and happy. It felt lonly and depressing and even now I go a little crazy just trying to keep a smile on my face when on the inside I just want a hug and to cry.

Even as Christians, we can miss the important lesson in God's book: Love. Love God with our everything and love others like we love ourselves. Jesus said that those two are the greatest commandments of all. Even in the old testiment God said that He would rather we break our own hearts for the wrongs we were doing to each other: Cheating each other, not helping the widows or poor...even though the isrealites threw festivals and fasted for God, God said those things made Him sick because their hearts were not true: They did it just to do it, not because they loved. In one part God even revealed their own hearts saying how some couldn't wait for the festivals or passover to be over so they can go back to robbing the poor out of their sandals. 

He was talking to the very "religious" people too. 

I can be as religious and pios as I want, never messing up in the eye of others but at what cost? At the cost of missing God's wonderful opportunities to help my fellow human beings by just listening to them cry and talk in order to share their pain, or making them smile and laugh when they don't want to cry, feeding someone hungry and tired, simply giving what I have to someone else...being compassionate so others can see Christ in me. If I focus on religion, being perfect, I'm going to miss these opportunities that could be God's way of opening doors for me to tell people about Him. 

God would rather I love and tell and show others who He is rather than ignore them and be perfect. God is love and if we know love, then we know God and if we walk in love, we walk in God. Love is the greatest because it fullfills the law; Christ is God and He loves us so much, He willing came down as a servant and died for our sake. He reconciled us to God the Father because He WANTED us to go to heaven where He is.

Everything is passing away: the gifts and talents will one day too pass away. Things of this earth are passing away but love remains maybe because God is forever and since God is love, love is forever? (This is a thought.) 

Father God,

God, thank You for Your great love that sent Your one and only Son Jesus Christ down to save us. God, thank You Lord Jesus for entrusting us with Your good news to spread and also that You would rather I love those around me than be perfect. I let last year slip away, wasted the precious opportunities You've given me...I am truly sorry for that. God, I repent of that...letting myself get caught up in trying to be perfect - it led me to fear and anxiety that I did not move at all. God, forgive me. Jesus Christ, thank You that You cover me with Your Holy Blood and sealed me with Your Holy Spirit; thank You for a new year filled with new doors and opportunities and that You are bringing my heart back where it should be. God, please help me to not aim for perfection. Instead, help me to aim for these three things: To love You with my everything, to love others like I love myself, and to spread Your Good News to everyone. God, please make me a walking example, a reflection of Your wonderful Light...God, I pray You will strengthen my siblings and I in You. Please help us to love with abandon even the strangers that we walk by and to forgive those who hurt us physically, mentally, and emotionally. God, please help us to hold fast to You and Your love and help us to not pass this by. God, please Lord...give us the right attitude as well as the right heart. Holy Spirit fill us up with love, joy, and peace and please convict us when we are walking the wrong way. In Jesus mightest and holiest name, Amen!