Good Morning All,
1 Corinthians 13:13; “So now
faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
Love seems
to always be the answer. The Beatles
sang that, “All you need is love.” The
Andrews Sisters sang “I wanna be loved;” Elvis wanted to someone to “love me
tender”. The Righteous Brothers lost
that loving feeling. We speak an awful
lot about love, in and out of our faith.
Out of our faith, the word can mean about anything from people to pizza
we “love it” but what about our faith and what does Paul mean when he says the
greatest of these is love? How can love
be greater than hope or faith?
As Paul addresses this
statement, we can read it in two ways; one way is temporal, and one way is
eternal. The temporal understanding is
about our earthly relationships. Faith
is something that you have. You have
faith; it benefits you and you alone.
Each one of us has to have faith, on our own, to hold onto the promise
that God makes to us. Faith sustains me
and helps me to grow closer to God through Christ.
Hope is what keeps you going
through the toughest of times. No matter
how difficult the trek or dark the night, you have hope because of the promise
that there will be a better day.
Someday, God will rescue you from this sin filled world. Jesus will return and restore creation to its
perfect state and you with it.
Love is the greatest because
you have to share love. Love only exists
when it is freely given away. You cannot
hold onto your love; if you do, it fails to accomplish its task. You can hold onto your faith; you can hold
the hope that God gives you, but you have to give love away. Love helps to build others up; it can help to
lift them from the depths of sadness and despair. Love builds the family of God here on earth
like nothing else we can do. In the
temporal world, love is the greatest because love brings about peace for all.
In the eternal sense, love is
the greatest because love is everlasting.
Love is the only thing we will take into our eternal life with
Christ. We will no longer need faith
because we will be living and seeing Jesus.
Faith is being certain of what we do not see; we will see Jesus face to
face. We will talk and listen to him and
share his banquet feast with him; we won’t need faith.
We also will not have to hope
for the promise because the promise has been fulfilled. We won’t have to hope for it to come because
it is present. All we will take with us
and, like the Beatles sing, all we need is love. We will live in God’s eternal joyous kingdom,
loving all and being loved by all, especially Jesus.
So, love is the greatest
because it is the peace in this life and the everlasting truth in the
next. All we really do need is love.
Gracious Father, you give us
three great gifts: faith, hope and love.
Help us to cherish them and to experience them and to live them. Strengthen our faith, build up our hope and
let us love one another as you have loved us.
Be with those who do not experience love. Move us to love them with a willing heart and
spirit. In the precious and loving name
of Jesus we pray, amen.
God’s Peace,
Pastor Bret
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