"And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love" (I Corinthians 13:13). These great words were given us through God's Holy Scriptures in Paul's letter to Corinth. He says this after a lengthy and deep discussion of what love truly is, and how crucial it is to one's life. Love is very much misunderstood these days. This is no new problem. Clearly the Corinthians were dealing with this 2,000 years ago as well. I would venture to say this problem went as far back as Adam and Eve when they fell away from fellowship with our Creator and ultimate Lover. This, however, is not what I'd like to discuss at the moment. No, today I want to talk about its greatness, as simple as that. Why is love the "greatest of these three" and what does that look like?Faith is a wonderful thing. Though faith in and of itself accomplishes nothing. It is the object of one's faith that gives it power. So faith in what? Faith that I will get what I want? No - I know that life is not always that simple. Sometimes we get exactly what we do not want, even if in the end it turns into what we truly wanted all along and did not realize it. Faith in things happening that are meant to be? No - while that is something to have hope in, and a reality I must face, realize, and try to grasp every day, it is not so grand as to deserve faith. No... faith belongs rather in a person, not an ideal. The Person. Christ. His saving grace and ultimate plan for my life and His world stems from Him, yes. But it is not the THINGS we are to have faith in. But God, the Trinity, as is preached and the Holy Scriptures. The One True God. As a Person/Being. Not an ideal or somebody to get something out of like a Santa Claus in the cosmos. Faith is a thing. Faith is an act. But faith must always be grounded in a person - The Person.
I know lately for me I have been clinging to hope. (This is my motivation for writing this... I have of late unknowingly decided that hope is greater than love, which it is not). The past week or two I have been struggling with great fear. Terrors even if you'd like to call them that. Fear that things will change for the worse in my life. That I am not truly and deeply loved by those that I love the most. That I will lose the things and people I care for the most. Of course, all of these things are unfounded, lies straight from Satan and his forces. No matter how much I know that these are exactly opposite of the truth in my head, however, I have been having a hard time believing and feeling that in my heart. I need to learn from Hannah who waited on God's timing, perfect as it is, not even knowing when things will be or how they will come to fruition. Hope is that thing that I hold on to almost unceasingly, keeping in mind that things will get better. And if it is meant to be then God will allow it... if it's meant to be it WILL happen, in His time. Hope is a beautiful thing that I *hope* I will never lose sight of. It is what drives me to not lose heart and keep pushing on for the next greatest thing in my life, whatever that may be. This too is a thing to be had and an act to participate in.
Which brings us to the third thing: love. Love. So broad a term. Like faith and hope, a thing and an act. Always grounded in a person (and sometimes a thing). It is broad and grandiose. Beautiful. Unattainable and undeserved yet so powerful. The Bible speaks so much of love and its different forms, though I would never have enough time to discuss its depths with you. To put it simply, there are three levels of love (with persons): a friendship, a commitment, and the physical. It is a tower that must not be inverted in any fashion. Each level depends on the first. Not only is love the greatest because of its broadness and all that it encompasses, but it is the grandest because of its power. Love can conquer all! Also think of it this way: love is so great that it includes faith and hope!! One cannot love if there is no hope in that love or the object of that love. One cannot love if there is no faith either. I am certain that there is more to love than this. It is so grand that I cannot even begin to grasp it in my own mind, much less explain it to you. So I plead with you to do as I am attempting to do, as God instructed me to do: "love deeply and do not be afraid." Fear is the antithesis of love. As love conquers all, fear destroys all.
...Love deeply and do not be afraid!
Image borrowed from flickr.com
