The Greatest of These ...

"And now I will show you the most excellent way."
   I Corinthians 12:31
"Now these three remain: faith, hope and love (charity). But the greatest of these is love"
   I Corinthians 13:13

Remain, abide, from the Greek word meno - to stay (in a given place, state, relation or expectancy), continue, dwell, endure, be present, remain, stand, wait for

Three things are enduring.

• Faith - a reasoned trust that God will fulfill His promise based on His track record, that He always has kept His word
• Hope - the promise of a future, redemption, salvation, forgiveness, an inheritance
• Love  ...

The Greek word used for love (charity) is agape, from the verb, agapeo. This is the word used to describe the love God has for his creation, God Himself, and the sacrifice of God's Son, Jesus Christ, on our behalf. Just a few examples follow.

• John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son ...
• Romans 5:8 God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners Christ died for us.
• I John 4:8-10 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

So why is love the greatest (largest, comparatively most important)?

Love alone is based upon, and indeed, flows from, the very nature of God: God is love, love is God.
Hope is based upon, and in, the promise of God.
Faith flows from God's history of fulfilling His promises, resulting in a certainty He will do so in the future.

But without a God of love as the foundation and motivation, there is neither promise nor fulfillment.
Since hope and faith flow from, and are meaningless without, God's love, love is greater, the greatest.

Apart from love, faith and hope do not exist.

02-13-2012