Victory Can Be Yours!
Article #38 – “Agape Love”
In the past few weeks, we have addressed the Church, and
the gifts that God has given the Church to carry out His works. Paul concludes chapter 12 with, “But earnestly desire the greater
gifts. And I show you a still more
excellent way.” (1 Cor. 12: 31) Paul
is going to describe three things that are greater than the gifts spoken of in
chapter 12.
“If I speak with
the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy
gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the
gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all
faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the
poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits
me nothing.” (1 Cor. 13:1-3) Paul is
being clear in stating that you can have all of the gifts that God has
available for the building up of the body of Christ but if you do not have
love, it is nothing, it is empty. The
body of Christ is not built on the spiritual gifts, as important as they are,
but on faith, hope, and love. The love
that Paul is writing about is the kind of love that God has for us. And, the love we should have for one another
in the body can only come from God. In
the Greek language this is agape love, represented in the Scriptures as an
attribute of God and a Christian virtue.
It is the only kind of love that God has so it is, also, the only kind
of love that He can give. “We have come to know and have believed the
love which God has for us. God is love,
and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” (1 John
4:16)
Paul continues by describing to his readers what love
really is. What love is: patient, kind,
rejoices with the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all
things, and endures all things. What
love is not: not jealous, does not brag, is not arrogant, does not act
unbecomingly, does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into
account a wrong suffered, and does not rejoice in unrighteousness. Love never fails. (1 Cor. 13:4-8a) Paul
concludes the “Love Chapter” by stating that all of the spiritual gifts will be
one day be done away with; “Love never
fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are
tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophecy in part;
but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak like a
child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away
with childish things. For now we see in
a mirror dimly but then face to face; now I know in part but then I will know fully
just as I also have been fully known. But
now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
(1 Cor. 13:8-13) Someone has said;
“faith will become sight, hope will become reality, but love will never end.” (Author
unknown) Love will last throughout
eternity, with God, who is love. We
should all be longing for that greatest time of all times, when hope becomes
reality.
You, too, can have victory in Jesus! More to follow.
Lowell Parrish
No comments:
Post a Comment