The Greatest Of These Is Love
Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. 1 Corinthians 13:7
One of the things that I learned about myself is that I have a close circle of friends. However, should one of them violate one of my rules or disappoint me in some fashion it becomes like the show ‘Survivor.’ As a personality test about me put it, they are ‘exiled’ to a remote part of the island where they can no longer interact with me. However, there is no way that I can keep them there because in the end, I love them. How can I leave them out in the cold?
It was with that in mind that I asked myself how God would look at me in my relationship with Him? There are numerous times that I should have been put on the remote part of the island. In fact, it would be perfectly reasonable to not only put me there but also leave me forever. But here is the amazing thing that I have learned about God. He always brings me back. He is relentless in the pursuit of His children. There is the song called One Thing Remains that when speaking of Him, it repeats this chorus, “Your love never fails, never gives up, never runs out on me.” It always warms my heart to hear it because it reminds me of a God who sees value in us even when we do not necessarily see it in ourselves. His love for us is why Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13, “Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13)
God’s love for us is greater than all our sins. When I think of the love chapter of Corinthians, my focus tends to focus on the things love is (patient, kind, etc.). But what is often overlooked is the power of what love does. We are often reminded that love, while a noun, is also a verb. The noun describes our feeling, and the verb describes our acting on it. God’s love as Paul describes in the seventh verse is relentless, faithful, hopeful, and ever enduring. If this is indeed the definition, then how should God view our sinful nature? We are certainly not worthy of His grace, and yet, we are given it freely and unconditionally simply by acknowledging Christ as our savior and true King. I think a lot about that. “Why do you see me worthy of such a gift,” I ask God. The answer is He loves me. There is truly no giving up. He sees good in me, and is both hopeful and certain that He will win me over. There are days we may want to just simply give up on others and even ourselves, but God never does. That is why when we fall, we always get up believing He will carry us through our transformation toward being His child.
We are all God’s children whether we realize it or not. That was sewn up before we even knew He existed, and once we knew, we could not deny Him. This is why Paul said love is the greatest. It overcomes our greatest human flaws and replaces it with both compassion and understanding. Let us move forward to break from the bondage of our sins to embrace the close relationship God continually fights for. What is your understanding of the love God has for you? How can His love replace your struggles to forgive yourself and others? My prayer is this: That we know the love of God will never leave us exiled on an island. Amen.
This Devotion was written and contributed to The Hope Fellowship by Kent Williams