Now, these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13 HCSB
We’ve been talking about the recipe for success as a Christian. If I had to list the main ingredient in the life of a Christian, I would say it’s love. Our Scripture passage comes from 1 Corinthians 13, known as the love chapter. It is often read at weddings.
In verses 1-2, it tells us no matter how intelligent, gifted, or faithful we may be, we are nothing without love. Verse 3 tells us our works don’t matter if we don’t have love, we gain nothing from them.
It goes on to describe what true love is in verses 4-8. Love is patient, kind, and rejoices in the truth. Love is not envious, boastful, conceited, or selfish, does not act improperly, is not provoked, and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. And last but not least love never ends.
It goes on to speak of our perfection in Christ which will occur once we reach our eternal heavenly home. It speaks of how we mature as a Christian in verses 11-12 saying, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put aside childish things.”
Why must we love, well, 1 John 4:7 tells us that love is from God and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. We must know God to enter into His kingdom.
The greatest commandments given in Matthew 22:37-40 are that we must love the Lord with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind. The second is that we must love others as we love ourselves. In other words, Jesus must have first place in our lives, and we must put others’ needs above our own.
Ephesians 4:2 tells us we must bear one another in love with all humility, gentleness, and patience. This means that even with those people who may annoy you, you must bear in love while being kind. Keep in mind that you may annoy others, so it’s a tradeoff. Also keep in mind that there are many times you annoy God or break his heart when you are not kind and loving, but He still loves you and bears you.
It’s very easy to love those who love us. It’s very easy to love those with whom we have much in common, but this is not the kind of love described in the Bible. True, Christian or Agape love puts God first and loves Him with all we have. We put others second and bear with them even when they seem unbearable. We forgive them their trespasses as God forgives us our trespasses.
God commands us to love others. In John 15:12 Jesus said, “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” He said in John 14:15, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
The root of our Christian lives here on earth must be love. We first love the Lord with all we have. We must then love others. 1 Corinthians 16:14 says, “Let all that you do be done in love.”
If you are having a hard time loving your enemies as we are commanded to do, remember Jesus loved us so much that while we were sinners (his enemy) he died on the cross to save us from our sins. He had that kind of love for us.
Lastly, I want you to keep something in mind. If you are having a hard time loving someone because of something they have said or done, remember Romans 3:23, “We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” When someone sins against us or someone we love, we must remember we are all sinners. We need our sins to be forgiven.
Proverbs 10:12 tells us Hatred stirs up conflicts, but love covers all offenses. Peter said in 1 Peter 4:7-8, “Now the end of all things is near; therefore, be serious and disciplined for prayer. Above all, maintain an intense love for each other, since love covers a multitude of sins.
Love is the main ingredient for the recipe for a successful Christian life. Without it, you have nothing.
Have a great day!