Mankind defines love in many ways and through a variety of feelings. As a professed child of God, your love should be as Jesus’ love. Jesus said, “Love the Lord God with all of your heart, soul, and strength.” The greatest command is to love God, and the second is like unto it, “love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:28-31). And just who is my neighbor anyway? My neighbor is every man, boy, girl, and woman on this earth.
Karl Barth, a famed theologian, was once asked, “What is the greatest thought you ever had?” His answer: “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” Jesus does love all the children of the world and so should we.
J. I. Packer, another famed theologian, in his book Knowing God said, “What matter supremely, therefore, is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it – that He knows me. I am graven on the palms of His hands. I am never out of His mind. All my knowledge of Him depends on His sustained initiative in knowing me. I know Him because H first knew me and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, one who loves me; and there is no moment, therefore, when His care falters. This is momentous knowledge. There is unspeakable comfort … in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love and watching over me for my good. There is tremendous relief in knowing that His love is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion Him about me in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself and quench His determination to bless me.”
The Greatest Gift, according to 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, is agape or unconditional love. In verses 1-3, Paul tells us the importance of love. Nothing is more important than God’s love for us and our love for one another. Verses 4-8a reveal the description of love. Godly, unconditional love outlasts all conditions and failures in this life; this love never, ever fails!
Finally, in verses 8b-13, the outcome of love is given. Love not only endures forever but is God’s greatest gift to us and should be our greatest gift to one another. Nothing – no reason, no sin, no amount of wrong, no appearance – absolutely nothing should ever come between a Christian and his or her ability to love god and to love one another.
Jesus is our example. Jesus loved God the Father without question. He loved tax collectors. He loved dirty fishermen. He loved lepers. He loved demon-possessed people. Jesus even loved the Pharisees, Scribes, and Sadducees.
We must love those around us who do not know God, we must love each other, and – most of all – we must love Jesus with all of our heart, soul, and strength.
