LOVE IS THE GREATEST
And now these three remain: faithG4102, hopeG1680, and loveG26; but the greatest of these is loveG26.
1 Corinthians 13:13
G4102 πίστις pístis – . . . Faith in the truth, i.e., in the gospel . . . namely, Christian faith, a firm and confiding belief in Jesus and His gospel.
The Complete Word Study Dictionary, New Testament, Spiros Zodhiates, ed.
Faith – . . . that firm belief of God’s testimony, and of the truth of the gospel, which influences the will, and leads to an entire reliance on Christ for salvation.
American Dictionary of the English Language, Noah Webster, 1828.
G1680 ἐλπίς elpís – Hope, desire of some good with expectation of obtaining it
The Complete Word Study Dictionary, New Testament, Spiros Zodhiates, ed.
Hope – . . . Confidence in a future event; the highest degree of well-founded expectation of good; as a hope founded on God’s gracious promises; a scriptural sense.
American Dictionary of the English Language, Noah Webster, 1828.
G26 ἀγάπη agápē – With reference to God’s love, it is God’s willful direction toward man . . . Spoken more especially of good will toward others, the love of our neighbor, brotherly affection, which the Lord Jesus commands and inspires.
The Complete Word Study Dictionary, New Testament, Spiros Zodhiates, ed.
Love – . . . Benevolence; good will.
American Dictionary of the English Language, Noah Webster, 1828.
Faith, hope, and love remain. However, love supersedes faith and hope in the sense that it is the foundation upon which the other two stand. “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:44). We are reeled into faith by Father God’s love for us. Because He loves us, He places within us the faith needed to have a relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. Once we enter into a saving relationship with Jesus, He fills us with His Holy Spirit who enables us both to hope confidently in our future with Him in Heaven and to have the ability to love others. Everything is dependent upon the love of God toward humankind. We cannot truly love (agápē) others until we receive the love of God. “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). “Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:7-8). Love is the greatest because God does not define Himself as faith or hope but as love.
Father, Paul began 1 Corinthians 13 with the point that without love we are nothing. Your love drew us into fellowship (familyship) with You and enables us to love others. Help us to remember the things we are learning about the kind of love You desire from us and through us to others and to implement them in our daily lives. As the group Maranatha sang, “Jesus, reduce me to love.”