1 Corinthians 13:13
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of
these is love.
While faith and hope may be more personal, love is meant
to be shared.
Growing up in the sixties and seventies I listened to a lot of music, mostly pop and soft rock. Songs like What the World Needs Now and Put a Little Love in Your Heart by Jackie DeShannon, and I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing by the New Seekers focused on spreading love in the world. In my bedroom as I belted out the songs, in front of the mirror and into my hairbrush, I believed I could be an instrument in sharing love with everyone. As you might guess, I was a bit naïve. I didn’t understand what loving the whole world entailed, until I understood how much Jesus loved me.
Most of the time when I hear 1 Corinthians 13, I’m at a
wedding where the pastor reads the passage and talks about what it means to love.
The other day I was reading 1 Corinthians 13 and I came to the last verse. Often
verse thirteen is skimmed over. Instead of flying past it, I paused and read
each word.
Faith, hope, and love remain. Three of the most important
words in my vocabulary stand out as three of the most important ideas in this
passage. My faith in Jesus is personal. Through my experiences and His grace,
my faith has become the springboard for my relationship with Him. My hope in
Jesus is also personal, without the hope of heaven and the hope of brighter
days ahead, I’d be—well, hopeless. Love is different. According to verse thirteen,
love is the greatest of all three, and I believe that’s because love is to be shared.
For people to understand my faith and my hope in Jesus, they need to see the
love He spills over me as I in turn pour love over others. What better way to share my faith and hope
than to model and live the love mapped out in chapter thirteen.
Share Jesus love with a world who still needs Him.
