1 Corinthians 13:13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Love is one of the most difficult words in our vocabulary to define. Paul takes a full chapter in 1 Corinthians to define love, however, the kind of love Paul defines takes on a different tone from faith and hope. Faith and hope refer to what we have in Jesus Christ. The love of 1 Corinthians 13 is an expression of our faith and hope through our inter-personal relationships and treatment of fellow humanity. Faith and hope define how we relate to and treat one another, and that expression is called love.
Love is “affection, good will, benevolence. Of the love of men to men, especially of that love of Christians toward Christians which is enjoined and prompted by their religion whether the love be viewed as in the soul or as expressed.” William Barclay in his commentary on the Beatitudes defined love as seeking the best for someone even when they intend the worst for you.
In other words, love seeks the best interests of the other person. Our faith and hope in Jesus Christ transform our hearts to only seek the best for others.
This leads us to an interesting question. What is best for another person?
Should we leave people where we find them and change policies to accommodate their current position in life? Or should we *gasp* get involved, get our hands dirty, open our hearts to them, wrap our minds around their situation, take the time to show them what their lives could be like if they changed course, and guide them toward a better way. Doing this requires compassion and empathy.
One of the phrases that grates me terribly is “tough love.” Having in the background the definition of love as desiring the best for another person requires that our love constantly follow this track. “Tough love” is, to me, justification for poor treatment of another person. It is often associated with lack of empathy and disinterest rather than an unconditional desire to see the other person do well. Giving someone money when you know they mismanage it or will go get stoned is enabling their behavior. Many say we should exercise tough love by not enabling behavior. My assessment of situations such as this is if not giving money is tough love, then we view giving money as love. If giving money is love, not giving money is tough love, and genuine love is seeking the other person’s best interest, then whether we give money or not, neither is motivated by true, genuine love.
If we have someone in our lives who is practicing what we feel is destructive behavior, then the burden is on our shoulders to understand what is best for him or her and then center our response and understanding around that which is best. Our involvement must always be guided and filtered by what is best. Only then are we truly loving the other person.
What is best for another person? We can only answer this question as we take the time to come alongside the other person and get to know them, understand their situation, and work with them to find answers to their biggest questions about life. We can only answer this question as we show other people faith and hope, and of course, we can only show faith and hope to other people if we have it first.
This is where an absence of the Scriptures and of God in society creates a void, a vacuum, into which is sucked all faith in humanity and hope for a day without oppression, suffering and inner conflict. We can search and search to find answers, however, the only answer can be found in the Scriptures.
We can work with other people until our resources are exhausted and still not help them. We are completely and utterly ineffective to produce lasting change in other people without the aid of the Holy Spirit, and we are without the Holy Spirit as long as we do not have faith and hope.
1 Corinthians 13:13 “But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.” If the greatest expression we can have toward other people is love, then it is vitally important for us to possess faith and hope. We cannot have love until we have faith and hope.
If we do not have faith and hope, then we do not have love. And if we do not have love, then we are missing the greatest this life has for us.
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