Faith, Hope, and Love Abide

“Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 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 gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:8-13 ESV)

It is important here, for correct biblical interpretation, to understand that this word “love” is agape love, which is a love centered in moral preference, for this is the love that is of God and comes from God, which prefers what God prefers. And what does God prefer? He prefers all that is godly, holy, righteous, upright, morally pure, honest, faithful, and obedient to him. So, for the believer in Christ, this means to prefer to live through Christ, choosing his choices, and obeying them in his power and strength.

And why is that important? Well, for one, human love does end, and that is why we have so many people who divorce their spouses or who cheat on them and lie to them and who do evil against them behind their backs. And this is because human love is based in our emotions which can fluctuate and which can change course and which can die off and go away, too. And that is because human love is of the flesh and is often dependent on circumstances, whereas agape love continues regardless of the circumstances.

Agape continues to love even when we are hated and mistreated. Agape continues to love regardless of whether or not others love us in return. And this is why we are able to love our enemies, like Jesus did, despite what they do to us. But human love is based in our emotions, and in the ones being loved, and in our circumstances, all of which fluctuate. But there are people who love with human love, and who endure much, but who continue to be faithful in loving others despite how they are treated in return.

Now, this next part I believe is misunderstood and misinterpreted by some groups of people today who hold to a particular religious philosophy. For there are groups of people who believe that some of the spiritual gifts have already passed away, in particular the gifts of tongues and prophecy and miracles, i.e. all those that cannot be done in the natural, realistically, but only in the power of the Spirit, although many are faking them. For these gifts are much harder to manage and to control and to discern.

Realistically speaking, however, there is much abuse of these gifts in the world today, and so I believe some groups of people have chosen to disregard those particular gifts because they are harder to manage and to control, and they absolutely can get out of hand. But so can all the gifts, if truth be told. I mean, take the gifts of teaching and preaching, for example. How many teachers and preachers today are teaching what is not biblical and what is twisted truth for the purpose to deceive? Many!

But what is the real point of what this passage of Scripture is teaching? Well the foundational teaching here is that the gifts of the Spirit must be accompanied by agape love or they are pointless. Now I have always wondered here how people can even operate in these gifts, if they truly are of the Spirit, in the power of the Spirit, and not do so in love. For if they are powered by the Spirit, the Spirit is love. If the Spirit is the one leading and guiding us in what to say and do, won’t it be done in agape love?

So I guess the bottom line here is really that we can be gifted in particular areas of ministry but if we do not love others with this agape love then we gain nothing. But we must always remember that this love is the love that comes from God and so it will love as God loves. And God loves us enough, not only to give us joy and comfort and encouragement, but also to rebuke us when we need it, and to warn us, and to urge (exhort) us to remain faithful to him and to no longer walk in sin. But this must be done in love.

So now the passage of Scripture is comparing this agape love with spiritual gifts, and it is showing us the imperfect part of the spiritual gifts in that, because we live on this earth and in flesh bodies, we only know and we only prophesy (proclaim God’s word, his messages) in part. For right now, on this earth, we only see in a mirror dimly. None of us knows everything, even if some people think that they do. Right now we only know in part, but one day, when Jesus returns, we will know fully when we see him face to face.

For when this says that we only know in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away, this is speaking of Jesus Christ and his return. For he was the only perfect one to walk this earth, and God is the only one who is absolutely perfect. When Jesus returns, and he takes his faithful ones to be with him for eternity, this is when the spiritual gifts, which were only necessary for when we walked this earth, will go away. But agape love will never go away because God is love and he is going nowhere!

And then we have the encouragement here toward spiritual maturity and toward seeing things from God’s perspective and not from the perspective of our own human thinking and reasoning. When we were children, we spoke like children, and we thought like children, and we reasoned like children (the immature). But when we become followers of Jesus Christ we are to be those who are growing in maturity and in our walks of faith and who should no longer act like we did as children, but who should act with maturity.

And all this is in the context of agape love and the importance of us exercising this agape love along with the ministering of the gifts of the Spirit. So this must also include us behaving and thinking and speaking like the spiritually mature and not like the childish who want their own way. And this entails us seeing things from God’s perspective, and the study of the Scriptures in their context, so that we are being diligent to make certain that what we are teaching is the truth, and not the lies, as far as we know.

As the Deer 

By Martin J. Nystrom

Based off Psalm 42:1

As the deer panteth for the water

 So my soul longeth after You

 You alone are my heart's desire

 And I long to worship You

You alone are my strength, my shield

 To You alone may my spirit yield

 You alone are my heart's desire

 And I long to worship You

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZv3jzOTE70

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