And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Begin by reviewing the previous 12 verses. Today is the last verse of 1 Corinthians 13 - congratulations on memorizing a chapter in God's Word! We will review 1 Corinthians 13 on Wednesdays from now on, moving it from your short term memory into your long term memory so that you will never forget it. As you review, really meditate on the verses and allow them to transform your life.
John MacArthur explains this verse this way....
[Love] is the greatest because it is that which is eternal. Faith will disappear when all is sight. Hope will disappear when all is fulfillment, love will never disappear. It is the one great thing that history doesn’t change and even death doesn’t change and even eternity can’t change....
“And now faith,” you need that for salvation, right? And to trust, and hope, you need that for security. But faith and hope are temporary. There will come a time when you don’t need faith because you will have everything in your hand that you believed for. You don’t need hope because you will have all your hope realized. The greatest of these is love because love is the only thing that is forever. Faith will be replaced by sight. Hope will be replaced by reality. And love will never be replaced by anything.
Since this is true, all of that is set up, folks, all that is set up for the first two words in verse 1 of chapter 14, what are they? “Do...what?...pursue love...pursue love...pursue love.” It’s the only eternal thing. Your gifts, temporary. Your abilities, temporary. Your talents, temporary. Your relationships, temporary. Your ministries, your possessions, even your faith, even your hope, temporary. Love links you to eternity, so follow after love.
We're not memorizing 1 Corinthians 14:1 but maybe we should add in those first few words - in the NIV it's "follow the way of love". Pursue love. Follow the way of love.
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