January 6, 2014

“The Greatest”

Blessings folk!

Love OneAnother.
A new commandment of the Lord.

A place to begin again.
Given by the Lord to those who will receive.

We saw yesterday how this love is manifest...review a moment…

1 Corinthians 13
1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,
5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,
6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part;
10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.
11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.
12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.
13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Do we love OneAnother this way?

• patient
• kind
• not jealousy
• no bragging
• not arrogant
• not acting unbecomingly
• not seeking own
• not provoked
• not taking into account a wrong suffered
• does not rejoice in unrighteousness
• rejoices in truth
• bears all things
• believes all things
• hopes all things
• endures all things

Look at verse 8 again.
Love never fails.

Not the love of man.
Not the love of flesh.
Not the love of the soulish realm.

The love of the Lord manifested in OneAnother.
This never fails.

The Lord has equipped the Body of Christ with all we need, many marvelous things…

• prophecy
• tongues
• knowledge
• faith
• hope

All these are functioning in the Body today.
But, love is greater than all.

Loving OneAnother is evidence of maturity in the faith.
No longer do we think as a child.
No longer do we reason as a child.
We have put away the childish things of immaturity and put on the maturity of love.

We know some, in part.
We will know fully in time to come.

For now faith, hope, love.

The Lord tells us this wonderful truth - the greatest of these is love.

Love OneAnother.