Love is the greatest.

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13:13

By faith in Christ’s saving work in and for me, I know true hope and love. So faith, hope, and love now live in my heart. They carry me through life. They provide perspective. They move me beyond my problems. They asure me of a bright and God-given future in Christ forever. Yet like Paul, I must say that love is the greatest. Without God’s love in Jesus, I would have no faith nor hope.

I know what love is because of the love of Jesus. Jesus willingly gave Himself as a sacrifice for my sins... for all the sins of all people for all time. He took my penalty. He died my death. All this, He did to show me the love of God. God the Father loved us by sending His Son in this way. Because of that love I can now believe. Because the death and resurrection of Jesus really happened, I can now, by faith, believe and find that love in my life. And by it I can learn to love God and love others as Jesus did.

The love of God in Christ secures my hope for the future. I can rest in the historical surety of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and by faith I trust that His promise to save me and bring me to Himself in a place He has prepared for me is true. This hope carries me past all misery I may know in this life. It is a true “living hope” given to me by love and I am confident in it.

Yes, love is the greatest. I know my hope and I place my faith in Jesus because He first loves me. And I seek to always know and celebrate such love.