But the Greatest of these Is Love

In his first letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul writes this: “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”

He ends this famous chapter with these words, “And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 

In a sermon on this passage, a pastor named King Duncan puts it this way: You can be more Christian than Christ himself, but if you are not committed to living a life of love, you’ve missed the whole message of the gospel.

A member of my congregation recently told me about her youth group growing up. She said her pastor would talk a lot about love. And as teenagers – of course, they were thinking about romantic love – but he clarified: Not romantic love – but a love that will sacrifice for another person… The students responded: Well, we all love each other – we do things for each other. And the pastor said, “That’s easy. You all are lovable! The challenge of the gospel is to love the unlovable!”

Let us pray: Teach us, Lord Jesus, to love even the unlovable. In laying down your life for us, you showed us what it means to love. Empower us to lay aside our pride, and to give and to serve even those we feel we cannot love. We ask in your name. Amen.