The Greatest of These

Vol 2 No 28 THEO'S DEVOS 071608

1 Corinthians 13:13 There are three things that will endure—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

Three things will endure forever we are told in this verse. Let's take a look at them and see what they can tell us.

First there is faith. Faith is a human response to something that God has given to us. This gift will go on forever. It is never taken away and we can always rely on it in every situation for eternity. As human beings, we have nothing in of of ourselves. Everything we have is given to us by God. We are helpless and hopeless, lacking all things needful. We may not like to admit this but it is true none the less. We should be thankful to God for everything we have, especially faith for faith is that element that can keep us going when there does not seem to be any reason to.

The second thing mentioned is hope. Hope is the expectation of more to come. It allows us to look into a seemingly bleak future and smile believing that God is there already and has something good for us. Do you realize that God has an infinite number of good things for you. Since we will live forever, an infinity of time, there can be no lapsing of provisions from God. It may not feel like that here in time but, in eternity, we will know that time is gone and we will then live where there are no yesterdays, todays and tomorrows. An eternal now where God's blessing are always present. God will open new things for us to experience. Hope will be a way of life always expecting something new and exciting forever and ever.

The last, and greatest thing however, is love. Why is love the greatest? Because God is love. He is the very definition of love. Without God there would be no love. We love because God loves us. We do not conjure up love, we pass it on. It begins in God, passes to us and then through us to the rest of His creation. Love is the most important aspect in the entire universe. All you need is love, the Beatles told us and they had that part right, I must say. Of course what most people think of as love is not love at all. They think that they are 'in love' but have never experienced true love and have none to pass on. Only Christians have true love to give.

Theo